Moral Check
Scott Adams
longshot at DARKTECH.ORG
Thu May 23 03:57:27 CEST 2002
At 06:54 PM 5/16/02 +0200, you wrote:
>Hey all,
>
>Someone mentioned a moral check on the the party. I can't find any info on
>this, but in the mass combat option it uses a moral check.
>
>So I've made a simple check. I think it should be as simple as possible
Interesting rules. I'll have to keep them in mind. I did some web research
the other
night and found several pages for morale pages to use as a outline like the
one
below.
I'm not developing my own version of rules and may publish them here when i
get them done. I used for years the old Gamma World Morale system since it
was simple and fast....
Its not my info below so don't blame me..:)..just an interesting way to do
things..
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[Morale Rules]
OPTIONAL RULE:
Integrated Morale
Designer's Notes: These rules are an attempt to incorporate
the human factor into Phoenix Command simulation. As
combatants engage the enemy, a variety of factors will eat
away at their effectiveness on the field. When bullets fly
past a combatant, the natural reaction is to start being much
more concerned about self preservation. Combatants will spend
more effort molding themselves to cover, observing for the
enemy, and hesitating before committing to action. All of
these make combatants less effective on the battlefield. These
types of reactions can be categorized as morale--the human
factor determining the effectiveness of the combat unit.
This set of rules tries to simulate that and integrate it in
an easy way with the normal flow of a PCSACS game.
THE RULES:
MORALE STATE
All combatants will now have a "Morale State" which can change
between one of four states, which are listed on the table
below.
Morale State CA Multiplier DSL Bonus Spotting CA
Bonus
Bold 1.0 +0 +0
Cautious 0.75 -1 +1
Frightened 0.5 -2 +2
Panicked 0.0 -4 +0
All combatants start at the Bold Level, unless otherwise
specified in the scenario.
Example: A group of four bank robbers is holding guns on
two corporate executives hostages. The leader of the
robbers and one of his men start at the Bold morale
state, while the other two robbers, who have had doubts
about the robbery, start at the Cautious Morale State.
The Hostages start at the Frightened and Panicked state.
As can be seen from the above table, people in different
morale states will have different levels of combat
effectiveness. The columns in the table are defined as
follows:
Morale State: A description of the person's behavior in a
particular moment in a combat situation.
CA Multiplier: This is a multiple of the person's CA and
represents the amount of Offensive CA the person is capable of
taking in a phase. As the person's morale degrades, they are
able to take fewer and fewer offensive actions, and their CA
tends to be spent more and more on Defensive actions. In all
cases, Offensive CA is rounded up to the nearest whole number.
Offensive CA is CA spent on offensive actions--aiming,
shooting, combat, moving towards an enemy, reloading a weapon,
and so forth.
Example: One of the bank robbers is Green-quality (SL 2,
4 CA) and starts at Bold. When his morale state changes
to Cautious, his offensive CA drops from 4 to (4 * 0.75 =
) 3 CA. This means that he c an use 3 CA in offensive
actions. He still has his 4 CA, but the remaining CA can
only be used for defensive purposes.
DSL Bonus: This number is the change to the combatant's DSL
ALM and represents a person's tendency to make themselves a
smaller target as he becomes more and more unsettled.
Example: Our bank robber's DSL is +3 under normal
circumstances--when he is in a Bold Morale state. When
his morale state changes to Cautious, his DSL changes
from +3 to +3-1= +2, meaning he is taking more time in
using cover and is trying to really avoid getting shot.
Spotting CA bonus: This is the bonus number of CA which a
combatant can spend on spotting attempts--if he so chooses.
These CA are considered free CA and can be used in conjunction
with other actions.
Example: Our bank robber (4 CA, 3 Offensive CA) who is
now being Cautious, spends 1 CA diving over cover. He
spends another CA getting up to kneeling and a third to
assume a hip-firing stance. His final CA is spent trying
to spot a police sniper down the street (>40 hexes).
Because he is being cautious, he gains a Spotting CA
bonus of +1. This gives him 2 CA of spotting, and he
spots the sniper this phase where ordinarily, he would
have had to wait until the next phase to spot the sniper
--(see Spotting PCSACS (4d) s 5.2). This gives him the
effect of 5 CA in a phase.
MAINTAINING AND CHANGING MORALE STATES
A combatant will stay at his initial morale state until one of
the following events happens:
[Image] The combatant is wounded
[Image] The combatant is subject to a near miss from enemy
fire
[Image] The combatant sees his element leader injured.
Wounding:
If a combatant is wounded or injured, his morale state
immediately drops to Panicked.
Near Miss:
If a shot passes within the combant's Critical Distance
(PCSACS (4d) s. 5.6), the combatant will drop 1 morale state
if the person is a combat veteran, and 2 morale states if the
person is not a combat veteran. A combat veteran is defined as
**anyone** who has been in combat.
Example: Our bank robber was barely missed by a police
sniper when he was acting Bold, and so this near miss
drops the bank robber's morale state to a lower level.
The bank robber has been involved in some gang gunfights
in the past, so he is considered a combat veteran, and so
his morale state drops only one level--from Bold to
Cautious. If the bank robber had no combat experience,
then he would have dropped 2 levels--from Bold to
Frightened.
Element Leader Incapacitated:
An element leader is the highest skilled ally who is a) in
command of the combatant, and b) within sight of the
combatant. If the element leader is incapacitated, then the
combatant immediately drops one morale level.
Example: Our four bank robbers have split into two teams
in trying to make their getaway, and are following
separate routes through the inner city. In a firefight
with the police, the leader of the bank robbers is
incapacitated. His companion, who started at a Cautious
morale state, sees that his leader is down, and so his
morale immediately drops one level to Frightened. The
other team of bank robbers, which were out of sight of
their leader, is unaffected by his incapacitation.
RALLIES
A person can upgrade their morale level by performing a
self-rally as described in PCSACS (4d) s. 5.6, with the
following modification. A person can make a self-rally attempt
once under cover, and if they succeed, then they raise their
morale state up by one level. After their Rally Time in CA,
they can attempt to raise their morale up by another level,
and so on until their morale returns to bold.
If the combatant fails any self-rally, then their morale state
remains frozen at its current level for the rest of the
battle, or until a comrade makes a rally attempt as described
in PCSACS (4d) s. 5.6. The only difference between a rally and
a self-rally for our purposes is that a successful Rally
attempt will immediately restore a combatant's morale state up
to Bold.
NOTES
These rules have seen some playtesting across the internet and
the responses that I have received from playtesters has
typically been favorable.
One of the suggestions has been the addition of another morale
state above the "Bold" state--either something like
"Fanatical" or "Enraged," representing the morale state of
people who are hyped up on emotion, adrenaline, and fervor.
For playtesting purposes only, the Fanatic rules are as
follows: The effects of a Fanatical Morale state would result
in a CA multiplier of 1.25, a spotting bonus of -1, and a DSL
bonus of +2 -- meaning these people can do more, see less, and
be hit much easier.
Fanatics can start a battle in the Fanatical state, and may
not be returned to that state if their morale state is reduced
over the course of the battle. Roleplaying GMs may choose to
allow player characters (or NPCs) to become enraged in the
course of roleplaying.
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Page last modified: January 05, 2002
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