Table-Tested Review of the “Fomoria” Quickstart
I picked up the physical Quickstart/Preview for “Fomoria” at UK Games Expo and quickly found a group eager to try it out! Fomoria is a game of epic horror and you’ll be playing as varying anthropomorphic animals living in an endless labyrinth of shifting tunnels.
- Writing and Art: Tania Herrero
- Graphic Design: Johan Nohr
- Release: Quickstart end of 2025, full game is supposed to ship end of 2026
- Mechanics: based on Mörk Borg (simple d20 / stat-based system)
- Content Warnings: betrayal, cannibalism, drowning, gore, harm to animals, insects, loss of agency, spiders, violence
The game takes a lot from Mörk Borg in aesthetics and vibe but makes it their own by defining its own setting. The world above has been devoured by the Red Plague and everyone ekes out their existence under the earth. There are infinite horrors, eldritch or otherwise, to be found.
There are also some new mechanics to facilitate the feel the game is striving for, compared to base Mörk Borg. There are adjusted rules for dying (less insta-death) and slightly advanced combat rules (dual wielding, weapon expertise, etc.) which make fights more epic. There’s also mechanics to facilitate the horror aspects, like stability points which are tied to occult abilities, or rules for light and darkness (and the mechanics of base Mörk Borg of course, which lend themselves well to horror already). Some more new mechanics too, like three different detrimental conditions or a “Wyrd” stat to do magic, similar to how Mana works in other games.
The quickstart only has premade characters and doesn’t support your own character creation, although it does read like there will be a way to choose your Folk (comparable to ancestry in other games) and your Clan (comparable to classes in other games).
The quickstart also comes with a one-shot called “Spawn of the Hungering One”, that can easily be played in roughly 3 hours. It has a simple but solid hook (people going missing, everyone rolls who they’re looking for), two encounters in the intro, one of which is an introductory combat and one for roleplaying and showcasing how to learn new abilities in the game and then delves into a dungeon with nine locations. The dungeon is well designed and we had a lot of fun playing it. The adventure showcases the “epic horror” aspect really well: it’s not as easy to die randomly like in Mörk Borg, but the final boss packs one hell of a punch and will kill some PCs, if they decide to fight it. There is multiple ways the adventure can end and has an epilogue that can easily be turned into the beginning of a campaign.
The quickstart is an early version of the game, so things are subject to change. That being said I found it to be a polished game already. The texts are extremely flavourful and it’s visually stunning. It’s a step towards higher mechanical complexity, but it still felt more like Mörk Borg, rather than veering too far into D&D-like territory. There are cool things mechanically in there and the skill ceiling seems to be in a good spot right now (as in it’s easy to pick up, but there is still some more mechanics to explore in multiple sessions). I’ll definitely pick it up when it hits the shelves.
