“May 2024. Pirate Borg known conspirators assembled on itch.io to create content for the worst pirate RPG ever made. Of the 126 original entries, these 20 were selected by a panel of judges and compiled. Together they form CABIN FEVER.”
That’s the blurb on the back of the Cabin Fever supplement for Pirate Borg. For the uninitiated, Pirate Borg is based on the “rules light, art heavy” Swedish RPG: Mörk Borg. Pirate Borg reskins the game with a fantastic horror-filled pirate theme. Shocking, given the title, I know. Something the publisher, Limithron, excels at (besides pirating) is community building. Cabin Fever is a great example of that. They have always been extremely encouraging of home-brewed and third-party content, but Cabin Fever is special. This is the best of the best. On top of this book, you can access every entry submitted to be in the book at itch.io/jam/cabinfever.
The book opens with 12 new Player Classes. There are some truly fascinating ideas in there, like the Ash Dealer. Ash is the psychoactive dust that comes from the desiccated remains of the undead. On the one hand, the Ash Dealer is a criminal. A drug dealer. On the other hand, they are also fearless hunters of the undead. Every group needs to eat, so they would benefit from The Mess, a cook. Then there’s The Privateer. The Privateer is a unique Class that anchors the game in reality. Well, in an alternate reality, as opposed to a fully fantasy world. They start with an allegiance to the English, Spanish, or French crown, just like they would in real life.
The book then moves on to an all-too-short bestiary. Only four entries: The Children of Yurata, the Bone Construct, Forlorn Encounters, and Pirate Gangs. Ultimately, this represents how few antagonists were submitted to the game jam. But there are other entries, and I’m not criticizing the selections.
Had more beasties been submitted, I would have liked to have seen a longer bestiary. But some of the entries in the GM Tools section are pretty neat. There’s Deadliest Catch: a section dedicated to fishing. Then there’s Red Bart’s Navalary: a selection of ships and their crew. (So sort of a bestiary.) Toms, Dicks, and Harrys is an NPC side quest generator. Finally, there is Die in Six Directions: an island map generator for a hex crawl adventure.
That all comes out to 20 entries. BUT WAIT THERE’S MORE!
There are six adventures in Cabin Fever, and they also came from the game jam. I don’t want to spoil them, so that’s all I’ll say about that.
The book ends with two extras, again from the game jam. Solo rules for playing Pirate Borg for when you don’t have a crew and a sea shanty, complete with sheet music and a QR code to a music video. I won’t do a deep delve into the Captains & Crew solo rules. But I will say that it limits the aspects of gameplay that it recommends for a solo player. It doesn’t forbid them, but rather points out that they are exceptionally hazardous to do alone.
Overall, the content is unique and useful. The book is definitely worth picking up if you are a fan of Pirate Borg. Unfortunately, I found the graphic design harder to enjoy this time around. There are too many entries that have poor colour choices. Purple text on a black background, grey text on a grey/blue background, that sort of thing. I’ve always had issues with some of the font choices in Pirate Borg (and Mörk Borg, for that matter), and Cabin Fever seem to be worse than previous books. I found myself flipping back to the table of contents for a lot of the titles. Like, the Player Class, Coagulant, looks like “maguant”. The commonly used medieval script font used for a lot of sub-titles is also super challenging to make out. L and E or R and H look frustratingly similar, for example. Now those complaints are entirely a me thing. They might not be an issue for other people, and the book is otherwise solid.
If you have already tried Pirate Borg and enjoyed it, you’ll probably love Cabin Fever. If you’ve tried other Mörk Borg games and enjoyed them, you’ll probably like Pirate Borg and should try it.
You can find Limithron online at limithron.com or on Facebook at facebook.com/Limithron
[David Chapman]
