Settlement morale check (GLoGtober 5 '24)

Taking on Glass Candles GLoGtober '24, challenge #2 is from a list by Phlox - "A procedure relating to a city."

Maybe useful as a mechanism to implement 'things fall apart' adventures like "Recruiters" from Well of Worlds or other siege or high tension situations.

You could use this with or linked to a chaos index or other kind of doom clock.

Proceedure
- roll morale check for the settlement
- apply any adjustments due to events
- apply consequences of morale check result

Intention is that people should be able to feel if the city is on edge and know if they spend their time causing chaos or calming things down will it likely achieve the desired effect

Initial morale score for a settlement should tie to scale - it is hard to shift the attitude of a big metropolis but easier to do it for a thorp.

Settlement	Pop	Morale
Thorp	50	5
Hamlet	240	6
Village	650	7
Small town	1450	8
Large town	3500	9
Small city	8500	10
Large city	18500	11
Metropolis	25000	12

Target is roll under on 2d6 - a little Thorp without anything to reassure it is going to be very jittery.

High morale just means cohesive, tending towards 'business as usual' - it does not mean nice, noble, or any other positive connotation.

Stuff getting weird imposes a morale check, nothing notable happens recently? No morale check. Sleepy thorp remains sleepy.

Where a settlement fails its morale check, cohesiveness breaks down temporarily, there may be panic, riots, looting and whatever response from authorities those warrant. Anything that requires processes or trade becomes hard as things shut and people are busy tending to their own affairs. Anything that prospers in chaos like heists, revolution or the like will go more easily.

Things that move the needle for a morale check at a settlement:

You get -1 to the roll for:
- Grand speeches or other crowd-interactions that were seen at least 10% of the population
- Nearby threats defeated of HD = 10% of population
- Recovery of treasure nearby equal to 100gp per population
- Arrival or emergence of popular public figure

You get +1 to the roll for:
- Sightings of threats of HD = 10% of population
- Death within the settlement of 5% of population
- Great magical workings, without clear benevolent intent
- Unexpected death of significant public figure (popular or notorious)
- Significant damage (e.g. fire)

You need to do a lot to shake a metropolis into chaos, conversely small settlements hang together only because nothing is threatening them - likely they will pack up and head for the hills if anything scary comes their way.