Charlaquin
Goblin Queen (She/Her/Hers)
Here’s a tweak to Inspiration I have used that I’ve found very successful (though I don’t use it in every campaign):
• Everyone gains Inspiration automatically at the beginning of each session.
• Your Flaw(s) give you a way to gain Inspiration. Any time you or your party suffer a setback as a result of your Flaw, you gain Inspiration.
• Your Personality Traits, Ideal(s), and Bond(s) give you ways to spend Inspiration. On any action where one of your personality traits is relevant (often, but not always, social rolls), any action taken in pursuit of your Ideal, and any action taken in defense of your Bond, you can spend Inspiration.
This change does significantly restrict the opportunities you have to gain and to spend Inspiration, but in my experience, at also significantly increases how often Inspiration is gained and spent. When you have specific conditions under which you can spend Inspiration, you are constantly looking for opportunities to spend it, instead of saving it for just the right roll. It also puts the onus on the player to keep track of their personality traits, ideals, bonds, and flaws instead of the DM. And by tying Inspiration gain to Flaws, and specifically to setbacks caused by the characters’ Flaws, it encourages the players to choose flaws that are relevant, and to play them up as actual flaws.
Another tweak I have considered, but not actually tested, is replacing Inspiration with Inspiration Dice, a-la Bardic Inspiration. I think this would solve a lot of problems with Inspiration in its current form. Currently, spending Inspiration gives you Advantage on a roll. So, you have no reason to spend it on rolls that already have Advantage, and you have to decide to spend it before you know whether or not you’ll need it. With Bardic-style Inspiration Dice though, you can wait to see the result of the d20 roll before deciding if you want to use it, it’s useful on rolls that have Advantage from some other source, and it doesn’t negate disadvantage, which are all benefits in my opinion. And, crucially, it gives you a way to deal with gaining Inspiration when you already have it - just increase the size of the Inspiration Die by one step. Plus it clears up some potentially confusing terminology by removing the distinction between Inspiration and Inspiration Dice.
• Everyone gains Inspiration automatically at the beginning of each session.
• Your Flaw(s) give you a way to gain Inspiration. Any time you or your party suffer a setback as a result of your Flaw, you gain Inspiration.
• Your Personality Traits, Ideal(s), and Bond(s) give you ways to spend Inspiration. On any action where one of your personality traits is relevant (often, but not always, social rolls), any action taken in pursuit of your Ideal, and any action taken in defense of your Bond, you can spend Inspiration.
This change does significantly restrict the opportunities you have to gain and to spend Inspiration, but in my experience, at also significantly increases how often Inspiration is gained and spent. When you have specific conditions under which you can spend Inspiration, you are constantly looking for opportunities to spend it, instead of saving it for just the right roll. It also puts the onus on the player to keep track of their personality traits, ideals, bonds, and flaws instead of the DM. And by tying Inspiration gain to Flaws, and specifically to setbacks caused by the characters’ Flaws, it encourages the players to choose flaws that are relevant, and to play them up as actual flaws.
Another tweak I have considered, but not actually tested, is replacing Inspiration with Inspiration Dice, a-la Bardic Inspiration. I think this would solve a lot of problems with Inspiration in its current form. Currently, spending Inspiration gives you Advantage on a roll. So, you have no reason to spend it on rolls that already have Advantage, and you have to decide to spend it before you know whether or not you’ll need it. With Bardic-style Inspiration Dice though, you can wait to see the result of the d20 roll before deciding if you want to use it, it’s useful on rolls that have Advantage from some other source, and it doesn’t negate disadvantage, which are all benefits in my opinion. And, crucially, it gives you a way to deal with gaining Inspiration when you already have it - just increase the size of the Inspiration Die by one step. Plus it clears up some potentially confusing terminology by removing the distinction between Inspiration and Inspiration Dice.
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