I'm working on running an Ork based version of Rogue Trader but I'm not entirely happy with how ship morale works when applied to an Orkish ship.

I have a couple of ideas and I'm looking for people to let me know if I'm actually just over-reaching.

1) Orks are more resilient than humans so thankless toil and poor quality components do not cause morale penalties.

2) 100% is the highest morale can be. Components that have a positive morale effect can counter out components that cause negative morale effects but cannot boost morale over 100%

3) Orks get bored when they're not fighting. Every week spent doing something other than raiding/fighting/bombarding planets etc... reduces morale by one.

4) Warp travel is lethally interesting. Time spent in warp travel does not reduce morale.

5) Orks love to fight so engaging in combat actions restores morale to it's maximum level. Whatever happens during combat (crew losses etc...) affects morale normally and if the ship survives then morale stays at it's new level until the crew start getting bored.

The idea is that while my players are likely to be the kind of Orks that might be willing to talk to other people/trade/whatever they're going to have to contend with a ship full of Orks spoiling for a good fight. This means they're either going to have to perform a lot of morale restoring actions or they're going to have to be very aggressive and think very carefully about how long they spend repairing their ship and who they can afford not to attack.

I like it!

I guess Orks would have ship components designed to distract their crew and satisfy their need for speed and violence. Racetracks, fighting arenas, etc.

Also, the big, organized Waaghs! would be impossible unless the Bosses could kick some sort of discipline and morale into their armies. Perhaps the Kaptin could perform some sort of Intimidate tests (with accumulative penalties for long times with no fightin') to prevent morale loss?

Yes, part of the reason I wanted to these rules is to give a good reason to have non-weaponized components. I have ideas for fighting arenas (where the PCs can stage/partake in fights to increase morale... including fighting people with one arm tied behind their back), brewhouses (which increase morale and decrease crew effectiveness) Racetracks (organize races to increase morale) and Goffic rokk stages (where Rokk music is used to boost morale).

Standard extended actions that PCs can do to increase morale can be done by Orks too but as travelling in the warp doesn't reduce morale if you're just jumping from fight to fight in one extended Waaaagh! then you shouldn't have to worry about morale too much.

I'm also considering making the clans a factor. Something like Deathskulls don't lose morale for time spent looting and Bad Moons don't lose morale for time spent trading etc...