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Homebrew item : bottled inspiration (ttrpg.network)

submitted 1 year ago by sammytheman666@ttrpg.network to c/askgamemasters@ttrpg.network

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You know that situation. You have a player or players doing something awesome. You give them an inspiration. And they say : I already have one.

It sucks because the system is made that you can only have one at a time. Sure it encourages them to use them, but not always. And if a player is awesome twice without a big die roll he just won't have the time to use it.

One time I was fed up and made this item on the fly : the bottled inspiration.

Its an item that you gain when you get an inspiration and already have one. Its weightless. It takes an action to "drink" it and regain an inspiration, so you cannot do it back to back. And there is no limit to how many you can carry. One of my players made it to 8 one time.

I never had the displeasure of not being able to recompense a player and its been over 2 years using them without drawbacks.

I highly suggest to think of this next time you hear that sad response of already having one.

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[–] LoamImprovement@ttrpg.network 2 points 1 year ago

I think it's a good idea, not dissimilar to WBW's Potion of Advantage. Ultimately it's up to you, as it is every DM, to decide if you want players to be able to stack inspiration in that manner, but as you pointed out, allowing players to stock inspiration tends to discourage them from using it unless they have a stockpile already, because they don't lose anything from not using it.

[–] Sandra@idiomdrottning.org 1 points 7 months ago

What I did was use tokens for inspiration and saying "you can have as many as you want and then cash in all of them to get advantage". That worked well.

[–] Chais@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It's your game. If you decide players can have multiple inspirations, but only use one at a time then that's the rule. RAW is only a suggestion.

[–] sammytheman666@ttrpg.network 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

... yes ? I suggest to use it too, giving you my idea

[–] Chais@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

I'd argue you could even do away with the action if you like.

[–] sammytheman666@ttrpg.network 1 points 1 year ago

Probably yeah.

[–] sqw@lemmy.sdf.org 1 points 1 year ago

after all, the seed of inspiration often takes a long while to germinate, and only under the right circumstances.