Original D&D Discussion

« Morale »

Welcome Guest. Please Login or Register.
May 18, 2013, 3:21pm

Original D&D Discussion :: Dungeons & Dragons (1971-1978) :: The Underworld & Wilderness Adventures (1974) :: Morale

Author

Topic: Morale (Read 449 times)

spacemonkeydm
Level 0 Flunky
member is offline

Joined: Sept 2012
Gender: Male

Posts: 8
Karma: 0

Morale
« Thread Started on Sept 2, 2012, 11:17pm »

What is a monster's morale? I am and has been always lost on this one.

Link to Post - Back to Top IP:

Logged

waysoftheearth
Moderator

member is offline

[avatar]

[ImmersiveInk]

Joined: Sept 2008
Gender: Male

Posts: 1,209
Location: Melbourne, Australia
Karma: 195

Re: Morale
« Reply #1 on Sept 3, 2012, 12:39am »

Hi Spacemonkeydm,

I tried to summarise OD&D's morale rules here.

You can also see it used in real play in my Delving Deeper demo game here (follow the combat with 8 1st level PCs versus 15 kobolds).

Enjoy

Link to Post - Back to Top IP:

Logged

cooper
Level 7 Enchanter

member is offline

Joined: Jul 2010
Gender: Male

Posts: 561
Karma: 17

Re: Morale
« Reply #2 on Sept 3, 2012, 2:51pm »

I like waysoftheearth's thread. I will say that each monster (or group of monsters) morale is determined randomly. Roll 2d6 to determine their score. If the monsters take heavy losses, or their leader is slain, or a wizard casts a particularly scarry spell, or a super-hero charges, or any other reason the DM decides warrants a "morale check." Then the DM rolls 2d6 again. If the roll is higher than the creatures morale score...they attempt to withdraw, flee, or surrender.

SCENE ONE A dragon swoops down onto a party of adventurers. The DM rolls 2d6 and it turns out that this particular dragon is a bit of a scaredy-cat (Morale: 4). Before the dragon even has a chance to breath every member of the party pulls out crossbows and the wizard casts a spell to make every bolt burst into flame, a hail of firey magic arrows arcs toward the flying dragon.

The DM decides this may be enough to spook the dragon and rolls 2d6 to check the dragons morale. He rolls a 5+, and the dragon flies off in search of foes without so much missile fire power.

SCENE TWO
The Paladin Ser Gertrude and her Henchman Mary "Piggybottom" are walking through a forest when they see 3 ogres finishing the remains of 3 halflings. Now piggybottom is affraid of her own shadow (morale 2), but she loves her liege-lord with all of her heart (loyalty 18, +2 morale) so her final morale score is 4.

If in the course of the battle, or if some dire request is made e.g. "ms. piggybottom go sneak up behind those ogres and create a distraction..., and a morale check is called for, if Piggybottom rolls a 5+ then she will refuse the command, or cower in fear, pass out, or begin to cry uncontrollably until the battle is over and will be of no futher help to Ser Gertrude.

« Last Edit: Sept 3, 2012, 3:04pm by cooper »

Link to Post - Back to Top IP:

Logged

gronanofsimmerya
Level 6 Magician

member is online

Joined: Jul 2011
Gender: Male

Posts: 477
Karma: 37

Re: Morale
« Reply #3 on Sept 3, 2012, 4:41pm »

Another way to do it is to consider an intelligent monster to be "your PC." That is, if you find yourself thinking "if this were my player character I'd be thinking about getting out of this fight," then the monster is too.

Link to Post - Back to Top IP:

Logged

Michael Mornard
--------------------------
Played in the original Blackmoor, Greyhawk, and EPT Campaigns
"Gronan of Simmerya" aka "Old Geezer" aka "LORD Grumpy"

Zenopus
Level 8 Warlock

member is online

[avatar]

Joined: Jun 2008
Posts: 799
Karma: 95

Re: Morale
« Reply #4 on Sept 3, 2012, 9:58pm »

Inspired by Ways table in the thread he linked above, I whipped up my own version of a dual reaction/morale 2d6 table:

One thing I like about using the Reaction table for Morale is that you don't need to keep track of separate Morale scores for various monsters. Using this table after certain points in combat, such as loss 50% HP or numbers, will account for the toughness of the monster.

Link to Post - Back to Top IP:

Logged

"Story tellers are always careful to point out that the reputed dungeons lie in close proximity to the foundations of an older, pre-human city, to the graveyard, and to the sea.”
- Holmes rulebook

Zenopus Archives - Holmes Basic D&D - website & blog

blackbarn
Level 7 Enchanter

member is offline

Joined: Apr 2008
Gender: Male

Posts: 537
Karma: 30

Re: Morale
« Reply #5 on Sept 5, 2012, 2:09am »

Nice table, Zenopus, that table is the one thing missing from the LBB that would make sense of it all. I've been handling morale that way since I read the linked thread, and it works great.

Link to Post - Back to Top IP:

Logged

Zenopus
Level 8 Warlock

member is online

[avatar]

Joined: Jun 2008
Posts: 799
Karma: 95

Re: Morale
« Reply #6 on Sept 5, 2012, 3:25pm »

Thanks, blackbarn! Here's a revised version, where I changed "moves back" to "roll again next round".

There's no "fighting withdrawal" option specified in LBB/Holmes, so in those rules "moves back" isn't really distinguished from "flees". In this version, the uncertainty of the the 6-8 roll is reflected in making another roll in the immediate following round.

In the Holmes rules, one could also have the monster choose to Parry if 6-8 is rolled, which might be a way to implement the underused Parry rule more often (which is fun in that it has a small chance of breaking the attacker's weapon).

« Last Edit: Sept 5, 2012, 3:29pm by Zenopus »

Link to Post - Back to Top IP:

Logged

Click Here To Make This Board Ad-Free