D&D (2024) Inspiration From Nat 20 Will Bog Down The Game

[darjr]

So I ran the Emridy Medows adventure, highly customized and used this rule.

The big callout for me is that players used inspiration on their own. They even declared before rolling. They responded with glee when they got it via a roll of a crit.

I wasn’t expecting it to work but it worked better than I could have hoped.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

Not sure I’m parsing this correctly, but do you mean this thing about forgetting and scrolling back has only been going on for one or two sessions?

we tried using inspiration as presented in the 2014 PHB. I even (when we were in person) had bought little wooden chips that say inspiration on them. about 2017 I was giveing up on the mechanic, we just didn't find it useful. 1/2 the time we forgot (DM and PLayers) to use/give them even when the wooden chips where on the table. And the only times we really used them were more reroll and less advantage... in 2019 pre covid I broke out those chips for a game at a store and found the same problem.

now for the last 2 sessions we have been trying the playtest ones... and game 2 we all forgot about it.

If so, then I don’t find it surprising that people are forgetting. And I also think the solution is the same: no scrolling back, and eventually they’ll remember.

or they wont... again my feed back is that it is a less then good system that needs a rewrite to make it more memorable...

 

[JiffyPopTart]

we tried using inspiration as presented in the 2014 PHB. I even (when we were in person) had bought little wooden chips that say inspiration on them. about 2017 I was giveing up on the mechanic, we just didn't find it useful. 1/2 the time we forgot (DM and PLayers) to use/give them even when the wooden chips where on the table. And the only times we really used them were more reroll and less advantage... in 2019 pre covid I broke out those chips for a game at a store and found the same problem.

now for the last 2 sessions we have been trying the playtest ones... and game 2 we all forgot about it.

or they wont... again my feed back is that it is a less then good system that needs a rewrite to make it more memorable...

This echos my experience. In 5e we used inspiration early on, keeping track of it bye handing out poker chips. Players rarely used it, forgot about having it, and as a feedback loop I forgot to give them out enough to get a circulation going.

This is both GM assigning and players assigning inspiration for excellent play.

Contrasted, Torg uses a metacurrency like inspiration that also uses poker chips. In that system the value of a chip is much higher (they let you roll again and add instead of take the best AND can soak a massive amount of damage), players have 3 or 4 at the start of an adventure, and there is a mechanical point where they refresh. In this system the meta currency was always in my players minds as an option because it is frequently used.

 

[Chaosmancer]

okay and when no one remembers including the DM?

so again... what does that mean, when everyone forgets? to me it comes down to "we just aren't useing it" or "We have to bog down looking" and BOTH lead to a bad rule

I've had players forget to include bless on their rolls. Sometimes I catch it to remind them, if we are three rounds of combat later, poof. Does that make bless a bad rule? No.

It will take time to learn, but saying it delayed the game because you went trawling through the chat to find the rolls you forgot to count isn't the fault of the rule. And frankly, if crits are either so ubiquitous or so unimpactful that no one can remember if they crit or not within the last few minutes, that's a bad sign for crits, not for inspiration.

 

[Chaosmancer]

This echos my experience. In 5e we used inspiration early on, keeping track of it bye handing out poker chips. Players rarely used it, forgot about having it, and as a feedback loop I forgot to give them out enough to get a circulation going.

This is both GM assigning and players assigning inspiration for excellent play.

Contrasted, Torg uses a metacurrency like inspiration that also uses poker chips. In that system the value of a chip is much higher (they let you roll again and add instead of take the best AND can soak a massive amount of damage), players have 3 or 4 at the start of an adventure, and there is a mechanical point where they refresh. In this system the meta currency was always in my players minds as an option because it is frequently used.

In my experience, I forgot inspiration because I saved it for important rolls. It actually frustrated the GM because they would try and award me inspiration and I already had it from previous moments in the story. Then, because it was play by post and adventures could take a month or two, I'd forget about it.

Haven't had a chance to try the new system yet (hopefully that will change "soon") but I suspect the changes will cause it to be used far more often.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

Contrasted, Torg uses a metacurrency like inspiration that also uses poker chips. In that system the value of a chip is much higher

same group I am playing with me now, we use Torg and the 4e action points and the poker chips for deadlands/savage world... the issue isn't "We cant remember any metacurrency" it's "This is both forgettable and not that useful"

 

[GMforPowergamers]

I've had players forget to include bless on their rolls. Sometimes I catch it to remind them, if we are three rounds of combat later, poof. Does that make bless a bad rule? No.

if you forget once or twice that isn't... if a significant portion of the player base tells you they forget all the time, maybe bless isn't doing enough to matter.

It will take time to learn, but saying it delayed the game because you went trawling through the chat to find the rolls you forgot to count isn't the fault of the rule.

the fault of the rule is it is not intuitive and is not a major enough thing to be remembered. You need it to be more impactful or more intuitive... or both

And frankly, if crits are either so ubiquitous or so unimpactful that no one can remember if they crit or not within the last few minutes, that's a bad sign for crits, not for inspiration.

we knew we critted... we didn't remember when (before or after last LR)

 

[Bill Zebub]

Allowing it to be used for a re-roll has a HUGE impact on players remembering to use it, in my experience.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

Allowing it to be used for a re-roll has a HUGE impact on players remembering to use it, in my experience.

yeah I think that would be more like it... that way when you fail or roll low and try to think you can spend your pt... instead of saying "Shoot, I forgot I had this"

 

[Chaosmancer]

if you forget once or twice that isn't... if a significant portion of the player base tells you they forget all the time, maybe bless isn't doing enough to matter.

the fault of the rule is it is not intuitive and is not a major enough thing to be remembered. You need it to be more impactful or more intuitive... or both

we knew we critted... we didn't remember when (before or after last LR)

Forgetting bless is practically a meme. It is why my table adopted the term "#Blessed" to remind people. But talk to anyone into optimization and Bless is the greatest tool on the table and worth using all the time. So it is clearly powerful, it is just easy to forget.

Now, to roll this back, if the end goal of this debate is that we want Inspiration to be able to be used for re-rolls... I'm 100% on board with that. That's how a lot of people use it, and that is a fine use for it. I'd like to see it canonized in the rules (despite the crowd who would use it to claim that is a sign of the easy mode player's-are-never-allowed-to-fail train)

But not remembering a new rule on the second time you are using it? That's not uncommon.