Stefano Buonocore
Before starting this review, we would like to thank Mondiversi for sending us a physical copy of Red Borg: South America, an expansion for the Italian RPG of revolution. You can find our review of the core game, itself inspired by the mechanics of MÖRK BORG, and catch up with it if you haven’t already.
Red Borg: South America is available on Mondiversi’s DriveThruRPG page, priced at 11.64 USD for the digital version (just over ten euros). The physical edition can be purchased from the publisher’s store for 19.99 euros.
Review of the Red Borg: South America Manual
The document presents itself as a rather rich expansion manual, 80 pages laid out in the recognizable MÖRK BORG style: impactful graphics, irregular layout, and a strong visual component.
Its pages alternate between black backgrounds, industrial textures, and bright colour inserts, evoking a dystopian world filled with propaganda. The overall aesthetic recalls zine punk art and underground design. We find slab and graphic fonts, deconstructed titles, and text overlapping with illustrations mostly left as silhouettes. The graphic component is more refined than the artistic one, which at times, in its search for the grotesque, ends up feeling more parodic than disturbing. So the overall structure maintains the MÖRK BORG-compatible imprint: short text, high visual impact, and deliberately abrasive design choices.
The Game Setting
The setting of South America is a Latin American variant of the Red Borg universe. Its fictional nations of Meciko, Kile, Pertuk, Brasijela, and Baliva each host a different form of oppressive regime against which the characters rise up. For each of these fictional states (whose inspirations are quite easy to identify, much like in the base manual), there’s a brief description of the nation and its dictator. These are accompanied by stat blocks for some “enemies of the revolution” and short notes on potential points of interest.
Then follow the descriptions of several “famous characters,” great heroes of the revolution who, through their inspiring presence, introduce dynamics that players can interact with. Both the setting and these NPCs follow the same tone as the original game: a kind of grotesque that doesn’t take itself too seriously. While the mechanics create interesting ideas, the overall effect leans toward parody, making it difficult to give weight to the otherwise noble themes being explored.
Review of Character Options in Red Borg: South America
The manual introduces three new character classes, always a defining and energizing element for any expansion module. The Captain is perhaps the most classic and fitting of all, designed to lead troops into battle and serve as a constant source of inspiration. Instead the Specter of Communism is more peculiar—a sort of revolutionary ninja. The Hombre de Perros, by contrast, feels less contextualized. It reprises the classic “minion master” archetype, in this case a trainer of animals, but with less meaningful ties to the game’s overall theme, if not in reference to the abundance of stray dogs.
More interesting is the commando mechanic, which allows players to manage small squads under their command, granting them distinctive traits and unique abilities.
Overall, Red Borg: South America introduces many mechanical novelties, though their tone alternates between serious and ironic. The Opium of the People, for instance, simply lists a series of drugs and stimulants that characters can use. Nothing truly revolutionary (no pun intended), and it trivializes an expression of considerable philosophical weight by reducing it to a literal meaning. This approach may appeal to those who enjoy wordplay, though it sacrifices potential thematic depth.
The Scenarios
Red Borg: South America also offers a series of ready-to-play scenarios. These are mini-adventures, more structured than most of the ideas in the base manual, and clearly embedded within the Latin American context of this expansion.
Mustillo Must Not Live casts the revolutionaries in a raid on a South American village as they hunt down a specific commando unit, facing obvious complications.
Down with the Daisy allows players to stage an assault on a ship to recover vital information for the revolution. Unsurprisingly, complications abound.
The Maintenance of the Cochadera offers a factory sabotage scenario, once again giving the Revolution a chance to make its voice heard loud and clear.
Overall, the three adventures reproduce Red Borg’s characteristic style. They don’t focus on introspection or emotional depth, but rather on the loud, explosive, and performative aspects of the themes that define the game.
Conclusions of the Red Borg: South America Review
It’s fair to say that this expansion module shows a discreet work on the mechanical side. The volume enriches the base Red Borg manual by introducing several additions—some of them genuinely useful and adaptable. However, it also amplifies one of the game’s main weaknesses: the inability to separate the grotesque from the parodic, resulting in a lack of thematic depth.
This is not a game to choose for its alignment with the political or philosophical themes it evokes; its treatment of them remains superficial. Red Borg: South America is, even more than its predecessor, a lighthearted revolutionary divertissement, best enjoyed by those who want to play with the loudest, most explosive side of such themes.
