Let us know in the comments below how you have used such a system in your game! And if you are planning on an epic nautical campaign, don't miss out on our Kickstarter: www.kickstarter.com/projects/guysclanders/a-complete-guide-to-nautical-campaigns/
I definitely like this idea for "hero points" some of my players really go beyond what is expected in their RP and this would be a fun way to reward them i think.
I often reward my players with what I call "style points" when they come up with an interesting way to do so something I give them a bonus to their roll for the action they are trying to do. For instance my players instead of kidnapping the banker (he was robbing people) and using him to unlock the safe to retrieve the towns folks gold they instead broke into the bank and decided to unlock the safe themselves. So I came up with an overly complex magical lock they had to best and they came up with an awesome idea to bore a hole through the safe door with a molten metal rod. Instead of saying no you cant i let them do it and i gave them a bonus to the rolls as they attempted to do it. It was fun and everyone enjoyed it.
I use hero points in my game. I give all of my players one at the start of a game. I give them one if they do something that surprises me. They can have a maximum of 3 this way. They can keep them between games. I also award 1 to the person that does the best recap of the last session in our group chat. These ones can be obtained over the 3 point in game cap. 1 point will automatically make 3 death saves and heal the character a hit dice. 2 points will allow a player to reroll ANY dice that has been rolled. 3 points will allow a character an extra action or reaction on their turn. 10 points will get the character a level with the same % towards their next level that they had before.
I award what I call "At-a-boys" The player behaves like a hero and is awarded an at-a-boy. After awhile the players will catch on to what a "hero" is. An at-a-boy awards a player a second die roll and the player gets to choose which one to accept. So a bad die roll vs. a critical failure..well there it is.
The Dmg also has a point system (I forget what it's called off the top of my head) that let's players spend a point to alter the story in someway, like magically finding a secret passage or making an NPC appear. A player can even become the DM for a while. I thought this was a really interesting and cool idea. Conviniently, the Dmg also has "Hero Points" that can be spent to add to your roll, I think it's an extra D6. The first time I ever used a mechanic like "inspiration" points was in Cogent Roleplay (my gateway game into ttrpgs) and in that we used Destiny Points. Very cool video Guy!
As a player, remember to nominate your fellow players for Inspiration! If someone at the table does something you enjoy, speak up. You're DM may not notice how much their actions improve the game for you and that's definitely worth of a point.
I do a Jojo's Bizzare Adventure game, and to emulate the show I use hero points. What I let them do is by spending the point, you can proclaim you did an action that you never said you did as a "Gotcha!" moment against an opponent or obstacle.
I'm starting a JJBA game with my group using Mutants and Masterminds and we agreed that Hero Points and the narrative alterations and sudden single-time changes to how a power works is wonderfully in line with those kinds of moments, too. Coincidentally, the fact it's damn near impossible to kill a PC in that system also emulates the sheer amount of punishment JJBA characters can take, too. We didn't plan that but it just worked out that way.
In a recent 5e game the DM awarded me an inspiration point. I wasn't familiar with that, so, later on, when I had a chance to do something awesome I asked if I could use the inspiration point to swing on a banner (which the DM had mentioned) and kick the mono-logging bad guy off his podium. The DM had me roll an acrobatics check with advantage, which I rolled well on, so bad guy got knocked off his high horse and a heavy battle commenced. It was a grand moment and, as you say, far better than just adding 1d8 to some roll somewhere.
I use destiny points. A destiny point may be traded in to reroll any die or to turn a death into a KO. Though they can be used for other stuff with GM permission. They are earned by making decisions in character and doing what makes sense for your character even if such decisions might not be optimal. Or just outstanding role playing in general.
I use DM-points. With a DM-point the player can, momenterily, take control of the story. A monster rolls a crit? Player spends a DM-point and I have to reroll. Same thing if they themself miss or a skill-check. If they hoard those points they can trade them for sweet loot in a dungeon (which they still got to find though).
We called them fate points back in the 2nd ed days before it was even a mechanic. In my game last weekend a player used one to force a success on a polymorph spell.
I've been using a version of this since the early 90's. 'Rule of Cool": - every character starts with 5 "cool points", every time a character (in character) does something "cool" (nearly completely arbitrary, varies greatly based on game genre) their character gets another "cool point". Cool points could be turned in for a 5% / +1 modifier to die rolls (in bulk if you are that much of an action hero). At the end of the night the total of "cool points" was applied to the character's XP earned for the night - forcing the players to agonize over if an action is important enough to burn his points on or if the XP bonus would help more. (I think I stole it from 90's white wolf games) Feel free to re-name them, 90's me was shite at naming mechanics.
Games that use these well I find are Mouseguard, Golden Skies Stories, Ryuutama, or Tenra Bansho Zero. My players rarely use them, but they horde them jealously. Oftentimes I give 1 inspiration to everyone who brings a treat or does something to help the group out that session, and I let them use inspiration at any time. My favorite times were when players chose to fall unconscious and risk death and defeat just to save a single inspiration point... which they then end up using to reroll a failed persuasion check to convince a mimic to become their own personal caddy. My players are adorable and they still think they're ruining my plans with every insane attempt to seduce the lich or teleport through hell to skip half of the dungeon... I don't have the heart to tell them I stopped making complex plans after the first session I ran for them, because they are just so proud of themselves.
In my 5e campaign, we have been using inspiration to gain advantage on a roll, to use a healing surge (as in the 4e rules) or to take another action within a turn. I hadn't thought about using inspiration as a sort of pseudo "luck point" as from Top Secret/SI (way back) or to do other amazing things. As always, these videos never fail to allow me to see new ways to do the thing I have been doing forever. Thanks!!!
I like the way Pathfinder 2nd does it: you get up to 3 of them and recover one inspiration every single session, however when you need em the most (When you're making Death saves) using them takes all of them away. It's nice cause it encourages players to ration them out between using them or having at least one in reserve to literally not die.
In between sessions you're RESET to 1, which is an important detail. So if you end on 2, you wasted 2, because you always start with 1. Easily houseruled, but remember that the reset is a built in system that exists to encourage spending by straight up denying any form of hoarding. Also if you Hero back to not-dying you don't get Wounded increased, so that's nice. Everybody gets (at least) one.
I intergrated hero points into my game a long time ago and I LOVE it. Most of ky players save them just to cheat death, but that on its own has been phenomenal, usually as they crawl out of something lethal and everyone else says "You should be dead" "I was. I'm better now."
In my 1st 5E campaign as a DM (btw thanks Guy for ALL these vids, they've been a HUGE HELP for me in my campaign) I'm trying something I call Hero Rolls. I've made no bones about telling my player's that our game is about them becoming heroes of legendary stature. That means, at times, extremely hard enemies and impossible odds as well as actions of either extreme courage or foolhardiness. They have a set # of rolls/day and as their characters grow in fame and level they get more rolls to use at their discretion. To start I gave them a bonus 1D4 roll/day to add to any D20 roll, be it a skill, attack, saving throw, etc. It even adds bonuses like extra damage on an already successful attack rolls, or granting evasion for successful dex saves against an AOE spell. ... So far its only been used as the "Get out of jail free" roll against nat 1's... I expect they will get more adventurous with its use when they get more than 1 roll a day. But we'll see.
I much prefer a system where you (player) start each session with one, then it's up to you to call out an appropriate time to use it (if you remember, i.e. it's totally the players' responsibility; not dependent on the DM to grant them). You can tie the use of them to your character traits, if you like, e.g. Bob the Fighter uses his inspiration point to help shield Sally the Rogue from a dragon's breath, because his bond is all about family and friends and helping others in times of greatest need. So Bob grants Sally advantage (or success) on her save. If you really want an in-session re-charge, you can allow a point to be earned through (for example) indulging a flaw.
Starwars Saga Edition had a wonderful way of handling this in my mind. Force Points were something that refreshed every level and were there for more regular buffs and bonuses, like adding 1d6 to a roll or something. And then there were DESTINY points, which were the much more powerful and you got one per level and they DID NOT COME BACK. Plus there were also Bennies in Savage Worlds. Bennies were fun.
The bennies were always fun to save up for some big things sometimes. XD Although the D20 Star Wars also had force points, dark side points, and I want to say the West End system had a compatible mechanic.
I'm subscribed to numerous D&D channels and I have to say Guy yours is by far the most helpful the best content I get the most use out of your videos every single one of your videos I believe I can incorporate it into my games and so I just want to say thank you and thank you for being you
My DM has implemented the core Inspiration of 5E, with a Luck Point system; each Nat20 nets +1 LP which can be added to any roll, be it an attack, skill check, or save. This has been quite useful in general in making characters a little better when needed, but has come in use in a really dramatic moment. My character Chef had inadvertently engaged a Flesh Golem or like creature in single combat after pulling a lever (it released the creature and auto-locked doors) and after the golem threw a table into him and bashed his chest in, he had rolled a Nat1 on a death save and died. The other players and myself burnt through all their Inspiration and Luck Points to alter fate and get him up, and then he proceeded to die a round or two later. While the outcome was the same in the end, it was quite an awesome moment in the session as everyone pooled their cosmic pull to try and change fate.
I have passed this down to my Players. A Player may put up an action/event/whatever of a different Player for a vote on whether an Inspiration point has been earned. They call each other out on things they thought the other Players did well. This vote must be accepted by a majority of the remaining Players with my vote (the DM) being a tie breaker (or a veto if I think they are just trying to stack up Inspiration within the group -- which they tried once). I have found that this has a couple of interesting effects: 1) They congratulate each other for simply playing in a way the others thought were fun/interesting 2) They seem to pay better attention to each others actions and stay engaged even when it's not necessarily their turn watching for those moments 3) They try to keep things fresh by attempting to 'earn' the vote and try things that might be more risky than a canned response to an event. Things that have resulted in votes: using spells in non-standard ways, twist an RP moment to a greater than usual advantage for the group, twist a potential dangerous situation into a walk away event by using RP to "talk their way out of it"
One way I've chosen to fix the problem of players feeling under appreciated etc when Hero Points (Inspiration) are awarded, is to award them to the Party, as a Party resource rather than to individual players. I don't know if this would work in every group, but for us it's really worked. It has the added benefit of group cohesion too. Now they're all working together to try and earn Hero Points and play off of each other.
My favorite inspiration system is Conviction from True20. You give your character a Virtue and a Vice, and when you interact with these in roleplaying you regain Conviction points. It’s mechanical, but it’s storytelling mechanical so it helps drive character development. New World of Darkness had a similar mechanic. They’re both brilliant.
You could use my system. Solves every problem and promotes more "in-character" scenes. I mark a tally (hidden from players) every time a player does something in-character, allows for/creates some engaging dialogue, or anything else I really like, even helping another player understand something on their sheet in a polite way. At the end of session, I multiply the tallies by something level appropriate, and award EVERY player character the same amount of experience. This is in addition to any other awards they may get (encounter XP, goal XP, Inspiration, etc.). This allows players who aren't skilled in dialogue to reap the benefits of allowing/enjoying their compatriots having a really good scene. It also encourages other players to help and uplift players because everyone benefits.
I really like the way FATE Core system works fate points - you get them for a complication that your character suffers, no matter if it's because their character's attribute that's the source or sometime else's. So those complications are encouraged and they make the story more unique and interesting
I love hero points. Early this year you advocated playing a new campaign, new system even new dice. Well, I've done that using the newly refurbished Alternity. It has a very flexible hero point system built in. Yes it is a point system, but it has some features I really like. I've always had issues with reward systems as some players tend to get them more frequently than others. This can then lead to a spiral where the rewarded players outstrip the others in abilities and capabilities. I like to be even handed. If one character does something great, it was really to everyone's advantage -- and it could be argued that they were given that opportunity by the activities of the other characters. In Alternity you award a point then the heroes complete some milestone in the story. I like it because the playing field stays level, and everyone gets a sense of accomplishment. If someone starts hording points in an attempt to become invincible... well... that's just an opportunity for a truly epic conflict with a high cool factor.... and wasn't it lucky that they had all those points. And in successfully navigating that epic conflict -- they get a point :)
Fell in love with the Mutants & Masterminds Hero Point system. For 5e, we use Inspiration Points and Hero Points. For groups with very low amounts of players, the Lucky feat may be handed out.
Honestly what I loved most about it was that in 3rd edition, getting those points was something the players could actively remind you of or tell you about. Invoking their complications, reminding you, the GM, of things and how it's affecting their character differently, was something you could reward them for. Just as long as they didn't go overboard on it of course.
Star Wars Saga Edition rules use both "force points" and "destiny points." Force points are used to amplify in-game actions (mainly rolls and abilities)and are given out every level based on class, while Destiny points are earned one at a time and allow for "game-breaking" actions to be used. It's a little more to manage, but I can totally see how they enhance that game now. Thank you :)
I introduced action points one day to my players. It rewards awesome roleplay that enhances the game for everyone. When you want to do something cool you can use them to reroll your dices, lets someone else reroll their dices, let an item appear that was not described before but would be plausible if it would be there or largely reduces the difficulty of a roll for an awesome but insanely difficulty action
I use an awakening system. Everyone gets a total of 3 fate points, they can spend levels of those points to do things First level: you gain one spell attack of their choice in range (Melee or Range) and damage type of 2d8 for one turn Second level: you gain 1 resistance and 1 immunity of your choice untill your next turn Third level: you gain the last two benefits, +10 to movement speed, and an additional 1d6 of damage on your attacks for 3 turns. When they choose any of the choices they become perminant for the future times they use it. I.e. barbarian chooses 2d8 fire damage melee spell when he first chooses it, it will become perminant attack each time he uses it Now its realy difficult for my players to get the 3rd Fate point, because i normaly save it for character moments and the like, but they realy seem to Injoy it. In a magic saturated campaign where everyone is soaked in magic, it helps make the players feel amazing. Giving them their super saiyan moment is something i always love. And they make some very interesting discriptions on their transformations too I feel like this could work for any high fantasy campaign, with a few tweaks
I call them Favor points and depending on the situation it might be a roll or an epic narrative, the narrative also changes based on the class and personality of the PC. Like a cleric using it well the get inspiration from their deity and hear their voice or reaching out their hand and lifting them up etc. Makes for some good and rare moments that can’t be replicated.
7th sea did this mechanic way back in 1999 with it's drama dice. It's a wonderful mechanic/concept and I've been using it or a variation of it in pretty much every game ever since. If anything, I think d&d's generic version (inspiration) is pretty tame compared to what other systems allows. Nevertheless, I'm happy they add it.
i often forget about experience and inspiration. but i have slightly modified inspiration. rather than giving it out in the moment, i will give it out while giving XP (because i will probably remember during XP instead of in the moment) and if a player does something inspiration worthy during the session i will let them something to choose from: they can choose to have extra XP or they can choose to have a free re-roll (unless they have one at the moment) or they can choose to draw a fortune card for one-time use. (unless they have one at the moment) fortune cards are actually something out of 4th edition. you could buy booster packs of these things at your game stores and players could build decks of 10 cards or more of extra abilities to use in certain circumstances outlined on the card. i didn't like the idea of having a deck of cards, but i thought if these could be used as player rewards for one-time use. some of these cards' use-cases are connected to 4e abilities like encounter powers or daylies but those could be reworded to make sense for 5E and a lot can be system neutral
My main criteria for awarding bonus points is basically, when players put role playing ahead of pure and pragmatic success. I had a player who was a heroic, noble and naive Paladin. He had a bad guy beaten and on his knees but decided he wasn't gonna kill him. Pragmatically, this doesn't make sense but it made sense for his character. He gets points for that.
Well, you convinced me. Last session our Brand new Player knocked it out of the park in his first session. Our warlock had been pulled out of the broken abandoned keep by harpies, as he, (the tiefling assasin) managed to just behead the harpy Matriarch (The big boss). Warlock was now stories down below the rest of the party, and had failed a stealth roll and in his screams of pain, alerted 3 harpies to attack the weakend target. (8hp left). The Player asks if he can stick the head of the Harpy Matriarch out of the window! To which I say absolutely and rolled a percentile dice as to how many harpies go into a rage and fly up to attack him. 2/3 went to hit the assasin and ended up in that round knocking him out (luckily he was with the Paladin) when there was a very real chance these harpies were going to kill the Warlock who was too far away for help. The player then was like "Oh ok, that didn't work out so great..." And we (the rest of the party) had to be like "What do you mean?! You just saved their life! That was awesome!" - Then I explained what was going to happen if they hadn't have done that. All three harpies were going to swarm the warlock and flank him, and tear him apart. Only after that did he realise how cool what he did was. And he stayed up another 3 hours with another player (We're housemates) on an absolute D&D high chatting about what they did last session. Its something I will now absolutely give him an Inspiration Point for as I introduce this mechanic. (I actually have star stickers in different colours for my notes to highlight cool things that happen that I want to follow up already)
I always tell new players: the first one [inspiration points] is free, to earn more of them your goal isn't to impress me, it's to get messy, pay attention, and learn about the characters you are playing. Once a couple of them acquire a taste for inspiration points they tend to talk more with me between games about their characters' respective story arcs!
My group has a similar system and some memorable uses was getting to dash twice instead of once to catch up with a boss that was fleeing, which was great in story and another time was sticking up a pole arm during a storm and mechanically casting call lightning on my self and the surrounding enemies
Amen Euan! We are a group of old, experienced players. We use well-tested tactics and ploys to win combats. But there are times when my characters says, "Screw that! I HATE that villain! I leave the melee and charge forward with my favorite sword, Cho-chan."
We play Savage Worlds and they call these "Bennies" (or Benefits) - players start with 3 at the start of a session and they can gain more through good roleplaying and generally having fun and playing well. It's a good system :)
Cypher system is probably the best version of these inspiration point systems out there. They tied it into their XP system and bound the gaining of XP to rolls made by players and positive player behaviors that help other party members, unlock new information, or move the story forward. The core of Cypher XP is that when you roll a 1 you get 2 XP. One to keep and one to give to another player. Then the GM throws a complication at the party unless you give back the 2 XP. This can be expanded to rewarding everone 1 XP when anyone rolls a 20, giving XP for high investigation, arcana, or history checks, rewarding good role playing, and just about anything else you want to see more of by triggering a pavlovian response to with XP rewards. Figure out how fast you want the players to be able to level and then tell them how many XP they need to trade in to level up. 4 times current level. 4 times current proficiency bonus. 5 points up to level 5, then tier 2 levels cost more, and tier 3 even more. Anything that works. And if you don't want one player shooting ahead in level tell them they all have to be on the same proficiency bonus before anyone can increase theirs, and let them trade XP among themselves for other rewards. Did the wizard or rogue just give 5 XP to the character lagging behind because they dumped Int? They get 10 Sanity points for their generosity and everyone else gets 5 Sanity because you're gonna be fighting mind flayers next. The same goes for Honor, Renown, and Piety. All good ways to reward player behavior and investment.
DnD5e I have a routine at the end of each session. I ask the players what their favorite scenes were, what scenes they didn't like at all and general feedback. Then i ask them what questions their characters are asking themselves and at the very end it's inspiration time where i note down why i give them inspiration. I also allow for more than one inspiration, my bard ran into an (for her) unexpected bard contest. She burned through 5 inspiration points that she saved up over the last 5 sessions to gain an advantage and win the crowd over. Currently they can only use it to get advantage, but i'll rethink what you said. I'm sure they'll find some interesting ways to screw me over with this! That'd be fun.
it took my until the posting of this comment for me to understand what you were referencing in the beginning. I was so confused because i thought you were trying to talk about Raphael and his at the time, pretty innovative use of size and foreshortening to denote perspective. and then you started talking about bandanas and i was completely lost. BUT I GET IT NOW, ITS A NINJA TURTLE THING. boy do i feel stupid
Completely agree great thoughts and ideas! I play in Open Legend which has Legend Points same idea but adv/dis is not binary so not quite as powerful as inspiration. So I let the players reward 1 or 2 a session to each other either for a great rp moment or to help another player succeed at an important roll. It's worked well cuz everyone is invested in each others moments and I've delegated the responsibility so if I forget it's not a problem. Plus flavoring the LP assist is really fun I usually ask the player how they think they (or luck/divine/fate) help!
You are better off using the FATE point system from FATE or the light/dark side points from star wars: EotE. Like you mentioned, the points you are suggesting are subjective or you can easily forget to award them. In FATE everyone starts the4 session with x points and they can be used for a rerol or bonus. The GM has unlimited FATE points and he or another player can compel the character to do something in exchange for a FATE point. The player can refuse, but it costs them a FATE point. In star wars, there is always a static x number of points for the whole party and when used, they flip to dark side, alowing the GM to make things difficult and then fipping to the light side.
I mainly play savage worlds so olayers have bennies to spend 3 at least unless i remember to hand more out at the game. they wont fix a crit fail or let you re-roll damage with a perk, but they help when you roll bad on your primary thing you do and in my super hero game they can let you get power points back to keep the interdenominational octopus from escaping and reeking havoc on the world.
As soon as i heard this is a thing in 5E i adopted it in my game. At the begining of a session one of my players i going to recap the last session after which the group is rewarded with one Inspiration token. In adition to that each player is able to get another "personal" inspiration point. Once in a while i´ll give an inspiration point if a player does something nice for the group like bringing special snacks to the table or beeing supportive to other players.
you can use them as a point based system (inspiration). 1- players won't always use them.. they may even have to be reminded they have them,, I play Darwin's World, and my players tend to forget they have them.. 2- NPC's can also have inspiration points..
Here's an idea I'm borrowing from the original Star Wars RPG by West End Games. In the WEG Star Wars game, players received Hero Points that they could spend give themselves a +1 bonus, with the ability to spend multiple hero points on a one-per-+1 basis, to a maximum of 5. The thing was, these hero points were also their EXPERIENCE POINTS, and each point they spent to give them a bonus was a point they didn't get to spend on improving their character. So why not do similar. Using D&D as an example, Let them get inspiration as a pool they can keep, letting them know that they can spend the inspiration for, say, 1 inspiration for 5 XP. Then they can pool the inspiration, but they might also not want to spend it because then they can save it to get XP at the end of the adventure.
I use Hero Points. Each char earns 1 when they level up & then for amazing ideas / actions or taking risks that are fun/exciting. PCs can hold them to a max of 3 pts at any one time, but I & now my players remind them to use them: “You can re-roll that Nat.1 by using 1 of your Hero Points!”, “Can I add a die to my Acrobatics roll to offset my slide down the cliff to find a hold or ledge?” I have 1 player who is quieter but has great ideas. I make sure to listen carefully to him, & if his ideas spawn actions by the team, I call these out & award him Hero Pts.
Hero points are an integral part of CD10. A player can spend gained xp to re-roll a check, roll an additional die as part of a check, or even shift the outcome of a save or check. This is absolutely necessary in such a lethal system as CD10. The players love it, and feel very exposed without it. However, I don't see the hero points as a narrative tool. They are tools for the players to mitigate random bad luck, to take the edge off of boring deaths. They however are limited because the players have to give up xp to do it, and they may only spend two per session, so they must still be careful. That doesn't stop anyone from narrating what happens. That should always be done regardless.
@@CanadianCrits ye, not a lot of us out here ^^ but I love the system. Imo the best system for newcomers into paprpg cuz it's straightforward, easy to learn and can be bend for most scenarios
@@bastianstiefler3390 I completly agree. I first got into paprpgs from watching Table Top Time and then eventually learning how to play Cogent. It's a fun, flexible and easy system to pick up.
Hero points have been around way before D&D 5e, Mutants and Masterminds for example already used such system (also called Hero Points). About D&D i remmember there was already things like that since D&D 3.5 Unearthed Arcana, but they were called Action Points and bacame a core mechanic of D&D 4e later. There are also plenty other system that use similar mechanics with many variations and roles within the game. Right now i use the hero point rules of Pathfinder, i also award HP with a vote system. If a player behave well i give them a vote, each player can vote on other players they believe were somekind of an MVP either because of roleplaying or because of good gameplay overall. Once someone achieve 5 votes they receive a hero point. That way if someone behaves they gain 1 HP each 5 sessions at least even if no other player voted for him, everything is secret so no one feels any pressure to vote between sessions. Another thing i do is use fumbles, if someone rolls a 1 they can either just choose that to be a miss or roll on my critical fumble table, if he does roll on it he gains a hero point for the inconvinience. So it creates a unique situation where my players sometimes CHOOSE to fail at something to gain a resource to do something badass later and the results are really great.
I give a HP to each player that behaved well so once each 5 sessions everyone with good behaviour gets a HP even if no other player votes for him. They do behave really well since not only me, but their own companions can award them so it's kinda of an self-monitoring system. Something i forgot to mention is that the HP gained by the fumble only last the encounter so they can't use fumbles to "farm" them. Also they depend to actually have rolled 1 on the D20 to gain the choice to roll on the table so there is that too. They never tried to abuse it because even tough some fumbles are just minor setbacks there are some that could be really bad if it happens at the worst person or at the worst time. Since they never know what they will get it turns out they use it with respect. Examples of my fumbles are things like: Getting intimidated by the enemy defense after your own attack failure and getting the shaken condition until you hit that enemy with an attack. Losing focus during the combat making your initiative count go to last place next round. Some of them are worse than that, but most of them are just temporary setbacks.
Im using a looser version of Benefits in my Shadow Dark game. Always RP and Heroism, but any Genius or Cathartic: Laughter, Cheering,lWeeping and yes Moaning from The Table. And they get an XP when they earn it, and when they spend it.
lol I got excited because I thought you were referencing hero points as defined in the DMG on page 264. I was like maybe I’m not the only one that uses those in game!
I'm using a homebrew Hero Points system in my Pathfinder campaign, but it's still quite... faulty. So, great advice for me! I have, by the way, two suggestions for topics I would love to see your opinion to: The first is - Cosmic Horror. A few years ago you did a great video about Horror in general, building tone and setting and so on. But I think Cosmic Horror deserves its own spotlight. I'm especially interested in the question if it is at all adaptable for Tabletop RPGs (despite that there's at least one RPG which explicitly revolves around Cosmic Horror), since I feel that the essential element of Cosmic Horror, the existence of an uncaring and unsurmountably powerful presence, might be unsatisfying for a Tabletop group. My question is: Am I right, or ist it possible to introduce that kind of horror without instilling that sense of futility, at least in the players? And if it is possible, how do you create a Cosmic Horror campaign or adventure? The second topic I'd be interested in is - Humor. I see three aspects of Humor with regard to Tabletop RPGs. First, out-of-character: Players joking around the gaming table, general silliness - not necessarily a bad thing if kept in good measure. Woul you have some thoughts and advices how to keep the right measure? Second, in-character: Any thoughts about jokester, prankster and trickster characters (bards, bards and maybe bards), in-game pranks and possibly taunts. And also here maybe some thoughts about where to draw the line and what to do for a GM to keep it in good measure. And thirdmaybe the most interesting aspect: setting inherent. How about playing a campaign in an inherently comedic setting? How to construct such a setting, build the tone and play adventures that are hilarious but still functional? I'm thinking about possibly a cartoon setting, maybe in the line of _Who framed Roger Rabbit?_ , or a _Spaceballs_ - inspired Sci-Fi setting, or maybe an epic fantasy campaign on Terry Pratchett's _Discworld_ . Can that work, and how?
Even though I am a simulationist, I still use them, but I make my player tell me how it works. They can say something like, "Oh, I suddenly remember some advice an old monster hunter gave me about a special kill-spot." Sure, it's just a re-roll, but its much more fun for the story while still making sense, which appeases my simulationist sensibilities.
In my game, i have a house rule that players can collect more than one insperation in order to make sure in difficult times, or hard situations, they dont die from something stupid like falling on their face while running from a dragon right behind them
I once used a whole campaign's worth of snack bringing and roleplaying to let my warlock upcast "etherealness" and save the remainder of the group from a surrounding army and Total Party kill. The murderhobo didn't make it, nor did our poor spell jammer - The Golden Winds
I feel like you could have something like Karma Points. If you do a good thing you get a Karma Point which you could spend or save; karma tends to build up, after all. But if you do a bad thing you also get a Karma Point. But a negative one... Good Karma points could be saved for a passive buff which could build up over time and lets you do small things like rerolling a 1 every certain number of hours. Or you could spend a number of points for a number of effects. Like getting lucky on a persuasion check because your karma and reputation is so good. Or spend a chunk in a dire situation like rerolling a final hit or a death save or something. Bad Karma Points would be the same but in reverse. Your luck would get worse and you'd have disadvantage on checks, especially ones related to luck. To get rid of the bad karma you could just let one bad thing happen to you, like you get caught up in a bar fight you didn't start or caught with ill gotten loot and you spend a day in jail. OR the easier way is just go do some good things and equalize your bad karma with good karma. Note, I would give out Karma points for stand out deeds and the "good" and "bad" doesn't have to be black and white, either. Did the thief pull off a daring theft from a corrupt leader, without hurting anybody, then gave the loot to the poor? Good Karma Point. Did the thief steal from a poor family and took one of their few remaining prized possessions and also beat them up in the process? Bad Karma Point. One good and one bad karma point per session seems reasonable to me. You can only get ONE of both per session so people don't try and farm them and if you get one good and one bad, well, they cancel each other out and it's as if you didn't get any that session.
Rikku Takanashi No offense but this just sounds like a convoluted system to punish players for making decisions you don’t like. Not every character is a flavor of good (though most are) and punishing players like this for role playing seems excessive if it’s not actively harming the experience of other players. On the flip side, making morally good characters just outright better via buffs means that there’s no reason to be anything other than a good alignment pc, since they straight up just have an easier time with these rules.
Marvel Superheroes Role-playing game from the 80s called their awards Karma. All experience and all heroic acts, or even just being responsible (your character makes it to class on time) was worth Karma. Bad guy stuff (stealing, cheating) was negative Karma. Everyone was expected to be good because it's a superhero game, so it worked.
@@floyd3426 Except if you do a "bad thing" your going to get punished for it in one way or another. Either the legal system will catch up to you, people will just stop wanting to treat with you due to a bad reputation, or karma quiet literally could catch up to you. Unless your playing a Evil game or the DM is a complete pushover who lets their players walk all over them regardless of how logical or illogical the thing is. And there are worse ways a DM could punish someone for a "bad thing." Karma Points would at least allow someone to make it up by doing a good thing to counter the bad. And unless it's stated up front that evil pcs might be in the game, they shouldn't be in a casual game of D&D because a lot of hurt feelings happen that way. In a game where your supposed to be the "Heroes" you shouldn't have to worry about a backstabbing unless the possibility of such is covered in a session 0.
I use a separate inspiration die in my games, a d24, which may be used to reroll any d20. Only one player per session is allowed to use it. It's rewarded based on good roleplay as voted by the other players at the end of a session.
2:46 We've decided to pass this responsibility on to our stream viewers, it helps award them to players the audience thinks might need them. And we have a rule that you cannot have them two sessions in a row.
I always used similar mechanics in older games. I called them Badass Points and Heroic Rerolls. You got them for doing badass or otherwise heroic things and we'd also take them away for doing thoroughly unbadass stuff.
Objection! Your claim that it's always fallen to the person in charge of running the game to award point - that's factually incorrect. Legends of the Wulin, a (quite good if a bit math-heavy in combat) Wuxia RPG set in a Mythic China that never was has a mechanic wherein each player gets to nominate a Deed for one other player; one action taken that was so exemplary and awesome that people will talk about it for years to come. The Sage (that system's name for the GM) has no say in the matter, each player gets to award one Deed per session, and the Sage gets to award one, as well. But yeah, aside from that one system, I do believe you're fundamentally right about the GM being saddled with all the reward allotment work.
I've found that inspiration points suffer from the same problem as potions in computer games. You end up hanging onto them because you might find a greater need for them later. So almost everyone wanders around with "Inspiration" too scared to use them just in case they need them to save their lives later. I see so many times the DM has told someone they get Inspiration, but they reveal they've already got one so there's no point. Getting people used to spending them is the barrier here.
Guy could you do a video on DMig pvp/PvNCP arena style combat I'm running a game where the barbarian will turn evil and the rouge is an agent of his so party is going to fight to the death at some point Suggestions Ideas How to run a pvp stealth mechanic for the rouge etc IE SOS
If you want to run Arena style pvp watch the critical role battle Royale on shot. They all have medicore characters and the system is pvp friendly. The problem can be that one pc oneshot/on round kill the other PC and than it is really unfun.
It's a reasonable idea and -- with the right group of players -- can be a good potential way to "inspire better play." But in my experience players aren't always going to be mature/serious enough to accept that, and instead will often try to use their points as a way to circumvent obstacles, or bend the rules to their advantage, or (as you so aptly put it) as a "Get Out of Jail Free" card. Rather than inspiring better play, they become a crutch for lazy thinking, and when the GM denies or refuses to allow a point to be used in that manner the player(s) get upset because you're "impinging on player advocacy."
I don't award inspiration points period. I grant them inspiration in the moment they take a action that is amazing or "Cool". Role players get NPC's awarded to them (since they are in to that) Combat players get visualised combat and weird enemies they can fight. (They want to fight, might as well give em a good one) Giving players "Special" things with limited use is just gonna end up them either hoarding or never using it incase they might need it later on. This is a RPG/MMO issue, once you get a single use item you are reluctant to use it regardless of its purpose.
Ok, here's the thing gentlemen and ladies, look back to how the great Gygax played the game and hire a bunch of adventuring dudes from your nearest town, or if you're fortunate enough to acquire them, henchmen. Now, go back into those chaotic caves and have the greatest fun exploring map, slaying shit, and cracking open a beautiful chest or two. But, now here's the difference from today's mindset, good guys died! Back then a whole bunch of good ol' boys perished in these campaigns. Hopefully it wasn't your pet PC but the reality of mortal death was palpable and that's what made you feel alive if you survive another day. Or, you can just have a system of princess, primadona points, up to you.
The original Star Wars RPG game inherently had an epic system when a player would choose to use a Force Point. It was heroic and exciting if used at the right time in a dire situation. A Dark Side Point was not so much a penalty: more of a role-playing occasion for the player and a quest to either do good or move the character (player choice) to a tragic fate. // I disagree though with penalty and preference for "good" players as it will assuredly cause frustrations and ALL players should feel they were allowed to play their character as they saw fit; no matter what others/DM think of it. I have yet to play a tabletop game with friends where we give extra points to one player or less to others and do not feel like ever being in one like that.
Looks like shadowrun 6ed is already worse than expected at first glance. Because Edge (Shadowrun's Hero Points) is just that in the 6ed. A non-narrative game mechanic. The one with i do that and that and now i get points. You even have to apply this mechanic like that, because almost everything is based on Edge in the 6ed and if you don't use it that way, the character is virtually useless. Exception if you build a super munckin character with the binding not to use edge
I know Mutants and Masterminds has a hero point system where playing to character flaws or traits can earn you a point that you can spend later to edit scenes to the player's benefit... * thinks * hmm... * goes to buy a whole bunch of d6 dice to act as inspiration dice * Don't know if/when I'll deploy these; still new to all this... even if I've been trying to find a table for over a year...
I just started DMing and I hand out inspiration like tic-tak mints. However, my chaotic evil players get excited to get them only to almost instantly forget that they have them (I don't remind them, track your stuff my guys). Mostly, I like to think they won't notice that I have no idea what I'm doing if I keep giving them toys: Made DM laugh? Inspired! Solved x-y-z faster than expected? Inspired! Did something clever? Inspired! I let them pool their points (they forget they have them anyway) but starts fresh with each session. So far, no prblems :)
metagaming might incur negative points. If the character is not able to deduce or explain how they know something, then the GM would decide wheter they lose points, given a warning or perhaps npc would be suspicious of the character.
I Hero Builder there is Hero Points and Master Points. To get a Hero Point simply do something epic or do good role play. It is then set to the other players to vote if that hero gets the Hero Point. Hero Points give an extra 2 actions in combat or can be used for bending the games rules. Master Point is a Rule Free Wish and are either given by the Hero Master or when leveling up in a Godly. Campaign. To see how they fully work go check out the Core Rulebook on www.thetablecandle.com
Did not clarify that Heroes get Hero Points for creating fun powers. We had one Hero create a Power that summoned a Dolphin that slapped the enemy then return to the ocean. Was so good we all agreed she should start with a Hero Point.
I reward them for staying in character and not making decisions that go against there character, such as a holy paladin allowing the NE character to steal or harm.
I thought this was going to be more like my idea for "honor points" for campaigns where a character's honor and reputation matter a lot or "piety points" for one where religion matters a lot. I mean, if the gods were real, you _would_ be looking for ways to please them.
How do you reward a player who keeps coming up with amazing ideas, that you yourself like as the GM, but the other players keep poopooing them, and then later going, "hey maybe we should have used so and so's idea."?
But do you really need Hero points? Hero points are pointless. (pun intended) It sounds like the "Rule of Cool" is a much better fit for what you are trying to do. If it sounds cool you can do it. No points needed. Also Hero points have a dark side. They are a mechanical excuse for the GM to punish people who don't play the game the way they want them to play. Hero points are a tool. BUT the method of getting them should be fair. AND they are best used as a way to smooth away wild swings of dice rolling that fight against the story. Sometimes at the critical moment the hero rolls a fumble. The Hero point mechanic is best used to allow a fair reroll in that critical moment without destroying your game by using plot armor.
All this "don't dwell on the rules" stuff feels like a screed from that side of the hobby that hates the Game part of Roleplaying Games. Lots of "use this mechanic, but don't let anyone think of it like a game mechanic or people might have fun wrong". Lots of paying lip service to the idea of the game when you clearly would rather be freeform roleplaying without mechanics at all. Thing is, it turns out that if you use a game system that supports the playstyle, setting, and genre you want, the rules support play rather than getting in the way. And there are plenty of games that are not only built around this sort of mechanic, but which use them in a defined way rather than being a vaguely-defined permission slip from the GM, handed out on a whim.
It’s all about what the group considers “fun”. For example, I play with a group of 5-10 year olds at my job. I’m not gonna big them down with rules and all the TPKs they should have had by now lol. We just play the rules fast and loose. In my own personal games, especially as a player, I prefer to follow the rules as much as possible
I don't know why you keep pushing narrative versus rules instead of trying to find a symbiotic relationship. It's overly negative and I hope not your ultimate intention. However there has been a trend in your narrative that your arbitration outside the rules is superior.
The idea is that no rules system can possibly account for ever variable and the ones that do are... Well they are unpleasant to say the least. Narrative needs to trump rules sometimes. If the rules as written would result in making the narrative less fun, then it's okay to ignore the rules in that moment. Rules only exist to facilitate the narrative and do once they inhibit it, they are no longer fulfilling their purpose.
I made it like this: The Players gain Hero Dices for extraordinary/heroic deeds or for perfectly playing their character. They get a D6 that can be added to ANY dice throw, even critical fails can be saved with these dice. But i give them out rarely and only for real "cool combat Stuff" like a Halfling Bard beats a Goliath Fighter in a barefist fight but also for other cool stuff like the Tiefling Sorceres seduces one of the most boneheaded npcs to do her a favour/talk traders into gifting things...
Let us know in the comments below how you have used such a system in your game! And if you are planning on an epic nautical campaign, don't miss out on our Kickstarter: www.kickstarter.com/projects/guysclanders/a-complete-guide-to-nautical-campaigns/
I definitely like this idea for "hero points" some of my players really go beyond what is expected in their RP and this would be a fun way to reward them i think.
I often reward my players with what I call "style points" when they come up with an interesting way to do so something I give them a bonus to their roll for the action they are trying to do. For instance my players instead of kidnapping the banker (he was robbing people) and using him to unlock the safe to retrieve the towns folks gold they instead broke into the bank and decided to unlock the safe themselves. So I came up with an overly complex magical lock they had to best and they came up with an awesome idea to bore a hole through the safe door with a molten metal rod. Instead of saying no you cant i let them do it and i gave them a bonus to the rolls as they attempted to do it. It was fun and everyone enjoyed it.
I use hero points in my game. I give all of my players one at the start of a game. I give them one if they do something that surprises me. They can have a maximum of 3 this way. They can keep them between games.
I also award 1 to the person that does the best recap of the last session in our group chat. These ones can be obtained over the 3 point in game cap.
1 point will automatically make 3 death saves and heal the character a hit dice.
2 points will allow a player to reroll ANY dice that has been rolled.
3 points will allow a character an extra action or reaction on their turn.
10 points will get the character a level with the same % towards their next level that they had before.
I award what I call "At-a-boys" The player behaves like a hero and is awarded an at-a-boy. After awhile the players will catch on to what a "hero" is. An at-a-boy awards a player a second die roll and the player gets to choose which one to accept. So a bad die roll vs. a critical failure..well there it is.
The Dmg also has a point system (I forget what it's called off the top of my head) that let's players spend a point to alter the story in someway, like magically finding a secret passage or making an NPC appear. A player can even become the DM for a while. I thought this was a really interesting and cool idea.
Conviniently, the Dmg also has "Hero Points" that can be spent to add to your roll, I think it's an extra D6.
The first time I ever used a mechanic like "inspiration" points was in Cogent Roleplay (my gateway game into ttrpgs) and in that we used Destiny Points.
Very cool video Guy!
As a player, remember to nominate your fellow players for Inspiration! If someone at the table does something you enjoy, speak up. You're DM may not notice how much their actions improve the game for you and that's definitely worth of a point.
That's a great idea
I do a Jojo's Bizzare Adventure game, and to emulate the show I use hero points. What I let them do is by spending the point, you can proclaim you did an action that you never said you did as a "Gotcha!" moment against an opponent or obstacle.
I'm starting a JJBA game with my group using Mutants and Masterminds and we agreed that Hero Points and the narrative alterations and sudden single-time changes to how a power works is wonderfully in line with those kinds of moments, too. Coincidentally, the fact it's damn near impossible to kill a PC in that system also emulates the sheer amount of punishment JJBA characters can take, too. We didn't plan that but it just worked out that way.
@@SetrinSkyheart We use M&M3E ourselves
But can the villians do it?
@@anthonynorman7545 Well of course. The more powerful the opponent and the more they abuse it, the more points he/she builds up to use
@@MegaMawileTheNommer niiiiccceee!
In a recent 5e game the DM awarded me an inspiration point. I wasn't familiar with that, so, later on, when I had a chance to do something awesome I asked if I could use the inspiration point to swing on a banner (which the DM had mentioned) and kick the mono-logging bad guy off his podium. The DM had me roll an acrobatics check with advantage, which I rolled well on, so bad guy got knocked off his high horse and a heavy battle commenced. It was a grand moment and, as you say, far better than just adding 1d8 to some roll somewhere.
I use destiny points. A destiny point may be traded in to reroll any die or to turn a death into a KO. Though they can be used for other stuff with GM permission. They are earned by making decisions in character and doing what makes sense for your character even if such decisions might not be optimal. Or just outstanding role playing in general.
Ah like the fate system right?
I use DM-points. With a DM-point the player can, momenterily, take control of the story.
A monster rolls a crit? Player spends a DM-point and I have to reroll. Same thing if they themself miss or a skill-check.
If they hoard those points they can trade them for sweet loot in a dungeon (which they still got to find though).
Heike Siegl Maybe. I haven’t looked at that system
We called them fate points back in the 2nd ed days before it was even a mechanic. In my game last weekend a player used one to force a success on a polymorph spell.
That's the term used in WFRP
I've been using a version of this since the early 90's.
'Rule of Cool": - every character starts with 5 "cool points", every time a character (in character) does something "cool" (nearly completely arbitrary, varies greatly based on game genre) their character gets another "cool point". Cool points could be turned in for a 5% / +1 modifier to die rolls (in bulk if you are that much of an action hero). At the end of the night the total of "cool points" was applied to the character's XP earned for the night - forcing the players to agonize over if an action is important enough to burn his points on or if the XP bonus would help more. (I think I stole it from 90's white wolf games)
Feel free to re-name them, 90's me was shite at naming mechanics.
Games that use these well I find are Mouseguard, Golden Skies Stories, Ryuutama, or Tenra Bansho Zero.
My players rarely use them, but they horde them jealously. Oftentimes I give 1 inspiration to everyone who brings a treat or does something to help the group out that session, and I let them use inspiration at any time. My favorite times were when players chose to fall unconscious and risk death and defeat just to save a single inspiration point... which they then end up using to reroll a failed persuasion check to convince a mimic to become their own personal caddy.
My players are adorable and they still think they're ruining my plans with every insane attempt to seduce the lich or teleport through hell to skip half of the dungeon... I don't have the heart to tell them I stopped making complex plans after the first session I ran for them, because they are just so proud of themselves.
In my 5e campaign, we have been using inspiration to gain advantage on a roll, to use a healing surge (as in the 4e rules) or to take another action within a turn. I hadn't thought about using inspiration as a sort of pseudo "luck point" as from Top Secret/SI (way back) or to do other amazing things. As always, these videos never fail to allow me to see new ways to do the thing I have been doing forever. Thanks!!!
I like the way Pathfinder 2nd does it: you get up to 3 of them and recover one inspiration every single session, however when you need em the most (When you're making Death saves) using them takes all of them away.
It's nice cause it encourages players to ration them out between using them or having at least one in reserve to literally not die.
In between sessions you're RESET to 1, which is an important detail. So if you end on 2, you wasted 2, because you always start with 1.
Easily houseruled, but remember that the reset is a built in system that exists to encourage spending by straight up denying any form of hoarding.
Also if you Hero back to not-dying you don't get Wounded increased, so that's nice. Everybody gets (at least) one.
"Death is the greatest adventure of all" - Robin Williams (Hook)
The FATE system is pretty much built around these.
What a glorious tie you have!
My old high-school tie :) Howick High ftw!
I intergrated hero points into my game a long time ago and I LOVE it. Most of ky players save them just to cheat death, but that on its own has been phenomenal, usually as they crawl out of something lethal and everyone else says "You should be dead" "I was. I'm better now."
I can kinda seeing this work similar to Call of Cthulhu's luck, where you can spend a number of points to push a roll's total.
In my 1st 5E campaign as a DM (btw thanks Guy for ALL these vids, they've been a HUGE HELP for me in my campaign) I'm trying something I call Hero Rolls. I've made no bones about telling my player's that our game is about them becoming heroes of legendary stature. That means, at times, extremely hard enemies and impossible odds as well as actions of either extreme courage or foolhardiness. They have a set # of rolls/day and as their characters grow in fame and level they get more rolls to use at their discretion. To start I gave them a bonus 1D4 roll/day to add to any D20 roll, be it a skill, attack, saving throw, etc. It even adds bonuses like extra damage on an already successful attack rolls, or granting evasion for successful dex saves against an AOE spell.
...
So far its only been used as the "Get out of jail free" roll against nat 1's... I expect they will get more adventurous with its use when they get more than 1 roll a day. But we'll see.
I much prefer a system where you (player) start each session with one, then it's up to you to call out an appropriate time to use it (if you remember, i.e. it's totally the players' responsibility; not dependent on the DM to grant them). You can tie the use of them to your character traits, if you like, e.g. Bob the Fighter uses his inspiration point to help shield Sally the Rogue from a dragon's breath, because his bond is all about family and friends and helping others in times of greatest need. So Bob grants Sally advantage (or success) on her save. If you really want an in-session re-charge, you can allow a point to be earned through (for example) indulging a flaw.
Starwars Saga Edition had a wonderful way of handling this in my mind. Force Points were something that refreshed every level and were there for more regular buffs and bonuses, like adding 1d6 to a roll or something. And then there were DESTINY points, which were the much more powerful and you got one per level and they DID NOT COME BACK.
Plus there were also Bennies in Savage Worlds. Bennies were fun.
The bennies were always fun to save up for some big things sometimes. XD Although the D20 Star Wars also had force points, dark side points, and I want to say the West End system had a compatible mechanic.
I like the idea of the dm secretly tallying inspiration points and using them how they feel
I'm subscribed to numerous D&D channels and I have to say Guy yours is by far the most helpful the best content I get the most use out of your videos every single one of your videos I believe I can incorporate it into my games and so I just want to say thank you and thank you for being you
My DM has implemented the core Inspiration of 5E, with a Luck Point system; each Nat20 nets +1 LP which can be added to any roll, be it an attack, skill check, or save. This has been quite useful in general in making characters a little better when needed, but has come in use in a really dramatic moment.
My character Chef had inadvertently engaged a Flesh Golem or like creature in single combat after pulling a lever (it released the creature and auto-locked doors) and after the golem threw a table into him and bashed his chest in, he had rolled a Nat1 on a death save and died. The other players and myself burnt through all their Inspiration and Luck Points to alter fate and get him up, and then he proceeded to die a round or two later.
While the outcome was the same in the end, it was quite an awesome moment in the session as everyone pooled their cosmic pull to try and change fate.
I have passed this down to my Players. A Player may put up an action/event/whatever of a different Player for a vote on whether an Inspiration point has been earned. They call each other out on things they thought the other Players did well. This vote must be accepted by a majority of the remaining Players with my vote (the DM) being a tie breaker (or a veto if I think they are just trying to stack up Inspiration within the group -- which they tried once). I have found that this has a couple of interesting effects: 1) They congratulate each other for simply playing in a way the others thought were fun/interesting 2) They seem to pay better attention to each others actions and stay engaged even when it's not necessarily their turn watching for those moments 3) They try to keep things fresh by attempting to 'earn' the vote and try things that might be more risky than a canned response to an event. Things that have resulted in votes: using spells in non-standard ways, twist an RP moment to a greater than usual advantage for the group, twist a potential dangerous situation into a walk away event by using RP to "talk their way out of it"
One way I've chosen to fix the problem of players feeling under appreciated etc when Hero Points (Inspiration) are awarded, is to award them to the Party, as a Party resource rather than to individual players. I don't know if this would work in every group, but for us it's really worked. It has the added benefit of group cohesion too. Now they're all working together to try and earn Hero Points and play off of each other.
My favorite inspiration system is Conviction from True20. You give your character a Virtue and a Vice, and when you interact with these in roleplaying you regain Conviction points. It’s mechanical, but it’s storytelling mechanical so it helps drive character development.
New World of Darkness had a similar mechanic. They’re both brilliant.
You could use my system. Solves every problem and promotes more "in-character" scenes.
I mark a tally (hidden from players) every time a player does something in-character, allows for/creates some engaging dialogue, or anything else I really like, even helping another player understand something on their sheet in a polite way. At the end of session, I multiply the tallies by something level appropriate, and award EVERY player character the same amount of experience. This is in addition to any other awards they may get (encounter XP, goal XP, Inspiration, etc.).
This allows players who aren't skilled in dialogue to reap the benefits of allowing/enjoying their compatriots having a really good scene. It also encourages other players to help and uplift players because everyone benefits.
I really like the way FATE Core system works fate points - you get them for a complication that your character suffers, no matter if it's because their character's attribute that's the source or sometime else's.
So those complications are encouraged and they make the story more unique and interesting
I agree Inspiration is a great mechanic and really encourages players to think outside the box and engage with the game beyond just combat.
I use the blood of heroes 2nd edition system. Its old! But it focus on hero points. Really love it and creates great games 😁
I love hero points. Early this year you advocated playing a new campaign, new system even new dice. Well, I've done that using the newly refurbished Alternity. It has a very flexible hero point system built in. Yes it is a point system, but it has some features I really like. I've always had issues with reward systems as some players tend to get them more frequently than others. This can then lead to a spiral where the rewarded players outstrip the others in abilities and capabilities. I like to be even handed. If one character does something great, it was really to everyone's advantage -- and it could be argued that they were given that opportunity by the activities of the other characters. In Alternity you award a point then the heroes complete some milestone in the story. I like it because the playing field stays level, and everyone gets a sense of accomplishment. If someone starts hording points in an attempt to become invincible... well... that's just an opportunity for a truly epic conflict with a high cool factor.... and wasn't it lucky that they had all those points. And in successfully navigating that epic conflict -- they get a point :)
Fell in love with the Mutants & Masterminds Hero Point system. For 5e, we use Inspiration Points and Hero Points. For groups with very low amounts of players, the Lucky feat may be handed out.
Honestly what I loved most about it was that in 3rd edition, getting those points was something the players could actively remind you of or tell you about. Invoking their complications, reminding you, the GM, of things and how it's affecting their character differently, was something you could reward them for. Just as long as they didn't go overboard on it of course.
Star Wars Saga Edition rules use both "force points" and "destiny points." Force points are used to amplify in-game actions (mainly rolls and abilities)and are given out every level based on class, while Destiny points are earned one at a time and allow for "game-breaking" actions to be used. It's a little more to manage, but I can totally see how they enhance that game now. Thank you :)
I introduced action points one day to my players. It rewards awesome roleplay that enhances the game for everyone. When you want to do something cool you can use them to reroll your dices, lets someone else reroll their dices, let an item appear that was not described before but would be plausible if it would be there or largely reduces the difficulty of a roll for an awesome but insanely difficulty action
I use an awakening system. Everyone gets a total of 3 fate points, they can spend levels of those points to do things
First level: you gain one spell attack of their choice in range (Melee or Range) and damage type of 2d8 for one turn
Second level: you gain 1 resistance and 1 immunity of your choice untill your next turn
Third level: you gain the last two benefits, +10 to movement speed, and an additional 1d6 of damage on your attacks for 3 turns.
When they choose any of the choices they become perminant for the future times they use it. I.e. barbarian chooses 2d8 fire damage melee spell when he first chooses it, it will become perminant attack each time he uses it
Now its realy difficult for my players to get the 3rd Fate point, because i normaly save it for character moments and the like, but they realy seem to Injoy it. In a magic saturated campaign where everyone is soaked in magic, it helps make the players feel amazing. Giving them their super saiyan moment is something i always love. And they make some very interesting discriptions on their transformations too
I feel like this could work for any high fantasy campaign, with a few tweaks
I call them Favor points and depending on the situation it might be a roll or an epic narrative, the narrative also changes based on the class and personality of the PC. Like a cleric using it well the get inspiration from their deity and hear their voice or reaching out their hand and lifting them up etc. Makes for some good and rare moments that can’t be replicated.
7th sea did this mechanic way back in 1999 with it's drama dice. It's a wonderful mechanic/concept and I've been using it or a variation of it in pretty much every game ever since. If anything, I think d&d's generic version (inspiration) is pretty tame compared to what other systems allows. Nevertheless, I'm happy they add it.
i often forget about experience and inspiration. but i have slightly modified inspiration. rather than giving it out in the moment, i will give it out while giving XP (because i will probably remember during XP instead of in the moment) and if a player does something inspiration worthy during the session i will let them something to choose from:
they can choose to have extra XP
or they can choose to have a free re-roll (unless they have one at the moment)
or they can choose to draw a fortune card for one-time use. (unless they have one at the moment)
fortune cards are actually something out of 4th edition. you could buy booster packs of these things at your game stores and players could build decks of 10 cards or more of extra abilities to use in certain circumstances outlined on the card. i didn't like the idea of having a deck of cards, but i thought if these could be used as player rewards for one-time use. some of these cards' use-cases are connected to 4e abilities like encounter powers or daylies but those could be reworded to make sense for 5E and a lot can be system neutral
My main criteria for awarding bonus points is basically, when players put role playing ahead of pure and pragmatic success.
I had a player who was a heroic, noble and naive Paladin. He had a bad guy beaten and on his knees but decided he wasn't gonna kill him. Pragmatically, this doesn't make sense but it made sense for his character. He gets points for that.
Well, you convinced me. Last session our Brand new Player knocked it out of the park in his first session. Our warlock had been pulled out of the broken abandoned keep by harpies, as he, (the tiefling assasin) managed to just behead the harpy Matriarch (The big boss). Warlock was now stories down below the rest of the party, and had failed a stealth roll and in his screams of pain, alerted 3 harpies to attack the weakend target. (8hp left). The Player asks if he can stick the head of the Harpy Matriarch out of the window! To which I say absolutely and rolled a percentile dice as to how many harpies go into a rage and fly up to attack him. 2/3 went to hit the assasin and ended up in that round knocking him out (luckily he was with the Paladin) when there was a very real chance these harpies were going to kill the Warlock who was too far away for help. The player then was like "Oh ok, that didn't work out so great..." And we (the rest of the party) had to be like "What do you mean?! You just saved their life! That was awesome!" - Then I explained what was going to happen if they hadn't have done that. All three harpies were going to swarm the warlock and flank him, and tear him apart. Only after that did he realise how cool what he did was. And he stayed up another 3 hours with another player (We're housemates) on an absolute D&D high chatting about what they did last session. Its something I will now absolutely give him an Inspiration Point for as I introduce this mechanic. (I actually have star stickers in different colours for my notes to highlight cool things that happen that I want to follow up already)
I always tell new players: the first one [inspiration points] is free, to earn more of them your goal isn't to impress me, it's to get messy, pay attention, and learn about the characters you are playing. Once a couple of them acquire a taste for inspiration points they tend to talk more with me between games about their characters' respective story arcs!
My group has a similar system and some memorable uses was getting to dash twice instead of once to catch up with a boss that was fleeing, which was great in story and another time was sticking up a pole arm during a storm and mechanically casting call lightning on my self and the surrounding enemies
"... It is "role-playing"... there is an "e" in there."
Amen Euan! We are a group of old, experienced players. We use well-tested tactics and ploys to win combats. But there are times when my characters says, "Screw that! I HATE that villain! I leave the melee and charge forward with my favorite sword, Cho-chan."
We play Savage Worlds and they call these "Bennies" (or Benefits) - players start with 3 at the start of a session and they can gain more through good roleplaying and generally having fun and playing well. It's a good system :)
Cypher system is probably the best version of these inspiration point systems out there. They tied it into their XP system and bound the gaining of XP to rolls made by players and positive player behaviors that help other party members, unlock new information, or move the story forward.
The core of Cypher XP is that when you roll a 1 you get 2 XP. One to keep and one to give to another player. Then the GM throws a complication at the party unless you give back the 2 XP. This can be expanded to rewarding everone 1 XP when anyone rolls a 20, giving XP for high investigation, arcana, or history checks, rewarding good role playing, and just about anything else you want to see more of by triggering a pavlovian response to with XP rewards.
Figure out how fast you want the players to be able to level and then tell them how many XP they need to trade in to level up. 4 times current level. 4 times current proficiency bonus. 5 points up to level 5, then tier 2 levels cost more, and tier 3 even more. Anything that works.
And if you don't want one player shooting ahead in level tell them they all have to be on the same proficiency bonus before anyone can increase theirs, and let them trade XP among themselves for other rewards. Did the wizard or rogue just give 5 XP to the character lagging behind because they dumped Int? They get 10 Sanity points for their generosity and everyone else gets 5 Sanity because you're gonna be fighting mind flayers next. The same goes for Honor, Renown, and Piety. All good ways to reward player behavior and investment.
DnD5e
I have a routine at the end of each session. I ask the players what their favorite scenes were, what scenes they didn't like at all and general feedback. Then i ask them what questions their characters are asking themselves and at the very end it's inspiration time where i note down why i give them inspiration.
I also allow for more than one inspiration, my bard ran into an (for her) unexpected bard contest. She burned through 5 inspiration points that she saved up over the last 5 sessions to gain an advantage and win the crowd over.
Currently they can only use it to get advantage, but i'll rethink what you said. I'm sure they'll find some interesting ways to screw me over with this! That'd be fun.
Ooh! Free goblins! 9:16
it took my until the posting of this comment for me to understand what you were referencing in the beginning. I was so confused because i thought you were trying to talk about Raphael and his at the time, pretty innovative use of size and foreshortening to denote perspective. and then you started talking about bandanas and i was completely lost. BUT I GET IT NOW, ITS A NINJA TURTLE THING. boy do i feel stupid
Completely agree great thoughts and ideas! I play in Open Legend which has Legend Points same idea but adv/dis is not binary so not quite as powerful as inspiration. So I let the players reward 1 or 2 a session to each other either for a great rp moment or to help another player succeed at an important roll. It's worked well cuz everyone is invested in each others moments and I've delegated the responsibility so if I forget it's not a problem. Plus flavoring the LP assist is really fun I usually ask the player how they think they (or luck/divine/fate) help!
You are better off using the FATE point system from FATE or the light/dark side points from star wars: EotE. Like you mentioned, the points you are suggesting are subjective or you can easily forget to award them.
In FATE everyone starts the4 session with x points and they can be used for a rerol or bonus. The GM has unlimited FATE points and he or another player can compel the character to do something in exchange for a FATE point. The player can refuse, but it costs them a FATE point.
In star wars, there is always a static x number of points for the whole party and when used, they flip to dark side, alowing the GM to make things difficult and then fipping to the light side.
I mainly play savage worlds so olayers have bennies to spend 3 at least unless i remember to hand more out at the game. they wont fix a crit fail or let you re-roll damage with a perk, but they help when you roll bad on your primary thing you do and in my super hero game they can let you get power points back to keep the interdenominational octopus from escaping and reeking havoc on the world.
As soon as i heard this is a thing in 5E i adopted it in my game. At the begining of a session one of my players i going to recap the last session after which the group is rewarded with one Inspiration token. In adition to that each player is able to get another "personal" inspiration point. Once in a while i´ll give an inspiration point if a player does something nice for the group like bringing special snacks to the table or beeing supportive to other players.
you can use them as a point based system (inspiration). 1- players won't always use them.. they may even have to be reminded they have them,, I play Darwin's World, and my players tend to forget they have them.. 2- NPC's can also have inspiration points..
Here's an idea I'm borrowing from the original Star Wars RPG by West End Games. In the WEG Star Wars game, players received Hero Points that they could spend give themselves a +1 bonus, with the ability to spend multiple hero points on a one-per-+1 basis, to a maximum of 5. The thing was, these hero points were also their EXPERIENCE POINTS, and each point they spent to give them a bonus was a point they didn't get to spend on improving their character.
So why not do similar. Using D&D as an example, Let them get inspiration as a pool they can keep, letting them know that they can spend the inspiration for, say, 1 inspiration for 5 XP. Then they can pool the inspiration, but they might also not want to spend it because then they can save it to get XP at the end of the adventure.
I use Hero Points. Each char earns 1 when they level up & then for amazing ideas / actions or taking risks that are fun/exciting. PCs can hold them to a max of 3 pts at any one time, but I & now my players remind them to use them: “You can re-roll that Nat.1 by using 1 of your Hero Points!”, “Can I add a die to my Acrobatics roll to offset my slide down the cliff to find a hold or ledge?”
I have 1 player who is quieter but has great ideas. I make sure to listen carefully to him, & if his ideas spawn actions by the team, I call these out & award him Hero Pts.
Hero points are an integral part of CD10. A player can spend gained xp to re-roll a check, roll an additional die as part of a check, or even shift the outcome of a save or check. This is absolutely necessary in such a lethal system as CD10. The players love it, and feel very exposed without it.
However, I don't see the hero points as a narrative tool. They are tools for the players to mitigate random bad luck, to take the edge off of boring deaths. They however are limited because the players have to give up xp to do it, and they may only spend two per session, so they must still be careful.
That doesn't stop anyone from narrating what happens. That should always be done regardless.
Cogent Tabletop has Destiny Points, so DnD5e is not alone :)
Hey man! I never thought I'd see another Cogent Player! Well met friend.
@@CanadianCrits ye, not a lot of us out here ^^ but I love the system. Imo the best system for newcomers into paprpg cuz it's straightforward, easy to learn and can be bend for most scenarios
@@bastianstiefler3390 I completly agree. I first got into paprpgs from watching Table Top Time and then eventually learning how to play Cogent. It's a fun, flexible and easy system to pick up.
Hero points have been around way before D&D 5e, Mutants and Masterminds for example already used such system (also called Hero Points). About D&D i remmember there was already things like that since D&D 3.5 Unearthed Arcana, but they were called Action Points and bacame a core mechanic of D&D 4e later.
There are also plenty other system that use similar mechanics with many variations and roles within the game. Right now i use the hero point rules of Pathfinder, i also award HP with a vote system.
If a player behave well i give them a vote, each player can vote on other players they believe were somekind of an MVP either because of roleplaying or because of good gameplay overall. Once someone achieve 5 votes they receive a hero point. That way if someone behaves they gain 1 HP each 5 sessions at least even if no other player voted for him, everything is secret so no one feels any pressure to vote between sessions.
Another thing i do is use fumbles, if someone rolls a 1 they can either just choose that to be a miss or roll on my critical fumble table, if he does roll on it he gains a hero point for the inconvinience. So it creates a unique situation where my players sometimes CHOOSE to fail at something to gain a resource to do something badass later and the results are really great.
Do you can give every player a vote if you want or do you also only choose one player?
Did someone try to abuse the fumble table?
I give a HP to each player that behaved well so once each 5 sessions everyone with good behaviour gets a HP even if no other player votes for him. They do behave really well since not only me, but their own companions can award them so it's kinda of an self-monitoring system.
Something i forgot to mention is that the HP gained by the fumble only last the encounter so they can't use fumbles to "farm" them. Also they depend to actually have rolled 1 on the D20 to gain the choice to roll on the table so there is that too.
They never tried to abuse it because even tough some fumbles are just minor setbacks there are some that could be really bad if it happens at the worst person or at the worst time. Since they never know what they will get it turns out they use it with respect. Examples of my fumbles are things like:
Getting intimidated by the enemy defense after your own attack failure and getting the shaken condition until you hit that enemy with an attack.
Losing focus during the combat making your initiative count go to last place next round.
Some of them are worse than that, but most of them are just temporary setbacks.
Most of the various Warhammer games feature fate points which can be used to save your character from death, maiming and other various horrible fates
Im using a looser version of Benefits in my Shadow Dark game. Always RP and Heroism, but any Genius or Cathartic: Laughter, Cheering,lWeeping and yes Moaning from The Table.
And they get an XP when they earn it, and when they spend it.
lol I got excited because I thought you were referencing hero points as defined in the DMG on page 264. I was like maybe I’m not the only one that uses those in game!
I'm using a homebrew Hero Points system in my Pathfinder campaign, but it's still quite... faulty. So, great advice for me!
I have, by the way, two suggestions for topics I would love to see your opinion to:
The first is - Cosmic Horror. A few years ago you did a great video about Horror in general, building tone and setting and so on. But I think Cosmic Horror deserves its own spotlight. I'm especially interested in the question if it is at all adaptable for Tabletop RPGs (despite that there's at least one RPG which explicitly revolves around Cosmic Horror), since I feel that the essential element of Cosmic Horror, the existence of an uncaring and unsurmountably powerful presence, might be unsatisfying for a Tabletop group. My question is: Am I right, or ist it possible to introduce that kind of horror without instilling that sense of futility, at least in the players? And if it is possible, how do you create a Cosmic Horror campaign or adventure?
The second topic I'd be interested in is - Humor. I see three aspects of Humor with regard to Tabletop RPGs. First, out-of-character: Players joking around the gaming table, general silliness - not necessarily a bad thing if kept in good measure. Woul you have some thoughts and advices how to keep the right measure? Second, in-character: Any thoughts about jokester, prankster and trickster characters (bards, bards and maybe bards), in-game pranks and possibly taunts. And also here maybe some thoughts about where to draw the line and what to do for a GM to keep it in good measure. And thirdmaybe the most interesting aspect: setting inherent. How about playing a campaign in an inherently comedic setting? How to construct such a setting, build the tone and play adventures that are hilarious but still functional? I'm thinking about possibly a cartoon setting, maybe in the line of _Who framed Roger Rabbit?_ , or a _Spaceballs_ - inspired Sci-Fi setting, or maybe an epic fantasy campaign on Terry Pratchett's _Discworld_ . Can that work, and how?
Even though I am a simulationist, I still use them, but I make my player tell me how it works. They can say something like, "Oh, I suddenly remember some advice an old monster hunter gave me about a special kill-spot." Sure, it's just a re-roll, but its much more fun for the story while still making sense, which appeases my simulationist sensibilities.
Cool
System I use (cogent roleplay) uses destiny points, which is essentially the same and they are great to use for story and gameplay
In my game, i have a house rule that players can collect more than one insperation
in order to make sure in difficult times, or hard situations, they dont die from something stupid like falling on their face while running from a dragon right behind them
I once used a whole campaign's worth of snack bringing and roleplaying to let my warlock upcast "etherealness" and save the remainder of the group from a surrounding army and Total Party kill.
The murderhobo didn't make it, nor did our poor spell jammer - The Golden Winds
I feel like you could have something like Karma Points. If you do a good thing you get a Karma Point which you could spend or save; karma tends to build up, after all. But if you do a bad thing you also get a Karma Point. But a negative one... Good Karma points could be saved for a passive buff which could build up over time and lets you do small things like rerolling a 1 every certain number of hours. Or you could spend a number of points for a number of effects. Like getting lucky on a persuasion check because your karma and reputation is so good. Or spend a chunk in a dire situation like rerolling a final hit or a death save or something. Bad Karma Points would be the same but in reverse. Your luck would get worse and you'd have disadvantage on checks, especially ones related to luck. To get rid of the bad karma you could just let one bad thing happen to you, like you get caught up in a bar fight you didn't start or caught with ill gotten loot and you spend a day in jail. OR the easier way is just go do some good things and equalize your bad karma with good karma.
Note, I would give out Karma points for stand out deeds and the "good" and "bad" doesn't have to be black and white, either. Did the thief pull off a daring theft from a corrupt leader, without hurting anybody, then gave the loot to the poor? Good Karma Point. Did the thief steal from a poor family and took one of their few remaining prized possessions and also beat them up in the process? Bad Karma Point. One good and one bad karma point per session seems reasonable to me. You can only get ONE of both per session so people don't try and farm them and if you get one good and one bad, well, they cancel each other out and it's as if you didn't get any that session.
Rikku Takanashi No offense but this just sounds like a convoluted system to punish players for making decisions you don’t like. Not every character is a flavor of good (though most are) and punishing players like this for role playing seems excessive if it’s not actively harming the experience of other players. On the flip side, making morally good characters just outright better via buffs means that there’s no reason to be anything other than a good alignment pc, since they straight up just have an easier time with these rules.
Marvel Superheroes Role-playing game from the 80s called their awards Karma. All experience and all heroic acts, or even just being responsible (your character makes it to class on time) was worth Karma. Bad guy stuff (stealing, cheating) was negative Karma. Everyone was expected to be good because it's a superhero game, so it worked.
@@floyd3426 Except if you do a "bad thing" your going to get punished for it in one way or another. Either the legal system will catch up to you, people will just stop wanting to treat with you due to a bad reputation, or karma quiet literally could catch up to you. Unless your playing a Evil game or the DM is a complete pushover who lets their players walk all over them regardless of how logical or illogical the thing is. And there are worse ways a DM could punish someone for a "bad thing." Karma Points would at least allow someone to make it up by doing a good thing to counter the bad. And unless it's stated up front that evil pcs might be in the game, they shouldn't be in a casual game of D&D because a lot of hurt feelings happen that way. In a game where your supposed to be the "Heroes" you shouldn't have to worry about a backstabbing unless the possibility of such is covered in a session 0.
"Keep it secret. Keep it safe!"
I use a separate inspiration die in my games, a d24, which may be used to reroll any d20. Only one player per session is allowed to use it. It's rewarded based on good roleplay as voted by the other players at the end of a session.
2:46 We've decided to pass this responsibility on to our stream viewers, it helps award them to players the audience thinks might need them. And we have a rule that you cannot have them two sessions in a row.
Sharp dressed today 👍 I like it.
I always used similar mechanics in older games. I called them Badass Points and Heroic Rerolls. You got them for doing badass or otherwise heroic things and we'd also take them away for doing thoroughly unbadass stuff.
Objection!
Your claim that it's always fallen to the person in charge of running the game to award point - that's factually incorrect.
Legends of the Wulin, a (quite good if a bit math-heavy in combat) Wuxia RPG set in a Mythic China that never was has a mechanic wherein each player gets to nominate a Deed for one other player; one action taken that was so exemplary and awesome that people will talk about it for years to come. The Sage (that system's name for the GM) has no say in the matter, each player gets to award one Deed per session, and the Sage gets to award one, as well.
But yeah, aside from that one system, I do believe you're fundamentally right about the GM being saddled with all the reward allotment work.
I've found that inspiration points suffer from the same problem as potions in computer games. You end up hanging onto them because you might find a greater need for them later. So almost everyone wanders around with "Inspiration" too scared to use them just in case they need them to save their lives later. I see so many times the DM has told someone they get Inspiration, but they reveal they've already got one so there's no point.
Getting people used to spending them is the barrier here.
I forget to handout points
Guy could you do a video on DMig pvp/PvNCP arena style combat
I'm running a game where the barbarian will turn evil and the rouge is an agent of his so party is going to fight to the death at some point
Suggestions
Ideas
How to run a pvp stealth mechanic for the rouge etc
IE
SOS
If you want to run Arena style pvp watch the critical role battle Royale on shot. They all have medicore characters and the system is pvp friendly.
The problem can be that one pc oneshot/on round kill the other PC and than it is really unfun.
Yep, Open Legend has this in the form of Legend points.
It's a reasonable idea and -- with the right group of players -- can be a good potential way to "inspire better play." But in my experience players aren't always going to be mature/serious enough to accept that, and instead will often try to use their points as a way to circumvent obstacles, or bend the rules to their advantage, or (as you so aptly put it) as a "Get Out of Jail Free" card. Rather than inspiring better play, they become a crutch for lazy thinking, and when the GM denies or refuses to allow a point to be used in that manner the player(s) get upset because you're "impinging on player advocacy."
raph is the 2nd for me
I don't award inspiration points period. I grant them inspiration in the moment they take a action that is amazing or "Cool".
Role players get NPC's awarded to them (since they are in to that)
Combat players get visualised combat and weird enemies they can fight. (They want to fight, might as well give em a good one)
Giving players "Special" things with limited use is just gonna end up them either hoarding or never using it incase they might need it later on.
This is a RPG/MMO issue, once you get a single use item you are reluctant to use it regardless of its purpose.
I thought you were going to go into a system for tracking party reputation.
+ points for good deeds, - points for crimes.
Ok, here's the thing gentlemen and ladies, look back to how the great Gygax played the game and hire a bunch of adventuring dudes from your nearest town, or if you're fortunate enough to acquire them, henchmen. Now, go back into those chaotic caves and have the greatest fun exploring map, slaying shit, and cracking open a beautiful chest or two. But, now here's the difference from today's mindset, good guys died! Back then a whole bunch of good ol' boys perished in these campaigns. Hopefully it wasn't your pet PC but the reality of mortal death was palpable and that's what made you feel alive if you survive another day. Or, you can just have a system of princess, primadona points, up to you.
The original Star Wars RPG game inherently had an epic system when a player would choose to use a Force Point. It was heroic and exciting if used at the right time in a dire situation. A Dark Side Point was not so much a penalty: more of a role-playing occasion for the player and a quest to either do good or move the character (player choice) to a tragic fate. // I disagree though with penalty and preference for "good" players as it will assuredly cause frustrations and ALL players should feel they were allowed to play their character as they saw fit; no matter what others/DM think of it. I have yet to play a tabletop game with friends where we give extra points to one player or less to others and do not feel like ever being in one like that.
Looks like shadowrun 6ed is already worse than expected at first glance. Because Edge (Shadowrun's Hero Points) is just that in the 6ed.
A non-narrative game mechanic. The one with i do that and that and now i get points.
You even have to apply this mechanic like that, because almost everything is based on Edge in the 6ed and if you don't use it that way, the character is virtually useless. Exception if you build a super munckin character with the binding not to use edge
“Why you need hero points in your game”
Me constantly going Anti-Hero for the free feat.
Well I really like my free feats
I know Mutants and Masterminds has a hero point system where playing to character flaws or traits can earn you a point that you can spend later to edit scenes to the player's benefit...
* thinks * hmm... * goes to buy a whole bunch of d6 dice to act as inspiration dice * Don't know if/when I'll deploy these; still new to all this... even if I've been trying to find a table for over a year...
“Hero Points” is how I view Hit Points in 5e. Losing HP doesn’t mean your character gets cut or burned.
Lol, heroes in a half shell, turtle power! 😂
I just started DMing and I hand out inspiration like tic-tak mints. However, my chaotic evil players get excited to get them only to almost instantly forget that they have them (I don't remind them, track your stuff my guys). Mostly, I like to think they won't notice that I have no idea what I'm doing if I keep giving them toys:
Made DM laugh? Inspired!
Solved x-y-z faster than expected? Inspired!
Did something clever? Inspired!
I let them pool their points (they forget they have them anyway) but starts fresh with each session. So far, no prblems :)
metagaming might incur negative points.
If the character is not able to deduce or explain how they know something, then the GM would decide wheter they lose points, given a warning or perhaps npc would be suspicious of the character.
I Hero Builder there is Hero Points and Master Points. To get a Hero Point simply do something epic or do good role play. It is then set to the other players to vote if that hero gets the Hero Point. Hero Points give an extra 2 actions in combat or can be used for bending the games rules.
Master Point is a Rule Free Wish and are either given by the Hero Master or when leveling up in a Godly. Campaign.
To see how they fully work go check out the Core Rulebook on www.thetablecandle.com
Did not clarify that Heroes get Hero Points for creating fun powers. We had one Hero create a Power that summoned a Dolphin that slapped the enemy then return to the ocean. Was so good we all agreed she should start with a Hero Point.
are transcripts available
I reward them for staying in character and not making decisions that go against there character, such as a holy paladin allowing the NE character to steal or harm.
Ever since playing MGP's Conan, I've always found a way of including fate points in my games. They are far too useful a tool to ignore.
I thought this was going to be more like my idea for "honor points" for campaigns where a character's honor and reputation matter a lot or "piety points" for one where religion matters a lot. I mean, if the gods were real, you _would_ be looking for ways to please them.
i keep forgetting it exists
Too late. Mutants and Masterminds already has this...even before 5e. I do like the idea of creating Complications to gain Hero Points.
How do you reward a player who keeps coming up with amazing ideas, that you yourself like as the GM, but the other players keep poopooing them, and then later going, "hey maybe we should have used so and so's idea."?
But do you really need Hero points? Hero points are pointless. (pun intended)
It sounds like the "Rule of Cool" is a much better fit for what you are trying to do. If it sounds cool you can do it. No points needed.
Also Hero points have a dark side. They are a mechanical excuse for the GM to punish people who don't play the game the way they want them to play.
Hero points are a tool. BUT the method of getting them should be fair. AND they are best used as a way to smooth away wild swings of dice rolling that fight against the story. Sometimes at the critical moment the hero rolls a fumble. The Hero point mechanic is best used to allow a fair reroll in that critical moment without destroying your game by using plot armor.
All this "don't dwell on the rules" stuff feels like a screed from that side of the hobby that hates the Game part of Roleplaying Games. Lots of "use this mechanic, but don't let anyone think of it like a game mechanic or people might have fun wrong". Lots of paying lip service to the idea of the game when you clearly would rather be freeform roleplaying without mechanics at all.
Thing is, it turns out that if you use a game system that supports the playstyle, setting, and genre you want, the rules support play rather than getting in the way. And there are plenty of games that are not only built around this sort of mechanic, but which use them in a defined way rather than being a vaguely-defined permission slip from the GM, handed out on a whim.
It’s all about what the group considers “fun”. For example, I play with a group of 5-10 year olds at my job. I’m not gonna big them down with rules and all the TPKs they should have had by now lol. We just play the rules fast and loose.
In my own personal games, especially as a player, I prefer to follow the rules as much as possible
I don't know why you keep pushing narrative versus rules instead of trying to find a symbiotic relationship. It's overly negative and I hope not your ultimate intention. However there has been a trend in your narrative that your arbitration outside the rules is superior.
The idea is that no rules system can possibly account for ever variable and the ones that do are... Well they are unpleasant to say the least. Narrative needs to trump rules sometimes. If the rules as written would result in making the narrative less fun, then it's okay to ignore the rules in that moment. Rules only exist to facilitate the narrative and do once they inhibit it, they are no longer fulfilling their purpose.
Heaven forbid there were consequences that weren't arbitrarily allowed to happen to your character for the narrative (read as hurt feelings).
@@lestervinghail5654 What the hell are you babbling about? Nobody said anything of the sort.
I made it like this: The Players gain Hero Dices for extraordinary/heroic deeds or for perfectly playing their character. They get a D6 that can be added to ANY dice throw, even critical fails can be saved with these dice. But i give them out rarely and only for real "cool combat Stuff" like a Halfling Bard beats a Goliath Fighter in a barefist fight but also for other cool stuff like the Tiefling Sorceres seduces one of the most boneheaded npcs to do her a favour/talk traders into gifting things...