Honor + Intrigue vs Pirate Borg
Compare Honor + Intrigue and Pirate Borg side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, and more.
| Honor + Intrigue | Pirate Borg | |
|---|---|---|
| Genre | Historical | Fantasy, Horror |
| Tags | Career-Based, Cinematic, Social Combat, Social Intrigue, Heroic, Fast-Paced, Martial Arts, Ship-Based, Pirates, Theater of the Mind | Deadly, Rules-Light, Gonzo, Pirates, Fast-Paced, Random Tables |
| Core Mechanic | Roll 2d6 + Quality (Might, Daring, Savvy, or Flair) + Career rank vs. 9 to succeed. In combat, Combat Abilities (Brawl, Melee, Ranged, Defense) replace Careers. Bonus Dice roll 3d6 and keep the best two; Penalty Dice keep the worst two. Fortune Points let heroes escape death, add bonus dice, invoke dramatic license, or press the Advantage in duels. Advantage tracks momentum in melee: characters start at 3 and lose Advantage when hit, becoming Defeated at 0. Nine Dueling Styles (Spanish, Italian, French, and more) each grant unique maneuvers and a Final Secret at mastery. Social Combat uses the same framework, targeting Composure instead of Lifeblood. | 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 | 2d6 | d20 |
| Complexity | Medium | Low |
| Availability | Paid | Free quickstart |
| Runnability | 5 of 5 book tools | 3 of 5 book tools |
| License | Proprietary | Mörk Borg Third Party License |
| Third-Party Publishing | Not yet researched | Not yet researched |
| Publisher | Basic Action Games | Limithron LLC / Free League Publishing |
| Year | 2012 | 2023 |
| Languages | English | English, Swedish |
| Best For | Groups who want cinematic swashbuckling in the style of The Three Musketeers and Captain Blood: dashing swordplay, court intrigue, and sea battles with a fast, career-based system. | Groups who want fast, brutal pirate adventures with a doom-metal aesthetic: ship combat, cursed treasure, and a world spiraling toward annihilation. |
| Highlights | Nine Dueling Styles with distinct maneuvers and masterable Final Secrets provide deep fencing differentiation. Social Combat and Repartee use the same mechanical framework as physical combat, targeting Composure. Over 30 period-specific Careers from Musketeer to Temptress replace skill lists. Includes ship-to-ship combat, battlefield rules, and a 17th-century gazetteer covering Europe, the Americas, and beyond. | Simple rules, ship combat is fast-paced, Devil's Luck creates drama, fully Mörk Borg compatible, extensive random tables for pirate adventures |
| Considerations | No free quickstart or SRD available. Advantage tracking adds a subsystem on top of basic BoL resolution. The gazetteer and setting material assume 17th-century Europe as the default, limiting out-of-the-box use for other periods. | 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 |