Second Sphere Morale Rules

Overview

'Morale' is a catch-all term describing the general support a nation has from its people. It can take various forms, ranging from black marketing or lack thereof to domestic support for the government to military morale.

Using Morale

All nations start with 4 points and every point of Morale gives 2 additional points which can be assigned to the fields below. Going above 6 will accumulate greater bonuses. All fields are capped at 10, and no field may be below 0.

Public Order

Public order is a general representation of how much your citizens support the government and/or the nation. Extended conflicts - especially loosing ones - can often wear Public Order down.

0: The government has effectively lost control of the nation.

1: The state is creaking at the seams and is likely only held together by the thinnest of social contracts and the fear of state power.

2: The state functions, after a fashion. Police death squads roam the favellas. At this level or below, Secret Police cost 1/2.

3: About the lowest level at which the state can be described as 'stable', though it is a prickly stability at best.

4: There is a definate undercurrent of unhappiness but the trains do run on time. The highest Public Order in which Secret Police are available. Democracies generally cannot survive dipping below this level.

5: Eh.

6+: The people are increasingly happy with the government and their lot in nation. This makes the nation increasingly resistant to actions that could disrupt it as well as improves the likelyhood of positive events occuring.

Taxes

Taxes are supplementary to Wealth, and basically represent public willingness to condone unpopular but effective tax reform, the use or elimination of grey/black markets, etc. Every point in Taxes increases the population output of Wealth, PIP and CIP by 10%. However, for every 15 million population the cost for a given tax rate is increased by 1.

Military Discipline

Military discipline is pretty self-explanatory. While most relevant in ground actions, discipline is the 'secret sauce' that turns good militaries into great ones.

0: What discipline? Formations collapse the moment they encounter enemy troops and entire groups of soldiers will surrender to unmanned recon drones.

1: Soldiers are barely more than warm bodies in uniform. They may fight, but reluctantly at best.

2: Only the most loyal of troops put up substantial fight; passivity is the norm and leadership is weak.

3: Military morale is low and dissatisfaction is common, but the apparatus of conflict functions. Frag the LT!

4: The quality and preparedness of different formations is irregular, but ultimately solid - but at the same time, fragile. A substantive loss could send discipline spiralling downward.

5: The mustered soldiery is fit and ready to serve.

6+: The best of the best, sir!

Societal Closure

Societal closure is a measure of how difficult it is to infiltrate a nation, how much information is simply available to the public and similar concepts. In broad terms societal closure acts as a defensive boost against enemy espionage of all sorts as well as a major control on how many State Secrets a nation may have. (See the Covert rules for a breakdown)

0: Society is open and it is trivial to acquire information about people, institutions and things save those that are outright secret. Many democracies in the liberal western tradition are at this level of societal closure - ie, not at all.

1: Some restrictions exist on information, mostly that deemed 'sensitive'. Society remains, by and large, open. It is not uncommon to find democracies here as well.

2: The government is beginning to make even relatively mundane information inconvenient to acquire at this point, though society as a whole remains open. This is typical for democratic governments in a war situation.

3: The government is jealously guarding information of the most trivial sort and even society has begun to internalize a certain closed-mouthedness.

4: Vhere are your paperz?

5: Paranoia is a byword and dissent or the unusual is frowned upon - or outright attacked.

6+: Paranoia is no longer an unhealthy mental condition, but the norm.