Morale

Morale is a measure of a Characters mental health and reserves. A character with high Morale is a happy, contributing member of the crew. A character with low Morale is unhappy and angry, considering abandoning ship or worse.

A character's max Morale is equal to the following equation. Regardless of the character's attributes, the absolute minimum Morale is 100."Morale = 100 OR ((Resilience x 3.5) + (Wisdom x 2)) whichever is larger."

What causes Low Morale
Crew get unhappy for a variety of reasons. Being injured, being unpaid, being understaffed, watching their crew mates die in ship combat, encountering Xeno, losing faith in the captain or being on board a badly damaged ship can all cause crew to lose morale. And even if everything is going perfectly well, your crew will still need shore leave for entertainment when visiting planets. Some crew have particular Traits which cause them to lose morale under certain circumstances - for instance when landing on a planet with a gravity field.

Recovering Morale
Characters can recover Morale through a number of different activities based on their Traits and Jobs. The two direct ways a captain can raise the Morale of his crew is to pay their wages, and to to give them shore leave to visit the Spice Hall for entertainment and relaxation. This requires visiting the Spice Districts, which are not available in Wildernesses, nor other places where the Spice Rating is less than 3. The higher the Spice Rating, the more morale will be recovered, but Spice and Entertainment in the Hall cannot raise crew Morale above 80, regardless of a zone's Spice Rating. Furthermore, should you visit a zone owned by a Faction with whom you have a reputation of -45 or lower, you will be denied access to their Spice Districts.

Some characters will gain morale just by going through their normal activities, based on a their Traits. For instance, some adventurous crew love to Explore while other assertive sorts love the discipline from valiantly Patrol in defense of a world. Other Traits affect how often a character can recover Morale in any circumstances or place limits on maximum and minimum Morale, such as Driven (never goes below 50 Morale) and Ill-Tempered (never goes above 80 Morale).

Some Jobs provide Talents which can be used to raise the morale of crew.

Low Morale Consequences
Any character (captain included) whose morale drops below 26 stops contributing to the ship's Skill Pools.

Any character (captain excluded) whose morale drops below 26 is ready to join in a Mutiny.

During crew combat, if a character drops below 40 Morale, they have a chance to skip their turns in a Morale Break.

Non-Officer Crew whose morale drops below 36 have a chance to desert the ship on landing in an Urban Zone