Stop ignoring Inspiration points in D&D [DM Tips]

[@GinnyDi]

Make gorgeous maps and read Francis' story at dungeonfog.com/ginnydi ! Use code GINNYDI to take 10% off your premium membership. And join MapVember to create your own 5-room dungeon! www.dungeonfog.com/mapvember2021

[@kennethgee2004]

oh no and enter the dad jokes and puns. yikes.

[@melloette]

The “fake gamer girl” sarcasm at the beginning is just *chef’s kiss* and this video was so ✨inspiring✨ to boot!

[@MedoryK]

Honestly I think she dragged out the bit into bitter territory 🙁 I don’t doubt she gets that crap, though. I think her collection of videos speaks for itself. More dice comedy bits, please! 👍

[@GinnyDi]

Yeah, I'm pretty bitter!! Sexism can cause that reaction. I think I'm entitled to feeling a bitter that people are willing to disregard all of my work the moment they decide I've taken a little too much agency with my body. I won't apologize for it.

[@notoriusbookworm48]

yes! So hilarious!!

[@notoriusbookworm48]

@@GinnyDi I actually really like how you do your hair and makeup differently in different videos, really adds to the aethstetic!

[@JamieTheMime]

@@GinnyDi absolute relatable queen.

[@adamnaameeazim6365]

To my fellow DMs, here's a pro tip for getting players to use inspiration. Give them an inspiration brownie that they're not allowed to eat until they've used that inspiration point. You're not gonna have any more cases of players holding onto that stuff for months.

[@GinnyDi]

HAHA I absolutely love this

[@RowdyWeeps]

Genius

[@Revan1939]

My players might kill me if I put a brownie in front of them and tell them not to use it

[@kaizen5023]

love it

[@girlsinredtrenchcoat1169]

Online dm's are crying right now It's me, I'm the online dm

[@matthewletexier]

Goddamn I am all for Ginny not taking shit from commenters. That was phenominal

[@RemySetGo]

I just played a Triton in a one shot, and at the very end we were being served chicken for dinner. The last words of the campaign were me saying "wow I've always wanted to try chicken, I've heard it's the tuna of the land!" DM gave me inspiration to use in our main campaign later that week 😁

[@ghuito8202]

A well-deserved one! :)

[@Maninawig]

That is awesome! Land Tuna is an epic offhand comment that could become a running gag.

[@TheBestSam42]

My party are all evil bastards and I originally was trying to play a chaotic good character but my whole party was being evil so then I decided to help an elf child without being paid because it’s the right thing to do and I got inspiration

[@fred_derf]

Ah yes, the old "meta-gaming is bad... unless it's inspiration", for some reason...

[@jack0slack]

My standard running D&D gag was a not-so-subtle reverse psychology trick to keep the mood light. Any truly bad pun or dad joke would be met by an immediate glare, and then a withering, "Have inspiration and never do that again." Unsurprisingly, my games turned into pun-filled, groaner joke filled joyfests, which was kinda what I wanted. Use inspiration to condition your players!

[@dsargus3]

I'll steal that, thanks

[@eXDax]

You're a true Pavlov

[@JonathanUsmar]

The fake geek girl rant was phenomenal. The sarcasm. The sass. The... Simultaneously genuinely plugging your pinup calender. Perfection.

[@FrozenFinder]

People should check out her Twitter, her personality on there is almost always sass as fuck. It's amazing

[@TeethOwner]

scandalous

[@MrPogyM]

@@FrozenFinder I legitimately first heard of her because of sass and feminism. Learned she was a nerd after.

[@erokvanrocksalot7545]

… the legs.

[@Flyde]

We have a house rule that every session someone has to explain what has happened in the last session but from the point of view of your character. If you did it, you get inspiration. I actually love that

[@pirapiranha5517]

Second this! I first started using this trick thanks to the PTBA Masks book and its been really helpful!

[@Logan_Baron]

"Fake Gamer Girl who only pretends to like D&D" That reminds me of the early days of Critical Role. Watching it livestreamed at the time on twitch and still being able to read the comments. You'd have rando's popping in because they saw the D&D tag and would complain that "the girls" were only pretending to like D&D because they were being paid. My response was that D&D is fun, why would you think that girls or pretty girls (since that was often the claim) would not like doing fun things like D&D?

[@Tyrope]

One could argue by just copy-pasting the lyrics to "Girls just wanna have fun". :)

[@pLanetstarBerry]

@@Tyrope Now I'm just thinking about the time me and the other two female players in the group decided to spend our in-game downtime shopping for adventuring gear together and we joked that song should be playing during our montage. We ended up at a fighting pit betting the rest of our money on the barbarian to see if we could raise a little extra cash, stuffing our faces on hot wings. You know, a regular girls' night out. 🤣

[@evelynnsophia7631]

@@pLanetstarBerry well... did he win? I can't see a more fitting way to spend a girls night out

[@pLanetstarBerry]

@@evelynnsophia7631 oh yeah, his opponents didn't stand a chance! Owner of the pits wasn't gonna give us the full money we were promised cuz they were convinced we cheated/had insider info, so one of the girls in our group threw a table and started a barfight so our rogue could steal the rest of what we were owed. Good times, good times...

[@WeShallLoveOn]

Ya know 9 times out of 10 these wangrods don't even play to have fun themselves. They've just decided DND or -insert any other nerd thing- is part of their personality now. You'll notice they go out of their way to make whatever it is as arduous as possible. Their goal isn't to have fun, it's to make something only they can participate in "properly" so they can look down on everyone else. So that's why they assume anyone else playing the game MUST be pretending or couldn't possibly like this game because only I can play this game the "true way".

[@archon5878]

I've never seen Inspiration used, ever. So when I saw Aabria handing them out like candy on Exandria Unlimited I was honestly like "Wait what? Whats that?!". I loved how she handled inspiration points though, rewarding the cast for interacting in and out of character.

[@chrishanatowne4652]

I was hoping someone would mention EXU cause that's the first time I'd heard about Inspiration and now that I know it's a thing, I'll probably incorporate it into my own campaign.

[@LoLotov]

I DID already know about inspiration, and really liked aabria's dming in general, but I had one major issue: robbie is a bard in exu, and because everyone always had inspiration from the DM, he never bothered to use his bardic inspirations. I think it's great as is in a party without a bard, but if you have one, I'd try one of the alternate rule sets for inspiration to avoid stepping on anyone's toes.

[@archon5878]

@@LoLotov I'm pretty sure Inspiration and Bardic Inspiration are two separate things, aren't they? Inspiration allows players to reroll their d20 on anything, while Bardic Inspiration allows them to add a certain die roll to the roll they've made. Its like a d6 from 1st level, d8 at 5th level, a d10 at 10th level, and a d12 at 15th level and has a 10 minute timer to be used. I think the biggest issue is that some bards forget that Bardic Inspiration exists and end up going whole sessions without using it, which is a shame considering its a strong tool that can be used in combat and roleplaying scenarios.

[@LoLotov]

@@archon5878 I beelined straight for the comments to find someone mention exu, then like two minutes later she explained what the actual rule was hahaha. I got the alternate rule I liked confused with the real one, so I guess draw the opposite conclusion from my last comment... use the alternate rules if you DONT have a bard! Thinking about it, you're right on about people just forgetting to use it... robbie was a swords bard or similarish, so he needed his for his maneuvers, but otherwise I can only remember like two or three times he actually used it on another player. More about inexperience than hoarding them for himself or goofing up action economy.

[@archon5878]

@@LoLotov Oh yeah, totally get that! I feel like inspiration is one of the big things you can change up for your group since it can be pretty big and isn't always a common use. Hell in 4 years of playing I got a point of inspiration from our DM for recalling information from a campaign session from before the pandemic! First time getting one and it was exciting as hell! Totally! I think because its more of a side thing for bards who don't use it for their main abilities, like Robbie playing college of swords, it's not something people tend to remember often.

[@jordanw2741]

I may have done a spit take when you started talking about your ulterior motives regarding the channel. There's a reason you're my favourite fake geek girl on KZbin.

[@jetvulcan2020]

love what's next wearing pants

[@calvinjohnson6242]

Genuinely made me hiss with laughter. One of my favorite bits I’ve seen in a while!

[@yetanotherretroreview4476]

Nobody actually spit takes.

[@ibigfire]

@@yetanotherretroreview4476 **takes your spit.**

[@Jane_8319]

I don’t use this so much now, but in my first campaign I changed the name “inspiration” to “badass cookie”. The players used them much more with that memorable name.

[@andrewmiller6264]

True story, I was at one time given inspiration at the table, for mimicking the Sand People cry so well when the DM described the cries and taunts of some enemies we had.

[@flossiebell]

Brilliant.

[@TheClericCorner]

I use a deck of cards for inspiration. Players get it face down and turn it up when they use it. Face cards are +10, Aces are crits. The players use it every session!

[@Amon_Rudh]

Hey, that's a cool idea. Are the number cards just plus that number to whatever they're rolling?

[@xSh4de]

That sounds like a great idea but as a numbers person I gotta say that is definitely stronger than inspirations usual advantage (although it doesn't give rogues free sneak attack [which is also a plus in my book]) If advantage is a +5; and your system treats number cards as they are and add them to the roll, then the average bonus would be +7 and that's not even accounting for aces because I didn't know how to add them into the equation because they're not a flat bonus Still love it though, just thought that it was worth mentioning the stats for anyone else who wants to consider using this idea

[@sylvaincousineau5073]

That an interesting concept .

[@MrTailson1]

I remember this tactic by Jacob from XP to Level 3. He called it "Cardic Inspiration". It's somewhere on their channel in a video about homebrew I believe.

[@christopherauvenshine2092]

@@xSh4de it is more powerful, but honestly more fun. I use this but aces are auto success, not crits. It just adds a little bit of randomness. Since most numbers mean success, people pulling 2s and 3s just make us all crack up.

[@MorganInWonderland]

"If you hate me after this, at least you've already watched most of the video." Ma'am, if I weren't subscribed already, the idea of giving out Inspiration for puns would make me hit that button in the fraction of a second because, let's be real, puns are the best kind of joke.

[@nynkeandreae7008]

For everyone forgetting to hand out inspiration points or use them, maybe having something physical in sight would help. Like an object that represents the inspiration point. Having items that represent inspiration points behind the dm screen in line of sight might really help to remember handing them out. And once they are given, the players also have something physical to remind them to use it. I suggest something small, like colored stones, special dice or (fake) coins.

[@Logan_Baron]

This is one thing where my Laura Bailey level of dice hoarding as a DM comes in handy. I give an actual dice that is placed in front of them until they use it. Our gaming table is a big dry erase board, so they usually have sections drawn out in front of them like a circle that they put the inspiration dice in front of them. A cheap box, like a gift box, could be used to give them the inspiration die, and once they use it, return it to the DM.

[@sarahherzog1173]

This makes them work similar to Fate points (they already are very similar) and I really like this idea! Need to see how to make it work for online campaigns, tho.

[@tomdavis3878]

Since I run AL and generally don't have access to a character's flaws, I generally give inspiration for actions that are sub-optimal or low-probability, but are creative. So a player choosing not to engage in a combat, despite the fact that initiative has been rolled, because their character was focused on something else; or a PC who's not good at charisma/intelligence/strength trying to negotiate/recall information/perform athletic tasks based on something in the situation or environment that compels them to do so. I want players to view their characters as more than just a collection of stats and abilities, but rather as a flesh-and-blood individual who may sometimes try something they're not good at, because they are unaware of that weakness, or have a momentary lapse where they forget themselves in response to something, or simply because they want to continue to try in spite of not being all that good. Basically, your character shouldn't always act like it knows what stat it has an 8 in, and I reward players at my table who act that out. That and puns. You can always get inspiration for puns.

[@darknessB4dawn]

I took over for my Sunday group so our regular DM could get a break. I've been handing out Inspiration for players who play into their character background, personalities, and ideals marked on their sheet. Our DM has decided to start doing the same when his break is over. Great advice and keep up the amazing work!!

[@brontsmoth671]

I always start new campaigns like: "I'm going to use inspiration more this time!" and tell my players this, and... I start off strong, then 3-4 sessions into the new campaign inspiration has been forgotten almost entirely...even by the players who might even have a leftover inspiration point sitting on their sheets until the end of time.

[@samwightman1]

Try a really unsubtle physical token. We use a huge gold d20 but anything big and shiny would work.

[@linrichardson8250]

I think it's a great tool for tables with novice players who are strugglign to roleplay and come out of their shell, but with players who don't have that problem it can come off as a bit patronising - like a gold star for effort.

[@Crystalelements182]

My DM gave us players power to give inspiration, but I think it was used once at the begining and forgotten. Now we are near the end of the campaign and idk if its worthwhile to bring it up again

[@AggroJordan86]

I found my personal remedy for this. I bought physical be bronze coloured metal coins that I stack visibly on the table to pass out to players. I have a second, silver coin set that players can use to give others advantage or disadvantage. I found that this greatly increased my awarding and players spending of inspiration. Maybe it helps you as well. I give inspiration for memorable actions, funny jokes, good RP, and whatever else I deem worthy. Players seem to like it.

[@DannyboyO1]

Oh god... Francis' Revenge. XD Well, she does seem happier now that she has a tragic backstory, so... mission accomplished?

[@VivaLaDnDLogs]

I love watching Ginny argue with herself. Most times I give Inspiration to any player who can make me break character with laughter while still staying in character.

[@alanchoichang8336]

ginny's mannerism and the background music makes it feel like im being taken on a walk through the DMG Inspiration section, but it has turned into the candy land, with lollipop tulips, cinnamon chocolate oak trees, gummy bunnies and squirrels. we are in all in a circle, just listening to her, blocking out all the anxiety induced by dming.

[@punkrockviking]

I follow a lot of D&D content creators, but nobody's videos are as consistently accessible and helpful as yours are. Thank you!

[@GinnyDi]

Ahhh thank you SO much, that really means a lot to me to hear!

[@MessedUpSystem]

I have to say, I love how creative you are with your sponsorships, probably the only content creator that I actually look forward to seeing the sponsor hahaha

[@yuna_bean]

I will never shut up about how much i love your ad reads. never skip.

[@Dyundu]

I too often forget Inspiration is a thing. My DMs either gave Inspiration for making them laugh, or for providing the session recap. And yeah, D&D using the same term for multiple mechanics has been a thing since the beginning. Thank you for posting this!

[@FalcnPWNCH]

I'm currently taking part in my first D&D campaign ever and our super awesome DM has given us very generously inspirations - my Tiefling Druid has gotten inspirations for things like: - the very first session, as I roleplayed my wild-elf born Tiefling witness a bloody brutal fight at a marketplace (which ended up bringing our group together) , and instead of being worried and alarmed my Tiefling went closer in interest to follow the combat, he stuck out like a sore thumb among the crowd when talking to others as he just interpreted it as local folk having a territorial / mating season scuffle (my character's basically *_"a bit more intelligent" Tarzan_* as he is a Tiefling born into a tribe of wild elves, so I was roleplaying his *_lack of societal civilization)_* - as me and our group together *_created a puppet decoy with our cantrips (a piece of cloth, mage hand, thaumaturgy to vibrate the ground to reveal it's location)_* to lure out a giant spider from it's webbed maze inside a sewer system, and for our rogue to than surprise attack it for massive damage - for going full Scooby-Doo and shape shifting into a dire wolf *_(or in my DM's sarcastic words something else than a bear for once)_* , and *_using it's keen smell to make advantageous investigation checks_* to help our group solve a mystery, and also *_roleplaying a good-dire-boi (I spent a while in that dire wolf form)_* - As we got ambushed into a severly disadvantageous combat, I creativily used my Mold Earth cantrip to *_bump up the ground beneath a wooden cart_* and *_forced multiple enemies standing on top of it to fall over_* and *_be knocked prone_*

[@ashen_fields]

In the games I've played, inspiration is given for recaps. I like to do the recaps when I DM for the most part so I don't always do that. But I do let my players award each other inspiration and seems to work well. They forget about it most of the time but they roll well enough without it tbh. In a 2 hour session last night there were 11 Nat 20's. Oof.

[@davidczu]

Thanks - I have never ever watched a KZbin video from a content creator where the sponsor ad breaks in the video are as entertaining as the content. Bravo. For this reason I am giving my first ever Super Thanks. It’s not much, but I wanted to share wthat I found your ideas really useful and everything else extremely funny.

[@AtheistPirate]

Ginny deserves a point of inspiration just for being awesome (and for winning at fashion).

[@elementzero3379]

I just subscribed in the last few days after enjoying a couple of older vids. I gotta say, your mocking of haters while simultaneously plugging your product was excellent. 😆👍🏻 Great vids. Every video I've watched has been loaded with good suggestions.

[@loraleitourtillottwiehr2473]

I really enjoyed how Aabria used Inspiration during EXU, and this video made me think even harder about it. I never used it as DM, but I think I will be more open handed with it in future. Thanks Ginny!

[@levishackelton4437]

In one of my groups the DM gives out inspiration for anybody who writes a recap of the previous session.

[@screamingblue7]

re: Tracking Ideals - I've got them on paper tents that sit on my DM screen, alongside one with PC's AC and Passive perception. House rules - Up to 3 inspiration can be saved up. We ask players to celebrate something they enjoyed or thought was cool and give an inspiration for something that entertained others. I've done the RP question at the beginning of a session to get more background to use later as well. Strongly encourage. Thank you again for another great video! And great plug "fake gamer girl" for the Calendar (what wonderful sarcasm displayed!)

[@brennawehrle6321]

I love the idea of players voting on who gets inspiration! I’m always hesitant to give it out because I feel like there can sometimes be a lot of inspiration-worthy moments, so I either end up giving out so much it becomes meaningless, or I end up giving it out arbitrarily. Having players nominate and vote takes the pressure off of me, and also means that the other players get to encourage the kinds of gameplay that make it fun for them!

[@brentage5000]

Glad you said for comedic brilliance. One of my favorite D&D groups to watch has a DM who regularly tosses out inspiration whenever something really tickles them to the point that it's possible (though not likely) the players have it stockpiled

[@CrimsonRaptors]

One of the things that may work out as well, is to provide something "tangible" to players for Inspiration. An example of this would be a coin of medieval design or unique-colored D20 dice that represent the inspiration. This helps everyone at the table to both remember, and for the player to "cash it in" upon use. Keep up the good videos, +GinnyDi! =P

[@ToothyLlama]

Just found this channel, and am loving it! One trick that I’ve used (taken from the Savage Worlds RPG) is to bump the number of inspiration up to 3, let it be used to reroll any die roll, and give inspiration to powerful enemies. When the players see the big bad miss an attack, only to reroll and hit, you better believe they’ll start using inspiration to hit back! Also, +1 on the “Character Builder Question” or “Random Fun Fact” for inspiration. That got even my most quiet players to chip in with some cool perspectives on their characters!

[@Allacorro]

In my home game, I also use inspiration for giving a key hint as a “feeling” they get if there’s a potential solution to get them out of a dangerous situation. They get into those a lot.

[@MrTheMighty]

I support that wholeheartedly!

[@crumpuppet]

This is a great tip!

[@jameswilletts8885]

Still my favorite video. 😁 ❤️ I award inspiration/bennies to players that engage the setting and add to the mood. “Today is a local holiday. How is it celebrated and why is it important?” As per the “get players to fall in love with your setting” video, my favorite player move is collaborative world-building, and this has been my best tool for making it happen more and more.

[@BubblingBrooke]

Changing how inspiration works can also help remembering to give it out and use it! My husband likes to give it out for interesting character choices and the way its used is different. We can still only have 1, but up till level 10 it adds to your roll and after it counts as a portent roll (only for yourself) counting your overall player level as either the plus to your roll or the roll itself. This way it can really help at later levels when something is risky or to help hit/pass something in a dire strait in early levels.

[@emessar]

The ad at the start was a joy to watch. As far as inspiration goes, I try to hand it out a bit more freely and allow them to use it after a roll. I don't like to hand it out for role playing because that's something that not all of my players are comfortable with. Instead, I just give everyone a point at the beginning of the session. In addition, if a character is knocked to zero HP, or otherwise taken out of the fight, I award a point. I could also see awarding a point for accomplishing an important objective (take down the boss or the lieutenant) I also let them accumulate multiple points with one caveat: if they take a short or long rest, the party loses all but one point each. (Wanna hoard those points? Fine, stop taking rests.) I think there should also be more uses for inspiration. One thing that I do currently is allow someone to inspire another character. They can either spend an inspiration on their turn to encourage someone, or use their reaction during the player's turn. It's been a great use for casters that don't make as many rolls. I have also considered allowing a player to use inspiration to recover (or attempt to recover) a spell slot or other character resource (ki points, rage, channels, sorcery points, etc), but I haven't implemented that yet.

[@rarrmonkey]

If you use poker chips to track spell slots (as I do), I guess you could have a chip for inspiration. You could paint one-side to indicate inspiration and the other to indicate not having inspiration and flip it over when necessary. I enjoy the tactile side of D&D, I only track hp on paper. I use colored dice, cards, or chips to track abilities and skills.

[@Papayotin]

I bought Beadle and Grimm gold dragons as handouts for inspiration, but I always forget them in their little pouch. Maybe this will get the coins flowing again. Thanks for another great video Ginny!

[@tomlindahl4580]

This is why your D&D videos are my favorites - always with such empathy and focus on the humans around the table. You don't get locked into what's the "perfect" way to run a game, always focusing on the Why, not just the How. Many kudos! Keep it up Ginny! And of course great work in not taking shit from haters, sorry that you have to go through that muck.

[@justtj8085]

DM: You realize what you are facing is a type of ooze - a corrisive monster called a Black Pudding. Halfling Bard: Quick, is anyone a vegetarian?! Elf Ranger: Live off of the land, so no High Elf Druid: No Tabaxi fighter: Hell no Minotaur Paladin: Surprisingly, no Warforged Artificer: I don't even eat. Halfling Bard: Damnit! A vegetarian would be immune to the Black Pudding DM: ...Why do you think that? Halfling Bard: Don't you know... if you don't eat your meat, you can't have any pudding? *player recieves -1 inspiration from DM*

[@MonkeyJedi99]

I laughed so hard, I immediately shared this with the rest of my gaming group.

[@stratospherica]

The game I'm playing has luck points, which function like inspiration but you have a number of them per session, and they can alter the narrative in other ways, like rerolling a failed test once, making a successful roll more powerful or "remembering" to bring something that would be helpful in the moment. I tend to award them for exceptional roleplay, making me laugh, and also particularly brilliant ideas (like, particularly creative solutions to problems I haven't thought of). It's a good way to keep everyone involved, I think!

[@misskittystryker]

Your calendar ad is absolutely the best

[@kalehsaar]

like, i don't even play DnD, so related ads literally do nothing for me, but this character you've created for them is so damn adorable, that i just can't bring myself to skipping them

[@jafrazer]

Yay! Francis lore! Oh, I should probably say something about actual video content, rather than just the ad and everyone's favourite Gnome Cartographer... Erm... Good stuff Ginny! Very... ✨inspirational✨.

[@StephenGwyn]

Miss, the amount of sarcasm at the beginning or video got you a thumbs-up and a follow. Please continue

[@LisaGrimm-LG]

I reward my players with inspiration for remembering a part of the lore that's not particularly relevant to the plot or has any direct relation to character's own backstory but that would be applied by the character within the game (the simplest example of such situation is instead of "Oh my God" to use "By the gods!", but of course I reward the players when they used something world-specific, not that generic). For instance, in my setting the Abyss and some other planes are called something else and I was genuinely surprised and happy when one of the characters while describing a character thing to other characters just started using setting-accurate terms instead of D&D-general terms (that, might I add, also exist as alternate terms for those planes). Little did I know, the next session two other players used setting-accurate terms in a completely logical for their characters way. So if you set the games in your own setting, inspiration is a great way of motivating the players to read your lore documents xD

[@CratthewF]

Omg I need this video in my feed weekly! I forget ab inspiration every single session, and I always think afterwards “OH I should’ve given inspiration for that, it was so clever”

[@QuinnTheGM]

I've been meaning to use more Inspiration in my games and I'm going to take this as a sign!

[@illican]

my dm has given me inspiration for understanding story points without needing additional explanation

[@PartridgeQuill]

I like awarding inspiration when I introduce a plot twist or complication that makes it harder for the players. When I do, that player can also award another inspiration, thus incentivizing cooperation.

[@psalm4002]

I really like the way you format your videos. The way you give multiple solutions/ideas is really cool. A lot of dnd youtubers ussually only say one solution/idea and act like it should work for every single group.

[@CompleteNewbie]

Witness! My rule is, if you give your inspiration to another player when they do something cool, you get a 50-50 chance of getting it back. It means the best use of inspiration is to notice and appreciate the other players. You don't have to shout "witness", but you probably should.

[@dominicbazzini9880]

Every time I watch one of your vids I'm blown away by how committed you are to making the adds fun and entertaining to watch, honestly the best job out of any youtuber I've seen. Legit skillful

[@lifeofnothingness]

Inspiration has been a mechanic I've always tried to give to my players, but feel very self conscious doing so. My biggest concern is if I award inspiration to one player for a great rp moment, and another player feels bad because they didn't receive inspiration for what they thought was a great rp moment/moment worthy of inspiration.

[@MonkeyJedi99]

One way to deal with that is to use a few minutes at the end of the session to ask the players which players did things that deserve an inspiration point. With a rule that a person cannot nominate themselves. - I used to do that with "bonus xp" in older editions and other games. But for some reason I fell out of the habit.

[@aliciaantoniadis9100]

Thank you so much Ginni! I just recieved my first Inspiration point and am a bit overwhelmed. Your talk about it calmed me down. Once again thank you. Sincerely, Alicia from Sweden.

[@mikhailchuev8715]

I have players that struggle with info gathering in game. I award them inspiration when they finally do research about the dungeon/monsters/strange cults, etc in order to incentivise this even further.

[@valta2760]

On my second campaign i was still extremely self aware when it came to roleplay, but with a friend we decided to prepare a little arguments our PCs were going to have regarding their ethics (the PCs were siblings), the DM liked it so much he have us inspiration and it felt SO GOOD, it felt like roleplaying was fun for everyone in the table and that i didn't have to be afraid or embarassed. That was the exact moment i started to roleplay (and enjoy the roleplaying) more!

[@Reoh0z]

Oh no, She tricked me into watching another video by packing it full of helpful hints. Alright Ginny you win this round, but we'll see if you can do that again next time!

[@CastorGaming]

I'm a new DM and I've really been struggling with trying to find a way to bring the Inspiration mechanic into my games. I play many games with my group (as we all rotate the position of DM, each with our own campaigns), but only one game utilizes the Inspiration mechanic. I really like the idea of having the entire group decide who gets the point for that session, for whatever potential reason. It can be really encouraging to have your entire group tell you that you did really wonderful, and be a fantastic way to bring newer players into the fold. I'll workshop some ideas, and see how best to implement them, but this is a really good starting point. Thanks!

[@missmariel1479]

We're a pretty creative group, so I've started giving out inspiration to everyone who creates art (drawing, writing, moodboards or other) for a currently in canon moment :0 Some examples include characters writing letters to their families or players designing the tattoos their characters got :D

[@avaward6913]

that sounds super cool!

[@brycebolick6518]

When I ran WDH, I gave inspiration to anyone who gave the recap because there were a lot of relationships and factions and plots to keep track of. I didn't want to have to explain EVERY SINGLE SESSION who was who and what they were doing. Plus it helped me see what the players saw. I highly recommend this for anyone who is playing a game that has a web of names, places, and plots to remember.

[@specs6637]

In my game we use “inspiration points” Where a player can hold an amount up the wisdom stat. -They can trade 1 point in for advantage on a roll -5 to impose disadvantage onto someone else -Or they can trade 20 for an automatic success (note, not an automatic crit. Just success) they can then also roll to see it it a crit

[@Skimmer951]

In our game we had a houserule regarding inspiration, you could use 3 of them to automatically succeed on a roll automatically and you could also give your inspiration to another player. We got awarded inspiration a lot and we also burned through it a lot espicially in dire situations where it was commonly screamed at the table "TAKE MY INSPIRATION!" to help a fellow friend get in a important hit or check or save. Or as we called it: the power of friendship as a in game explanation to why certain rolls succeded.

[@Dungeon_Fire]

What a trickster! But for real: my solution has been automatically giving inspiration at the beginning of a session to everyone with the caveat they have to use it by end of the session and WHEN they use the end of the session they should do it in an epic way role-play wise.

[@kid14346]

My favorite form of inspiration is the Fortune Bowl from Pugmire. It is a really long explanation and there are tons of things that tie into it like initiative, spellcasting, etc. but the long and short is basically the GM can award inspiration into a shared pool of points by giving monsters advantage or causing a dangerous situation to get worse. Players can then spend out of the shared pool to reroll/use class abilities/cast spells/ or move around in initiative order.

[@EnjeoLineMedia]

I give my players inspiration at the start of every session, so to minimize the feels bad rolls - players sometimes feel attacked by bad rolls, so it helps mitigate that. It's also homebrewed to be able to reroll anything, including lvl up rolls - not give advantage tho

[@SuperMetalhead96]

One method for awarding inspiration that my dm has used a few times is giving it for providing a quality recap of the previous session. It incentivizes good note taking/paying attention. And it takes some of the burden off the dm to remember/provide the recap.

[@seanmcgcostumes]

In our campaign of almost 2.5 years, we're level 8 and I play our party's bard. So I'm giving out Bardic Inspiration virtually in every encounter, as long as I still have some left. However, this means that the other party members can get a bonus thanks to me, but I can never get a bonus to anything my character does since we're not high enough a level where I can inspire myself. We have a monk who's newer to the party with 2 levels of cleric, and she has Bless that could give a small 1d4 bonus to some things, but it has yet to be used because it's easy for her to forget about... just as I still often forget that Cutting Words exists until it's too late. Whoops! It wasn't until I was watching Critical Role's *Exandria Unlimited* that I even knew that Inspiration other than the bardic kind even existed. Since then, I've 100% incorporated it into any game I DM so that there's never a player who feels like they never get a chance to get a bonus. I had always thought there wasn't a way for me to get a bonus at all other than Bless being cast on my character, but I had no idea that there's a mechanic for Inspiration until ExU and now I'll always use this mechanic so everyone equally has a shot at that bonus roll rather than one character giving out additional dice to roll regularly but never getting it themselves. I feel like the Inspiration mechanic makes it much more fair and even.

[@MonkeyJedi99]

A trick to remember to use/grant/cast bardic inspirations and blesses is, we set down the right number of the right dice in a box we draw somewhere on our character sheet. When the bardic inspiration or bless is granted, we put the relevant die on top of the skill section of the character sheet, and it sits there as a reminder. When the effect is used or expires, the die is returned to the caster/die owner.

[@benjaminh.clement1292]

Your add for the sponsor are as good as the video and actually makes me want to watch through them instead of skipping them ahah, VERY new to your channel, but already in love with it

[@kpdubbs7117]

Do you tell your therapist that you often record yourself talking to yourself? Also, MORE FRANCIS PLEASE!!!

[@kjs8719]

I often award inspiration at the suggestion of other players. You don't get it if you ask for it, but so far, every time another player has said they feel like someone earned it, I've agreed and given it. It always makes them really excited

[@joesimpson5924]

This is such great content! I just found your channel and I'm already hooked. I award inspiration in my games as a way to draw my players into the world - I give it out to them any time that they ask me a particularly good question about the world around them, for inventing traditions or cultural things that I didn't put any thought into, or for being willing to participate in the "boring" parts of the campaign, such as when the characters are hiking across the badlands for X amount of time - I give each player a chance to tell a short story as their character, or to take us through a flashback or a side adventure that shows us something new about our shared world. Anyway, keep up the great work, and I can't wait to watch more!

[@TabletopTiger]

That beginning commentary about your long con for this channel was delightful and I hope folks take a hint and rethink their biases. Its so funny you post this; Im literally researching creative ways to revive inspiration for my campaign because my sorcerer just told me they have like 12 inspiration stored...wut. Thanks for some great insight!

[@FracturedFaithMusic]

That sarcasm was 🌶spicy🌶 and I loved it. Don’t ever stop.

[@mrmaster9801]

Your carrot metaphor is right on spot and it's just how I view inspiration. Really, inspiration is a great pavlovian tool to have the table you desire without any "OK, you have to play like this". On my part, I award it for heroic deeds, clever ideas, if successfully completing a milestone in the adventure, for good role playing and when scoring nat20 on a roll. I like your ideas of "for fun character facts" and "to the MVP" though, I think I'm going to try them in my campaign and see how they work.

[@jchunick]

This is my first video of yours and it's already better than the "5 or 10 things" videos that I see most of the D&D channels doing. So, props not jumping on that bandwagon. As for the topic, I tend to be bad at forgetting to award it, but have been working toward getting better. Of course, it helps when your players are awesome and mine are. My criteria is usually whenever a player does something inspiring, very character-driven and elevates the game, IMO. I've had it happen a few times already in my current campaign. By far, the best one was my friend of over 40 years who we played D&D with back in the box set days in the 80's but not really past our teen years. Then I got back into it as an adult 30 years later and finally got him into a game. He's loving it and I'm loving having him in it. We play online due to other players being in different parts of North America. Anyway, his half-orc cleric ends up going blind due to being slashed in the eyes by a battleaxe wielded by one of the band of orcs who are after him. The axe releases this darkness (evil) that blinds him despite him healing his wounds after. That part was all planned, partially by him as he'd wanted to have his PC go blind. But what he does next is completely crazy. In his despair he carves out his own eyes believing that he must do this in order to remove the darkness (evil) so that he can connect to Sol's light again (his god). Up until that point I was thinking this would be a temporary thing, but nope. He wants it to be permanent. I just sat there, mouth agape thinking, "daaammm! Ok. Daaaamn."; that got him an inspiration. And now I've worked out some abilities he's been gifted by a Solar named Sachiel after some fever induced visions/trials he had while healer priests helped perform a ritual to remove the darkness in him. So, while he's still blind he has a bit of blindsight out to 10' during the day and 5' at night provided he wears the silken wrapping Sachiel ripped from his divine clothing. Sachiel also granted him the mark of Sol on his forehead as he is now marked as the Paragon of Sol, which gives him an ability tied to his Channel Divinity to bath every living thing within 60' of him in radiant light for a number of rounds equal to his wisdom modifier (it works much like faerie fire does but only he can "see" it).

[@jamialexandra3743]

My DM was really, really generous with Inspiration and because we knew he'd probably give us another, it always got used! Our table started as co-workers so whenever something cool happened at work (or life events or birthdays etc) he'd give everyone Inspiration. It was great honestly!

[@GarrettRobinson]

Great video! My DM home rules that DM inspiration works more like bard inspiration. It’s a die based on level of the party, that you can use after a roll to improve it. The main benefit to this method is that inspiration is always an improvement. Default inspo rules mean sometimes the inspiration device can be worse than your first roll. With this homebrew rule, it’s always a benefit. Either way, we love playing with inspiration rules.

[@impurebloodheld7310]

The intro to fuck with gatekeeping misogynistic geeks is hilarious! You handled that amazingly!

[@laterkater4213]

I've been trying to figure out how to include inspiration in my game since we started playing (18 months ago), and this has given me so many ideas! I honestly forget things in the middle of the season (I have a hard time focusing when I don't have combat to manage, with players asking me questions and NPCs getting involved...) so I was worried it would be something I introduce, and then forget about. Doing it at the start or end of a session is a great way to ensure everyone gets rewarded without people missing out and feeling hurt that I ignored their awesome combat move/pun/role-playing moment in the moment it happened. THANK YOU GINNY!

[@whowasibeing]

I really REALLY liked the giving players the ability to give each other inspiration tip. Had not considered that myself, despite all my attempts to make inspiration more of a thing in my games. So danke. Also...map sponsor thing sounded fun, so going to go look at that now.

[@shbenton01]

i have metal coins that i use for inspiration points. when it's earned, i dole out the coin and they can spend as they wish. plus, it's nice to have it handy instead of maybe forgetting you have one on your sheet

[@link99055]

Found you literally the week I'm starting to DM. My first session is tonight! Nervous... thanks for GREAT advice!

[@giualonso]

I hope it went well!

[@AshAngelV]

Had a fellow player blow all the inspiration they'd gotten throughout the campaign on one check. Obviously, we played fast and loose with the rules of inspiration. Our DM also awarded it for jokes/puns and sometimes random stuff that didn't even happen in the session as well as for the first Nat 20 of the night.

[@IzoniovKelestryn]

I hate (re: love) how almost Every. Single. Sponsorship product you put in your videos is something really cool and interesting. Ive taken to bookmarking them all in a folder called "Buy When Rich"

[@adambooth7755]

"For excellent puns". A perfectly valid way to give inspiration. That's probably like 95% of all inspiration given in Oxventures.

[@futuza]

What we do at my table to better ensure Inspiration gets given: character journal entries. As long as a player posts a journal entry from their characters perspective (with flexibility ie: 1st or 3rd person doesn't really matter and it could just be their thoughts rather than an actual 'journal') before the session (during the week between sessions) to our online forum they start the next game with Inspiration. I love this as it helps everyone get to know the other characters (and their own) better and also tends to create a sort of session log when done often enough. Then of course you can give Inspiration during the game too when appropriate, but don't really have to worry about it. I've found that players tend to do journal entries whenever they feel critical moments in the campaign are coming up and they want every extra bit of advantage they can get. Some players also tend to be able to better articulate in writing who their character is then on the spot at the table and helps them improve roleplaying.

[@benfarrar741]

D&D is really complex. It’s so hard to fake a thorough understanding of the games’ subtleties that it isn’t worth the effort. And faking an enthusiasm for the game while faking a thorough understanding of it is practically impossible. Not to mention that if Ginny wanted to use her legs to sell calendars, it wouldn’t be necessary to “trick” anyone, or do anything complicated. She could just say, “Here’s some legs! Buy a calendar!” Nope. What we’re looking at here is a genuine love for D&D, coupled with a genuine love of dressing up.

[@ElleMaddi]

This is such a helpful reminder and advice! We also reward inspiration at our table for honesty with rules, i.e. reminding the DM they have advantage on an attack against you which I really like

[@randymaas6664]

I personally allow all my players to give 1 point of inspiration every session, no rules, just award as you see fit. It generally gets used when they approve of someone else's roleplay. It's a great way of saying "My characters disapproves in-game, but I think you're a great PLAYER for doing this." It works so great and it's always seen as a great compliment to get inspiration from someone else.

[@southron_d1349]

You hit the nail on the head with "forgetting to use inspiration". Even if I remembered to hand it out, the players forgot to use it. I've tried handing out a token to each player at the start of the session to claim Advantage for themselves or another player or to impose Disadvantage on one of my rolls. It worked better but even so there were sessions when people still forgot to use them. So I've just given up.

[@tomgp]

I really love the inspiration mechanic. Handing it out genuinely does reinforce good roleplaying and gives a nice burst of energy to the table after a big fight or some particularly tense negotiation. I tend to use physical tokens that get passed around as it helps everyone remember to use it and emphasises the use it or lose it nature of the mechanism.

[@CLAYZERFUL]

My dm awards it for moments that make her cry. It's been awarded 4 times so far. Usually after really intense and emotional roleplay interactions within the party

[@kiekebe1341]

The sarcasm at the beginning got you an instant subscribe from me, because you're hilarious