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Okay, let's work through the morale rules. Here are the originals, and some thoughts. Feel free to come up with better ideas, it shouldn't be that difficult.


Morale
======
The ability to operate under stress is based on Morale.
The initial Morale score is 1d6.
Modifiers include:
Stat modifier for End
Military Service:
Base roll minimum 4 Morale before End, +1 Per term of service
Combat Arms assignment, minimum 7 Morale before End, +1 Per term of service
Personal combat service members (Infantry, Marines, Commando), +2 per term

Permanent changes to END affect Morale.


Morale
------
Morale Check Triggers
Character is surprised.
When the character first takes damage.
The lesser of their End, or 50% of their total hit points.
When at or past 75% total hit points.

Morale Check Results
Each subsequent failed Morale check means an additional -1.
Failure means the individual takes a -1 on all actions, including Morale Checks.
Failures are cumulative.
When a character reaches -4, they will flee, surrender, or are otherwise rendered combat ineffective.

Large groups of unintelligent creatures roll morale as a group.
Modifiers are based on each 25% of the group that has been rendered combat ineffective.



ISSUES and IDEAS

tibbius pointed out the obvious flaw, a person would need 4 failures to flee, and that means they are likely fighting to the death. That's exactly what shouldn't happen. On the other hand, I want brave warriors to be able to choose to remain standing, even when reason and circumstance say they should flee.

Plan B: How about this?

Morale is put in steps, and we stick with Rule 68A. The average person has a Morale of 1-5, and a failed check means they flee. If someone has a 6-7 Morale, they can fail one check, and take a -1 to everything. The second failed check means they flee. With an 8-9 Morale, the character can fail two checks before they flee. At Morale 10+, the character takes the -1, but is never forced to flee.

Actions that raise Morale can "reset the clock" by one Morale failure. This also removes the -1 penalty.

Thoughts?

Leitz wrote:Okay, let's work through the morale rules. Here are the originals, and some thoughts. Feel free to come up with better ideas, it shouldn't be that difficult.


Morale
======
The ability to operate under stress is based on Morale.
The initial Morale score is 1d6.
Modifiers include:
Stat modifier for End
Military Service:
Base roll minimum 4 Morale before End, +1 Per term of service
Combat Arms assignment, minimum 7 Morale before End, +1 Per term of service
Personal combat service members (Infantry, Marines, Commando), +2 per term

Permanent changes to END affect Morale.


Morale
------
Morale Check Triggers
Character is surprised.
When the character first takes damage.
The lesser of their End, or 50% of their total hit points.
When at or past 75% total hit points.

Plan B: How about this?

Morale is put in steps, and we stick with Rule 68A. The average person has a Morale of 1-5, and a failed check means they flee. If someone has a 6-7 Morale, they can fail one check, and take a -1 to everything. The second failed check means they flee. With an 8-9 Morale, the character can fail two checks before they flee. At Morale 10+, the character takes the -1, but is never forced to flee.

Actions that raise Morale can "reset the clock" by one Morale failure. This also removes the -1 penalty.

Thoughts?

This seems a lot better. There's a chance that somewhat experienced militia / warriors will break and run, but not nearly as often as civilians - while real hardbitten veterans don't break. Seems "realistic" enough.

What about adding this?

After each major combat the character actively participates in, make a Morale check. On a FAILURE, add a note to the character's Morale. When the number of FAILURES exceeds the character's base Morale, the Morale is raised one point, and the FAILURE count is reduced to 0. The process repeats.

To gain a post-combat check to see if you can raise Morale, you have to be actively involved in the combat, and at risk. You do not need to successfully kill anything, but just participate.

Let's use Hans as an example.

• Did Hans participate? Yes
• Was he at risk? Yes

He can test to see if his Morale was strengthened.

To test, Hans' Morale is 5. He rolls 2d6; if he rolls a 6+, he puts a mark next to his permanent Morale score. When he has 6 (one more than his permanent Morale) marks, his Morale goes up one (to 6), and all marks are removed.

Make sense?

Is there anything else we need to look at on Morale, before we get to the next scene?

Leitz wrote:To test, Hans' Morale is 5. He rolls 2d6; if he rolls a 6+, he puts a mark next to his permanent Morale score. When he has 6 (one more than his permanent Morale) marks, his Morale goes up one (to 6), and all marks are removed.

This would work well face to face, where a lot can be accomplished in two or three hours so that there might be as many as three or four combats per session. On PbP it takes months to cover the same ground. I would suggest for the forum format, skip the check marks and just bump up Morale whenever the 2d6 roll exceeds current Morale. The progression still will slow down (on average) as Morale increases. But it will show progress sufficient to keep the players feeling rewarded.

I'm pondering how to handle this same sort of problem in our Ancient Greece campaign. I'll address that over in that thread momentarily.

For PbP use I have to agree with Tibbius. Overall I like the idea of the penalties to rolls to represent shattered nerves when someone doesn't quite run away but is still terrified, and generally having characters who can't typically just stand and fight against anything like robots. It feels like if we're going there it should be an appeal of the system, though, so I guess I feel like if it can be improved in PbP's the pace needs to be pretty fast but at the same time it should always be possible for any character to break and run so I might remove the Morale 10+ exception to fleeing?

I imagine it as the system's darker form of fate points, lives, or whatever. Instead of spending a 'life' to survive a FUBAR situation you pay for failure by losing the day, running away and taking a debuff. In a way it reduces character death, which is narratively unsatisfying a lot of the time, but encourages a very humble outlook.

Okay, I'm going to agree to this, but with some hesitation. I think it's a great idea, but I've never really thought about using different rules for PbP vs tabletop. My hesitation isn't "game balance" but "increased chance for the DM to muck things up".

So, everyone roll 2d6 vs Morale, If you roll over, raise your Morale by 1. Record it on your character sheet and notify in OOC if you raised or not.

Sadly Hans didn't seem to learn anything, this time around.

[2d6] = 3 to raise Morale

morale improvement? [2d6] = 4
nope.

Well, hopefully your lousy rolls are out of the way...

We can only pray!