D&D 5E Unique Ways to Use Inspiration

[Geeknamese]

I love this new edition and one of my favorite things are the Backgrounds, Personality Traits,mIdeals, Bonds and Flaws and how you gain award PCs for their roleplaying. I think being able to use the Inspiration for advantage on a roll is great. One thing I have also allowed in my home games is for the PCs to use the Inspiration point to exercise a little narrative control to spice things up.

For instance, I spend my Inspiration point and notice that the support beam over there is looking decrepit from wear over time. I take my axe and try to destroy the support beam. Or if the party is captured by orcs, I spend an Inspiration point and realize from my past study of orc culture that today is the day that one, who is foolish, enough can challenge the orc leader in single combat for control of the orc tribe. Or I spend the Inspiration point and the cage they are holding us in is actually made of wood. And so on...

Letting the players be able to take a little narrative control allows them to get creative, makes for unexpected situations which require a little improving from me (makes my job more fun) and rewards roleplaying with a little more roleplaying. It helps promote the shared storytelling experience. What do you guys think?

Also, does anyone else have any other ideas on how to spice up Inspiration points? I'd love to hear them!

 

[digital3lf]

I absolutely love this idea and was planning to try the same (narrative control by expending inspiration) when I eventually get to run a game. I've run some Fate and Story Engine system games where this idea of communal storytelling is key to developing and directing the story, and I've had a lot of fun doing it. I totally agree that it keeps me interested as a GM when I can't expect encounters/scenes to run "as scripted". One must be very open to adapting planned encounters, and always keep the "say yes" attitude in mind when players are working to come up with something creative. I'd love to hear how this works out using 5e!

 

[Henrix]

I love giving narrative control to the players, and hero points of any ilk is a good and simple way to do it.

Inventing and introducing minor NPCs is a fun thing to allow. They may not always get exactly what they want, and it is up to me to decide if I like their proposal. (Player invented NPCs as good as always becomes interesting and remembered - at least one player has invested in her.)


I have other ways to gain Inspiration as well.
My whole campaign has a Trait to set the mood. In the one I run now it is Hardboiled. The players can use it just as they can use one of their own traits to get inspiration. That way we are all on the same track and strive to get a hardboiled feeling for it.

And, which I haven't used yet, places or encounters may have traits of their own, usable in the same way.

I place cards in front of the screen, visible to all, with the traits in action.

You could also go even more FATE and let the players use inspiration to introduce traits in the environment.
When fighting in a seedy tavern you could spend it to give it the trait 'slippery rushes on the floor'.


Next up: How do DMs gain Inspiration?

 

[Geeknamese]

Nice! I really dig the overall campaign trait idea. I'm going to steal that one!

 

[Antz7766]

I like your alternative usage for inspiration. It does require a bit more creative juice on the DM's part in order to adapt to whatever the players are throwing at him/her.

I've always find the getting advantage way of spending inspiration a bit underwhelming, even though its a big bonus mathematically, and the feeling is shared by my players.

I came across a thread awhile back suggesting using the old Fortune cards as inspiration rewards, and using that idea, I made a list of 15 cards that is a bit more powerful than Fortune cards, but not too powerful such that my players would want to horde them for bosses, as my way of giving out inspiration.

An example of a few.

Relentless Assault - Your next hit will be an automatic critical strike. In addition, you may re-roll any and all 1 or 2 from the damage roll, but must take the result of the new roll.

Keen Sense - You know the layout of your surrounding in a 50-foot radius, as well as the location of every door, trap, creatures, and any other object of interest within range.

Frantic Search - You may request a magic item, by specifying the name of the item, of Very Rare quality or higher, from the DM. In response, the DM will provide you with a starting location that will at least start you on a journey towards the specified item. If such item currently does not exist in D&D, the DM will design it for you. However, the adventure will be scaled to the item's rarity, not the party's level. (My players love this one, since this allows them the possibility to obtain items they've come across in other games/stories, like the kakari in the Night Angel trilogy, or that stupid long, borderline un-wieldable, japanese odachi blade used by a certain someone in a RPG on PS1).

Sorry for not providing the full list, but I used the name and art of 15 different MTG cards when making those inspiration cards, and don't want WotC to get mad at me.