"Black Dougal gasps 'Poison!' and falls to the floor. He looks dead."

Monday, August 2, 2010

Does the monster flee or do all the monsters flee?

I have blogged about B/X Morale before but I wanted to check and see how people apply the morale check. Do you roll the dice once and apply it to all the monsters as a group or do you roll for each monster and apply the results individually?

For example, a group of six goblins check morale:

Do you roll once and determine if all of the goblins continue to fight or do they all flee?

OR

Do you roll morale six times and apply the result to each individual goblin?

16 comments:

  1. Back in the day I rolled and depending on the degree of success or failure I had anywhere from one or two to the entire group cut and run/surrender.

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  2. The ones most injured, in order of injury.

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  3. All or nothing. It's how I imagine big battles going. If the ranks break, everybody runs.

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  4. Both. In a group that is all one kind of creature, I roll once for the whole group. If there are bosses or other kinds of creatures, I roll for each group. So if a bugbear were leading a group of goblins, I would roll for the bugbear separately.

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  5. As with group initiative, I apply the morale roll to the entire group. As with everything B/X, common sense and DM rulings come into play when particularly powerful monsters or something special is involved.

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  6. Mostly as a group, but exceptional individuals might get their own roll.

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  7. I use the B/X Morale rules for OD&D and roll for the whole group unless there's some reason not to. It's just easier that way.

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  8. Anything less than the whole group is needlessly complicated, except in rare circumstances, in my opinion.

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  9. I have always done it individually. To be honest I've never even considered rolling once for the whole group.

    I also count running away as being incapacitated for the purposes of triggering another moral roll. If one goblin is defeated, and two run away, the remaining three roll a second moral check. The the multitude of dice hitting the table adds something to the moment of panic.

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  10. I roll for the group as well. There's somewhere in Chainmail a rule about rolling morale at the start of the fight, which I find not bad. Fleeing is the best way to avoid being wounded ;)

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  11. As a group, with exceptions for exceptional leader types or mixed groups.

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  12. Generally, I roll for the group. Sometimes if the group is large or there are unusual circumstances, I might roll to see what % break and run.

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  13. Surely some members of the group could respond to the situation one way and others another? That's why I roll for individuals (6 rolls is no problem).

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