OTHER USES OF INSPIRATION

 

What I've noticed in my games is players holding on to Inspiration, instead of using it. Inspiration is one of the tools DMs have to encourage inspired, creative gameplay. Rules-As-Written when a player has no Inspiration left and does something cool in-game, the DM can reward them with an Inspiration. The consequence is that, according to RAW, you have no means to reward them with Inspiration if they aren't yet void of it.

Player's see it as a finite resource that they lose if they use it, and thus want to save it up for when it will have the greatest impact. As opposed to it being a renewable resource that they can successfully manage. What we have to do is shift their gaming mentality from one of scarcity to one of abundance. How to do this?

1. We can ignore limits on Inspiration. But I fear this may lead players to hoard them instead.

OR

2. Make them more useful, so that not spending them becomes something of an opportunity cost. Some ideas:

--Spend Inspiration to influence the game environment. Spend 1 Inspiration to introduce a minor or major detail into the game world. It could be trivial like an environmental detail in a scene that the player can take advantage, or it could be a major detail that becomes a landmark in the game world. In the latter case, I would consider rewarding the player with a Story XP Award. (In my game, that's a 25 XP bump.) DM's discretion.

--Spend Inspiration to perform a power stunt. Do something cool, like swing from a chandelier and perhaps then do X. Spend 1 Inspiration, execute the move with Advantage on related checks. If it's really cool, you may then earn your Inspiration back. DM's discretion.

(Any changes to Inspiration have the potential of nerfing the Human's advantage here. I might consider allowing Human characters to raise their Inspiration limit to 2.)

There must be other interesting uses that can be leveraged at the table to encourage using Inspiration and to encourage creative gameplay.