Saddle Up, Scumbags: MÖRK BORG Meets Bone Tomahawk in Frontier Scum’s Brutal Return

Get the chewing tobacco and toothpicks out, Free League Publishing have just announced the release of a brand new edition of Frontier Scum an “Acid Western Roleplaying” Game.

For those of you wondering what an “Acid Western” is, wikipedia explains “In the traditional Western, the journey west is seen as a road to liberation and improvement, but in the acid Western, it is the reverse, a journey towards death.” So, I guess we’re going on a dark journey with this one, although to be fair the book does say “A Game About Wanted Outlaws Making Their Mark On A Lost Frontier” on it’s cover and with the game being called Frontier Scum it was doubtful we’d be approaching this one with a Robin Hood mentality.

The game was originally created by Karl Druid (Den of Druids), with co-development by Games Omnivorous. It is a standalone game based on the Mork Borg ruleset and presented as an old almanac to help immerse you in the setting. The original book came out in 2022 with this edition, being called More Rulebook, containing the original release alongside additional backgrounds, rules, and tables.

“Frontier Scum has become a beloved tabletio RPG over the years, and we are excited to be publishing a new edition of the game,” says Free League co-founder Nils Karlen. “While it’s not designed by us, the work of Karl Druid embodies everything Free League aspires for, including immersive world-building, imaginative character creation, and exciting campaigns for players to gather round and enjoy.”

Inspired by films including El Topo, Dead Man, and Bone Tomahawk, the game offers a rough-and-tumble world of insatiable greed, strange relics, bounties, odd jobs, and danger around every corner. A self-destructive, violent, and LSD-infused take on Spaghetti Westerns, Frontier Scum casts players as wanted outlaws making their mark on the unreal Lost Frontier.

Inside you’ll find all the rules you need to play, guidelines for creating characters along with their guns and stolen horses, an introduction to the Lost Frontier, a complete adventure called Escape the Organ Rail, and tons of inspirational tables and tools for NPCs, hunting, carousing, bounties, odd jobs, loot and strange relics. All new for this More Rulebook Edition are 19 new backgrounds, new tables for names and optional rules for gun hands.

The new updated edition is available now, in both Hardcover and PDF, from Free League’s webstore and should be hitting retailers worldwide imminently.

Images, and some text, courtesy of Free League Publishing.