Edit: I soft-disagree with myself already. When I read the Inspiration rules again, I realize you CAN transfer your Inspiration to other players. You give up yours to give it to them. I'm not certain, but the wording says you give up yours to give them Inspiration, so I don't know if that's a transfer or if it's an in-the-moment use of your Inspiration where you give them advantage. How do you use Inspiration in your TTRPG system of choice? Follow along and explore #DND5e Inspiration in my written article: www.flutesloot.com/awarding-inspiration-in-dnd-5e-explanation-and-dm-advice/?
Flutes you read my mind! DM/husband and I had a great talk about inspiration in our home game the other night. There are so many good ideas here we had not thought of. I was thinking it's easier for me as a trickster rogue for my antics to earn inspiration and it may be more of a challenge for the other classes; I want it to be fair and fun. Now I see how it can work great for all of us.
Absolutely! If it's a fun way to play with your group, encouraging Inspiration with clearer, customized ways to obtain it can make all the difference. This becomes especially fun if Inspiration can be used in new ways, too. Prepare to receive a lot of snacks so players can use their Inspiration for more damage, combo attacks, and whatever you come up with, haha.
I'm happy that you included MVP in this list, I use this and personally feel like it is the best way to distribute inspiration because it gives feedback from other players at the table and not just the DM. Having peers acknowledge your successes in the session is more rewarding as I believe that less bias will be implied from a group vote. With One DnD expanding the mechanical use of inspiration I think that a reevaluation will be needed to include it more in my games.
Reasons I use inspiration: 1) rewarding players for good habits (taking/using their notes, reading their backstory before a session, etc) 2) having a creative moment (using a feat creatively, turning a trap on their enemies, etc) 3) rewarding immersion in the role play (playing out a character weakness, giving proper respect to an emotional scene, etc) Granted, I have really new players, so I use it as a way to encourage the more difficult aspects of the game to tutorialize them and encourage confidence in role play and fights.
Your three reasons are fantastic, and I ABSOLUTELY encourage new-player tutorials with Inspiration. It shows what you value them doing so they can learn to keep doing that. The player behavior that is incentivized is the behavior that continues.
@@FlutesLoot the primary reason I’m not so psyched about One DND prioritizing baked-in inspiration, especially human race features getting it for free. It’s a great teaching tool that will be worth nothing due to new RAW. Not to mention those who don’t have a planned dungeon every session with 60 rolls per PC per session. Inspiration gets way more busted when they’re not rolling as much.
Fantastic video, a lot of great suggestions! I wish the new playtest would incorporate some better ideas on how to use inspiration. I've been thinking a lot about inspiration since the playtest rules came out. Inspiration is a wonderful 'soft rule' in a game which often limits how DMs can control the balance of the game. My personal way to use it depends on the campaign. In Icewind Dale I use it to reward players getting a rest in comfortable settings (gives incentive for getting to towns for rest). For something like Avernus, I'd use it to reward players making immoral choices. (P.S. thanks for the subscribe, really appreciate it!)
I LOVE your idea of making comfortable resting with Inspiration. It feels like a good use of the variant rules I've seen for sheltered rests. Very smart. And you're welcome for the sub :)
Inspiration is so hard to remember as a DM. Not only are you in the moment, but the players as well. It is a great tool to hand out, but it essentially ends up being "What the DM thinks is cool." You might end up with some players who play to that, and it ends being nothing more then a player doing the most outlandish things they can think of in order to gain it, or the opposite side of things when the shy player might make a subtle remark that just goes unnoticed but is perfect for the character. On top of that, not everyone is a professional role player. Just getting some players to act in character, or distance themselves from their character is hard enough. Inspiration has always been the hardest thing for me as a DM to not only remember, but to realize that a character is role playing their flaws and ideals, especially if they are a shy character or isn't too much into the role play aspect. Also it kinda messes things up. A player does something cool, and you want to roll with it and draw out the scene. It's awesome and worthy of inspiration, but you don't want to call it out to throw them off. So you decide to wait until the end of the scene to reward them, and something else comes up and you completely forget about it.. Let's face it, Inspiration is a great idea with a bad execution. Which is why I really like the 1D&D UA that puts it more into the players hands. I think that's a great way to deal with it. It's less on the DM to remember some other player perk, and puts it on the player and gives them a reason to use it.
1D&D UA is interesting because it makes Inspiration no longer about roleplaying. I'm fine with that, but it's a new purpose. I have enjoyed the Inspiration system over the years, even if I have to retroactively just say, "I'm having a lot of fun. Everyone gets Inspiration."
It's funny you should say that. I was thinking that Inspiration could be cashed in for bonus XP if they don't want to use it, haha. Just brainstorming.
@@FlutesLoot I don’t see a problem with that scenario however from what I see online I am one of the few DM’s that hand out different XP awards each session and have characters at various levels in my campaigns.
@@scottburns4458 yeah, the polls and tweets where I've asked about that have shown that modern players greatly resist character being different levels. I think that's a knee-jerk reaction from them about it; there are plenty of good reasons to have characters at different levels that don't involve the game being less fun.
@@FlutesLoot I don’t see how the game is less fun just because you have a party at different levels that outlook puzzles me. I know a lot of new WoTC DM’s get caught up in it because of the myth of CR but being old school I don’t balance encounters I present them to the players and it’s their actions that dictate what happens or if the encounter happens etc
@@scottburns4458 I completely agree. My eyes cross when I hear DMs fret over encounter balance; to me, it's a fruitless waste of time. I get why they do it, but it's so much better to not worry about it.
Edit: I soft-disagree with myself already. When I read the Inspiration rules again, I realize you CAN transfer your Inspiration to other players. You give up yours to give it to them. I'm not certain, but the wording says you give up yours to give them Inspiration, so I don't know if that's a transfer or if it's an in-the-moment use of your Inspiration where you give them advantage.
How do you use Inspiration in your TTRPG system of choice?
Follow along and explore #DND5e Inspiration in my written article: www.flutesloot.com/awarding-inspiration-in-dnd-5e-explanation-and-dm-advice/?
Flutes you read my mind! DM/husband and I had a great talk about inspiration in our home game the other night. There are so many good ideas here we had not thought of. I was thinking it's easier for me as a trickster rogue for my antics to earn inspiration and it may be more of a challenge for the other classes; I want it to be fair and fun. Now I see how it can work great for all of us.
Absolutely! If it's a fun way to play with your group, encouraging Inspiration with clearer, customized ways to obtain it can make all the difference. This becomes especially fun if Inspiration can be used in new ways, too. Prepare to receive a lot of snacks so players can use their Inspiration for more damage, combo attacks, and whatever you come up with, haha.
I'm happy that you included MVP in this list, I use this and personally feel like it is the best way to distribute inspiration because it gives feedback from other players at the table and not just the DM. Having peers acknowledge your successes in the session is more rewarding as I believe that less bias will be implied from a group vote.
With One DnD expanding the mechanical use of inspiration I think that a reevaluation will be needed to include it more in my games.
It's a great idea! You summarized the benefits accurately.
Reasons I use inspiration:
1) rewarding players for good habits (taking/using their notes, reading their backstory before a session, etc)
2) having a creative moment (using a feat creatively, turning a trap on their enemies, etc)
3) rewarding immersion in the role play (playing out a character weakness, giving proper respect to an emotional scene, etc)
Granted, I have really new players, so I use it as a way to encourage the more difficult aspects of the game to tutorialize them and encourage confidence in role play and fights.
Your three reasons are fantastic, and I ABSOLUTELY encourage new-player tutorials with Inspiration. It shows what you value them doing so they can learn to keep doing that. The player behavior that is incentivized is the behavior that continues.
@@FlutesLoot the primary reason I’m not so psyched about One DND prioritizing baked-in inspiration, especially human race features getting it for free. It’s a great teaching tool that will be worth nothing due to new RAW. Not to mention those who don’t have a planned dungeon every session with 60 rolls per PC per session. Inspiration gets way more busted when they’re not rolling as much.
Fantastic video, a lot of great suggestions! I wish the new playtest would incorporate some better ideas on how to use inspiration.
I've been thinking a lot about inspiration since the playtest rules came out. Inspiration is a wonderful 'soft rule' in a game which often limits how DMs can control the balance of the game.
My personal way to use it depends on the campaign. In Icewind Dale I use it to reward players getting a rest in comfortable settings (gives incentive for getting to towns for rest). For something like Avernus, I'd use it to reward players making immoral choices.
(P.S. thanks for the subscribe, really appreciate it!)
I LOVE your idea of making comfortable resting with Inspiration. It feels like a good use of the variant rules I've seen for sheltered rests. Very smart.
And you're welcome for the sub :)
Inspiration is so hard to remember as a DM. Not only are you in the moment, but the players as well. It is a great tool to hand out, but it essentially ends up being "What the DM thinks is cool." You might end up with some players who play to that, and it ends being nothing more then a player doing the most outlandish things they can think of in order to gain it, or the opposite side of things when the shy player might make a subtle remark that just goes unnoticed but is perfect for the character. On top of that, not everyone is a professional role player. Just getting some players to act in character, or distance themselves from their character is hard enough. Inspiration has always been the hardest thing for me as a DM to not only remember, but to realize that a character is role playing their flaws and ideals, especially if they are a shy character or isn't too much into the role play aspect. Also it kinda messes things up. A player does something cool, and you want to roll with it and draw out the scene. It's awesome and worthy of inspiration, but you don't want to call it out to throw them off. So you decide to wait until the end of the scene to reward them, and something else comes up and you completely forget about it..
Let's face it, Inspiration is a great idea with a bad execution. Which is why I really like the 1D&D UA that puts it more into the players hands. I think that's a great way to deal with it. It's less on the DM to remember some other player perk, and puts it on the player and gives them a reason to use it.
1D&D UA is interesting because it makes Inspiration no longer about roleplaying. I'm fine with that, but it's a new purpose. I have enjoyed the Inspiration system over the years, even if I have to retroactively just say, "I'm having a lot of fun. Everyone gets Inspiration."
I am one of those DM’s that don’t use inspiration
However I award bonus XP to that players XP tally for the session
Informative video mate
Cheers
It's funny you should say that. I was thinking that Inspiration could be cashed in for bonus XP if they don't want to use it, haha. Just brainstorming.
@@FlutesLoot
I don’t see a problem with that scenario however from what I see online I am one of the few DM’s that hand out different XP awards each session and have characters at various levels in my campaigns.
@@scottburns4458 yeah, the polls and tweets where I've asked about that have shown that modern players greatly resist character being different levels. I think that's a knee-jerk reaction from them about it; there are plenty of good reasons to have characters at different levels that don't involve the game being less fun.
@@FlutesLoot
I don’t see how the game is less fun just because you have a party at different levels that outlook puzzles me.
I know a lot of new WoTC DM’s get caught up in it because of the myth of CR but being old school I don’t balance encounters I present them to the players and it’s their actions that dictate what happens or if the encounter happens etc
@@scottburns4458 I completely agree. My eyes cross when I hear DMs fret over encounter balance; to me, it's a fruitless waste of time. I get why they do it, but it's so much better to not worry about it.