D&D 5E Does your group use inspiration? If not, why not?

[doctorbadwolf]

No. My players roleplay constantly, and getting advantage for no reason feels really artificial to us. I have no issue handing out advantage in general though.

Yeah Inspiration is a bit odd that way. I generally give it to players when they are attempting an action that will require a roll, and that action draws upon their backstory, traits, etc, or just elevates the whole table in some way.

But I also use it to give players narrative control, not just to reroll.

 

[CubicsRube]

I think inspiration is a poorly thought out mechanic.

Savage worlds is an example how to do it rigbt. They give clearer guidance on what awards it and design the system to run off it.

My next campaing I plan to return back to 5e with a few house rules. One of those is areplacement to inspiration. It is to give advantage to a roll that uses their Ideal, Traits, Bond or Flaw if they can justify it to a max of once per session for each. This feels more connected to me and anchors the ITBFs more in the game.

 

[Hriston]

This is how I'm using Inspiration in my current game: If a player doesn't have it, I present situations that give the player an opportunity to complicate things for his/her character by playing into the character's concept or one of the character's personal characteristics (personality trait, ideal, bond, or flaw). If the player "takes the bait", I award Inspiration.

 

[Iry]

But I also use it to give players narrative control, not just to reroll.

Back in AD&D and 3E we used to use "chips". Everyone got three and could use them to make changes to the narrative. Things like the person we saved a month ago is revealed to be the king's brother. Finding a rich vein of gold in an old mine. An important enemy is convinced by our words and switches sides. Etc.

These changes were generally good for us, but still open to going pear-shaped or just being extremely rich with story hooks. I once used one just to make a city agriculturally prosperous since I was a druid.

 

[Umbran]

Goofy because what does it mean I earned my advantage by doing something cool and now I can give it to you because you do something cool? Why don't you get yours from the DM so that I can keep mine?

I dunno. Maybe because we are playing a cooperative game? And I already spent mine on something that saved your bacon?

There is no "mine" in, "if the dragon's breath recharges before we kill it, we are all toast."

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Back in AD&D and 3E we used to use "chips". Everyone got three and could use them to make changes to the narrative. Things like the person we saved a month ago is revealed to be the king's brother. Finding a rich vein of gold in an old mine. An important enemy is convinced by our words and switches sides. Etc.

These changes were generally good for us, but still open to going pear-shaped or just being extremely rich with story hooks. I once used one just to make a city agriculturally prosperous since I was a druid.

Love stuff like that.

 

[Iry]

There is no "mine" in, "if the dragon's breath recharges before we kill it, we are all toast."

There is a "selfish" and a "backstab."

 

[humble minion]

We nominally use it, but it doesn't actually get much attention. I think the GM forgets it exists a lot of the time, and so far in our campaign (we just hit level 5) hasn't given out a single point based on adherence to traits/flaws/etc. I think it just slips his mind - in many more narratively-driven games this sort of system is much more front-and-centre mechanically, whereas D&D inspiration is a relatively small and perfunctory subsystem that's easily ignored, and even when you remember it, the occasional 1d6 on a dice roll isn't that exciting a lot of the time...

 

[The Green Hermit]

I use it as a reward for good role playing. It is not an automatic perk.

 

[The Green Hermit]

Sort of? Sometimes?

Basically, when we remember to: if the DM thinks of it, and then if the player remembers they have it.

When my group goes back to face-to-face gaming, I want to represent Inspiration with a physical token of some kind (I lean toward a special, larger-than-average d20 that the DM hands to the player). Maybe that will help? We'll see.

I kind of like the idea of the player who uses their Inspiration die then hands it to the player who they think did something cool very recently, and so on.

I bought solid metal d20s just for this purpose. That way, they have a visual cue that they have inspiration and there isn't a lot of headaches with paperwork.