Inspiration. Along with Advantage and Disadvantage, its one of the most streamlined mechanics in 5e. However, we all love to try new or adjusted mechanics to continually improve our DMing. Fellow Wise DM Mike Shea over at Sly Flourish shared an article discussing the Luck System from Kobold Press’ Project Black Flag playtest.
In this episode, Tony, Chris, and Dave discuss Inspiration; how we use it in our games and the changes we have made and are thinking of making to improve our games.
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3:00 Our recent Marvel FASERIP game that gave us some ideas. Check out Professor Bill at Comic Book University.
4:15 Keeping track of Inspiration, both as a player and as a DM.
5:20 How something like the Luck System evens out the power differential between DM and players.
7:25 Our first change… DM Dave allowing DM Inspiration to stack starting in our Curse of Strahd campaign.
13:25 How the idea of karma from the FASERIP system is more than Inspiration.
14:16 We start to brainstorm, in real time, an idea to tie karma and Inspiration together.
15:25 Bards… the pros and cons of the quintessential buff and inspiration class.
17:45 Our second change… DM Dave using Inspiration as a reaction for the bard from the One D&D playtest in our Dragonlance: Shadow of the Dragon Queen campaign.
20:38 Our third change… DM Tony’s method of using Inspiration and other rewards that are active for a single session.
24:08 Our fourth change… DM Chris’ method of Inspiration in the form of Blessings, single-use Magic Items, and Campfire Tales in our Tomb of Annihilation campaign.
34:30 Introducing the right amount of chaos into your game and our return to the discussion about the location of the Sunsword in our Curse of Strahd campaign.
38:50 A trip down memory lane when you could stack potions… in your belly.
39:42 Final Thoughts.
The luck system might work for some people, but I know that as a player I would never remember to use it. I wouldn’t remember to record my luck points when I missed and I wouldn’t remember to use them ever. So it would be wasted on me 🙂