Yet another Morality/Conflict house rule... (x-post from reddit)

[BeyondFandom 30]

So I decided I disliked the idea that you could perform immoral acts or call on the dark side and still end up with a increased Morality score. Now, I'm not saying you shouldn't ever be able to do these, but in a given session, if you do, you shouldn't come out a better person. IMHO, anyways. So here is the rule I came up with.

 

 

• At the end of each session, add up Conflict earned and subtract a d5 (half a d10, rounded up), any remaining Conflict is subtracted from your Morality score. If no Conflict is earned in the session, gain a d5 to your Morality.

 

Now I also felt that being a light/dark paragon should have an effect on how much Morality you gain or lose, so I came up with these modifications to the basic rule above.

 

• When a light side paragon gains Conflict during a session, reduce the die roll (before halving) by their paragon tier (ie. reduce the roll by 1 when at 70 or more, by 2 when at 80 or more, and by 3 when at 90 or more.)

• When a dark side paragon gains no Conflict during the session, reduce the die roll (before halving) by their paragon tier (ie. reduce the roll by 1 when at 30 or less, by 2 when at 20 or less, and by 3 when at 10 or less.)

 

I think a lot of folks over on reddit got hung up on whether or not Morality should be possible to increase in the same session as immoral acts or calling on the dark side occur. That debate has been had and I'm firmly set in my opinion on that topic. I'm just posting this house rule for anyone who believes like I do that gaining Conflict points and raising Morality should not happen in the same session. The rule itself is open for debate of course, just not the reasoning behind it.

 

[whafrog 10,384]

You might be interested in this thread:

https://community.fantasyflightgames.com/topic/200337-houserule-morality/

 

I will be adjusting Morality directly, not using Conflict or the random die roll.

[BeyondFandom 30]

Actually it was reading your thread that prompted me to share my house rule here too. I decided to make my own thread so I wouldn't distract from your rule.

 

I like your rule, but it still has the potential for raising Morality after committing immoral acts or calling on the dark side, which is my primary issue.

[This be Richard 4]

The issue that occurs to me is that "a game session" feels like a problematic unit of time to determine how long it takes after a conflict-generating action before you can bounce back and start (re)gaining morality. What if a session represents an awfully short amount of time? What if it represents of vast span of time? I personally feel like there should be a distinction there. But maybe that's just me.

[whafrog 10,384]

I like your rule, but it still has the potential for raising Morality after committing immoral acts or calling on the dark side, which is my primary issue.

 

I do think that there should be some room between thresholds for movement, but it wouldn't be a lot.  The needle would be mostly static until an appropriate dramatic moment.

 

If a PC crossed the dark side threshold, I wouldn't adjust it upwards for helping a little old Duro lady across the street, it would take a major dramatic act to move the needle at all.  Redemption is a core theme in SW, so Morality *could* be raised after committing immoral acts, but it would have to be appropriate.

[BeyondFandom 30]

The issue that occurs to me is that "a game session" feels like a problematic unit of time to determine how long it takes after a conflict-generating action before you can bounce back and start (re)gaining morality. What if a session represents an awfully short amount of time? What if it represents of vast span of time? I personally feel like there should be a distinction there. But maybe that's just me.

 

Yeah, but I can also see where setting it by an "in-game" time period could be problematic too. If you set it for once a week and then have downtime for a month, do you need to roll 4 times? That doesn't make a lot of sense either. Once per session seems like the least objectionable option, at least in my mind.

[BeyondFandom 30]

I do think that there should be some room between thresholds for movement, but it wouldn't be a lot.  The needle would be mostly static until an appropriate dramatic moment.

 

There is plenty of room for movement between the thresholds, my issue is if in a given session you gain 3 Conflict from calling on the dark side and then another 4 for beating up a shop owner, they shouldn't have a 30% chance of having their Morality score increase. That's just crazy to me.

 

 

If a PC crossed the dark side threshold, I wouldn't adjust it upwards for helping a little old Duro lady across the street, it would take a major dramatic act to move the needle at all.  Redemption is a core theme in SW, so Morality *could* be raised after committing immoral acts, but it would have to be appropriate.

 

Given a truly heroic action, I could be swayed to removing the Conflict they've gained for the session and perhaps even a bonus on their positive Morality roll, but that would be on a case by case situation.

Edited January 27, 2016 by BeyondFandom

[FlashbackJon 34]

One alternative is the narrative break: once per "chapter" (or "episode" if you feel so inclined.)  That way if a session takes waaay too long the way they sometimes do, the players aren't just rocketing up to paragon.  You pick where the milestones happen either simply in places where it makes sense in the narrative, or possibly even with a guideline: after n amount of XP (that way you're never wasting morality rolls for downtime or long sessions).

[Vixen Icaza 317]

One alternative is the narrative break: once per "chapter" (or "episode" if you feel so inclined.)  That way if a session takes waaay too long the way they sometimes do, the players aren't just rocketing up to paragon.  You pick where the milestones happen either simply in places where it makes sense in the narrative, or possibly even with a guideline: after n amount of XP (that way you're never wasting morality rolls for downtime or long sessions).

This is what I do. I have house ruled "once per act" for games I run. We only have about 3 hrs a time to play max, an some of our players can be disruptive. I found they only had the chance to really gain 1 or 2 conflict per night if they did not murder hobo, so rolling every night just shot em right up to paragon fat to fast.

[Donovan Morningfire 10,200]

One alternative is the narrative break: once per "chapter" (or "episode" if you feel so inclined.)  That way if a session takes waaay too long the way they sometimes do, the players aren't just rocketing up to paragon.  You pick where the milestones happen either simply in places where it makes sense in the narrative, or possibly even with a guideline: after n amount of XP (that way you're never wasting morality rolls for downtime or long sessions).

I've been using "end of the adventure" to have the PCs in my own campaign make their Morality checks.  Given an adventure tends to run two or three sessions, it's slowed down the climb to LS Paragon quite a bit, with only one PC having finally made the climb as of the end of our last adventure, though another PC is within spitting distance, and both of them have generally been very good about taking actions that avoid generating lots of Conflict.

[kaosoe 7,573]

 

One alternative is the narrative break: once per "chapter" (or "episode" if you feel so inclined.)  That way if a session takes waaay too long the way they sometimes do, the players aren't just rocketing up to paragon.  You pick where the milestones happen either simply in places where it makes sense in the narrative, or possibly even with a guideline: after n amount of XP (that way you're never wasting morality rolls for downtime or long sessions).

I've been using "end of the adventure" to have the PCs in my own campaign make their Morality checks.  Given an adventure tends to run two or three sessions, it's slowed down the climb to LS Paragon quite a bit, with only one PC having finally made the climb as of the end of our last adventure, though another PC is within spitting distance, and both of them have generally been very good about taking actions that avoid generating lots of Conflict.

 

I think this is probably the best resolution. It doesn't work so well for my games. I usually have slightly more episodic adventures that rarely last more than a single session.