I was speaking to my friend just now about the morale/mood system, and while we both agree that it’s pretty good, that there seemed like there was something missing from it.
It’s really his suggestion, but;
There should be bonuses and penalties to morale/mood based on location. For example, you’d probably be happier reading a book from a bed or near a warm fire in your chosen shelter than you would be while creeping around in the sewers or subways. Not a huge effect (unless you’re in a hugely unsettling location) but enough to provide some context to the environment your character is in.
Proximity to things like corpses and rotten meat should probably provide a penalty, because it would probably be a lot harder to Focus with a stinking corpse hanging out in your living room.
This will have a few effects; Incentive to light your shelter up for the morale/focus boost, incentive to keep rotting materials out of the kitchen, and in general to keep a somewhat liveable environment for where you, uhm, live. A ‘home’ would probably be a bit cozier than a car you live out of, rather than having living out of a vehicle be the all-around more practical option. (There shouldn’t be a penalty for vehicular living, however, of course. Unless you park your car in a crater.)
Additionally, this gives excuses to add a lot of new traits.
Light sensitive should additionally decrease the penalties for darkness and;
Nocturnal, for example, could be a mutation trait that follows Very Light Sensitive that provides morale boosts instead, in darkness.
Morbid starting trait could make you not mind death and decay or even provide a bonus for hanging out near things like your bone stockpiles. "I decorated my Morbid character’s house for the morale bonuses!"
Nyctophobia heavy negative starting trait that makes your character increasingly stressed in darker places unless they have a light source. (Actually, a lot of phobias become possible with this, I think.)
Weak Constitution could cause nausea in the presence of rotting flesh, perhaps additionally cause morale loss from butchering. Of course there should then be;
Strong Constitution (if there’s a penalty for gross things/environments by default) to make your character less disgusted by wading through sewage and goo pits and rotting things.
Animal Lover could give you bonuses for having dogs or cats around. Possibly (mild) guilt for killing non-aggressive normal animals.
Hardened, awarded for accumulating a certain amount of experience and/or days survived. You’re becoming numbed to the horrors of the post apocalyptic world and many things don’t upset you as much any more.
I think the biggest benefit from a system like this however is the narrative, contextual depth it adds about both your character’s personality and mental state, and the environment your character is in.
It’s easier to imagine a cozy fire-warmed house in the winter if your character’s also feeling happy because he’s near a warm fire, in a closed environment, with adequate lighting and possibly even new, decorative items placed around. No overlapping or doubling of bonuses for just having a ton of decorative items clustered around your reading spot, though. It’s supposed to increase ambience, not be a powerup, after all.
Perhaps +10 for having a ‘quite nice environment’, whatever that ends up being, is a reasonable boost, since being wet is more than twice that in penalty
Edit: This is just me, personally, but I would feel at least a LITTLE guilty if I meticulously flayed the meat off of the bones of even a dead-living-dead-human. Butchering 30 zombies in a row seems to be a neater and more elegant solution than it should be, and I think there should be some morale penalties unless you’re a cannibal, with lessened penalties if you’re Hardened and/or have a Strong Constitution.
