So I'm planning a campaign where the PCs are researchers

Maybe a general quality of life meeter? Start it at 5, the colonists aren't too happy, but things aren't too terrible either. Or start it right at 1, everything sucks, the the PCs need to fix that.

The higher it is, the more likely the other colonists will help them out. The lower it gets, the less likely they'd want to help, especially if they know its their fault things have gotten worse.

>>54950208
Not bad. It could cap out at 10, with the PCs rolling a d10, with the stat being the target number (roll under) to determine if they get help

>>54950661
Bit more mechanical than I'd do it, I'd probably just play it by general feel of the situation, keeping the number in mind, but if you want a more concrete way to determine how people should react, then yeah, that's a pretty good way to handle it, I like it.

And yeah, cap it at 10. Nice and simple.

>>54950777
Just realized I could use this to solve another problem I've been having and mechanically characterize the world at the same time. The whole point of the setting is that the colony isn't a nice place. I'll make the stat misery instead of happiness, and change any rolls I use it for to roll-over (which is more in line with vanilla Savage Worlds anyway). The thing I've been struggling with is how to incentive the players to be proactive, since they don't have a clear overarching goal and can't safely wander too far from the compound. Misery could increase by 1 every in-game day, giving the campaign a sense of creeping dread. Bad things happen if it reaches 10.

The reason I wanted to do this mechanically is that I want the colony itself to feel like a character. This is a way to give it "stats" the players can directly interact with. I think I'll mainly use misery to set a base number for charisma checks with other colonists (that can be adjusted up or down depending on difficulty), and as a morale stat in combat (the colonists can be called in to help fend off animal attackers, and their misery will collectively increase each time one of them is attacked until it maxes out and they break). Still a little gamey, I guess, but at least it's gamey with flavor.

>>54950997
Huh. Flipping the stat around, huh? It definitely does help add to the sense of dread. Maybe have a few in game goals where if they get really helpful colony projects completed, the amount of misery gained is lowered. So instead of one misery a day, it's one misery every two days. Something that encourages the players to not only seek ways to lower misery, but eventually slow down its increase.

>>54950023
There are couple of kingdom-managing RPGs that you might be able to steal some ideas from.