How often do you use the Inspiration rules?

I don't always give inspiration. But when I do, I play this:

If inspiration is forgotten about, then only pulled out when it is really important, then it just feels like a Deus Ex Machina by DM fiat.

Inspiration just does not come up naturally in our games. Nobody likes self-promotion in their RP, the DM has enough going on already, and it feels like it is just gaming the system if you do remember it and milk it. People only think of it when they are about to fail that leap across a deep spiked pit. They if the DM likes your RP and character you might live, if they don't you die. As both a DM and player, I don't like being put in that position.

ParanoydStyle said:

How often do you use Inspiration in your D&D 5E game? I tried to make this a poll but I did not see the option. Anyway, literally never? Once every few sessions? At least once a session? Or do you reference characters' traits, ideals, and bonds about as often as you reference the combat rules? And is it always awarded by the DM or are players encouraged to remind the DM to give it out when the DM may be forgetting?

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Inspiration gets used literally every session in my game- either awarded or spent.

The easiest way to get inspiration in my campaign is to roleplay your character in a way that is true to it while also being bad for you or the group. For example, if your pc is compulsively honest and you blurt out the truth when it screws up your goals, such as confessing that the party burned down the tavern to the city watch, you are almost certainly getting inspiration awarded. I care less about what the ideal, bond, and flaw written on your sheet are and more about how consistent your roleplaying is.

I also give inspiration to players who lubricate the game, i.e. make it easier for play to happen. For instance, if one player has a ride issue and someone else makes sure they make it to the game, I might award inspiration to the person who steps up to help out, especially if it's not convenient to pick up the guy with the ride issue. Or if we need pens for the battlemat and someone picks them up for me, that's lubricating the game.

Another thing I award inspiration for is props. If a player provides his or her own mini, or brings some kind of other prop for the game, I will probably give inspiration for it.

There are also certain other things I do that interact with inspiration. Several magic items let you spend inspiration for something other than advantage; my stronghold rules (not the same as Matt Colville's, ftr) include "If you sleep the night in your stronghold, you gain inspiration when you wake up"; etc.

We usually forget about inspiration. Tried adding in a yellow d20 as the inspiration die and we did make use of them for a while, we have since lost them though and so haven't really remembered that inspiration was a thing.

ParanoydStyle said:

If we're discussing a table full of randos at a convention, having that stuff memorized totally isn't part of your job as a DM. In a long term campaign with consistent players? I'd argue that memorizing at least one important ideal/bond/flaw for each of your PCs IS part of your job as a DM.

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Guess I'm a bad DM OTOH it's not a 'job', I don't get paid to do it. I only do what I enjoy doing, or at least find satisfying - getting those Beastmen minis painted up for my Primeval Thule game was a lot of work, but the results were worth it. Memorising the Traits/Bonds/Flaws of dozens* of PCs does not
grab me.

*I run four 5e campaign groups currently, two in the same world. Average 6 PCs per group, with two open table groups that have a lot of turnover.

Inspiration rarely ever comes up in my 5E games.

I have players with characters which have had Inspiration for almost a year or so and have never used it.

Personally, I find it too arbitrary to award Inspiration. As S'mon mentioned, I don't even really know what my players' characters' traits are, and I have too much to focus on as a DM to constantly look out for their application.

So, I tried to put it in the players' hands. They can award someone Inspiration if they do something cool. But they often don't anyway. Honestly, I find the game works fine with out it, so its no big deal... I don't worry about it.

guachi said:

I don't think it's my job as DM to tell you if you're playing your character well or not. Are you playing the character or am I?

While it's useful for a DM to know a PC's traits I'd rather leave the ultimate decision to the player. In fact, I think everyone at the table should know the other PCs' traits so we can play to them or suggest when we think they've been played well. But I'd rather leave the ultimate decision up to the player.

It isn't just that DMs repeatedly forget to grant Inspiration it's that I don't think it's my job to play your PC for you. I've already got everyone else in the game world to run.

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This is my main issue with it. As a DM I don't want to tell players how to play their characters beyond the parameters agreed upon during session zero. As a player, I don't like feeling that there is a right way to play my character in order to get DM rewards.

I do, however, think that a DM should be aware of PC backgrounds, ideals, bonds, and flaws. The best reason for this, and the best way for a DM to show he cares, is customizing campaigns and adventures around the character's traits and backgrounds. But it is up to the players to decide how these will manifest or be revealed at the table and they should be able to do so without having to consider mechanical rewards.

guachi said:

LOL. This is the kind of reply that should get someone a ban or at least a time out. Especially since you didn't even bother to give any reasons why.

It's uncalled for and not worthy of respect.

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That's fine. If you believe what I wrote is ban-worthy, then you have a report button available at your disposal. This is not my first conversation with iserith regarding inspiration, and I don't particularly enjoy being accosted with him self-promoting his brand of inspiration. I was not going to buy what he was selling then, and I'm certainly not buying it now.

ParanoydStyle said:

How often do you use Inspiration in your D&D 5E game?

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Never.

The main reason however is the mere fact that in our current family game we're not using traits/ideals/bonds/flaws, and in turn the reason for that is not wanting to introduce all parts of the game system at once to the children, so that they can learn one aspect of the game at a time. In addition, I wanted them to roleplay freely and then figure out how to represent their PC's characteristics using the T/I/B/F system, but we haven't gotten there yet.

Still, I am not sure we will use the Inspiration rules even after we start using the T/I/B/F. There are a few things I don't like much about Inspiration (or should I dare say... I am not inspired to use Inspiration? ), but this might be because of how I've seen it used, and since the rules are quite loosely defined, then I might just not have been lucky to see it used well.

Certainly, one thing I don't like is how typically Inspiration is gained once and used later, it's just too gamist for me. If we eventually use Inspiration, I will require that it is used soon, by which I don't mean immediately but at least I want it used in the same scene. I don't want someone to gain inspiration in a social situation in the morning and use it for saving against a trap in the evening. I want instead to keep a clear narrative connection between gaining and using it: if you get inspired while negotiating with the local lord, you earn the benefit for the negotiation itself. [Note: I don't think it is clear at all how long you can wait until using inspiration... the rules don't set any limit, but the examples make it sound like it makes sense to use it immediately, but then again the bits about not stacking multiple inspirations kind of implies you can wait]

I also don't really get the point of passing Inspiration to another player. That just doesn't make sense to me. If the other PC does something great that deserves gaining inspiration, she should gain it without someone else giving up their own, otherwise she should not gain it.

Finally, I also wish that the benefit was something more exciting than advantage. It is certainly useful, and the RAW doesn't exactly specify if you can't first make a roll and then decide to use inspiration if you rolled poorly, meaning you don't easily waste the benefit. But perhaps I would like a more exciting boost, such as regaining the use of an expended daily special ability, or gaining a second bonus action or reaction for the round.

Li Shenron said:

Certainly, one thing I don't like is how typically Inspiration is gained once and used later, it's just too gamist for me. If we eventually use Inspiration, I will require that it is used soon, by which I don't mean immediately but at least I want it used in the same scene. I don't want someone to gain inspiration in a social situation in the morning and use it for saving against a trap in the evening. I want instead to keep a clear narrative connection between gaining and using it: if you get inspired while negotiating with the local lord, you earn the benefit for the negotiation itself. [Note: I don't think it is clear at all how long you can wait until using inspiration... the rules don't set any limit, but the examples make it sound like it makes sense to use it immediately, but then again the bits about not stacking multiple inspirations kind of implies you can wait]

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It's not gamist - haven't you, yourself, ever thought back to an incident in the past and used it as motivation to achieve something in the present? It's a perfectly understandable concept and in fact simulates real life!