D&D 5E Desperation

[AnotherGuy]

I've never been a fan of the recovery methods regarding Inspiration. Any interesting online ideas we borrowed for Inspiration did not work or stick at our table. The 5.5e mechanic of refreshing your Inspiration after scoring a natural 20 seems gimmicky to me so I'm just gonna nix that idea straight off the bat. I will still likely use the Inspiration idea - handing it out in creative ways, perhaps as a rather uncommon/rare reward if the fiction calls for a character being Inspired, but other than that I'm removing it as a constant bland resource.

Instead I'm thinking of rebranding the mechanic as Desperation and a PC earns Desperation when one gains the Bloodied condition. You can only have 1 Desperation at any one time, however, the caveat being, the PC loses their Desperation at the end of a combat encounter/scene. That limits the Desperation use to combat solely and it's likely to see more play.

And if you thinking this is too much of a boon for the PCs, there is nothing stopping DMs from adding this feature to key bad guys, right?

Thoughts? Too much admin?

 

[DataDwarf]

I have everyone start every session with Inspiration. Unused Inspiration does not carry over from session to session. Inspiration can be used to reroll any roll, take an extra action, regain an expended spell slot (equal to half your proficiency bonus rounded up), or regain an expended resource or feature that can be used as if you took a short rest.

The idea here is that inspiration is used to perform heroic actions.

I found I was terrible at remembering to grant Inspiration. And I'll admit this is definitely not a perfect solution, but it seems to work for my groups.

 

[pointofyou]

If I were to use Inspiration I would prefer a mechanic on the lines of a pool where if the players use it it becomes available to the DM and vice versa. I have no idea how I'd square that with the mechanics in the 1D&D playtest but I am clinging to the hope those will change between now and publication.

 

[AnotherGuy]

I have everyone start every session with Inspiration. Unused Inspiration does not carry over from session to session. Inspiration can be used to reroll any roll, take an extra action, regain an expended spell slot (equal to half your proficiency bonus rounded up), or regain an expended resource or feature that can be used as if you took a short rest.

The idea here is that inspiration is used to perform heroic actions.

I found I was terrible at remembering to grant Inspiration. And I'll admit this is definitely not a perfect solution, but it seems to work for my groups.

Wonderful ideas for its use, and I could certainly incorporate that into the Desperation mechanic since everything you practically mentioned would likely be used during combat. My complaint with the concept of Inspiration still stands - it is just a tacked-on resource with no tie-in to the in-game fiction. We'd have to just accept each character has one potential for creativeness (Inspiration). I find that meh!

That is why Desperation appeals to me more because it is tied to the fiction.

 

[Argyle King]

If I were to use Inspiration I would prefer a mechanic on the lines of a pool where if the players use it it becomes available to the DM and vice versa. I have no idea how I'd square that with the mechanics in the 1D&D playtest but I am clinging to the hope those will change between now and publication.

I was going to say something similar to this.

You could easily use the Force Die and Force Tokens from FFG Star Wars as a way to create an inspiration pool.

 

[billd91]

I have everyone start every session with Inspiration. Unused Inspiration does not carry over from session to session. Inspiration can be used to reroll any roll, take an extra action, regain an expended spell slot (equal to half your proficiency bonus rounded up), or regain an expended resource or feature that can be used as if you took a short rest.

The idea here is that inspiration is used to perform heroic actions.

I found I was terrible at remembering to grant Inspiration. And I'll admit this is definitely not a perfect solution, but it seems to work for my groups.

That's the general rule at AL event's I've judged too. You get inspiration at the start of the scenario.
I've used it in my home game, but it's still been hard to keep reminding players to use it when we've gamed remotely. In person games, I've had a pool of sparkly d20s that I hand out (another DM in our group gives out poker chips) when a PC has inspiration. It's a physical reminder that gets handed back in when expended. That helps a LOT. I just need to come up with an online alternative.

 

[iserith]

I prefer Inspiration be used to reward portrayal of the character's established characteristics and use this method for handling it at the table: The Case for Inspiration. The DM doesn't have to manage it and the players have a limit of 4 Inspiration each per session, use them or lose them.

If you're going to have it awarded when a PC reaches half hit points or less, you might want to limit that to "the first time a character reaches half hit points or less in a combat encounter." Otherwise it may get a bit much with healing and losing more hit points in the same fight.

 

[DataDwarf]

My complaint with the concept of Inspiration still stands - it is just a tacked-on resource with no tie-in to the in-game fiction. We'd have to just accept each character has one potential for creativeness (Inspiration). I find that meh!

That is why Desperation appeals to me more because it is tied to the fiction.

Totally agree that it feels tacked on. Tieing it to the story/fiction is a cool idea and if your players are on board with trying it out I say go for it! Worse case you find out it doesn't work/it is not enjoyable and move on.

I also think it is also okay for some items to just be a game mechanic and not have to be tied to in-game elements. But really there is no wrong answer here.

 

[AnotherGuy]

I prefer Inspiration be used to reward portrayal of the character's established characteristics and use this method for handling it at the table: The Case for Inspiration. The DM doesn't have to manage it and the players have a limit of 4 Inspiration each per session, use them or lose them.

So Iserith we have tried this once. It worked for one session, usually the metagamer in the group took advantage of this to the max but the others I felt didn't really participate. Need to give this another go me thinks.

 

[iserith]

So Iserith we have tried this once. It worked for one session, usually the metagamer in the group takes advantage of this to the max but the others I felt didn't really participate. Need to give this another go me thinks.

The "metagamer" must have figured out the loop this creates: I portray my character, I get rewarded, and now I have a resource to increase my chances of success which I have to use before end of session. That's exactly what you want if your ultimate goal is more interesting portrayals of the characters during play. Why do you suppose the others didn't latch onto that?