D&D 5E Let's Talk About Inspiration

[Fildrigar]

I've been handing out between 1-3 inspiration per session. ( Total, not per character. ) But, my players keep forgetting to use it. ( And the have a big, shiny, glimmering GO chip in front of them. It should be hard to forget to use it. ) I'm running them through PotA right now, and each character had a dream about it between the last session of LMoP and the first of PotA. I used the Adventure Hooks as the basis for each character's dream, and will be handing out inspiration based on the locations or NPCs they saw in dream.

 

[Sword of Spirit]

There is no expectation about how often you should be awarding Inspiration.

Actually there is:

"As a rule of thumb, aim to award inspiration to each character about once per session of play." - DMG p. 240

I have to admit that I have a hard time remembering to do it. If I use the default consideration and base it mostly on bonds and flaws, that requires me to remember everyone's bonds and flaws, and be constantly processing whether or not their actions are related. With some characters it was easier than others, depending on the nature of their personality traits.

 

[Fildrigar]

Actually there is:

"As a rule of thumb, aim to award inspiration to each character about once per session of play." - DMG p. 240

I have to admit that I have a hard time remembering to do it. If I use the default consideration and base it mostly on bonds and flaws, that requires me to remember everyone's bonds and flaws, and be constantly processing whether or not their actions are related. With some characters it was easier than others, depending on the nature of their personality traits.

I will admit that I have a cheat sheet with everyone's bonds, flaws, and ideals written down. I also occasionally goad one of the characters.

 

[Sword of Spirit]

I will admit that I have a cheat sheet with everyone's bonds, flaws, and ideals written down. I also occasionally goad one of the characters.

That's probably what I should do. My cheat sheet has pretty much everything I need to roll behind the scenes without asking (skills, proficiencies, AC, saving throws, etc), I just need to find a shorthand way of recording personality traits.

 

[77IM]

I use the honor system. Players can just take inspiration whenever they feel they deserve it.

 

[Elvish Lore]

I give Inspiration out as much as I can because people seem to like using it.

I tried to institute the DMG suggestion to have players award inspiration to each other (and the DM could thus accrue Inspiration points which I thought was nifty keen) but no one awarded each other anything. And these were story-gamer types -- they should be used to having some degree of GM authority as players. It was very weird that they didn't give each other any points... so we just went back to the old way.

 

[Jefe Bergenstein]

When I give Inspiration, I give it in the form of a pair of poker chips. One is for the player to keep, and one is for them to give to something else for something cool that I didn't quite catch.

I really like that idea. I'm often caught up in the moment and forget to give it as often as I'd like.

 

[MARCVS AVRELIVS]

I'm okay with people deciding to use Inspiration after seeing the bad roll. It's fairly rare, as folks have noted, so it seems to me that it would really suck for a player to use it and not need it. I'd rather see the player using it when they feel a tinge of desperation.

 

[aramis erak]

If not a lot of Inspiration is being handed out, I don't see why it couldn't be used like the Lucky feat: To add an extra die roll, after the fact, and even in cases of advantage. If Lucky characters can do that three times a day, and even apply it to enemy rolls, I don't think it's game breaking to let other characters do it once per level or so with Inspiration.

Many of my players have used inspiration once or twice a session. And earning it back.

 

[phantomK9]

Our group has come from playing Fate and Fate Core games almost exclusively prior to starting a 5e game. So we are treating the Bonds, Ideals, Flaws, almost like aspects and Inspiration much like Fate points. Currently Inspiration is earned for keeping to your character traits especially if you use them to do something that may not be a the best idea. The DM hands out poker chips and we can have more than one at a time. We can spend them before or after the roll (basically a re-roll).

I will be running a 5e game in the near future and I'm toying with several ideas. Mostly I'm thinking that if you spend Inspiration for a re-roll (which I will allow) then if you roll below 11, add 10 to the number on the die. This is basically Hero Points for those familiar.

I'm also toying with saying that if you want to spend Inspiration, then you have to do it before you roll, and then roll both dice. If you roll doubles, then special things happen (whether or not you succeed).

Our group has found that Inspiration is a great idea but it needs just a little more to make it really work for the players....