History Main / MoraleMechanic

* ''VideoGame/ValkyriaChroniclesII'' has a morale meter that influences how often characters activate Potentials. At low morale, they have a higher chance of activating negative Potentials and a lower chance of activating positive ones. The reverse is true at high morale. The meter increases when your units kill enemies and capture bases, and decreases when you lose units or bases.

* Every hero in ''VideoGame/DarkestDungeon'' has a Stress meter which measures how well a character is holding up against the horrors of the battles that they must face. Getting critted, suffering various attacks, seeing comrades die, going hungry, and suffering the effects of various curios and such will all add stress. Gaining too much Stress during a quest will run the risk of a character getting Afflicted, and gaining entirely too much will have the hero suffer a heart attack and be sent immediately to Death's Door (and outright die if they're already at Death's Door).

* The ''VideoGame/TotalWar'' series implements a Morale Mechanic for army units that determines how long they're able to stand and fight before breaking and fleeing from the field, beyond the player's control. Professional units have better morale than levy troops or town militias, and some units have exceptionally high morale, like religious fanatics or [[BraveScot Scotsmen.]] Being near an army's general will improve units' morale, while on the flipside, killing an army's general is a good way to break their line. Other ways to damage an unit's morale include but are not limited to: shooting them with FlamingArrows, noisy gunpowder weapons or medieval flamethrowers, sending WarElephants at them, charging them with units that give [[{{Kiai}} a fearsome war cry]], charging them in the flank or rear, throwing [[BeeBeeGun beehives]] at them, lighting a herd of pitch-covered pigs on fire and sending them squealing into the enemy ranks, or flinging a diseased cow carcass at them with a trebuchet. But when you do break the enemy, make sure to give them an escape route - completely surrounded units will go into a [[LastStand "Fighting to the Death"]] state and actually be harder to kill when they realize they have nowhere to run and nothing to lose.
** ''VideoGame/MedievalIITotalWar'' adds Dreaded generals as a way to damage enemy morale. The Chivalry-Dread axis acts as that game's KarmaMeter, so if a character builds a fearsome reputation by employing assassins, executing prisoners, exterminating settlements, a general with an epithet like "the Tyrant" or "TheButcher" can cause entire armies to buckle and rout just by charging into them with their bodyguard unit.

* Morale is a very important part of gameplay in Creator/GamesWorkshop's tabletop wargames. Units have a Leadership score ranging from 1 to 10, with 7 being the average human Leadership, which they must test upon when they get stuck in close combat or have scary things happen to them. Rolling equal to or under their Leadership score on two six-sided dice means that all is well and the unit will act normally, failure means that the unit will fall back, potentially leading to them being chased down and destroyed if they were fighting something in melee. If the unit manages to escape whatever spooked it and has enough numbers to still fight effectively, they can pass another Leadership test to regroup, turning their previous fight into a TacticalWithdrawal. If not, they'll continue to leg it until they move off the table and leave the battle.
** ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}}'' had expansive rules for unit morale, and a great deal of modifiers for a unit's Leadership: how badly a unit lost in close combat, whether they were outnumbered, whether the unit had a standard, whether they were charged in the flank or rear, etc. Similar tests to flee were required in other tense situations, such as having a friendly unit wiped out close by, getting charged in the flank when already engaged to the front, or being confronted by terrifying enemies charging straight at you. There were also Fear Tests provoked when fighting certain scary enemies like daemons or monsters - failure meant that the spooked unit fought with a pathetic Weapon Skill of 1 in that turn of combat.
** ''Tabletopgame/Warhammer40000'' has morale rules that have diverged from its counterpart over the years, such as Pinning Tests where units hit by things like sniper fire or mortar shells have to pass a Leadership test to avoid going to going to ground for a turn.
** Certain special units and characters in either game do not have to take these sort of Leadership tests, because they are either supernatural, unfeeling or just crazy: undead and daemons, crazed flagellants, death-seeking Dwarf Trollslayers, Khorne Berserkers, minions of the Tyranid Hive Mind, mindless Chaos Spawn, and so forth. Such troops are very valuable indeed, as they can be relied upon to fight to the last man, rather than turn tail and flee if the tide of battle goes against them. Certain brave and highly disciplined, but not suicidally crazy, troops instead have the "Stubborn" rule, which means they always test on their unmodified leadership, and so are much more likely to stick around against long odds.

* The ''VideoGame/TotalWar'' series implement Morale Mechanic for armies. One of the best ways to decimate a unit or entire army's morale is to kill its commander. If their morale drops enough, you'll start getting "[[MemeticMutation Awah men are running from the battlefield! Shamefur dispray!]]" (Line from ''VideoGame/TotalWarShogun2'')
** ''VideoGame/TotalWarAttila'' noticeably adds a new way for LosingTheTeamSpirit - breaking and burning down the settlement's buildings in a siege will erode its defenders' morale.
** ''VideoGame/TotalWarWarhammer'' has a unique morale mechanic for each faction. The Dwarfs never suffer civil wars inside their own borders due to racial UndyingLoyalty, but they note all the wrongs against them as [[ThisIsUnforgivable "Grudges"]] which have to be fulfilled otherwise the Dwarfholds begin to feel discontentment and shame, leading to decreased economic efficiency and diplomatic penalties with the minor Dwarfholds. The [[BloodKnight Greenskins]] have a "fightiness" meter which fills as armies enter battles and drains due to losing battles repeatedly or just inactivity; a full bar will give free units and hefty bonuses to existing units while an empty one will lead to attrition losses as the frustrated and fight-deprived Orcs begin turning on each other. The undead {{Mooks}} of the Vampire Counts are immune to morale damage and never run away from losing battles or units that cause Terror, but being in battle too far from a Hero will cause it to "crumble" as the magic bindings animating them begin to fall apart: Vampire Counts also have a strategic mechanic in the form of [[TheCorruption Vampire Corruption]]; high Corruption in an enemy living province causes armies of undead to spontaneously rise up, and low Corruption in Vampire-dominated provinces causes revolts as the surviving peasantry grow a spine and grab their TorchesAndPitchforks. Generally, the standard ''Total War'' morale mechanic stays, but this time killing [[AuthorityEqualsAsskicking the enemy commander]] [[OneManArmy is often easier said than done]].
* {{Web Game}}s ''Warfare 1917'' and ''Warfare 1944''. Both the player's and the opposing forces have a morale rating that can increase (by killing enemy troops or deploying an officer/tank) or decrease (when your own troops/tanks are killed). If either side's morale reaches zero it surrenders and the other side gets an immediate "morale victory".
* Morale in ''VideoGame/MountAndBlade'' affects how aggressively your army fights and reduces the chance of your troops deserting, and is decided by a number of factors, including your leadership skill, how many battles you've won, what types of food you give as rations, which companions you hire and whether or not you're at war with the faction a particular unit associates with.

* The "forced withdrawal" rules in ''TabletopGame/{{BattleTech}}'' act as this if used -- a unit that has been damaged sufficiently badly but is still mobile is forced to try to retreat to its side's designated "home edge" and [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin withdraw off the map]]. (An ''immobilized'' unit suffering the same fate will usually power down or otherwise indicate surrender under the same rules rather than try to fight to the bitter end.)
* Morale is a very important part of gameplay in ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}}'':
** Each model in the game has a Leadership value, ranging from 1 to 10 (with 7 being the average human leadership), and at the end of each round of close combat all units on the losing side have to take a "break test" against their Leadership on 2D6 (i.e. roll two dice and score equal to or under their Leadership value) or break and run away. Victorious units, provided they aren't still tied up with other enemy, can then pursue them (and wipe them out if they catch them). The break test is modified depending on how badly the unit lost, calculated on how many casualties it suffered and other factors, by imposing a penalty to Leadership equal to the difference between the winning and losing side's combat result scores. Similar tests to hold or flee are applied in certain other tense situations, such as having a friendly unit wiped out close by, getting charged in the flank when already engaged to the front, or being confronted by terrifying enemies charging straight at you.
** There is also the Fear Test, which is taken at the beginning of every combat round if engaged by fearsome enemies - failure reduces the unit's Weapon Skill characteristic to 1 for the turn.
** Certain special units and characters in the game do not have to take break or psychology tests, because they are either supernatural, unfeeling or somehow crazed. Of particular note here are all types of undead and daemons, crazed flagellants, death-seeking Dwarf Trollslayers and mindless Chaos Spawn. Such troops are very valuable indeed, as they can be relied upon to fight to the last man, rather than turn tail and flee if the tide of battle goes against them. Certain brave and highly disciplined, but not suicidally crazy, troops instead have the "Stubborn" rule, which means they always test on their unmodified leadership, and so are much more likely to stick around against long odds.
* ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'' has similar psychology and break rules to the original ''Warhammer'', though they have diverged slightly over the years.
* ''TabletopGames/KillDrLucky'' has Spite tokens, which represent the character's frustration at their failure to, well, kill Doctor Lucky. They add one to each weapon's score, and can be spent to stop an assassination attempt from succeeding.

* ''VideoGame/Cataclysm'' features a morale system, which measures how well your character is mentally holding up against the horrors of the zombie apocalypse. Events such as getting sick or killing [[UndeadChild zombie children]] lower it, while actions such as eating good food or listening to music increase it. A character with poor morale will fight more poorly, get a penalty to experience gain, and if morale gets low enough they will eventually refuse to craft or work on a vehicle. Conversely, a character with high morale will gain stat increases and will learn more quickly.
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* Subverted in ''RiseOfTheTriad''. One enemy unit type, when reduced to low hit points, would sometimes drop to their knees and beg for their lives. If you didn't kill them within a few seconds, they would collapse... then [[ISurrenderSuckers jump up when your back is turned and keep attacking]].

[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/samurai_warriors_4_ii_ps4_4_3.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:In the Samurai Warriors games, morale is indicated by a blue and red bar on the mini-map]]

* The ''VideoGame/DynastyWarriors'' and ''VideoGame/SamuraiWarriors'' series eats and breathes morale. Morale determines who wins the battles when you're not in the area, and can make enemies harder to fight against if they have a lot of it. You can reduce overall enemy morale and raise your own by killing troops, defeating important enemies, and activating (or preventing) certain scripted events. It's taken even farther in Samurai warriors, where individual troops have their own morale. Killing a troop's leader causes him to flee in fear. Defeating an officer has the potential of making everyone cower away.
** Several characters in the Samurai Warriors entries have the ability to manipulate the morale of either their own troops or the morale of the enemy through their own special skills.

* The ''VideoGame/DynastyWarriors'' and ''VideoGame/SamuraiWarriors'' series eats and breathes morale. Morale determines who wins the battles when you're not in the area, and can make enemies harder to fight if they have a lot of it. You can reduce overall enemy morale and raise your own by killing troops, defeating enemies, and activating (or preventing) certain events. It's taken even farther in Samurai warriors, where individual troops have their own morale. Killing a troops leader causes him to run off. Defeating an officer has the potential of making everyone run.

* ''Cosmic Star Heroine'' has a "Style" mechanic. If a party member's Style percentage is high enough, they will survive a fatal blow with their HP dropping into the negatives. This acts like a LastChanceHitPoint: that character will die in their next turn unless the player can finish the battle or recover their HP so that it's above zero.

Related to DespairEventHorizon and LosingTheTeamSpirit. Opposite of AttackAttackAttack. MookCommander may have a play on the troops' morale. This mechanic almost always leads to CowardlyMooks.

See also SanityMeter, which similarly simulates the game characters' fear of supernatural (as opposed to fear of simple death), and BreakMeter, which simulates the enemy's defenses wearing down (rather than their will to fight). For a moral mechanic, see KarmaMeter.

Related to DespairEventHorizon and LosingTheTeamSpirit. Opposite of AttackAttackAttack. MookCommander may have a play on the troops' morale. See also SanityMeter, which similarly simulates the game characters' fear of supernatural (as opposed to fear of simple death), and BreakMeter, which simulates the enemy's defenses wearing down (rather than their will to fight). For a moral mechanic, see KarmaMeter.

** ''{{Total War: Attila}}'' noticeably adds a new way for LosingTheTeamSpirit - breaking and burning down the settlement's buildings in a siege will erode its defenders' morale.

* The ''VideoGame/TotalWar'' series implement Morale Mechanic for armies. One of the best ways to decimate a unit or entire army's morale is to kill its commander. If their morale drops enough, you'll start getting "[[MemeticMutation Our troops are abandoning the battrefierd! Shamefur dispray!]]"

In games featuring tactical combat (particularly strategy games), players expects their units/characters to fulfill every order to the best of their capacity, e.g. by performing a heroic LastStand when ordered. Some games, however, feature an improved AI that starts to ignore player's (human or computer) orders when faced with overwhelming odds and instead attempts to flee or to yield.

* Avalon Hill's ''Squad Leader'' had extensive rules for handling unit morale: how and when troops broke and rallied.

** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIV'' had early on groups of three soldiers, two troops and a commander. If you defeated the troops, the commander[[note]]Who has no actual attack mechanics beyond ordering his troops to attack[[/note]] would flee. Strangely, the inverse does not happen.

* ''VideoGame/{{X-COM}}'':
** In the original, X-COM soldiers and aliens alike can end up in the Panicking state, where they will fire in a random direction and/or drop their gun and run away, as a result of casualties or psychic attack. The presence of a high-ranking officer can reduce morale loss from casualties, but an officer's death has a larger effect on morale.

Related to DespairEventHorizon and LosingTheTeamSpirit. Opposite of AttackAttackAttack. See also SanityMeter, which similarly simulates the game characters' fear of supernatural (as opposed to fear of simple death), and BreakMeter, which simulates the enemy's defenses wearing down (rather than their will to fight). For a moral mechanic, see KarmaMeter.

* In ''VideoGame/AgeOfWonders3'', units and cities have morale and happiness, respectively. Cities and happinesses are based on the terrain differing for different races, certain buildings and nodes, or empire happiness like recruiting heroes and winning battles. It is important to raise happiness in cities as high as possible as not only will the city not rebel against you but also will give you beneficial bonuses to you economy and may have festivals that give you additional resources. Unit and morale work based on the happiness of the city they were manufactured, the terrain they are in, the gold upkeep, alignment, etc. Like cities, raising morale is important as low morale will have a chance of the unit deserting and doing [[CriticalFailure reduced damage]] while high morale will have a chance of [[CriticalHit increasing damage]].