[Adamant Entertainment] Shock & Awe: Morale for All D20 Games

[GMSkarka]

[imagel]http://www.rpgnow.com/products/product_6111.jpg[/imagel]
Do you want characters to react to the emotional impact of battle? Do you want them to run when it would be a good idea for them to run, for a change? If so, welcome to Shock & Awe! This set of rules is about morale.

We’ve rebuilt morale from the ground up, adhering to the OGL system’s logic to make a rules set that’s easy to work with. Morale becomes a point system; stress depletes it and anything from flight to stirring speeches renews it. We call this ablative morale.

With this in force, characters need more than a weapon and a steady hand. They need the will to fight – and win.

Here’s what you get:

• What Is Ablative Morale? We answer this with rules for morale hit dice, attacks and damage.
  
• Morale Damage Types and Special Effects. Dread, terror, creature and energy types – not all morale damage means the same thing. This includes guidelines for morale-affecting spells and FX.
  
• New Feats and Optional Rules. This section includes new feats, talent tress and rules for propaganda campaigns and insanity. These guidelines let you connect the system to character creation and customize it for horror genre games. Unify combat morale with supernatural terror in one system!

Click on the cover image to be taken to the product info page.

ADM2016
$4.00 US


All Text Within This Product is 100% Open Content.

Requires the use of a Roleplaying Game Core Book published by Wizards of the Coast, Inc.®

d20 Modern®, Dungeons & Dragons ® and Wizards of the Coast ® are registered trademarks of Wizards of the Coast, Inc., and are used with permission. 'D20 System' and the 'd20 System' logo are trademarks of Wizards of the Coast, Inc. and are used according to the terms of the d20 System License. version 5.0. A copy of the license can be found at www.wizards.com/d20

 

[HalWhitewyrm]

This looks pretty interesting. It would really help to give bards some true umph by bringing in abilities that would otherwise be useless in d20 (like insults).

 

[eyebeams]

This looks pretty interesting. It would really help to give bards some true umph by bringing in abilities that would otherwise be useless in d20 (like insults).

Taunt and Intimidate do cause damage in the morale rules (and leadership heals), but the real kicker is in morale damage from spells. a Fear spell inflicts 1d6 morale/level (Will for half). Bardic abilities shield the party from these kinds of things. Losing all your morale can make you incompetent and/or insane, so this is a pretty big deal! In a game that uses Shock and Awe, the bard is a pretty important character, able to dish out and ward away morale damage.

Incidentally, I'll expand the book right here and now:

New Bard Ability: Inspired Rally

Each time a bard gains a class ability with the Inspire descriptor (such as Inspire Courage), he or she gains one rank of the Rally feat, with the following modifications:The bard uses the Perfom or the Diplomacy ability to heal morale points with Leadership, and the bard need not have the minimum requirements for the feat. This stacks with any Rally feats the character posesses, and allows the bard to use Perform with them, no matter how he or she acquired them.

 

[HalWhitewyrm]

Sold!

 

[The Black Kestrel]

How useful is this for someone who owns Tactical Implant?

 

[Roudi]

The required text state that the book requires the use of the D&D Core Books. But the inside cover says "Morale for all d20 games." Can Shock & Awe be used with d20 Modern? Or is it strictly intended for D&D and other fantasy d20 games?

 

[GMSkarka]

The required text state that the book requires the use of the D&D Core Books. But the inside cover says "Morale for all d20 games." Can Shock & Awe be used with d20 Modern? Or is it strictly intended for D&D and other fantasy d20 games?

It can be used with D20 Modern as well.

Publishers are not permitted to alter the legal text, and using both seemed silly to me, so I just went with one.

 

[GMSkarka]

How useful is this for someone who owns Tactical Implant?

It is expanded from the rules that appeared there.

To quote the text:

If you own Tactical Implant: The Definitive D20 Guide to Cyberpunk Combat, you own an early version of these rules. Shock and Awe significantly revises and expands upon that system. Do not mix and match the two rules sets.

 

[eyebeams]

It can be used with D20 Modern as well.

. . . and to expand on that, it features two new Modern-style talent trees for use with the system.

 

[Roudi]

Publishers are not permitted to alter the legal text, and using both seemed silly to me, so I just went with one.

There was always the "Requires a Core Roleplaying book" option.