Re: [FT] Ship morale

On 18-Jul-99 at 00:50, bbrush@rev.state.ne.us (bbrush@rev.state.ne.us)
wrote:
> Having played most of the GZG games (except for Stargrunt which I will
play
> at Gen Con), it strikes me odd that Full Thrust is the only one with
only
> a rudimentary morale system.
> 
> Has anyone come up with a morale system where each individual ship has
a
> morale? 
> 
> Also, in the interest of contributing, I have thought up a morale
system
> which could be used with the existing rules, and which ties in nicely
with
> SG and DS. 
> 
> In this system each ship would be assigned a leadership number either
0, 1,
> or 2.  0 would be the best and 2 would be the worst.
> 
> A Leadership check would be taken each time a threshold check is made.
 If
> the die roll is equal to or greater than the Leadership number then
the
> ship will continue as normal.  If the roll is less than the Leadership
> number then the ship will "bug out" unless command can be
re-established. 
> There is a +1 modifier to the roll for each previous threshold check
made. 
> So on the 3rd threshold check there is a +2 to the roll. 
Alternatively the
> roll could be required to be GREATER than the Leadership which would
make it
> more likely that the ship would "Bug Out".

I don't think I like this idea very well.  Since we are playing a
"fiction"
game I don't see many places in fiction where part of your battleline
runs.  See, there is this problem, cowardice in the face of the enemy is
often a hanging offense.  If you think of the David Webber books, what
I consider _the_ space combat books, I can only think of one time when
an individual ship broke and ran.  The CO busted out, and the reason for
not hanging him was political.	Breaking and running when you are alone
is one thing, breaking and running when you are the CO of a ship is
quite another.	Now, running when the Fleet Commander tells you to
boogy is not the same thing.  As far as I can tell even cowardly
admirals don't usually run from combat, the just position themselves
horribly trying to be defensive.

Roger Books