Cabin Fever Entry
This Product was an Entrant in the Cabin Fever Game Jam 2024
Captain & Crew
Concept: Solo Ruleset for Pirate Borg
Content:
- The OAR, a simple gameplay loop for story-forward solo play.
- Rules for Abbreviated Combat so you can breeze through encounters to keep your story moving.
- Rules for acquiring and utilizing Crewmates.
- The Pirate's Code, a set of oracle tables.
- Hoist the Colors, a dice drop adventure generator.
- Seen at Sea and Encounters to Die For, additional tables to add random encounters to your maritime exploration of The Dark Caribbean.
Writing: M. Allen Hall is no stranger to the Genre and it shows immediately upon first reading of Captain & Crew. Embracing the minimalist style of the Borg line of Products makes Captain & Crew easily read and understood by those familiar to the aesthetic.
Art/design: Captain & Crew is thoughtfully laid out in its Spreads and carries a clean concept throughout for ease of use at any table.
Usability: With the advent of Solo gameplay and the ever growing demand for it within the roleplaying hobby as a whole this ruleset is perfect for any end user with a desire for piracy and a lack of fellow pirates.
Product Link: Captain & Crew PWYW
Depths Unwonted
Concept: In the aftermath of their most recent voyage the crew has discovered three Artifacts and learns they must be returned to their rightful places on three separate islands within seven days lest doom befall them!
Content: Fourteen Pages detailing the Relics, the Islands they must be returned to and the challenges each island will present to the Crew before they can succeed.
Writing: Depths Unwonted takes the less is more approach of writing in a format that lends urgency to the crews quest to avoid their 'unwonted' fate. Each spread represents a segment of the adventure in a brief style that doesn't bog down the gameplay.
Art/design: Artistically this Adventure is simply fun to look at and enjoy much less play through. For all three islands the map and the writing are blended in to one unified whole that guides the eye in an entertaining way without being a chore to read.
Usability: Depths Unwonted would be a great adventure to spring on a group when they think they might be 'in the clear' after a previous one in a 'Just when you thought it was over!' style twist. Effort is made to keep it a small scale event within the writing and takes advantage of the 'Mystical' side of Pirate Borg in a great way.
Product Link: Depths Unwonted PWYW
Content: Fourteen Pages detailing the Relics, the Islands they must be returned to and the challenges each island will present to the Crew before they can succeed.
Writing: Depths Unwonted takes the less is more approach of writing in a format that lends urgency to the crews quest to avoid their 'unwonted' fate. Each spread represents a segment of the adventure in a brief style that doesn't bog down the gameplay.
Art/design: Artistically this Adventure is simply fun to look at and enjoy much less play through. For all three islands the map and the writing are blended in to one unified whole that guides the eye in an entertaining way without being a chore to read.
Usability: Depths Unwonted would be a great adventure to spring on a group when they think they might be 'in the clear' after a previous one in a 'Just when you thought it was over!' style twist. Effort is made to keep it a small scale event within the writing and takes advantage of the 'Mystical' side of Pirate Borg in a great way.
Product Link: Depths Unwonted PWYW
Spirits High Waters Deep
Concept: Hexcrawl your way across a re-usable Map fraught with Adventure and Peril!
Content: 6 Fully realized Rollable Tables, a Keyed overworld Map of the Region (with an option to download an UnKeyed version of the same). Three unique encounters to place as you wish.
Writing: Spirits High, Waters Deep is absolutely stuffed to the gills with content to enjoy. Clearly written with the Harbourmaster in mind it assumes a basic level of knowledge with the world of The Dark Caribbean and Pirate Borg but also provides handy page references for looking up Official Content. The sometimes irreverent style of the Author is a welcome addition as it puts you in a place of feeling as though you are speaking to a fellow Harbourmaster.
Art/design: Pulling from both Original and Public Domain sources all of the Artwork in this Adventure helps to set the tone quite well, what maps are included are blessedly clear and well done. In particular the Hex Map included is simply spectacular.
Usability: Spirits High, Waters Deep would be a great way to start off a Pirate Crew in The Dark Caribbean. Letting your players fill in the Hex Map and allowing you as a Harbourmaster to populate any content from other Adventures in to Blank Hexes as needed/desired. It is even suggested by the Author on several occasions!
Product Link: Spirits High Waters Deep PWYW
Content: 6 Fully realized Rollable Tables, a Keyed overworld Map of the Region (with an option to download an UnKeyed version of the same). Three unique encounters to place as you wish.
Writing: Spirits High, Waters Deep is absolutely stuffed to the gills with content to enjoy. Clearly written with the Harbourmaster in mind it assumes a basic level of knowledge with the world of The Dark Caribbean and Pirate Borg but also provides handy page references for looking up Official Content. The sometimes irreverent style of the Author is a welcome addition as it puts you in a place of feeling as though you are speaking to a fellow Harbourmaster.
Art/design: Pulling from both Original and Public Domain sources all of the Artwork in this Adventure helps to set the tone quite well, what maps are included are blessedly clear and well done. In particular the Hex Map included is simply spectacular.
Usability: Spirits High, Waters Deep would be a great way to start off a Pirate Crew in The Dark Caribbean. Letting your players fill in the Hex Map and allowing you as a Harbourmaster to populate any content from other Adventures in to Blank Hexes as needed/desired. It is even suggested by the Author on several occasions!
Product Link: Spirits High Waters Deep PWYW
The Way of the Wurm
Concept: Crique des Vermineux looks like a serene fishing village at first glance, but those who dwell here ultimately live to feed the Mother of Worms. This module, suitable to be integrated into a multi-session campaign or to be played as a one-shot, will bring to you the horrors of an eldritch PARASITE.
Content:
Content:
- Road to Disaster: A table of two evolving threats and a possible chain of events that will occur if the player characters decide to do nothing.
- Original, hand-drawn art on almost every page.
- 4 illustrated, major NPCs to make your days worse.
- The Worm-Ridden: A new Haunted Soul Class for Pirate Borg.
- Crique des Vermineux: A former French colony turned secret haven of the Wretched. A town to be explored on 4 pages with rumor and encounter tables.
- Gnawed Caves: An unnatural, 4-page dungeon with hand-drawn isometric maps and horrors better left alone. Can you hear the Choir of Worms?
- A Wretched Generator to create the NPCs you need!
- VTT Files with tokens and maps for you to print out or use digitally.
Writing: Having won the Award for Best Adventure in the CABIN FEVER Game Jam, The Way of the Worm is a fully realized locale, replete with Tips on how to best make use of its contents. Every entry is concise and clearly presented to you in a format that never overwhelms despite the rich depth that is included. Often times the Creators make mention of how best to use the material or what you might need to do in order to make it your own which is a blessing in disguise as they clearly indicate that, while the Adventure is complete, that there still remains some work for the potential Harbourmaster to engage in.
Art/design: Artistically this Adventure is a pure joy to read and explore. At no point does the layout overwhelm the text, everything has been presented with great attention to detail. Maps and interior Art are elegantly used, well keyed and appear in a Spread format for ease of use and removes the need for constant page flipping/scrolling.
Usability: There is so much content in this Adventure and with the 'twist' of placing Time pressure on the Players it makes for an excellent outing in to the more horrific aspects of The Dark Caribbean. In a Genre replete with intended 'One Shots' The Way of the Wurm will provide many sessions of fun for any crew.
Product Link: The Way of the Wurm
Unmoored
Concept: A traditional Point Crawl adventure taking players across an sinking island somewhere in The Dark Caribbean!
Content: Coming in at 5 Pages absolutely packed with tables in the Borg tradition, a single Map is provided for the Harbourmaster, keyed with the Locations and Points of Interest to run the Adventure.
Writing: Winner of the Award for Best Writing in the CABIN FEVER Game Jam! Adopting the Bullet Point style that is synonymous with Borg games the writing in Unmoored is both informative and exciting for any Harbourmaster, providing direction without interference to permit you to run it with your own unique style.
Art/design: Layout is done in a style similar to that found in the Pirate Borg Corebook and many subsequent adventures. Fonts are used sparingly for thematic effect and when employed are used in a format that does not make the adventure needlessly difficult to read. A single keyed map is provided for the Harbourmaster to direct the action.
Usability: This incredibly succinct, action packed island can literally be placed anywhere in The Dark Caribbean as the title explains, it has literally become 'Unmoored' it is perfectly arranged to be used as a waypoint between Campaigns. As the Island itself is moving you could easily run a few Sessions here and then have your Crew arrive at the jumping off point of their next Adventure.
Product Link: Unmoored PWYW
Content: Coming in at 5 Pages absolutely packed with tables in the Borg tradition, a single Map is provided for the Harbourmaster, keyed with the Locations and Points of Interest to run the Adventure.
Writing: Winner of the Award for Best Writing in the CABIN FEVER Game Jam! Adopting the Bullet Point style that is synonymous with Borg games the writing in Unmoored is both informative and exciting for any Harbourmaster, providing direction without interference to permit you to run it with your own unique style.
Art/design: Layout is done in a style similar to that found in the Pirate Borg Corebook and many subsequent adventures. Fonts are used sparingly for thematic effect and when employed are used in a format that does not make the adventure needlessly difficult to read. A single keyed map is provided for the Harbourmaster to direct the action.
Usability: This incredibly succinct, action packed island can literally be placed anywhere in The Dark Caribbean as the title explains, it has literally become 'Unmoored' it is perfectly arranged to be used as a waypoint between Campaigns. As the Island itself is moving you could easily run a few Sessions here and then have your Crew arrive at the jumping off point of their next Adventure.
Product Link: Unmoored PWYW
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