I’ve had a lot of fun running Pirate Borg, and similar games, on Unconventional GMs and elsewhere. So I’ve taken a look at the Pirate Borg Starter Set. Like all of my reviews, I’ve played it before reviewing – there’s too many reviews just based on a read through. I did one 3-hour one-shot session online, in which my players just got off the first island – which is what’s suggested in the set for a one-shot aim. I’ll be running it again at a convention later this year, face to face – which will let me use the copious bling in the set. I was sent a comp copy to review by Free League; to be honest if I hadn’t I might have bought it myself.

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There’s a Lot

Opening the box, there’s a lot of stuff here. Three sheets of card counters, a character sheet pad, five dry wipe character creation worksheets, five fold-out maps, a set of (flavourful, piratey) dice, two dry-wipe pens, an 80 page rule book (which contains most of the rules from the full Pirate Borg rules, I think), and a 60 page adventure book, Trapped in the Tropics. The interior of the box has rules summaries on so can be used as a sort-of GM screen, too.

This is an embarrassment of riches, and should be applauded – I’ve no idea how they’ve managed to get so much stuff in there. Particular praise for having thematic dice in there, and for the counters and maps. These are usable easily outside of the start set campaign, I’m sure, and mean that this is a really useful purchase even if you’re not planning to run the included adventure.

There’s quite a lot of adventure, too. A mini-campaign, Trapped in the Tropics begins with you abandoned and losing your ship, and opens up a sandbox area that’s helpfully bounded, but also full of options for the PCs to choose their fortune. Even the initial island is a mini-hexcrawl, with genuine options for the players to choose – after barely surviving the hanging-ship dungeon, my players decided that venturing further North to Scrum Island was a risk too far when they had the option of stealing a ship with clever spell use, so did that instead.

It’s Never Overwhelming

A hex-crawl region? That sounds like a lot – and it is. Thankfully this is all manageable and straightforward for the GM, as they’ve applied solid principles of teaching the game as you play to make sure that it’s nice and easy to run. Beginning with a brief – and chaotic – combat, there’s a clear path for the PCs to take but a few options how they do it; and once they’ve explored the first dungeon area (a ship hanging from vines – with a risk of it falling!), there’s several ways to go, all straightforward.

They’re right that escaping Eel Island, the first area, is a great scope for the first session – and that then gives the GM options to read ahead and look at the other islands in the area. There are several repeats of the hex-map so you’re never fumbling around for where the players are, including on the back of the adventure book, and some clear guidance on hex-crawl procedures – including a turn-tracking counter to show if it’s day or night.

The NPCs that you meet are really well supported too. Their stat blocks have easily-parsed information about their Appearance, Wants, Manner, and “How To Use…” Some, I’m sure, will bristle at the conversational style, but I appreciate being told references for my NPCs that I can channel at the table. 

As an example, Dodson, the trap-making ASH farmer’s Manner is  ‘Friendly. Frenetic. Radagast from The Hobbit. Raoul Duke from Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. “Stimpy” to Pire’s “Ren”’ – this kind of roleplaying sketch is exactly what I want to embody him at the table, and makes me eager to get my roleplaying chops around him.

Great Set Pieces

The Starter Set also gives you what you want from a Pirate Borg game – namely, Pirate Stuff. So you begin with a sort-of shipwreck, and a set-piece battle between Redcoats and Zombies, with you caught in the middle. It establishes the setting, and the game, straightaway – the British are the enemy, there are terrifying zombies, you’re sometimes best to run away. After searching the island, the first dungeon-like area is a ship hanging vertically from vines over  a massive ravine – a great set-piece dungeon that is exciting despite an almost total lack of monsters and traps within it. Once they get a ship – for which there are multiple ships available, and multiple ways to steal them – they have a few options of where to go – including just, you know, doing some piracy – and the box has Pirate Borg’s ship combat system in it as well.

Every NPC you meet, from the stern conquistador and devout nun you’re accompanied by, to the ASH farmers on Scrub Island, is able to become an enemy or an ally – a great “show don’t tell” of the moral ambiguity of the setting, and how to throw interesting situations at a party and see where they take you.

Even if you’re not running the adventure here, there’s loads to take from it. I’ll definitely put Pire & Dodson’s ASH farm in other adventures, and Pelican Island’s Lava Tube caverns is just a really good, flavourful Pirate Borg dungeon. Indeed, this is a great example of a campaign-launching region, a bounded sandbox, and a set of interesting situations.

This is great. I wouldn’t be running it again if it wasn’t, and there’s certainly plenty in here to get your first 5 or 6 sessions off the ground and showcase the system – and setting – really well. While this sells for a little more than a lot of other Starter Sets, it’s a bargain – the quantity of stuff, and the production values, make it an excellent purchase. Pick this up!