D&D 5E Inspiration: House rule improvements?

[UselessTriviaMan]

I don't know about you, but I was unsatisfied with the RAW Inspiration. Specifically, I didn't like the only-one-inspiration-at-a-time; having played (and enjoyed) Savage Worlds, I much prefer its Bennie mechanic where you have a pool of spendable points.

I "borrowed" a concept from other GMs who have successfully used a homebrew Hero Point system to enhance the game at their table, and we've had a lot of success with it thus far in my home campaign.

How to earn Hero Points:

Once points have been acquired, they may be used in one of three ways.

Round Abilities: First, they may be used once per combat round to gain a short term benefit lasting the duration of that round. Each Round Ability uses up 1 hero point. You may use only one of these abilities per round, however you may choose to double the numeric effect of any given ability by using an additional 2 hero points. Points “used” in this way are not permanently lost but refresh at the start of the next game session.
Encounter Abilities: Second, hero points may be used once per combat encounter to gain an immediate short term benefit. Each Encounter Ability uses up 2 hero points. While you may only “use” hero points to gain Encounter Abilities once per encounter, you may also choose to “burn” hero points to gain additional Encounter Abilities. Each additional Encounter Ability gained in this way burns 1 hero point. Points “burned” in this way are permanently lost.
Permanent Abilities: Finally, hero points may be burned either during a game session, or out of session, to gain some permanent benefit. The burn cost of these abilities varies, but regardless of cost, no single ability may be purchased more than twice by the same character.

My players go through their weekly Hero Points like kids with Halloween candy. It's been working great for us, and it's been a fantastic incentive to get my player to be much more active between sessions. (Positive reinforcement 'n all that jazz!)

Does anyone else use alternative homebrew rules for Inspiration?

 

[Ath-kethin]

I don't use anything as robust as your reworking. In an AL game I played for a while (and I'm actually not sure if this is a general AL rule or particularly to the table I joined), the DM gave each player/character one inspiration point each session, use it or lose it. Since I poached my group from that game, we kept up the tradition.

That's all I have.

 

[Jubles]

I like your system and if I was a player in my own game I'd probably like it. I think it's probably more than my players want to track and keep up with.


The only homebrew difference in my inspiration is I will very occasionally give a "super special DM double inspiration" when something unusual or very cool happens. I also use it to bribe my players. We had a session where there were big decisions to be made and I wanted them to talk it out in character. I offered a point of double inspiration to the entire table if they could go five full minutes speaking in-character only. It worked, and it was definitely worth giving them the extra treat. One time I gave double inspiration to the -1 dex cleric for getting first in the initiative order in a party full of dex classes. Another time to the utility bard for getting both killing blows on a deadly combat, one of which was achieved with vicious mockery.

When I offer double inspiration the caveat is that it must be used that session or it goes away. I'd estimate 2/3s of the double-inspiration points get forgotten and go unused but the players always feel good when they earn it.


For regular inspiration I often give the whole table a point at the start of the session since I usually forget to hand them out during play.

 

[Geeknamese]

Myself, when I run my games, I love shared narrative and being able to improvise on the fly. I love when my PCs do something unexpected that allows us all to improvise affect the world sandbox style. To accommodate this, in addition to the standard reroll from the rules, I also allow them to use their Inspiration point to take control of the narrative to be creative in some way which then allows me to improvise on the shenanigans.

For example, let's say the PCs get screw up and get caught by a tribe of orcs and they're currently caged up while the tribe is celebrating their victory. The PC can use their Inspiration point to let's say ask to be allowed to make an Int (History) check because they remember hearing that today out of all days is the Blood Feast celebrating the beginning of the new raiding season and that during this feast, anyone can challenge the Chieftain in single Combat for control of the tribe. If they make the check, bam! That piece of knowledge is true and they can attempt to offer up their champion to challenge the chieftain to single combat. Chieftain may oppose it because the PCs aren't orcs but perhaps someone persuasive in the group can make the chieftain look bad for fearing the challenge. Or something along those lines. Or perhaps they spend the Inspiration point to add to the narrative that the cage isn't metal but wood, and now the wizard is going to try and blast their way out of there or the group will try to break out of the cage.

I much prefer creative uses of Inspiration to some mechanical benefit.


Sent from my iPhone using EN World mobile app

 

[The Crimson Binome]

I'm not sure that I like the idea of quantifying exactly how inspired someone is. It makes sense that you can only be inspired or not-inspired, in a world where circumstances can only be favorable or unfavorable.

But you're calling these Hero Points rather than Inspiration Points, so it calls into question exactly what they're supposed to represent in the first place.

 

[phantomK9]

I have borrowed the Conviction Points system from True20.

- Each player starts the session with a number of Inspiration Points (I hand out poker chips) equal to the character's Proficiency Bonus (i.e. 2 from 1st - 4th, 3 from 5th - 10th, etc).

- Players get Inspiration Points by playing to their character personality traits, those thing they generated from the Background. Usually when it inconveniences them.

- Players can spend Inspiration points to re-roll the die. If if it below 11 then they add +10 to the result, so that it is always a result of 11 to 20 (rolling a 10 and adding 10 does not result in a Natural 20).

 

[Sadras]

I'm not sure that I like the idea of quantifying exactly how inspired someone is. It makes sense that you can only be inspired or not-inspired, in a world where circumstances can only be favorable or unfavorable.

But you're calling these Hero Points rather than Inspiration Points, so it calls into question exactly what they're supposed to represent in the first place.

100% agree with.

@UselessTriviaMan If you want ideas on Inspiration rather search through the AngryDM's site for his post on Inspiration. He incorporates Personalities Bonds, Flaws etc into it integrating the two rather well.

As for your other idea I use something different for that, but we have similarities. Experience Points relate to the character, while Plot Points relate to the player.

Plot points are earned for being punctual (1 point), writing up an obsidian portal wiki post (4 points), hosting (2 point), catering (3 points), creating tokens..etc (2 point) or maintaining ones character sheet (3 points).
Plot points are lost at a rate of 1 for every 5 minutes one is late for a session.

Plot points may be used on PCs and NPCs - for Plot Armour [1] (damage prevention 1 point = 2 damage prevented), Add Plot Element [5] (advantage/disadvantage, temporarily ignore wound penalty, temporarily ignore environmental affect), the Plot Thickens [11] (add minor detail to story, upgrade miss to a hit or hit to critical, downgrade critical to hit or hit to miss), A Plot within a Plot [15 points] (add major detail to story).

Unused Plot Points at the end of a session may be traded in for XP (1 Plot Point = 250XP). We use different XP tables, slower rate of leveling.

 

[UselessTriviaMan]

100% agree with.

@UselessTriviaMan If you want ideas on Inspiration rather search through the AngryDM's site for his post on Inspiration. He incorporates Personalities Bonds, Flaws etc into it integrating the two rather well.

As for your other idea I use something different for that, but we have similarities. Experience Points relate to the character, while Plot Points relate to the player.

Plot points are earned for being punctual (1 point), writing up an obsidian portal wiki post (4 points), hosting (2 point), catering (3 points), creating tokens..etc (2 point) or maintaining ones character sheet (3 points).
Plot points are lost at a rate of 1 for every 5 minutes one is late for a session.

Plot points may be used on PCs and NPCs - for Plot Armour [1] (damage prevention 1 point = 2 damage prevented), Add Plot Element [5] (advantage/disadvantage, temporarily ignore wound penalty, temporarily ignore environmental affect), the Plot Thickens [11] (add minor detail to story, upgrade miss to a hit or hit to critical, downgrade critical to hit or hit to miss), A Plot within a Plot [15 points] (add major detail to story).

Unused Plot Points at the end of a session may be traded in for XP (1 Plot Point = 250XP). We use different XP tables, slower rate of leveling.

When deeds of true heroism are called for and nothing short of a cinematic performance will do, it is time to draw upon hero points. What are hero points? In short, they are acquired points that your PC can spend for a variety of purposes to gain abilities that affect game play. Some of these effects are temporary in duration, such as Round and Encounter Abilities, while other abilities are Permanent in effect.

I want my players to be active participants in our campaign site. I also want to encourage them to perform Heroic Deeds. Hero Points are a way to do both. We use poker chips to track Hero Points at the table (the same as [MENTION=6790724]phantomK9[/MENTION]), and these have been a smashing success for us. The players are more willing to take dramatic risks in-game, and I'm very proud to say they are doing a spectacular job of participating in the campaign site. It's a win/win.

I already have more than enough exposure to The Angry DM, and though he does sometimes have good points, I really dislike his "angry" schtick. Different strokes.

I disagree with penalizing players by deducting points for being late to the game session. That strikes me as being excessively and unnecessarily draconic.

 

[Sadras]

I want my players to be active participants in our campaign site.

As DM who wants player participation I can totally understand and empathise - we too use a campaign site.

I also want to encourage them to perform Heroic Deeds. Hero Points are a way to do both.

Fair enough, but what if they die in the process of performing these Heroic Deeds in an effort to accumulate your Hero Points?

We use poker chips to track Hero Points at the table (the same as @phantomK9), and these have been a smashing success for us.

I find those work very well, we have also used playing cards on occasion.

I already have more than enough exposure to The Angry DM, and though he does sometimes have good points, I really dislike his "angry" schtick. Different strokes.

Sure. I don't follow him, so I cannot comment on his articles, but the inspiration mechanic/ideas he proposes does have some merit.

I disagree with penalizing players by deducting points for being late to the game session. That strikes me as being excessively and unnecessarily draconic.

It is meant to be, to ensure abusers of everyone's time are penalised. I could go into the details but I don't feel I need to. Where there is no consequence advantage may be taken and in my experience it has. Since Plot Points are something extra I do not mind penalising PCs something they would have otherwise not had anyways. I prefer this system than the table being frustrated with certain individuals.

 

[keratacon]

My house rule is simple:

Each player has one point of inspiration per session, which they can grant to another player for good RP, clever play, or abiding by a flaw. The DM has veto power, but in general defers to the players. Players have an incentive to see that the party gets bonuses, while the DM is busy with many things and also isn't quite so invested in handing out bonuses (at least he isn't at our table). This unburdens the DM a bit and makes inspiration a more regular part of the game.