SOLO BORG is a standalone 80+ page game and toolkit that allows you to play MÖRK BORG completely on your own. Compatible with the base game and third-party content, it lets you fight for survival in a doomed dark fantasy world—without other players or a Game Master (GM)—while embracing a satisfying minimalist approach that keeps narrative and nastiness at the forefront.
What is a Solo RPG?
In a solo role-playing Game (RPG), you are both the player and GM. Instead of a GM guiding the action, you use structured prompts, random tables, and oracles to set the scene, create challenges, answer questions, inspire story ideas, and push the story forward. But at its core though, SOLO BORG is still an RPG—you create a character, explore a world, make choices, roll dice, and face the consequences.
MÖRK BORG yearns to be used in solo play—its lightweight mechanics are easy to learn, fast to play, and built on random tables. SOLO BORG builds on that foundation, offering a structured single-player experience that is both inspired by and fully compatible with MÖRK BORG. You don’t need the core MÖRK BORG book to play, but if you own it or third-party supplements, you can use them with SOLO BORG’s single-player mechanics.
SOLO BORG is built on a few core principles:
- Standalone: SOLO BORG is a complete game based on MÖRK BORG
- Toolkit: Most systems and tables can be hacked and used with other RPGs
- Quick Play: Sessions can fit into about 30 minutes
- Minimal Bookkeeping: Less paperwork, more play
- Cohesive Campaigns: Adventures are stories, not just random events
- True to MÖRK BORG: Designed to create grim fantasy adventures
- Surprising: Systems for obstacles and unexpected twists
- 100% Human-Made: With contributions from experienced BORG artists
How to Play Solo
Learn how to take notes, interpret an oracle, and shape an adventure without a GM. This section walks you through setting up your game, responding to prompts, and making choices that drive the story forward. Whether you’re new to solo RPGs or a veteran looking for structure, this guide ensures fast and interesting sessions.
Examples of Play
Follow a doomed wanderer as they navigate treacherous ruins, confront horrors, and struggle to survive using the tools provided in the game. This step-by-step example shows SOLO BORG in action.
Random Generation Tables
MÖRK BORG thrives on chaos and SOLO BORG arms you with an arsenal of dozens of random tables built specifically for dark fantasy solo roleplaying including:
- NPCs – Meet wretched souls, twisted heretics, and questionable allies.
- Dungeons – Generate crypts, ruined towers, and festering pits of despair.
- Encounters – From desperate beggars, lurking horrors, or worse.
- Companions – Maybe a foul-mouthed rat, a hungry pig, or an untrustworthy spirit.
- Weather – Local conditions with events like Mud Geysers and Collapsing Dunes.
- “Lucky” Charms – Strange relics that may save your life or complicate it.
- Panic Attack – What happens when you arrive at a place void of humanity?
Worldbuilding Toolkit
Forge your own horrible setting with this 3-phase world generator.
- Phase 1: Plow – Randomly place mountains, fields, rivers, and other landmarks.
- Phase 2: Seed – Build cities, temples, and the wonders of humanity’s Great Age.
- Phase 3: Rot – See how centuries of decay have twisted these places into their current form.
Oracles for Inspiration
When you don’t know what happens next, the oracle tables will help you. Flip coins and roll dice and consult the oracle tables to answer your “Yes/No” questions or generate word combinations that spark ideas. SOLO BORG provides best practices on how to interpret the often strange and unexpected results of oracle tables.
The G.R.A.V.E. Ritual
A repeatable 5-step gameplay loop that guides you through structured but unpredictable 30-minute sessions.
- Grim Situation – Where are you? What dangers loom?
- Reckoning – What must be done? What stands in your way?
- Action – What will you do? How do you attempt it?
- Verdict – What is the outcome? What new complications do you face?
- Exit – What comes next? How does the world shift?
Quest System
Start with a simple goal or let fate decide your purpose. Choose how much direction you want with a basic task generator (perfect for one-shots) or a deeper campaign-building mechanic.
Six Character Classes
Create a standard character and set your own goals, or choose one of six new classes designed for solo play. Each class includes a background generator and quest system to shape your journey.
- THE EXILE – Spat out from your home like a rotten tooth
- THE HUNTER – Paid to track, capture, or kill
- THE THIEF – Free to take what they want
- THE MESSENGER – Carrying secrets across a dying world
- THE PROPHET – Driven by visions
- THE HUNTED – Pursued by a relentless enemy
Gorgeous Art & Layout
The book will benefit from the combination of in-house art and design by CM Lowry & Patrick Buechner, and contributions from experienced BORG artists such as Łukasz Piwiński (Vault Crawler), Droned Artworks, Tania Herrero (The Bread Wyrm), Chaoclypse (Brandon Yu), and Rollin Kunz. SOLO BORG will look and feel like a true BORG game while ensuring usability at the table. Please note; none of the art in this Kickstarter is final, expect covers, spreads and colours to change.
Patrick Buechner
A video game developer turned tabletop RPG creator, Patrick writes The Soloist, a free, Bloggie-winning newsletter for folks who play, create, or are curious about solo, co-op, and GM-less RPGs. He also contributes adventures and solo tools for other RPG creators and writes for gaming magazines and websites.
Between projects, you’ll find Patrick losing to his kids at board games, adding another unpainted mini to his dungeon of shame, or failing to convince himself he has enough dice. He lives in Berkeley, CA with his far-too-patient wife.
CM Lowry
A UK-based publisher, author, and illustrator, Chris helps run Beyond Cataclysm Books and contributes to several magazines in the world of tabletop gaming and beyond. He’s been passionate about BORGs for years, and has spent far too much time drawing weird versions of T-Rexes and radiation-infused Santas for previous adventures. His latest game, MÖRK ORG (still open for pre-order), takes the grim-horror of Galgenbeck and dumps it into the only place in the multiverse more bleak—the modern office!
When he’s not making books, he’s a father to three amazing kids, a community pastor for his church in Warrington, and enjoys running up mountains whilst wearing not quite enough warm clothing to confidently ensure survival.
A Kickstarter “PROJECT WE LOVE”💖
We are honoured to have been awarded the coveted “Project We Love” status from Kickstarter before we even launched! This is actually the third Beyond Cataclysm project to get the honour after ISBN COFFEE and MÖRK ORG, so we’re obviously doing something right!
Timeline
Here’s our predicted timeline for SOLO BORG delivery:
- March 2025 – Kickstarter launch
- Summer 2025 – Playtesting and text proofing
- Autumn/Winter 2025 – Layout, art, and proofreading
- Spring 2026 – Print preparation, production, and PDFs to backers
Budget
Here’s a rough breakdown of where the funds will go:
- Editing and Content Development: To ensure the tools are polished and consistent.
- Artwork: Original illustrations and consistent layout.
- Printing Costs: Production of print versions.
Do we use AI?
No. None. This book is 100% human-made. In a world that often feels hard and cruel, we are nothing if not the outpouring of souls. We need to love each other, we need to express ourselves, and we need to celebrate the depths of our fragile humanity with each other.
We’d rather have bad human made art, and terrible, tacked-together writing than something “perfect” made by an unfeeling un-neural network. Our imperfections are a reflection of ourselves! (Also, our art and writing is awesome!)
SOLO BORG will be fulfilled worldwide by Beyond Cataclysm Fullfillment. We have years of experience handling campaigns, and we will do everything we can to keep costs to a minimum—but we have no control over rising charges from postal services.
Estimated shipping costs for single book physical pledge:
UK: $8
EU: $11
Rest of World: $13
Postage will be charged after the campaign finishes, around a month before orders are shipped out using a Pledge Manager. Larger pledges or multiple add-ons will have higher postal charges. We will make all reasonable cost efforts to prevent additional customs charges, but please know they are the backer’s responsibility if they do occur, especially with the changing reality of international tariffs.
License
MÖRK BORG is copyright Ockult Örtmästare Games and Stockholm Kartell. SOLO BORG is an independent production by The SOLOIST and Beyond Cataclysm and is not affiliated with Ockult Örtmästare Games or Stockholm Kartell. It is published under the MÖRK BORG Third Party License.