Inspiration

[discosoc]

After a few years of 5th Edition, I'm pretty much ready to give up on inspiration. I've tried limited or expanding the number given, and the circumstances under which players earn them. The problem I'm having is inspiration rarely seems to make the action more interesting. Nine times out of ten it's simply used to reroll a failed save or missed attack. While that's helpful for the character, it just seems like a waste.

So now that I'm back to the drawing board, I'm curious about how everyone else is running it. Are you using the core rules, or have you houseruled some changes? Do you guys usually forget about it?

My current idea is that I want inspiration to be something that's used proactively to do something fun, exciting, or -- dare I say -- inspiring, rather than a reactive chance to turn a failure into a success. I almost want inspiration to be able to "break the rules" a bit, and result in characters getting to do things like double movement for a round, an extra attack, maybe jump twice as high, or climb without movement penalties for that round. I'd also like to have some more concrete ways of using inspiration *outside* of combat -- especially in roleplaying situations. Maybe something like using an inspiration to turn a non-combat success into an amazing one. For example, if the character is trying to persuade the guard to let the party pass with a bribe, and succeeds, the player can use an inspiration to "enhance" the effect, and maybe the GM decides that not only is the guard going to accept the bribe, but it turns out he and some other guards have a beef with the BBG, and are willing to turn sides.

Anyway, just throwing some ideas out there, and looking to see how well inspiration works for you guys, or if you have suggestions.

 

[Blue]

Idea the First: Change the recommendation of one per session per player to once per scene per player, but it needs to be used in the scene it was earned. So an appeal to the duke to to protect the town that triggers your bond could be used in that scene, but not saved for combat. It probably will also cut down on how often it is in combat.

Idea the Second: 13th Age has a couple of "be awesome for free" features you can use once per combat, like the Ranger can get a terrain stunt and the Rogue can get Swashbuckle, and basically it lets you do something outrageous without having to worry about making skill checks. You still need to roll if there is an attack involved, but the rest you just make happen.

Here's some sample text:

Terrain Stunt
Terrain stunts are improvisational effects that play off your preternatural understanding of the wilderness and all the diverse forms of the natural world. Things like knocking a hornets nest no one had noticed onto your enemy’s head, maneuvering a foe onto a soggy patch of ground that slows them down, shooting the cap off a mushroom spore in a dungeon that erupts on your enemies, getting your enemy’s sword wedged into a stalactite, finding the tree branch that lets you vault up to attack the flying demon that thought it was out of axe range, and similar types of actions.

Swashbuckle
Once per battle as a quick action, you can spend your momentum to pull off a daring stunt the likes of which others could scarcely conceive. Yes, it’s improv night at the rogue show, and you’re the star baby, the star. You’ll probably want to make an attack as part of the stunt, and that’s alright, but you’ll need to roll normally for the attack. The fun is doing something outrageous like dodging between the legs of giants, vaulting on a 12-foot pole over the heads of onrushing orcs, or cutting open bags of flour just in time to make them go poof and daze several foes for a round.

If you notice, each one is related to the type of trigger. Have players track that. So if the inspiration came from a bond of protecting people, they can succeed on a stunt that involves protecting people. And take it outside combat as well. Though be generous in interpretation; some of them, especially flaws, may be harder to find a related action.

(Quoted text from the 13th Age SRD or fair use from the 13th Age Core book.)

 

[CapnZapp]

After a few years of 5th Edition, I'm pretty much ready to give up on inspiration. I've tried limited or expanding the number given, and the circumstances under which players earn them. The problem I'm having is inspiration rarely seems to make the action more interesting. Nine times out of ten it's simply used to reroll a failed save or missed attack. While that's helpful for the character, it just seems like a waste.

So now that I'm back to the drawing board, I'm curious about how everyone else is running it. Are you using the core rules, or have you houseruled some changes? Do you guys usually forget about it?

My current idea is that I want inspiration to be something that's used proactively to do something fun, exciting, or -- dare I say -- inspiring, rather than a reactive chance to turn a failure into a success. I almost want inspiration to be able to "break the rules" a bit, and result in characters getting to do things like double movement for a round, an extra attack, maybe jump twice as high, or climb without movement penalties for that round. I'd also like to have some more concrete ways of using inspiration *outside* of combat -- especially in roleplaying situations. Maybe something like using an inspiration to turn a non-combat success into an amazing one. For example, if the character is trying to persuade the guard to let the party pass with a bribe, and succeeds, the player can use an inspiration to "enhance" the effect, and maybe the GM decides that not only is the guard going to accept the bribe, but it turns out he and some other guards have a beef with the BBG, and are willing to turn sides.

Anyway, just throwing some ideas out there, and looking to see how well inspiration works for you guys, or if you have suggestions.

Begin by reading what Angry GM has to say about Inspiration

 

[kalil]

Just go ahead and drop inspiration. The mechanic adds nothing to the game. Most online groups I play in just straight up forgets the mechanic exists after a session or two of trying to get this plastered on mechanic to stick.

 

[Sithikurro]

I've always loved the idea of "special" points in RPGs, whether they're called fate points, force points or inspiration. Sadly, the inspiration points in DnD are underdeveloped idea - it's just that an idea for GMs to expand upon.
Personally, I'd recommed one of the two:
1) In FFG's Star Wars games each session starts with a number of Force points - some of them dark some of them light. The number depends on luck and the number of players. The GM can use dark ones to up a difficulty of a roll, the players can use light ones for various things, from game-mechanic effects to more narrative ones. But! The moment one side uses their point it goes to the other side (they are represented as tokes so are literally flipped to the other side). This generates a nice dynamic in the game and players nor GM never run out of the points. Moreover the whole thing can be easily recreated in DnD.
2) In Numenera and Cypher System games there is a game mechanic called "Game Master's Intrusion" - whenever GM thinks it is a good idea, they can insert an intrusion: when a PC is doing something dangerous the GM asks them if they accept the intrusion (they can deflect it with a XP point), if they do something dangerous happens but the PC gets one XP AND one XP to give to another player. This latter part is a really nice touch and creates great group dynamic. Again the whole thing is easy to use in DnD and makes inspiration points more interesting.

 

[The Crimson Binome]

Assign Inspiration to be used immediately whenever a character does something that they would be inspired to do.

One of the PCs in my game had a character trait that they would never abandon a teammate, so I gave Disadvantage on opportunity attacks while they were rushing off to stabilize an ally. Another PC had a trait that he was paranoid about teammates backstabbing him, so I gave Disadvantage to attacks against him when they finally did so, since he was already expecting it.

Inspiration is a failed mechanic when it's used to try and shape the narrative. It's a successful mechanic when it's used to reflect the in-game reality that a character actually is inspired to do something.

 

[aramis erak]

After a few years of 5th Edition, I'm pretty much ready to give up on inspiration. I've tried limited or expanding the number given, and the circumstances under which players earn them. The problem I'm having is inspiration rarely seems to make the action more interesting. Nine times out of ten it's simply used to reroll a failed save or missed attack. While that's helpful for the character, it just seems like a waste.

First: You're doing it wrong. By the rules as written: It's not a reroll on ANYTHING. It must be used BEFORE rolling, and grants advantage, not a reroll. Note that Advantage is supposed to be roll 2d20 at the same time, keeping the better.

So, by allowing it to do something totally not what it's intended for, you've made its utility far different. And when people are allowed to use it to retry, it's value is actually less psychologically important than when it's a decision before hand.

And it's never been restricted to once a session. And it's not automatic at start, either.

Try running it as writen.

 

[discosoc]

First: You're doing it wrong. By the rules as written: It's not a reroll on ANYTHING. It must be used BEFORE rolling, and grants advantage, not a reroll. Note that Advantage is supposed to be roll 2d20 at the same time, keeping the better.

So, by allowing it to do something totally not what it's intended for, you've made its utility far different. And when people are allowed to use it to retry, it's value is actually less psychologically important than when it's a decision before hand.

And it's never been restricted to once a session. And it's not automatic at start, either.

Try running it as writen.

Nice rage-post. I thought I clarified this before, but it looks like I didn't. Allow me to take a moment and explain things, because I didn't intend for my topic to cause you the mental stress that resulted in you going all out on the fancy typeface.

You are correct in how the core inspiration system works. My current 'reroll a check' method is simply the latest in a string of alternatives meant to address various problems with that core system. In particular, changing it to a reroll rather than advantage eliminates the times where core inspiration is useless simply because you already have advantage on the check. Still, there are other things you bring up, so I'll go through and address them.

So, by allowing it to do something totally not what it's intended for, you've made its utility far different.

That's the point. It's "intended" purpose is ineffectual in many cases.

And when people are allowed to use it to retry, it's value is actually less psychologically important than when it's a decision before hand.

I'd agree with this if the core system was setup in a way that make inspiration actually interesting or an important aspect of gameplay. So many groups that I've played with literally forget about it until after a roll is made, or after the session entirely. I'll go into some reasons below.

And it's never been restricted to once a session. And it's not automatic at start, either.

Technically correct, but this is effectively inaccurate in many cases. See, characters are limited to a single inspiration at any given time. This means that if you have an inspiration, there's no reason to worry about doing anything to gain a new one until you've managed to spend it. So either you wait for the right moment to use it when you *need* it (and possibly waste it in a similar way that player's tend to waste potions by not using them), or you burn them ASAP and they never really feel like "inspiring" actions. Because of this, players do tend to hoard them and forget about them in many cases.

My current inspiration system is simply everyone starts with 1 each session, and they have no limit to them. They "reset" each session, however, so people are encouraged to use them. I tend to hand them out pretty freely as long as players are doing fun and interesting things, but the rate I aim for 1 to 3 per character per session. Rather than grant advantage, which is often useless if the character already has advantage, or not very interesting if they simply turn a disadvantage into a normal roll, I've opted to allow inspiration to simply reroll a check.

Now, this setup is not perfect, and I'll probably try something else this next weekend. I come from a Savage Worlds background, and it might sound familiar from someone who's played that. The big benefit with it is that I can fine-tune session difficulty a bit by simply increasing or decreasing the rate of gaining inspiration as needed (this is a big thing with SW bennies, and an important tool in the GM kit). But 5e is not Savage Worlds, and it still feels like it's lacking something. I do like the earlier suggestion with what 13th Age does, and I'll probably attempt to adapt that into my group next.

As for why I don't simply scrap the system or ignore it (something we did for a while, actually): I think having a metasystem that encourages players to do more than simply attack or cast spells or bribe the guard, etc, is important. Players should be rewarded for thinking about what they can do in ways that the character sheet doesn't specifically tell them they can do, and inspiration-style systems always feel like important parts of that equation.

 

[pemerton]

characters are limited to a single inspiration at any given time. This means that if you have an inspiration, there's no reason to worry about doing anything to gain a new one until you've managed to spend it. So either you wait for the right moment to use it when you *need* it (and possibly waste it in a similar way that player's tend to waste potions by not using them), or you burn them ASAP and they never really feel like "inspiring" actions.

Generally, every time a player doesn't already have advantage on a roll, shouldn't s/he be using Inspiration to get it?

And then performing some appropriate action would earn his/her Inspiration back (if the "inspired" action doesn't arealdy qualify for this).

 

[GMMichael]

Rather than grant advantage, which is often useless if the character already has advantage, or not very interesting if they simply turn a disadvantage into a normal roll, I've opted to allow inspiration to simply reroll a check.

Maybe what's cool about Inspiration isn't what a character does with it (I'm sorry, but who doesn't want Advantage?), but how a character gets it?

Assign Inspiration to be used immediately whenever a character does something that they would be inspired to do.

This idea should carry over into, ". . . what inspires a character is what makes her unique." Or in a 5e context, what's in her FAITH (personality).

Try manufacturing more causes of Disadvantage, and the demand for Advantage should increase.