Pork Mort: Balearic folklore, a kingdom of pigs and contraband sobrasada

On The Island, sobrasada has become a black-market commodity. King Pork has banned it, and his minions search homes for contraband. Meanwhile, three of the four pillars keeping the land afloat have already collapsed. Its inhabitants do not know this yet, but they have plenty of everyday reasons to lose sleep.

This is the starting point for Pork Mort, an independent roleplaying game from Cap de Pork Games that brings Balearic folklore into a dark fantasy setting. Witches, giants and demons share the world with peasants and porcine rulers. Its premise invites us to explore an intriguing question: how do you turn a folk tale into an adventure the group can make its own?

An island where disaster and tradition coexist

Pork Mort freely reimagines legends, stories and historical events from the Balearic Islands. The Island is the fantasy realm that emerges from this transformation: a place where supernatural forces intervene in people’s lives and a traditional recipe can become grounds for persecution. This combination gives the setting a distinctive identity from its very first details.

The great spider Balanguera and her thirty-three allies, the Moiras, weave the fate of the land and announce that the end is near. The trouble is that they predict it several times a year, so nobody pays them much attention.

The humour comes from this coexistence of vast threats and familiar worries. We can imagine an adventure built around a raid, a forbidden commodity or an omen that really does deserve attention this time. As with the setting of Kaeru’s Melody, the world’s personality starts suggesting stories before the group decides which path to take.

Characters with stories of their own

The game takes an old-school approach, with simple rules compatible with MÖRK BORG. It is an independent production published under the game’s third-party licence. That foundation places it within an established family of games, while its characters and setting give it an identity of its own.

The seven classes available in the official generator illustrate this well: Mysterious Witch, Pompous Knight, Ba’lé Yaroh, Learned Monk, Onso, Cunning Hunchback and Peasant. Among them are masters of the sling, followers of Sant Antoni, hairy creatures with superhuman strength and ordinary villagers.

These choices let you start imagining a character through their place in the world. A peasant and a pompous knight may have very different reasons for leaving home, even if they end up travelling together. The book includes character creation instructions and tables of names, backgrounds, physical and psychological traits, equipment and weapons: material to develop those differences and find a starting point for roleplaying.

A book that gives its tales a face

The physical edition listed in Asmodee’s catalogue is an A5 hardcover with 184 pages of full-colour illustrations. The artwork is by Jaume Mayans, and the team explicitly states that the illustrations were created without artificial intelligence. Visual presentation is central to the project.

The sample pages feature figures with bold silhouettes, distorted proportions and strong contrasts. In Maria Enganxa’s kitchen, for example, a creature with yellow eyes and a toothy grin stands among utensils and hanging food. The scene retains a domestic quality, although it is hard to feel safe inside it.

That image helps convey the setting’s tone. Danger may lurk behind a door or among the ingredients of a meal. For the game master, an illustration like this provides specific visual references for describing a room; for the players, it puts faces to characters they might remember long after the dice have been put away.

From folk tale to well: adventures and tools to get started

The book includes descriptions of The Island’s regions and inhabitants, more than forty characters, including monsters and other NPCs, an introductory adventure and tables for creating locations, treasures, dungeons and new situations. The setting comes with resources to turn it into places to explore and problems to solve.

The website offers a free, condensed version of Well, what now? Its opening is straightforward: the group escorts a Pork merchant’s goods, takes shelter from a storm in a ruined house and watches as something drags their employer down a well. Among the creatures waiting underground are card-loving ferrerets who can potentially be reasoned with. The job therefore leaves room for exploration and negotiation.

If you want a taste of the project, you can also download The Man of the White Houses and The Hunt for the Giant, inspired by Balearic folk tales. These materials are joined by free character and monster generators; character sheets can be printed, saved as PDFs and exported to be loaded again later. They offer practical ways to get to know the world and cut down on preparation.

Dark fantasy brought to life through colour

Jaume Mayans’ illustrations give Pork Mort a distinctive visual identity. The figures are built from angular shapes, strong outlines and exaggerated proportions: enormous jaws, broad shoulders, tusks and hands that look capable of snapping a weapon in two. The onso wielding a staff embodies much of this visual language, with a powerful silhouette and an expression that hints at its personality before you read its description.

Colour plays as prominent a role as the creatures themselves. Intense reds, pinks, purples and small yellow accents create vivid contrasts. On the cover, the porcine skull stands out against a splash of turquoise: a simple combination that makes the book recognisable even from a distance.

These images have something of both caricature and poster art about them, thanks to the characters’ expressiveness and the emphasis on silhouettes and broad areas of colour. We like how this approach brings together the grotesque, humour and adventure in a single scene. Take a closer look at the group illustration, and each face and pose suggests a different attitude towards danger. It is a way of presenting the world that already invites you to imagine voices, encounters and characters of your own.

Release dates and available editions

Pork Mort ran on Kickstarter from 3 November to 18 December 2025. The campaign raised €16,263 from 361 backers, against an initial goal of €3,000. It is a project that has reached publication with the support of that first community.

The Spanish-language physical edition is expected to reach stores in Spain on 2 October 2026. EGD Games and Dungeon Marvels both list that date, with the latter describing it as approximate. Both show a list price of €44.95, before their respective discounts. At the time of writing, this should be understood as an estimated retail availability date.

The digital edition is already on sale: the team announced the PDF’s availability on 10 July 2026. It is offered on itch.io for US$19, with files in Spanish, Catalan and English, along with the corresponding character sheets. Readers who prefer to explore the setting on screen can already do so, ahead of the Spanish physical edition’s expected arrival in stores.

Our take

We are drawn to the way Pork Mort turns cultural references into situations for play. Banned sobrasada creates conflict; creatures from folk tales gain interests and habits; a well becomes the entrance to an adventure. The published materials reveal a fantasy world with personality, where humour can accompany danger without taking away all of its unsettling edge.

It also offers an invitation that extends beyond The Island: take another look at the stories around us and ask what we could bring to the table. A character we remember from childhood, a family superstition or a legend tied to a particular place might hold the beginning of a session. Sometimes all it takes is to revisit that tale and let the group decide what happens next.