Builder's Manual · Chapter 1

What This System Gives You

You have cloned a complete implementation of the Pirate Borg ruleset. This chapter is a map of what is here so you know what to reuse and what to replace.

The twenty file types

The types divide into four groups:

Rules contentrule, lore, gm-instructions (all markdown), and table. These carry the system's prose and its sixty-one random tables. The table type is deliberately generic: a die string, a category, usage text, and an array of roll/result rows rendered through a computed 2D array.

Character-facingcharacter (the PC sheet), class, and npc. The character type is the one to study before you extend anything, because it is where the references and computed fields converge.

Compendiumweapon, armor, gear, relic, ritual, prayer, spell, shanty, monster, ship. Flat, referenceable stat records.

World scaffoldinglocation, faction, game-start. These ship almost empty on purpose; see the last chapter.

What is deliberately absent

There is no setting gazetteer, no adventure module, and no map. The Dark Caribbean is described in three lore files — enough that the mechanics make sense — and nothing more. That is the line between this system and a world built on it.

There are also no images. The art direction is set in project settings, so anything you generate will come out in the same woodcut-on-parchment register without you repeating a style prompt.

The invariants

Whatever you add, these hold:

  • Everything resolves as d20 + ability vs a DR. Do not add a second resolution mechanic.
  • Players roll to attack and to defend. Enemies never roll. Any new mechanic that has the GM rolling against a player is wrong for this system.
  • Abilities live in -3 to +6, and DR12 is normal. A new test at DR15 is a mistake; the ladder moves in twos.
  • Damage is a die expression, not a number. Armor is a die you subtract, not a threshold.
  • Black powder ignores armor. This is load-bearing — it is why nobody wears armor and why muskets are frightening.
Manual updated Aug 1, 2026.