Borg to Cairn Conversion Cookbook

A quick guide

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When I and Odinson (who you should be subscribed to btw) started working on the 2nd Keytower of Grift, we agreed on something: we love Mörk Borg, but we love Cairn too. That’s why the Keytower has a conversion sheet included.

Yochai Gal recently asked me whether this Borg to Cairn guide was available outside the module and I realised that it isn’t. Today that is remedied. The text has been expanded a little bit to include some guidance on converting monsters.

If you haven’t already checked out the 2nd Keytower, you should. It’s PWYW and Odinson’s art RULES. We might have a physical version on the horizon too.

Image Credit: Odinson & Murkdice

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Abilities vs Saves

Converting tests from Borg to Cairn is easy since there is no distinguishing between saves or ability checks etc. in either system.

Mörk Borg uses 4 different abilities for tests: Strength (STR), Agility (AGI), Toughness (TOU), and Presence (PRE). The ‘quirk’ of Borg is that Presence is used for ‘ranged attack’ type actions.

You substitute Borg abilities for Cairn saves as follows:

• Strength = STR

• Agility = DEX

• Toughness = STR

• Presence = WIL (unless ‘aiming’ a ranged action of some kind; in which case use STR or DEX as needed)

Mörk Borg uses Difficulty Ratings (DR) that players must roll equal to or higher than to save. For Cairn, roll saves as normal: ignore stuff like ‘DR12’.

Damage Dice

Damage dice in Borg pretty much converts 1-to-1 for Cairn except for the use of multiple dice. In Borg multiple damage dice are summed, whereas in Cairn you keep the highest. This doesn’t matter too much: if you want to be accurate, when you see something like 2d6 in Borg use d12 in Cairn.

Multiple attacks in Borg equates to adding dice to the damage in Cairn. If something can hit twice for d8 damage in Borg, make it a d8+d8 attack in Cairn.

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Monster Stats

This wasn’t included in the module since we already did that work for you! Converting monster stats is (as usual) the most involved bit of conversion.

HP

The HP a creature has in Borg roughly converts to Hit Protection in Cairn: most low/mid power creatures convert directly. That said, the highest HP in the Cairn monster manual is 19, whereas Borg has some statblocks that reach far beyond that.

If you’re hitting over 20 HP when converting from Borg to Cairn, consider buffing the creature’s STR instead.

Also, consider if the creature in Borg has a feature in its statblock like ‘DR14 to hit’. The standard roll to hit in Borg is DR12. If a creature has a higher DR that means it is harder to hit: give it more Hit Protection in Cairn. Likewise if it has DR10 to hit, consider reducing HP in Cairn.

PAYWALL BREAK ALERT: Want some random table analysis? We have a partial paywall break on one of our MurkMail Premium articles! Go read my essay about different types of random tables.

Armour

Converting armour is easy: both systems use damage reduction. Borg has four tiers of armour: none, -d2, -d4, -d6. Map these to 0, 1, 2, 3 armour in Cairn. Easy!

Saves

Borg monsters don’t have saves! The best place to start is with Cairn’s default stats of 10 across the board. Then alter according to some of these factors:

• STR: Take a look at Borg hit points here and also signs of an attack that indicates a tough physique. A troll punching you for 2d6 (more than a Zweihänder hits for) indicates high STR.

• DEX: Here I would look out for stuff like ‘DR14 to hit’ or ‘always wins initiative’ in a Borg statblock as signs of a higher than normal DEX, or ‘DR10 to hit’ as a sign of a lower DEX.

• WIL: Morale (ML) is the closest thing to a WIL stat for creatures in Borg. You can use the morale to WIL conversion table on the Cairn website.

Specials

Borg monsters sometimes have ‘Specials’. This is just a term for abilities the monster has. Converting these is an ad hoc thing. Let’s look at an example for where nuance can come in though: Vilda, the assassin from the 2nd Keytower.

In Borg, Vilda has the following special: DR14 to hit. Any missed attack against her triggers a counter-attack (DR10 to dodge).

This has to be changed up a bit for Cairn, since attacks don’t miss!

In her Cairn statblock, Vilda has the Blademaster feature: Any damage that her armour reduces to zero triggers a riposte: she may roll damage against her attacker.

So you can see, sometimes a bit of tweaking is needed!

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Inkvein with Cairn?

I’m writing a big ‘ol inky megadungeon (Inkvein) for Mörk Borg right now, and Borg is working really well for it. That said… Cairn is another excellent choice for running Inkvein. Converting checks and damage is really easy, and bringing the monsters across is really not difficult. Cairn would be my next top pick for running Inkvein.

Image Credit: Murkdice & Space Penguin Ink