D&D 5E D&D Next Q&A: Character Roleplaying Traits, XP as Reward & Inspiration

[Plaguescarred]

D&D NextQ&A
Character Roleplaying Traits, XP as Reward & Inspiration
By Rodney Thompson

In this week's D&D Next Q&A, Rodney talks about bonds, flaws, ideals and their relationship to alignment, xp and inspiration awards, and flexible inspiration rules!

What are your thoughts?

 

[DEFCON 1]

My main thought is that Inspiration is just like many other rules that have been added to the game over time...

...an easy-to-understand and mechanical way for less experienced RPG players to learn how to do things that many experienced players already do as a matter of instinct.

Thus, I am in favor of it.

What were Skill Challenges? They were a way for new DMs to learn how to create and advance a story using skill checks to determine whether or not the party succeeded in what they wanted to do. Experienced DMs already have a pretty good grasp on how to advance their stories through PC interaction, rolling checks as they felt necessary for dramatic tension or whatnot... and thus the formalized game system of "X successes before 3 failures" was seen as unnecessary for probably most of them.

But the Skill Challenge system wasn't designed for them. It was designed for those who needed to learn a framework that they did not yet already instinctually know.

Inspiration is the same thing. Less experienced players might wonder why they would intentionally create flaws for their characters, because that would make them less likely to succeed in their tasks. They perhaps haven't yet learned or experienced the fun that can be had by playing those flaws and not worrying about (or potentially even embracing) the pitfalls that come with these flaws. They are a self-creating encounter for each PC. You don't need the DM to put every encounter or situation in front of you... sometimes the most fun you can have is creating your own encounter for yourself by intentionally making a complication for yourself.

And a good way to inspire players to do that? Create complications for themselves (in the service of trying to play a three-dimensional character)? Give them a bennie to do it. So even though they are making things harder for their own PC... they get a little summin'-summin' for trying it out.

More experienced RPG players? They might already complicate their own PCs lives in the name of three-dimensionality, and don't want or need any "gifts" from the DM to get them to do it. Which is why it seems like it'll be entirely possible to remove the system with a minimum of difficulty.

But the real question here is this...

Should the game put it in as a default that can be removed... or put it in as a "module" that should be added?

And WotC's take on this I think is the right one: Less experienced or new RPG players will tend to play "by the book" because they won't yet know how or why to change the rules. As they say... you have to learn the rules before you can break them. So by including Inspiration as part of the default advanced game... we're more likely to see the system used by the very people for whom it was designed for. The new or less experienced players.

The experienced RPG player? It's already assumed they are going to take the rules and modify/modularize/redesign them to create the type of game they want to play. So asking them to take Inspiration out if they don't want it... is a much, much easier thing for them to do successfully, than it would be for new players to have to figure out how or why they would ADD said game system into their game.

And I think that's the right call. Make the default game the game you want to best help put the new players on solid ground-- learning all the tricks of the trade of advanced roleplaying techniques (both as a player and as a DM) that the rest of us all do out of instinct or take for granted.

 

[Sunseeker]

I like that it doesn't reward XP(at least by default)...since I run my games without XP. Otherwise it seems pretty sound.

 

[1of3]

I consider myself an "advanced" gamer. I still like the idea. I would have liked Skill Challenges, too, if they had worked.

 

[JeffB]

And WotC's take on this I think is the right one: Less experienced or new RPG players will tend to play "by the book" because they won't yet know how or why to change the rules. As they say... you have to learn the rules before you can break them. So by including Inspiration as part of the default advanced game... we're more likely to see the system used by the very people for whom it was designed for. The new or less experienced players.

Good post overall, but the section here confuses me a bit. Why on earth would the beginning or less experienced player be using the advanced default rules? If this is supposed to be teaching new folk how to "roleplay", should they not be in the "basic" game? or whatever term WOTC is using these days for the bare bone default game.

 

[DEFCON 1]

Good post overall, but the section here confuses me a bit. Why on earth would the beginning or less experienced player be using the advanced default rules? If this is supposed to be teaching new folk how to "roleplay", should they not be in the "basic" game? or whatever term WOTC is using these days for the bare bone default game.

That indeed was one thing Rodney wrote that confused me a bit too. But as they have not made mention of any real specifics recently of what "basic", "standard", and "advanced" actually mean in a practical, how-are-rules-presented-in-the-books sense... I just chalked it up to a quick toss-off statement that he might not have even realized we would not understand (since the designers and developers are so far ahead of us in the timeline of what things are and are not still in existence in the game.)

 

[DEFCON 1]

I consider myself an "advanced" gamer. I still like the idea. I would have liked Skill Challenges, too, if they had worked.

That's what's good about both systems... they don't become useless once you reach a certain point in your RPG player development. They morph from "teaching aid" to "easy-to-remember game subsystem". You don't have to use them if you don't feel they work for you... but they still do work as a game system in itself regardless of the person playing.

 

[Jacob Marley]

That indeed was one thing Rodney wrote that confused me a bit too. But as they have not made mention of any real specifics recently of what "basic", "standard", and "advanced" actually mean in a practical, how-are-rules-presented-in-the-books sense... I just chalked it up to a quick toss-off statement that he might not have even realized we would not understand (since the designers and developers are so far ahead of us in the timeline of what things are and are not still in existence in the game.)

Maybe its time we all flood wizards with this question?

Can we get some specifics of what "basic", "standard", and "advanced" actually mean in a practical, how-are-rules-presented-in-the-books sense?

 

[Plaguescarred]

I like the ideal, flaw, and bond trait and also agree it doesn't have to be inspired by alignment necessarily.

I also prefer inspiration not giving XP so that PC advancement isn't affected by it.

Inspiration will not be in the game in its basic form, but it will be in the advanced game without being referenced. And its use will be optional. I am good with that.

 

[Plaguescarred]

As a side note, i really miss Wrecan's Haiku