Pirate Borg: The Winds of Hell

New Art + Strech Goal Unlocked > Final Wave Revealed!
2 months ago – Thu, Apr 09, 2026 at 08:09:08 AM

Ahoy!

Zac here. We're about 5 days from wrapping this whole rig up, and our VTT goal has been hit!

STRETCH GOALS

• ✅$54,321 On a Trail of Blood VTT | We're going to plan on building out On a Trail of Blood for both Foundry and Roll20, depending on how everything goes, and it will be offered as an add-on at a dramatic discount for anyone and everyone in the Pledge Manager. 

Now, we've also revealed our final 3 stretch goals, and they're absolutely glorious:

• $56,789: New Player Class "Blackcoat" (in the campaign book)
• $60,606: Demonic Crew Expansion (in the campaign book)
• $66,666: Infernal Ambient Tracks (digital for everyone)

I feel really confident we can hit those first two, but that last one is going to take all hands on deck for a hard push to the finish.

New Art: Flayer

How about another new piece from Martin? This is for the flayer, another one of our demon types. They're kind of at the mid-level, similar to the naval officer. Here's their (current) stat block: 

Master of Flails. Skinless. Fearless.
HP 11   Morale 10   No Armor  
Flail: d8 + test Strength or weapon knocked from hands  
Carving Knife: d4 (attacks twice)
Baleful Scream: nearby mortals test Presence DR10 or shiver in their boots for d2 rounds. Only works once.  
Bloodlust: +2DR to Defense for every creature the flayer reduces to 0 HP.

That's all for now. At the rate we're all going, I think you'll probably be hearing from me again in a couple of days. 

TTFN,

Zac G. & The Hellions

PROJECTS WE LOVE

Neon Bastards | By the immortal, the encouragible, and the abhorrent Brian Shutter of Neon Lords of the Toxic Wasteland fame. You're gonna fight creeps, worship Wrestlegodz, and feather your bangz without breaking a sweat, as he transforms NLotTW into a Borgian ruleset. We love it: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/neonlordsrpg/neon-bastardz-rpg

Cretin Art & Poll Reminder
2 months ago – Thu, Apr 02, 2026 at 11:44:05 AM

Ahoy there!

Zac here. Just a quick pop in to remind you of the poll on the most recent update! We'd still love to get your opinion. You can only vote for one thing (Kickstarter's own limitations), but we'll take into account comments made as well. 

Speak of the devil, one of the factions that we've committed to doing a dungeon for is the demons, and I got the new cretin art in this morning. Check it out:

We're moving right along, right about halfway to that next stretch goal. If you have the time and inclination, sharing this project in your socials, Reddit, Discord, or some other place that hellions gather would go a long way to surging right through this goal and into another.

Spoilers, this is the biggest gap between goals, and we've only got 2 more in the hopper. We'll show you both of 'em once this one is passed.

TTFN,

Zac G. & The Hellions

 PROJECTS WE LOVE

FOMORIA | I get to help Tania and Johan with the Kickstarter portion of this project, and as someone who's got to peek behind the curtain for the past several months, I can tell you that FOMORIA is one of the coolest-looking RPGs I've ever seen. It goes live on Tuesday, and you'll have to get behind me to back on day 1: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/jnohr/fomoria

The Division RPG | As someone who has fond memories of getting wrecked, finding a sweat(ish) beanie and a very-much-not-sweat pair of khaki shorts, and being absolutely terrified of open city streets in the Dark Zone of the video game proper, I'm more than a little intrigued by what Arkhane Assylum is going to do with The Division.

I don't know if it's going to be great, but I know that I'm here for it and I'm rooting for them: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/arkhane-asylum/the-divison-rpg

Poll & Stretch Goal!
2 months ago – Sun, Mar 29, 2026 at 07:39:28 AM

Ahoy!

Zac here. Coming to you from the wrap-up of PAX East over in Boston. If you haven't been before, this is one of the more original PAX conventions that's way more focused on video games than TTRPGs.

That said, it still has a strong tabletop presence, and we get to meet a lot of newer community members. I'd say the ratio is maybe 4:1 in favor of video game-centered vendors, but the gap is narrowing every year.

As a Penny Arcade fan for the past 15+ years, every PAX is special for me. They feel different, more homey and laid back, even if they're actually rip-roaring with tens of thousands of people. 

Back when PAX South was a thing, I went to every one with my brother-in-laws and occasionally another friend or two. I snuck out to both PAX East and West in the last couple of years, PAX Unplugged is S Class, and Luke and I got to cross something off our bucket lists by working with Acq. Inc. on a PIRATE BORG live-play for PAX Australia.  

STRETCH GOALS

• ✅$45,678 Bonus Dungeon 3 | I think this will be the last of these, unless you all just completely dismantle our expectations for the rest of the campaign. You'll now all be getting 3 bonus dungeons that you can use to seed demonkind throughout the Dark Caribbean. 

That's actually what our poll is about, so make sure you pop down below and see what's up there. 

Our next stretch goal is for a VTT edition of On a Trail of Blood. It's a higher goal because I want to give it out to some of you for free and it takes quite a bit of work to do the conversion, but we'll talk about that more if we hit it.

There's a few other Stretch Goals also in the works, so if VTT modules aren't your thing, you can cross your fingers that we push past this one and line ourselves up for something new afterwards. 

DUNGEON POLL

Okay, so I'll admit to having a couple of reasons for doing a poll today. It's always hard to get a sense for how many people read through the updates, so I'm hoping that this will help answer some of that, but the other thing is that we've unlocked all the bonus dungeons, and I'd really like to know what sort of content you'd like to see inside them!

Let us know as soon as you can. 

No "PROJECTS WE LOVE" today, as I'm trying to keep things short and tidy, even with the poll, but I'll give a quick shoutout to a project I backed from Exalted Funeral the other day called TAVERS. Andrew Bellury (Tiger Wizard) is a peach of a person, so I'm thrilled to back whatever he touches. 

TTFN,

Zac G. & The Hellions

Playtests, Stretch Goals, & Reveals
3 months ago – Tue, Mar 24, 2026 at 06:38:26 AM

Ahoy!

Zac here...finally back from GaryCon and sitting in the airport on the way to PAX East. I turn my back for a few days, and you all went ahead and snuck through another couple stretch goals. Before we get into that though, here's some details from the con....

GARY CON GAMES

GaryCon continues to be one of the best shows of the year. As someone who usually hits between 12 and 15 gaming conventions each year, this one distinguishes itself by:

• Being in the "Mecca" of TTRPGs: Gary Gygax's hometown of Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. 
• Taking place in a sprawling resort, that hosts several thousand people playing games at hundreds of tables.
• Drawing in dozens and dozens (if not hundreds) of the best designers and artists from both the current scene and the decades past. 

This year, we decided Limithron should go all-in, sponsoring the show, taking over the indoor waterpark as an event space, and hauling our massive "pirate ship" booth across the country (see pictures below). It was awesome. 

You'll have to read an upcoming Limithron newsletter for all the details, but here's the cool things that happened that pertain to this Kickstarter:

• I had the pleasure of being invited to run one of the con's "All-Star" Games, which are currated tables that sit two Special Guests at a public table. The rests of the seats are awarded by what amounts to a lottery. 
  I got my top choice of Special Guest: Merle Rasmussen, TSR alumni and the original creator of theTop Secret Secret RPG, and then had the pleasure of meeting TJ Storm as the second guest. Both were excellent players, but Merle and I have chummed around at several conventions over the years -- I even helped him sell his most recent edition of Top Secret for a bit -- so it was really special to get to introduce him to his first game of Pirate Borg. 
  As is his custom, he showed up in full costume, handing out prop pieces of eight to the other players (who also had some gifts of their own), and in general made it game for the ages. 
  We played The Repentant, which you can get in Cabin Fever for free, or the expanded version as part of this campaign. I consider it to be the prelude to Winds of Hell...or at least the spiritual predecessor. 
  
• I also got to playtest one of the WoH adventures, Bones of Gold, some more. It's a dungeon crawl through some Spanish catacombs, and I'm starting to get really happy with it. 
  Not only did I get to run it for Frank and Derrick (team members on this project), but also Erica Lowe (Ragnaborg), Gregory Harris (Tangled in Shrouds), Crystal Black, Chrissy & David Barrentine (one of my favorite designers and layout artists), Andrew Hindenburg (Scrap Rats), Zack Allen (Raptor Ruckus), Richard Markert (HELLSPAWN), Jeff Jones (Gary's Appendix), Ulysses (my favorite player), and of course the immortal Troy Sandlin. That's a Murderer's Row, if there ever was one. 
• Austin was also there, showcasing his finished Saltwater Sacrament, which I continue to keep hearing only hardcore enthusiasm for at every show it's ran...and really any show Austin happens to be running Pirate Borg, Mythic Bastionland, or any other RPG at. 

STRETCH GOALS

• ✅$40,666 Bonus Dungeon 2 | The WoH team will be taking our critters and crafting another short dungeon around them. This will again be free to all backers digitally. 
• ✅$43,210 Demon Ship Generator | There's a black fleet that sails a blood red sea on not-so-distant shores. Their infernal crews seek mortal souls and the Dark One himself is their Commodore. These ships are unholy constructs, and we aim to give you all the resources to outfit and arm a wide range of vessels. This is a free upgrade to the Winds of Hell book.

Next up is a third bonus dungeon, then we've got the biggest leap, as we aim for a VTT build-out for On a Trail of Blood. I need to chat with Golem Productions a bit about it, but I'd like to go ahead and imagine that this will be for both Foundry and Roll20. We'll see when we get there!

Today, instead of dropping a bunch of Kickstarters below, I'm going to instead post a few projects that I've mentioned from people above that you can still get on pre-order. They're some of the things I'm most excited for, and you can't go wrong with any of them. 

See you at PAX?

Zac & The Hellions

PROJECTS WE LOVE

RAGNABORG | Who am I to assume you don't already know about (and backed) Erica's Viking-hack of PIRATE BORG? Even at our ship-shaped booth, I couldn't evade the throngs of fans practically giddy over their games this week. This is an easy purchase: https://ragnaborg-www-kickstarter-com.backerkit.com/hosted_preorders

HELLSPAWN RPG | Both a ruleset and a campaign setting that builds out and brings together the Dying Lands across various Borgs, Richard Markert is making something special with this one. Chase devils across the infernal wheel, dipping into the Dark Caribbean or other locations in a perfect accompaniment to Winds of Hell...which may be why we've contracted him as a guest writer: https://www.hellspawnrpg.com/

PIRATE BORG: These Bloody Sails | Will Tramp's first foray into PIRATE BORG just wrapped here on Kickstarter, but it's already up for preorder over on Backerkit. I playtested part of this with him last year, and I'm itching to get the whole thing: https://pirate-borg-these-bloody-sails.backerkit.com/hosted_preorders

Another 2 Stretch Goals Down & More Revealed!
3 months ago – Wed, Mar 18, 2026 at 08:49:39 AM

Ahoy! 

Zac here. I mean, you all are killing it. 

• ✅$33,333 Black Painted Page Edges |Upgrades The Winds of Hell to feature black-on-black-on-black. It's gonna look slick.
• ✅$36,663 Haunted Soul: The Wretch | Find yourself dragged down to Hell before your destined time? Have ye burned through enough Devil's Luck to fill all the coffers of a dozen saintly shrines? "The Wretch" is what you've become -- a twisted version of your former life. Clay in the hands of a demented potter. A new hybrid class included in The Winds o Hell.

We've also revealed the next round of goals, which include another bonus dungeon and a demon ship generator, which I think we're especially excited to design. 

At this point, we're all neck deep in GaryCon setup, but don't let that stop you! We've got a few more goals where these came from....

TTFN,

Zac G. & The Hellions

PROJECTS WE LOVE

Raptor Ruckus | We'd be remised if we didn't prod you toward Raptor at least once during this campaign. This is our Jurassic Park-inspired RPG that's in preorders now and already dropping PDFs.

We're pretty proud of it, and if you've already backed it, you should know we've added several new add-ons over on Backerkit. You can check everything out here: https://raptor-ruckus.backerkit.com/hosted_preorders/