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Inspiration! Are you using it in D&D 5th Edition? And is it making your players have more fun
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Is it not interesting? Or is it even making them feel bad if some of them get it more than others
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Let's talk about inspiration today on Flutesloot! I also have an article on Flutesloot.com that goes over everything I will cover in this video
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if you prefer the written word over the YouTubed word. Inspiration is a rule the game master can use to reward you for playing your character in a way
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that's true to their personality traits, ideals, bonds, and flaws. By using inspiration, you can
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draw on your personality trait of compassion for the downtrodden to give you an edge in negotiating
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with the beggar prince. Or inspiration can let you call on your bond to the defense of your home
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village to push past the effect of a spell that has been laid on you. It's interesting that this
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rule was meant to be tied to role-playing your character. People do inspiration for many different
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reasons, of which I'm going to summarize, but it kind of reminds me of what Dungeon World has been
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doing that actively rewards you with mechanical rewards in the game by using your bonds and flaws
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and those sorts of personality traits, role-playing traits, like side quests. I find that DMs for me
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often give me inspiration when I do something cool or say something funny and then I just save it
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But how often do DMs give it in the moment when role-playing is to be rewarded to reinforce the
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behavior that the DM wants to see outside of those other moments? I think they should do both
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What do the rules of D&D 5th edition say about gaining inspiration? Your GM can choose to give you inspiration for a variety of reasons
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Typically, GMs award it when you play out your personality traits, give in to drawbacks presented by a flaw or bond
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and otherwise portray your character in a compelling way. Your GM will tell you how you can earn inspiration in the game
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Has your dungeon master told you how you can gain inspiration in the game ahead of time
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or is it on a case-by-case basis? That's something to consider, and there's some pros and cons to that that I'll go over soon
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Finally, the rules say you either have inspiration or you don't. You can't stockpile multiple inspirations for later use
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though I've heard of some people allowing up to two or three stockpiles. If you have inspiration, you can expend it when you make an attack roll
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saving throw, or ability check. Spending your inspiration gives you advantage on that roll. Does your DM allow you to roll it afterwards if you didn't roll well
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or do you have to say your inspiration is used before you roll to gain advantage, and then it actually gives you advantage, as opposed to just a re-roll
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Additionally if you have inspiration you can reward another player for good role clever thinking or simply doing something exciting in the game When another player does something that contributes to the story in a fun and interesting way you can give up your inspiration to give that character inspiration
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Now that's something I think most tables do, is they allow character-to-character inspiration. As I researched inspiration, I found some frequently asked questions that I'm going to cover now
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How does 5e determine when inspiration is given? Based on the rules I just read, you would think it would always be because of your flaws, your bonds, how you role-play
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but often it's awarded because someone makes a funny quip or they get a crit and describe it really well
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That's all good too, but I would prefer that we don't forget some of the other things on our character sheet
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that have to do with role-playing. After all, it is an RPG, and role-playing is part of that game
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What is inspiration for D&D 5th Edition? At its core is a re-rolling mechanic
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to reward you for other things you've done already in the game or that you're actively doing
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to help you succeed. Can you transfer inspiration in 5e? No, but you can use it on someone else
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You can always do what you want if your group agrees on it. But even more so, inspiration is totally what you want it to be
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So if you want to be able to trade inspirations, fine. If you already have inspiration
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but you don't allow stockpiling, then when you gain inspiration, maybe you can give it to someone else
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Your cup spilleth over, your role-playing rewards your friends. Can you use inspiration after you roll
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In my experience, that's almost exclusively how it is used. It's an ace up your sleeve in case you have a failure
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That makes the inspiration die better that you are rolling, because if you had to roll it ahead of time
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you might've rolled well anyway. All right, so I think this is the biggest question that we need to dissect, and that is DMs, when should you award inspiration
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I won't cover it a third time all the different ways and times you could give it out, but there are also some meta ways you could give it out
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But I want to caution you with two things, first of all. One is to beware being inconsistent
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If you have someone who's extroverted and typically very funny and popular in your gaming group, you might just naturally give them inspiration more than other people
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Whereas someone who's quiet doesn't say anything quippy, doesn't describe what they're doing in a fun, exciting way, but they're trying to play the game, they might feel bad if you don't give them inspiration for the little incremental changes they do to their play style where they made improvements because you're still focused on the popular player, let's call them
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This can happen a lot, especially if you have a tight-knit friend group and you let someone else into your gaming group who isn't as close to everyone else
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If you ever joined a gaming group a sports team or anything where you were the odd person out and everyone else was pretty close you know what feeling I talking about And inspiration can be a way to further make that person feel bad if they not getting that part of the game but it meant to reward players and not characters necessarily So use it as a tool to make sure everyone having fun and make sure everyone sees the good that each other is doing and that you appreciate them as their DM
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And just be consistent. It helps to tell your players what they need to do to earn inspiration
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When you codify it, you increase consistency and you increase happiness at your table
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I sound like a parenting advice site right now. Be consistent. So how can we codify inspiration
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Here are a few ideas. Idea number one, providing session recaps, notes, or other helpful tasks that are out of the game
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If someone recaps last session at the beginning of your current session, give them inspiration
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If you have a designated inventory tracker in your character party, give that person inspiration each session or every few sessions to reward them for keeping track of everyone's inventory, if not everyone's good at that
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If you have a note taker, give them inspiration maybe every session
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They help you as the DM know what the players are latching onto, but also keep them on track
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Lastly, snacks, food. When people bring snacks and food, that makes everyone have more fun at the table because no one likes to be hungry
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Everyone likes a little snack with their friends while they're playing a game. So give inspiration to those that do that
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Method number two, landing significant killing blows. This will tend to favor certain types of characters, but if they do something amazing and they take out some big bad evil guy, BBEG
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that that killing blow can be inspirational. They get inspiration for something later. I wouldn't
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make this your only method of giving out inspiration, but it's one way to keep in mind
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to make someone feel extra good about what just happened. Method number three, rolling crits
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natural 20s on non-attacks. It's a well-known discussion now that rolling a 20 isn't a critical
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success on anything but an attack. Rolling a stealth check, you roll a natural 20, the DM still
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says, well, what's the total? If you're rolling a saving throw, you don't automatically succeed, even though you probably will because the DCs are rarely above 20, but technically you don't crit
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those things. Maybe give people inspiration when they roll those so they don't feel bad. They feel
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like they actually did earn something for rolling a 20. Method number four. I made a video about this
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distributing secret missions. This could be done in a lot of different ways and I bring up Dungeon
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World again where it gives you guidance as the game master to distribute side quests, let's call
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them, but they're really like character to character quests to get them to role play with
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one another But you could also do things like go to this place and fulfill your goals as a character and you will get inspiration They could be secret or you could make them openly known to everyone Check out my video on doing secret missions and you see why this is a very fun topic that you can explore
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It's a DM roundtable. I'll link to it up here. Method number five, signaling an opportunity
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If you are setting up a player character to do a certain thing that they might enjoy
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but they might not always notice what's available, you could prompt them right then and there and say
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gain inspiration by talking to this NPC about a flaw or bond your character has
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That gives them a goal as they are talking to that NPC of what they're going to roleplay
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and where they're going to lead the conversation. I find that in improv, many people can just sit there and talk about nothing on stage
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but to take it somewhere is difficult. So if you give them that place, they're going to take the conversation when they're roleplaying
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that can help them piece together the conversation along the way. And you're there to help them as well as the GM
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You could also do it to the whole group and say, if anyone's going to make their flaws evident in this situation right now, you will receive inspiration or you can give inspiration to someone else on your team
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So if someone is a cowardly character, you don't want them to just always be running away and not contributing to the party if that makes the group feel bad
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But if you prompt them and you give inspiration to kind of even it out, maybe it can work out for you
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I don't know your group as well as you do, but there's your idea for you. Method number six, MVP popular vote
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At the end of every session, you can have the group vote on who was the MVP of the session
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It just can't be the same person as the session before unless they really insist that it was the same person again
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Give them inspiration and they'll have it ready for next time. Those are my methods for distributing inspiration
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But what are some other ways we could make inspiration worthwhile that isn't just re-rolling or gaining advantage on something
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One method is to start allowing stockpiling and then inspiration becomes more impactful the more you have stockpiled
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So one inspiration, a re-roll. Two inspiration, automatic success. Three inspirations, maybe you get an auto crit
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You could also make inspiration a flat bonus where they don't have to roll. You could just say, if you want to spend inspiration, you get a plus five bonus to whatever you're rolling
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If you like this content, make sure to like and subscribe. And check out my wife's videos too, because she has a very different style than me
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And don't forget to bookmark fluteslute.com. Have a good adventure this weekend, and I'll see you in the next video
