Party Morale

obviously use with this - average starting ship would have like 40 odd crew?
Use the same 2-12 morale scale we're all used to.
This becomes the individual morale of any given hireling, as modified for fanatics (+2) and the sane/cowards(-2).  9 is a good base.

Morale	Effect
2	Party Dissolves
3-4	-2 Fear checks
5-6	-1 Fear checks
7-8	None
9	None
10-11	None
12	+1 Fear checks

Fear checks is used generally for anything morale-related which is not directly related to the actual morale value. These also apply to PCs, if you wish.
Party dissolves is the failure-state, will all NPCs leaving or attempting a mutiny.

Stuff that happens, naturally, will change morale.

Whenever a condition below is met, test morale.(And like, whenever seems appropriate to you.)
(If on 12 Morale, roll once - if a 12 is rolled, roll again. On a 8+ this is a failure.)

Factor	Penalty
Death of Hireling	-2
Death of PC	-3
Lost for 2 days*	-1
No Food	-3
No Water	-4
Forced March	-1
Disease	-2
Ambushed	-3
Retreated	-2
Bad Weather for 3 days	-1
Extreme Weather for 2 days	-2
Perceived Betrayal	-5
Iron Rations	-1

*So, test morale for every 2 days you spend lost. Just spending 1 day lost is acceptable. Same for other time-related entries above.

Some things that will increase morale if they are true for a certain length of time:

Factor	Bonus	Minimum length of time
Hot food*	+1	3 nights
Good food**	+1	3 nights
Victory in Battle	+2	instant
Objective in Sight	+2	instant
Journey Home	+2	throughout
Rousing Speech	+1	once-off per journey
Alcohol***   Provided	+2	3 nights
“Shore-Leave” in “civilization”	+4	takes 2 nights per 10 members of party

*The issue with hot food is it needs cooking, meaning fire. If done at night/during the evening, increase the number of encounter checks, and any group following the expedition automatically succeed.

**The issue with good food is it is either expensive (5x normal rations) or perishable (50% of Good food rots each week). Normal rations can be made ood using fire and spices, but spices are also expensive - 3x value of ration amount to be spiced for the cheapest spices. [this also makes spices treasure which - hey cool]

***Or whatever culturally appropriate substance.