Call of Cthulhu vs Pirate Borg
Compare Call of Cthulhu and Pirate Borg side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, cost, and more.
| Call of Cthulhu | Pirate Borg | |
|---|---|---|
| Genre | Horror, Modern | Fantasy, Horror |
| Play Style | Investigation, Deadly, One-Shot Friendly, Atmospheric, Roleplay-Heavy, Mystery, Horror, Corruption, Skill-Based | Deadly, Rules-Light, Gonzo, Pirates, Fast-Paced, Random Tables |
| Core Mechanic | Roll d100 equal to or under your skill percentage. Success tiers at half (Hard) and one-fifth (Extreme) of the skill value. Bonus and penalty dice adjust the tens digit. Failed rolls can be pushed for a second attempt at greater risk. | Roll d20 + ability modifier vs. a Difficulty Rating (DR). Players roll both attack and defense. Five abilities (STR, AGI, PRE, TOU, SPI). Classes include Brute, Rapscallion, Buccaneer, and Swashbuckler. Devil's Luck points provide clutch rerolls. Ship combat uses broadside volleys and boarding actions. Fully compatible with Mörk Borg content. |
| Dice | d100 | d20 |
| Complexity | Medium | Low |
| Accessibility | High | High |
| Runnability | Very High | High |
| License | Chaosium Fan Material Policy | Mörk Borg Third Party License |
| Cost | $$ | $$ |
| Publisher | Chaosium | Limithron LLC / Free League Publishing |
| Year | 2014 | 2023 |
| Best For | Investigation-driven horror where combat is deadly and sanity is fragile. Great for one-shots. | Groups who want fast, brutal pirate adventures with a doom-metal aesthetic: ship combat, cursed treasure, and a world spiraling toward annihilation. |
| Highlights | Tracking Sanity as a depletable score ties mental erosion to the fiction, so confronting cosmic horror mechanically wears characters down. The percentile skills resolve on a d100 roll-under, with Hard and Extreme bands at half and one-fifth of the rating. Bouts of Madness convert failed Sanity checks into temporary phobias, manias, or loss of character control. | Simple rules, ship combat is fast-paced, Devil's Luck creates drama, fully Mörk Borg compatible, extensive random tables for pirate adventures |
| Considerations | The chase rules add a detailed positioning subsystem whose complexity outweighs how often it sees use. Character creation allocates points across a long list of skills, a slow first step for new players. In long campaigns the sanity spiral can strip a character of player control as madness accumulates. | Class balance varies significantly, core book layout prioritizes style over reference usability, ship combat rules are lighter than expected, random character generation limits player investment |