MÖRK BORG’s campaign-focused zine is an intentional step away from art book vibes

Characters in MÖRK BORG are vague by design. Scum, Deserter, or Hermit — these unfortunate souls are rolled up from random tables as easily as they perish in some grimy lair. Imminent death is as much a hallmark of the apocalyptic RPG as its maximalist graphic design, but co-designer Johan Nohr means to diverge from both in a new zine called Salt, Spit, and Silver. The module fleshes out MÖRK BORG’s core classes with questions that bind them to the setting through history, memories, and trauma — physical and otherwise.

Nohr is joined on the project by illustrator Kat Martin and editor John Baltisberger. He spotted Martin’s representation of the Wretched Royalty class on Instagram in early 2022, telling Rascal via email that the striking difference from MÖRK BORG’s violent, black-and-yellow contrast immediately spoke to him. “It's like when you make stuff in the setting that isn't strictly game-related; short stories, poems, there's a bedtime story book on itch, etc. It makes the world realer in a way, not just a game,” he said. “I just got this strong urge to do something with it.”

That something began with a commission to illustrate the other core classes in the same style, but Nohr shelved the project to work on other books. The hiatus stretched four years before he found the time and impetus to finally publish the 32-page zine when digging through old files. In the intervening years, designers and players rushed into the RPG’s deliberate vagaries — both in the setting and rules — to create a rash of BORG-likes and supplements. Besides constant toying with name conventions, most of these cleave close to the original’s aesthetic markers and layout. Not so with Salt, Spit, and Silver, which Nohr described as a time capsule to that moment in 2022.

“I've always wanted MÖRK BORG to experiment and not fall into its own rules and templates, so this is definitely in alignment with that,” Nohr said. “When we commissioned the art, we also specified that we wanted the characters to be all feminine-coded. It's very typical in grimdark settings that, even if you aim for representation, you end up defaulting to masculine characters because the world is rough and tough or something. So this is a deliberate step away from that.”

Martin’s depiction of the classes land somewhere between death metal album cover and Elden Ring character concept — esoteric, dangerous, and laden with history. But it’s what surrounds those illustrations that will surprise those familiar with MÖRK BORG’s game: Clean descriptive text. Salt, Spit, and Silver’s character prompts aren’t grappling with chaotic page layouts for attention, which made reading the original RPG feel like a battle in itself. The information is neat and clearly legible. It’s a different form of communicating ideas, an evolution of intent rather than skill or effort.

Experimentation is in MÖRK BORG’s bones. Nohr said he and co-creator Pelle Nilsson never wanted to grow comfortable with their creative output. “There's been a lot of yellow and black splashy blackletter designs from us, but we're trying to change things up and push ourselves into new visual venues,” he said. Cyberpunk offshoot RPG CY_BORG achieves this with color, while IKHON’s mystery box/dead god jail toyed with a different physical format. Across comics, video game adaptations, and cross-collaborations, Nohr pointed out that the RPG’s legacy could be traced through the norms it challenged. “My favorite third-party titles or spin-off games are those that take inspiration from our work, but turn it into entirely different, unique things with their own identities and voices. Not just a copy of a copy of a copy. I mean, that's cool too, and I encourage people to have fun with it and don't overthink it,” he said.

Salt, Spit, and Silver challenges MÖRK BORG’s broader reputation as a one-shot game. Because characters are often paper-thin and in constant mortal peril, sessions can easily grind through adventurers like so much sausage. Nohr argues that campaign play should focus on the world around them, and each character is a tool for fending off the Calendar of Nechrubel’s promised doom. The hero’s journey, as popularized by Joseph Campbell, is an albatross, a curse, that should be replaced with an anthology mindset. The Forlorn Philosopher is important and singular whilst in the metaphorical lens. When she dies, another grand thinker with her own history and ambitions can claim the mantle. This new zine is about understanding what makes them fit the title, and then you play to discover what they will make of the fated realm.

Nohr and the zine’s team aren’t interested in closing off corners of MÖRK BORG’s setting with official lore. Salt, Spit, and Silver, like all of the RPG’s core products, are “very anti-canon”, according to Nohr. Locations, events, and phenomena from the original book will be expanded slightly in the context of one character’s perspective. Any answers should lead to more questions or compelling gaps, not a wiki-brained checking of boxes and walling off of solved knowledge that other artists can no longer tinker with.

“That's always been my fear with these big, established settings, or rather, why I wouldn't feel ‘allowed’ to make up stuff for them,” he said. “This zine won't do that, but it will allude to both already-established things, things hinted at, and things theorized about in the Discord or social media. This vague, Fromsoftian way of writing the setting has encouraged people to discuss and speculate a lot, and I wanna add fuel to that fire.”

Salt, Spit, and Silver will be available to purchase later this spring from the Pit Trap Shop.