D&D 5E Inspiration! How's It Working Out For You?

[edosan]

I like the idea of inspiration - the concept of giving a mechanical advantage for good role playing is at least a tacit admission that there have been innovations in RPGs in the last thirty years, so that’s nice.

The problem was always (like a lot of other mechanics in 5e) that it felt really half-baked. BIFTs weren’t really well thought out and felt poorly implemented. The rules didn’t give very good guidelines for handing out inspiration and that didn’t help.

IME, I forget to hand it out and players forget to use it, even when I give them tokens that are literally sitting in front of them to remind them. My next campaign starts next week and I’m debating either using the OneD&D rules (which unfortunately makes it purely mechanical w no role playing involved) or some variant of DM Scotty’s Luck Dice (which would have the benefit of being used more frequently).

 

[MarkB]

In tonight's session, we lost the party's paladin to a critical hit by a mummy lord and a failed save against the rot. As our comrade fell, the DM asked how we react to the loss.

The player of the ranger says his character has a big grin on his face.

View attachment 261002
BAM. Inspiration.

This is why I dislike the concept of BIFTs as something to trade in for a token. Sure, the player is following his traits, but it seems like a better way to express a big emotional moment for a character in that situation would be for this to be one of the few things that would wipe the smile off his face.

 

[Burnside]

I like it, but many of my players either forget they have it or hang on to it forever, convinced that some "perfect moment" to use it will someday arrive.

 

[Burnside]

We used them for about 10 seconds of the campaign I played in. I would much prefer if there were some actual interaction with the rule set and chargen. Background, lineage, class items that you could activate with inspiration. That would be much more interesting to me than get advantage on a roll. I'd even take it as an optional module just to inspire me to use inspiration.

LevelUp A5E has exactly this, and it's very well done.

 

[Oofta]

It's been my experience that metagame rewards for things like role playing are kind of detrimental, at least for me. RP should be it's own reward, satisfying simply for the interaction and the experience of helping to build a story. Granting inspiration takes people out of the moment by either interrupting the flow or having them always second guessing what's going to be rewarded instead of just getting into the moment.

There's a whole different topic here on reward and motivation though. Without going into details, if I enjoy going for a run, it can seem like having a calorie tracker app would just add to the experience. Not only can I get the enjoyment of a run, but I also see how many calories I burn. Win, win, right? Except that it's not. It changes the dynamic from going for a run because you enjoy it to going for a run because you're burning calories. The former is fun in and of itself, it's an intrinsic reward. The latter makes it work and a task that has to be completed, they're extrinsic rewards. Extrinsic rewards don't change internal motivation and cease to have value if no longer rewarded.

But it's a complex topic. If it works for you, great. It's just not something I find useful.

 

[iserith]

This is why I dislike the concept of BIFTs as something to trade in for a token. Sure, the player is following his traits, but it seems like a better way to express a big emotional moment for a character in that situation would be for this to be one of the few things that would wipe the smile off his face.

That wouldn't be as funny though.

 

[Umbran]

I tried it and didn’t like how much it felt like giving cookies out to players for being good little RPers.

While that’s definitely snarky, I hate using the mechanic and have been happy in being able to ignore it. I will be disappointed if they settle on baking it into mechanics more deeply such that it can’t be ignored.

Well, when they earn it on a natural 20, you probably don't have to worry about "giving cookies", because you, the GM, no longer need to make that choice - the process of play will generate Inspiration.

 

[LordEntrails]

Have been using and enjoying them for years. The one house rule we do is at the end of each session, the players get to assign/vote for one character to get a point of inspiration. And each character can have a max of 3 points.

 

[SakanaSensei]

Well, when they earn it on a natural 20, you probably don't have to worry about "giving cookies", because you, the GM, no longer need to make that choice - the process of play will generate Inspiration.

That does alleviate that particular issue. I still don’t see a reason the mechanic needs to exist.

 

[Umbran]

That does alleviate that particular issue. I still don’t see a reason the mechanic needs to exist.

No mechanic needs to exist. Folks can play fantasy cops-and-robbers easily enough.