Grimm Attention, Morale, and other rules and systems
Raiu
Per Aspera Ad Astra
- Location
- United States
This post is meant to be a repository of various rules and systems. In short, this post is a look behind the curtain. Also, these systems are subject to change as I mess with them.
Grimm Attention grows with every attack, and it measures how well the Grimm in the area know of your camp. A low Attention (<20) indicates Young Grimm make up most of the attack, with the age and danger of the Grimm growing as Attention does. Attention grows faster when morale is low, which means Grimm tend to attack harder after a tribe suffered Morale Shock.
Progression: Every time a Grimm attack happens, the Grimm Attention grows by 5. When the Grimm Attention breaks 25, 50, 75 and 100, special Grimm show up.
Atlas Specific: The Winter months of Atlas are harsh, which is the origin of the large, ever-burning bonfire found in most nomadic tribes. The Grimm are not immune to this freezing winter, and Grimm Attention resets and does not grow during the Winter months. However, the winter is far deadlier than the Grimm, and tribesmen will die. Nomadic tribes are far more vulnerable to the winter than settlers. You can burn Wood to resist, and improving one's housing does mitigate this to a point. Housing has two options: improving Tents or building Huts. The former is less heat effective, but doesn't affect the camp's movement, while the later is more heat effective but slows camp movement.
Progression: Every time a Grimm attack happens, the Grimm Attention grows by 5. When the Grimm Attention breaks 25, 50, 75 and 100, special Grimm show up.
Atlas Specific: The Winter months of Atlas are harsh, which is the origin of the large, ever-burning bonfire found in most nomadic tribes. The Grimm are not immune to this freezing winter, and Grimm Attention resets and does not grow during the Winter months. However, the winter is far deadlier than the Grimm, and tribesmen will die. Nomadic tribes are far more vulnerable to the winter than settlers. You can burn Wood to resist, and improving one's housing does mitigate this to a point. Housing has two options: improving Tents or building Huts. The former is less heat effective, but doesn't affect the camp's movement, while the later is more heat effective but slows camp movement.
When things are going well for the tribe, they go really well. People feel great, talk with people they haven't talked with in months, and everyone walks with a new hop in their step. Even the Grimm seem like less and less of a problem. On the flipside, when things are not going well, THINGS AREN'T GOING WELL. This is the Morale system, and it is the most important system for the players to keep track of. Morale is rated on a scale of -50 to +50 initially, however it can be increased to -100 to +100 over the course of the game. A tribe's Morale modifies the Grimm
It's big project, the one which it spent it's life working towards was shattered in front of it and every time they try to pick up the pieces, their hands get more and more cut up. And every so often, the friends of the asshole which broke the big project come by and kick the shards out of their hands, forcing them to pick it up all over again. The ones living in the broken project, the tribesmen, are practically insane from a life lived in the shadow of Grimm and slavers. So, when things go well, they're going great. But when something extremely bad happens, like the walls get torn down in a Raid or a tenth of the tribe gets snatched up by slavers, or the Grimm swarm inside the walls, your Tribe's Morale has a chance to completely fall apart, reversing all the positive Morale into negative Morale. This is known as Morale Shock.
"So, Morale Shock is just inverting the amount of Morale we have?" I hear you ask. "That doesn't sound like that big a thing." Well, that's where the second part of Morale Shock kicks in: Recovery. If the Tribe suffers from Morale Shock, then the Morale Treadmill rule doesn't apply. In order to get your Morale back into control, you'll need to devote actions to Morale Recovery until you get to either 0 or positive Morale, where normal rules apply. (Oh, and Morale Shock can never turn a negative Morale positive. If ever it would do so, Morale is reduced by 20 and Morale Recovery is required.)
Morale Shock is a 1d100 roll, with a target number determined by just how bad the catastrophe was. A pack of Beowulfs managing to get inside would have a Target Number of 30, whereas Raiders setting fire to the camp and running down non-combatants would put the TN around 70 (with it jumping to 100 if the walls were torn down). (The scale goes up to a Target Number of 1000, with 200 being "A White Knight killed the Champion", 500 being "The Bellicist passes nearby" and 999 being "All four Calamity attack the camp, slaughtering most of the tribe and tearing down every building.". 1000 is the impossibility, for the exact thing needed no longer exists, but you never know).
So, how do the Elders help protect against Morale Shock? Well, at the current level, they provide a +20 against Morale Shock (the normal effect) and a free reroll of any failed Morale Shock test (starting perk effect). Normally this would be the end of it, unfortunately the current power structure of the tribe is far from stable, despite the plans of a certain man. One more thing to fix.
For now, the lack of unity in the tribe is keeping the Morale Shock Bonus from rising, but once the barrier is out of the way, you can improve the bonus through a few ways. There is the secular, which involves tribes coming together for a mutual defense (a risky proposition, though steps have been made in that direction). There is the societal, which involves either strengthening the priestly class or indoctrinating the people with cultural traits. There is the spirit, which involves strengthening the faith of the tribe, whether through ordered ceremonies and tradition or a new aspect of the faith. Then, of course, there is the nuclear option: Your people can't attract Grimm if they don't have any emotions. So, just remove emotions.
It's up to you to figure out how to do that.
- The Morale Treadmill: No matter what heights your Morale climbs to, it always eventually return to 0. Two turns after Morale is changed, positive Morale reduces itself by 1 towards 0, with this number doubling every Turn if Morale has not been increased. This is also true in reverse, as time tends to heal wounds.
- Effects of Extremes: High and Low Morale affect the chances characters will gain or develop the Idealist or Fatalist Traits, both of which give a Fate Point and affect the Grimm. As anyone who has seen the show knows, Grimm notice negative emotions over positive ones. Positive emotions are represented by Idealist, and Fatalism represents the negative emotions. So, what balances out Fatalism's drawback? The chance to master a monster and go down a unique path by burning a Fate Point. There are no masters left in the world for the Grimm to turn to, but there can be yet more. Idealism also has a mechanic associated with it, but... It is exceedingly rare, and manifests generationally.
- Food and Morale: You know the saying about prisons and how they're three missed meals away from complete anarchy? In this case, the tribe is three missed meals away from a depression cycle. The tribe can, for the most part, barely survive without Food for a month, as they can be effective scavengers on a large scale if pressed, but every month without Food reduces Morale by 25. Consequently, raising rations creates Morale growth at the cost of increasing Food upkeep, with <2000 people requiring 1 Food naturally, and 2000<x<4000 requiring 2 Food, 4000<x<6000 requiring 3 Food and so on. By doubling the Food upkeep cost, you have Morale grow by 1 each Turn, so long as you can keep the Food rolling. Morale will decrease by 5 when you move off of double rations, so be careful.
- If Morale ever reaches the lower limit through missing meals, then Morale Shock automatically occurs with no roll to resist.
Morale Shock: Oh boy, the big one, the one which is resisted by the the starting perk. This is going to be interesting. Let me clue you in one one of the truths of The Embers Crackle.
Remnant has clinical depression.
It's big project, the one which it spent it's life working towards was shattered in front of it and every time they try to pick up the pieces, their hands get more and more cut up. And every so often, the friends of the asshole which broke the big project come by and kick the shards out of their hands, forcing them to pick it up all over again. The ones living in the broken project, the tribesmen, are practically insane from a life lived in the shadow of Grimm and slavers. So, when things go well, they're going great. But when something extremely bad happens, like the walls get torn down in a Raid or a tenth of the tribe gets snatched up by slavers, or the Grimm swarm inside the walls, your Tribe's Morale has a chance to completely fall apart, reversing all the positive Morale into negative Morale. This is known as Morale Shock.
"So, Morale Shock is just inverting the amount of Morale we have?" I hear you ask. "That doesn't sound like that big a thing." Well, that's where the second part of Morale Shock kicks in: Recovery. If the Tribe suffers from Morale Shock, then the Morale Treadmill rule doesn't apply. In order to get your Morale back into control, you'll need to devote actions to Morale Recovery until you get to either 0 or positive Morale, where normal rules apply. (Oh, and Morale Shock can never turn a negative Morale positive. If ever it would do so, Morale is reduced by 20 and Morale Recovery is required.)
Morale Shock is a 1d100 roll, with a target number determined by just how bad the catastrophe was. A pack of Beowulfs managing to get inside would have a Target Number of 30, whereas Raiders setting fire to the camp and running down non-combatants would put the TN around 70 (with it jumping to 100 if the walls were torn down). (The scale goes up to a Target Number of 1000, with 200 being "A White Knight killed the Champion", 500 being "The Bellicist passes nearby" and 999 being "All four Calamity attack the camp, slaughtering most of the tribe and tearing down every building.". 1000 is the impossibility, for the exact thing needed no longer exists, but you never know).
So, how do the Elders help protect against Morale Shock? Well, at the current level, they provide a +20 against Morale Shock (the normal effect) and a free reroll of any failed Morale Shock test (starting perk effect). Normally this would be the end of it, unfortunately the current power structure of the tribe is far from stable, despite the plans of a certain man. One more thing to fix.
For now, the lack of unity in the tribe is keeping the Morale Shock Bonus from rising, but once the barrier is out of the way, you can improve the bonus through a few ways. There is the secular, which involves tribes coming together for a mutual defense (a risky proposition, though steps have been made in that direction). There is the societal, which involves either strengthening the priestly class or indoctrinating the people with cultural traits. There is the spirit, which involves strengthening the faith of the tribe, whether through ordered ceremonies and tradition or a new aspect of the faith. Then, of course, there is the nuclear option: Your people can't attract Grimm if they don't have any emotions. So, just remove emotions.
It's up to you to figure out how to do that.
So, you're looking to raid another tribe and get some nice resources out of it? Well, you've come to the right place. Finding a camp is done in three phases, each dependant on what comes before.
First is the Locate phase, where the scouts attempt to find the enemy camp. The roll in this case is 1d100 + Tribal Intrigue + Mods vs a Target Number determined by just how well hidden a camp is. The default number is 50, though it can be raised and lowered with certain decisions. If scouts manage to find the camp, then we move onto the Discover phase.
The Discover phase is a check to see if the scouts are discovered, and this is a simple Roll vs Roll. Both defenders and scouts roll 1d100 + Tribal Intrigue + Mods, and compare their result. If the scouts win, then they get away unscathed, but with anything less than 3 Degrees of Success, their tracks are spotted. Anything about 3 DoS provides them with more information (i.e. bonuses) to raids or other actions. If the defenders win at all, then we move onto the Suppression phase.
One final 1d100 + Tribal Intrigue + Mods roll determines if the scouts get away to tell their tribe who they found, or if the camp's location is safe for a little longer. In either case, scouts will die if they are discovered in order to give their allies the best chance to escape, though if they manage to beat the defender by 3 or more DoS, then all of them escape.
First is the Locate phase, where the scouts attempt to find the enemy camp. The roll in this case is 1d100 + Tribal Intrigue + Mods vs a Target Number determined by just how well hidden a camp is. The default number is 50, though it can be raised and lowered with certain decisions. If scouts manage to find the camp, then we move onto the Discover phase.
The Discover phase is a check to see if the scouts are discovered, and this is a simple Roll vs Roll. Both defenders and scouts roll 1d100 + Tribal Intrigue + Mods, and compare their result. If the scouts win, then they get away unscathed, but with anything less than 3 Degrees of Success, their tracks are spotted. Anything about 3 DoS provides them with more information (i.e. bonuses) to raids or other actions. If the defenders win at all, then we move onto the Suppression phase.
One final 1d100 + Tribal Intrigue + Mods roll determines if the scouts get away to tell their tribe who they found, or if the camp's location is safe for a little longer. In either case, scouts will die if they are discovered in order to give their allies the best chance to escape, though if they manage to beat the defender by 3 or more DoS, then all of them escape.
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