Core Morale

From Bean Me! Pedia

1 Morale

Morale

Morale is an important factor in combat. Morale bonuses and detriments can turn the tide of a battle, allowing those who know how to manipulate it to be able conquer stronger enemies by first destroying their Morale and bolstering their own. There are many Spells and Abilities that affect Morale, increasing it for the user and/or their allies or decreasing it for their enemies.

Morale

Starting Morale

Morale ‘Base’ is determined by Level * 10. Increased Morale will positively affect you while decreased Morale will negatively affect you, sometimes to the point of one of the 3F’s (Fight, Flight, Fright). The bonuses are as follows:

For every 20Morale above Base: +1AB/AR/Damage per source/attack

For every 100Morale above Base: +1DAP/Init/NAR

While these affects may not seem like much, consider the alternatives:

For every -20Morale below Base: -1AB/AR/Damage per source/attack

For every -100Morale below Base: -1DAP/Init/NAR

If you pass below 0Morale you roll a d%(d100) and add the die roll to every point of Morale below 0Morale as though it was positive (if you had -47Morale you add +47 to the d%(d100)).

If the d%(d100) plus the negative Morale (as a positive) is greater than 100 you have a Morale failure and are affected by one of the 3F’s of loss of control (see below). This loss of control is added on top of the loss of AB/AR/Damage/DAP/Init/NAR.

If one person has such a ‘Morale failure’ then allies around them will suffer -5Morale (this is only applied once per person in the case of multiple Morale failures in one battle); Morale is contagious!

Your Morale failure lasts until the next Round at the same NAR or your Morale changes, you roll again to see if you suffer another Morale failure or recover.

Basic Recovery

Morale moves back towards Base at a rate of 12 per Round (1 per second, 60 per minute) unless the affect on Morale (such as a war cry) states it has a longer or lesser duration it lasts or it is passive or constant (it will not accumulate each Round but will not recover). If no duration is listed assume the Morale will move back towards the Base at the rate of 12 per Round whether it is above or below your usual Base.

Allies/Enemies

When a Morale affect states that allies gain/lose and that enemies gain/lose the OM must decide who counts as an ally and who counts as an enemy.

An ally is considered a person who at the moment of the effect was fighting the same people you were fighting or otherwise aiding you but not willingly hindering you this fight (i.e. they are your friend and fight with you, someone controls their mind and uses them to attack you for 1NAR, they are still technically an ally).

An enemy is considered a person who at the moment of the effect was fighting you or otherwise hindering you but not willingly aiding you this fight (i.e. you started the fight attacking each other but a mutual enemy appeared so you both attack them, they are still your enemy).

Some Abilities/Spells might let the user pick and choose allies and enemies and will list as such, if it does no the OM must decide who is which.

Modifying Morale

Morale should not be a struggle to deal with. When combat starts it should be easily totalled to start (Base Morale is Level * 10 and then it goes up or down from there). The only important things that change and should be kept track of are death and Abilities, likelihood is everything else will be present before then and remain unchanged (although death can remove a lot of bonuses). Each factor of Morale affects it differently and to be used has its own easy rules:

Numbers

This is tricky because in a small engagement you can easily count each side, but on the battlefield where armies meet counting is not really an option. For the smaller engagements it is easiest to go 1 for 1, meaning if one side has 5 and the other 10, the side with 10 gains +5Morale and the side with 5 suffers -5Morale. This can be seen as +1Morale per ally and -1Morale per enemy.

Death

Death is a large issue for it not only removes the benefits of certain bonuses, but applies negatives at the same time. When the death of a person occurs all their allies lose their numbers bonus, certain Abilities, and anything else they may be doing to produce passive Morale. On top of this everyone suffers -5Morale for each ally that dies. For each enemy killed the opposing side gains +5Morale on top of the numbers ‘balance shift’. Certain Abilities may list they remain active even once the user dies.

Pain

One of the few things that affects the individual and not the group is pain. For every 10% of maximum HP you have lost you suffer -10% of Base Morale (i.e. you are Level 7, you have 70 Base Morale and 57HP, you lose 24HP, you have lost 42% of your HP (24/57=0.42*100=42%) rounded down to 40%, you then lose 28Morale (7*4=28)).

Unknown

The unknown can be used to mentally affect the enemy and their Morale. Spells like none they have ever seen, a sniper killing from the unseen, or a foe striking from the shadows can kill Morale. Most Spells and Abilities will list if they affect Morale so the major concern is everything else that strikes unseen. An ambush is one thing that is always unknown/unexpected and can devastate Morale with frightening efficiency.

A group of allies -1Morale for every attack from an unknown source and -10Morale for each death (instead of the usual -5Morale) from each ‘unknown attack’ made against their group (if someone falls over dead for no real reason you are going to be more afraid).

Abilities

Each are their own. They will list whether they only give bonuses or only give detriments or any other special features such as negatives if the user dies while trying to boost Morale. They should all supply their own basic Morale information such as duration on top of any special rulings.

Special

It is just that, everything that is not covered by the rest can be found here. A lot of things such as culture that will be built by the OM or extreme circumstances too specific to cover will count as special. For example, rare cultures such as the Spartans were said to have held off one million Persians and never shown fear. Special cultures such as these might ignore things such as numbers but be sure not to treat Morale like a joke; it can easily shift the tides of a battle.

NOTE: Combat can get moving pretty quick sometimes so do not worry about every single point. The major one is Abilities/Spells, people took those to use them. As well because of its large impact, Death, who gains the +5Morale and who suffers the –5Morale, should also be used regularly. Doing Number shifts and Pain and the others can generally wait until Round end if determined at all. Do not be afraid to have most Morale adjusted at Round/start end instead of the instant it should have happened. If as an OM you find it too difficult to keep track of Morale from these circumstances consider limiting it to Abilities/Spells/Death only or designate the task to the Players.

Fight, Flight, Fright <3F’s>

On character creation each person chooses three numbers that add up to 100 and arrange them as follows: #/#/#. The first number is Fight, the second is Flight, and the third is Fright. When a person suffers a Morale failure (d% +(Morale *-1) if greater than 100 then they suffer a Morale failure) they roll a second d%(d100). Whichever range the second d%(d100) lands in will be the affect of the Morale failure.

If it lands in the Fight range the person will continue to fight until dead or out of foes throwing as much of their Abilities/Spells at the enemy and attempting to deal as much damage as possible per blow (always a Heavy Melee Attack) or as many shots in as short a time (always a Hasty Ranged Attack) to kill the enemy quicker, no longer able to perform simple activities such as a 3D as they are throwing everything they can towards killing their enemy (expending as much 3P as possible that will lead to the enemy’s quicker death).

If it lands in the Flight range the person will run away from the nearest enemy(ies) and continue running until no enemies are in sight, putting all NAR to that alone, though if they have an Ability/Spell that might get them away further faster they would employ it with as much 3P spent each use as possible.

If it lands in the Fright range the person will do anything from curl up into a ball and whimper to hold out an object to stop attacks, unable to act except for Blocking/hiding behind Cover until there are no more enemies.

These affects last until they make a successful Morale check, die, or there are no more enemies. The ‘basic human’ would be 33/33/33/1 and should be the only case that ‘1’ exists (it stands for “No Effect”). When rolling the d%(d100) if it landed between 1-33 they would Fight, 34-66 and they would Flight, 67-99 and they would Fright, 100 and they would be ‘OK’ and avoid Morale Failure. However, each character may otherwise spread out the 3F’s as they wish (i.e. 0/25/75 ‘Deer in Headlights’ or 0/75/25 ‘Scaredy Cat’ or 25/25/50 ‘Twitchy’, etc).