D&D 5E Taking Advantage & Inspiration

[Reynard]

I quibble with the premise that advantage doesn't come up very often. It isn't that hard to get if the PCs want it, usually through the Help action (in addition to a bunch of spells and class abilities). But it has a cost and a lot of times a slightly higher chance to hit and an even slightlier higher chance to crit isn't worth the lost action, etc.

 

[Umbran]

Does Inspiration go unnoticed in your games because there's not enough Disadvantage?

No. It usually goes unnoticed because it isn't very visible on the sheet. Folks just forget the option exists, because at best it is applied only rarely.

I expect it gets unnoticed at many tables because it is one more thing for the GM to keep in mind. If the GM doesn't give it out, the PCs don't have it, so they can't use it.

I usually fix this by administering Inspiration a little differently. The party has a pool. The Inspiration Pool's size max = number of characters in play. All points earned go into the pool. Anyone can draw from it with party approval. It is represented on the physical table by a stack or dish of counters, so they are seen.

 

[bedir than]

No. It usually goes unnoticed because it isn't very visible on the sheet. Folks just forget the option exists, because at best it is applied only rarely.

I expect it gets unnoticed at many tables because it is one more thing for the GM to keep in mind. If the GM doesn't give it out, the PCs don't have it, so they can't use it.

I usually fix this by administering Inspiration a little differently. The party has a pool. The Inspiration Pool's size max = number of characters in play. All points earned go into the pool. Anyone can draw from it with party approval. It is represented on the physical table by a stack or dish of counters, so they are seen.

Physical representation of Inspiration really helped my table. I have a collection of d20s in the same color to handout.

Every time they grab their dice they see the opportunity. Every time someone with it rolls the whole group knows

 

[GMMichael]

Disadvantage comes up a lot in our games due to frightened and poisioned conditions.

Advantage comes up some, usually due to being hidden or invisibile. Also steady aim gets used quite a bit, although that is a class ability.

Do the players use their Inspiration to offset the Disadvantage? I'm glad your combats are less vanilla than what I've seen. With the quantity of modifiers they're supposed to replace, I expect ad/dis to be present in almost every encounter.

Inspiration doesn’t come up in my games because it feels too meta in a way I don’t enjoy. Laughing at a joke, getting excited for a big crit, feeling loss in a tender moment, appreciating the complications that come from a player purposefully playing suboptimally to fit their character, those are all able to be done without adding on a “here’s a cookie” disconnected element.

Jokes, crits, tender moments: self-rewarding. Complications from playing suboptimally: that's just masochism. Toss out some Inspiration. Is it meta? Yes and no. It's a game rule that gives higher check results - that's meta. But it also reflects a PC's ability to focus and commit, which is not meta at all.

Inspiration in 5e has two strikes against it: PCs don't know when they'll get it back (so it's scarce), and they can have only one (even more scarce). WotC seems to be addressing one of these problems so far.