Under the shipwreck info of Smuggler's Shiv it states:
Events during play can adjust each
castaway’s morale in one direction or another
Does this only refer to the npc quests? After reading that first and then reading through the rest of the adventure, I guess I was expecting separate events that could affect the morale of multiple npcs, like rats get into the food supplies = next day's morale has a -4 penalty or ship sited off the coast, next morale has a +2 bonus, etc. Or if an npc dies, all remaining npc's morale shifts down one stage.
I might add something like this myself, but did I miss anything else about morale in the adventure?
I do not think there are any more “given”/scripted events. But as you say “sandboxy” elements of the adventure it is quite likely that the NPCs will have to adjust to both negative and positive elements as the story unfolds.
Failure to properly supply food, or succumbing to disease (for the individuals who do, and for the group as a whole). The PCs leaving the NPCs alone for a length of time while they are in no position to fend for themselves. Injury, either for the NPCs themselves or even more so of their protectors the PCs might further reduce morale and so on.
Likewise positive events, such as fending of invasions of the camp, finding treasure, making a plan for escaping to the mainland and partial accomplishments tied with this will increase their confidence and morale.
For my group the “morale” and the “attitude” system was adjusted somewhat. The morale system is more based around events and the performance of the PCs instead of the die rolls. I also make the starting attitude all the NPCs start at “Indifferent” rather than Unfriendly – in the belief that all of them, though stressed, are smart enough (if not at once, at least after the first day) to understand that they must work together and feel motivated (if only due to self-interest) to cooperate. Should any betrayal or such happen though they are more than likely to be bumped down a “notch” and end up splitting the camp.
This generally comes from my group being more interested exploring the island and the plot then “babysitting” the NPC castaways. I have thus elected to make them more of a pure fluff/roleplaying event, used for fun roleplaying, to divulge information, provide some aid and the notion of a “home camp” rather than playing heavily on the notion of them needing to be taken care of and the importance of die rolls to affect their attitude and morale.