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View Full Version : Crew morale system? [3.5]



Scarey Nerd
2010-08-21, 10:38 AM
Is there any system to track the morale of a group of NPCs? My party purchased a ship and crew in their last session and are worried about the possibility of mutiny if they don't treat the crew right, particularly since one of the PCs started a mutiny on a ship before he met the rest of the party.

If there isn't such a system, what would you, O mighty Playgrounders, suggest I do to make one?

Bayar
2010-08-21, 10:46 AM
You might find a morale system in Heroes of Battle, but I don't guarantee it.

Scarey Nerd
2010-08-21, 10:52 AM
You might find a morale system in Heroes of Battle, but I don't guarantee it.

There is indeed a morale system, but it deals with opponents fleeing battles as opposed to subordinates attempting to mutiny. Still useful though, and I may implement it elsewhere. Thanks :smallsmile:

TaintedLight
2010-08-21, 10:53 AM
I'd go with a modified Leadership table. Get that "leadership" score arbitrarily low as decided by you and mutiny happens.

Fax Celestis
2010-08-21, 01:06 PM
Look in Stormwrack.

Aroka
2010-08-21, 03:18 PM
A basic morale system would be easy enough.

Come up with a baseline (say, a will save) and a list of morale modifiers (like being outnumbered, outnumbering the enemy, recent success or failure, etc., ranging from -2 to +2 each, or more depending on how you set the DCs). Maybe modify it by the leader's Cha mod if he's around (or Str mod if he's leading them based on "you do what I say or I kill you").

Then come up with a bunch of conditions that require a morale check and assign them DCs. This will require a lot of thought and fiddling, and some DCs should probably be scaling (DC constant + variable).

Failing morale checks (made for the group as a unit) would increase the NPC group's "fear state" by one step (shaken, frightened, panicked). Alternatively, morale checks could be called on to make the crew obey, accept a new leader (using modifiers that that leader would currently grant them), or the like.