Backgrounds - Part 1 - Inspiration

Duncehack Edition

So who are you?

Just some tosser with an over inflated sense of self importance.

Send verbal abuse via Minds.com

What is the Duncehack?

It emerged from a place of frustration. There's quite a number of areas where 5e could be improved but... it's not going to happen for various reasons.

The Duncehack is my attempt to fix these problems I have. Plan is to go through the whole game - all of it - and homebrew it into the game I think is should have been.

Feel free to disagree with me, but ultimately I think there's no harm in putting my thoughts out there, at the very least if even one DM decides to adopt these rules, then my job is done.

No DM Guild? No OGL Release?

I chafe under binding contracts and both of these are exactly that.

The DM Guild gives you more room to mess with established rules, but basically demands that all be under the service of flagship settings.

The SRD on the other hand gives more room for interesting settings but clamps down extremely hard on what established rules you're allowed to use. Their biggest contention is that they don't want someone to sell a sourcebook that removes the need for core books. Translation: they don't want Pathfinder to happen all over again.

More to the point, both assume money will change hands. I don't want money, I just want Wizards to fix their game.

Groundrules

Groundrules for the Duncehack are as follows:

• No Nerfs: the goal is to bring weaker archetypes on the level of the stronger ones.

• Remove Traps: incentives built into classes and archetypes should provide an active payoff, rather than be the suboptimal choice.

• Frontload Agency, Backend Power: Generally speaking, people like having more options to do things, rather than more raw power. As a design rule: things that feel like core class features, or are defining class mechanics, should happen in the first ten levels, sheer numeric increases in power should come after that.

No money changed hands here

This is a passion project. I want to keep it that way.

I also want to avoid legal issues for self-evident reasons.

No UA?

Too much changes between UA and official release.

The fewer corrections I have the do between UA changes, the better.

Obligatory Natural Crit Plug

http://www.naturalcrit.com/

Someone else made a thing that lets me make homebrews without having to post them on pastebin or something. They deserve a lot of credit for that.

Obligatory /tg/ Plug

The feedback I got from various Anons on this helped me build it into something that wasn't bad and stupid.

No Images?

Needed to get it under 8mb so I could upload it literally anywhere.

So what is this?

An overhaul on Backgrounds, because I genuinely think they could be more. More specifically, their various 'Features' rarely, if ever, come up over the course of a campaign. I wanted to give mechanics to change that.

This one contains an overhaul of concrete Inspiration and rules to properly tie it to Backgrounds.

Issues

So what's wrong with Inspiration as a mechanic? Isn't it just there as a carrot in the DM's toolbox to reward players and foster positive reinforcement at the table?

That's... the intention. In reality it's just a poorly implemented fate point system.

No Clear Rules on Earning

The PHB just says 'the DM will tell you how this works'. But the DMG?

It gives vague guidelines with these headings: Roleplaying, Heroism, A Reward for Victory, Genre Emulation, Players and Inspiration, but presents them as mere suggestions. The problem is, you've got problems here with this method...

Roleplaying

Good roleplaying is subjective enough that leaving this metric just to DM judgement can foster a perception of favouritism as one player who constantly steals the show is showered with inspiration session in and session out. The eccentric scholar who puts their party at risk to speak out against a book burning, might be the greatest show of roleplaying that player has ever put out, but a DM who equates good roleplaying with 'how much did I laugh' might not reward the inspiration, even if they've technically rewarded it for less as the Bard is quick with the snappy sarcasm.

It's too much of a matter of taste for my liking is what I'm saying.

Heroism

Define Heroism.

Seriously, not to play armchair philosopher, but one man's heroic sacrifice is another's selfish stupidity. Hell, you could even argue all the Paladin oaths are different arguments for a definition of Heroism.

"But," you might say, "What if it's what my character would deem Heroic?" but A) that's covered by the Roleplaying header and B) it's sort of implied by the DMG write-up (page 240) that heroism is objectively defined ('embracing swashbuckling action' was one of its possible critera). It then goes off topic and describes how allowing inspiration to be spent after the d20 roll is great for pulpy action, which to be honest probably should have deserved its own section.

A Reward for Victory

"Under this model, give everyone in the party inspiration if the characters manage to defeat a powerful foe, execute a cunning plan to achieve a goal, or otherwise overcome a daunting obstacle in the campaign."

Sounds reasonable right?

Except... you're getting the inspiration immediately after you'd actually need to use it.

"But what about holding it for next encounter?" You might say. Problem with that is, using it that way means it stops being a reward for victory, and starts being a once-per-story-arc fate point.

Genre Emulation

This one actually bugs me, because it encourages players to follow narrative tropes and conventions rather than using their own judgement. Effectively, it's the DM shifting the burden of selling the setting and genre to the players.

That might sound a bit harsh, but hear me out for a second. One of the examples is: "characters in a horror story typically can't help but spend a night in a haunted house to learn its secrets" - the problem is, isn't that just the general plot progression of haunted house stories? So you're giving them a participation award in this instance.

As for following other, not so plot related conventions: depending on the genre this comes dangerously close to micromanaging your players. If you need characters to do exacting, specific things in accordance to the genre archetype for the story to work then... dickish though it may be to say, maybe you should write a novel in that case? Players are the writers of their character's story within a shared setting, they are NOT actors reciting a predetermined script verbatim.

Players and Inspiration

Letting players decide its award and use as a group collective. I don't have the greatest experience here as it's caused arguments at my table - fact is, this method requires concrete rules moreso than the others.

Aren't clear rules also an issue?

Yeah, the writeup also addresses this. "Telling a player that an action will earn inspiration provides clarity, but it can make it feel like you are manipulating the players or making choices for them."

It's a fair point, except it's also based on something I believe to be an incorrect premise.

5e's Inspiration Premise

The assumption here is:

"The DM dictates when and why inspiration is awarded".

This means that no matter what you do, you're either arbitrary and inconsistent in your application, or if you are consistent, then you're trying to softly micromanage your players.

In games with functioning fate point systems, the rules are usually 'the player knows how to earn them (or even outlines the circumstances where they earn them), but the DM adjudicates whether or not the player has met the relevant criteria'.

5e's Ignored Mechanic: Character Traits

The PHB makes a nod towards personality traits, flaws, bonds and ideals being a source of inspiration generation, but stops there, effectively by omission reverting back to the premise above for it's actual implementation.

Value of the Mechanic

It also doesn't help that it's so heavily restricted in how it's used, as it functionally is 'the lucky feat, but worse'.

So not only is it arbitrary and inconsistent, but it's also not all that worth the effort to earn.

Inspiration

Inspiration and Rests

All Player Characters have a pool of inspiration equal to their Proficiency Modifier.

• Whenever a character takes a long rest, they restore half of their maximum inspiration points.
• Whenever a character takes a short rest, they can spend a hit die to restore one inspiration point.

Inspiration and Character Traits

Whenever a character fulfils one of their Character Traits, they are awarded a point of inspiration. This inspiration may not exceed their maximum inspiration total.

Each trait may only be used to restore a point of inspiration once per long rest.

Character Traits

Trait	Possible Inspiration Criteria
Personality	Successfully navigate a difficult situation on strength of personality alone.
	Embarass yourself by being... well... you.
Ideal	Hit a milestone in attaining the ideal.
	Defend your ideal in the face of great risks.
Bond	Successfully fulfil the bond despite the risks.
	Suffer a setback in pursuit of the bond.
Flaw	Indulge in a flaw to your own detriment.
	Go to extremes in attempting to hide the flaw.

Using Inspiration

A player may use inspiration for one of the following effects. All of these options may be decided before or after the roll, but before the result of the roll is determined:

• The character may give themselves advantage, or remove disadvantage, from any d20 roll.
• The character may force a creature making an attack roll, opposed skill check roll, or saving throw against the character to have disadvantage to the roll, or remove advantage from the roll.

The following effect may also be used, however these must be decided before any roll is made.

• The character may go first in a round (returning to their normal place in initiative afterwards).
• A player may transfer Inspiration to another player.
• A character may automatically stabalise instead of making death saves (this must be declared before the first death saving throw is made).

Optional: Inspiration as Player Narrative Control

Inspiration may also be used as a means of permitting player narrative control. This is more appropriate for DMs who prefer their players to populate their world and doesn't suit every game type.

• A point of inspiration may be used to introduce an NPC to the scene.
  • This NPC may be new, or already established, as long as it makes sense for them to be there.
  • The player can determine up to 3 of the following: a Character Trait (i.e. Personality, ideal, bond, flaw), a skill or tool proficiency, or any class-like features (NPCs don't quite get character levels, but saying 'oh he's an apprentice druid' is still a meaningful description).
• A point of inspiration may be used to introduce a key item to the scene.
  • The item should make sense for the context - or at the very least, provide a compelling mystery if it doesn't.
  • The item should be of common value, although with DM permission the item can be uncommon. Uncommon items should not have any major offensive capabilities - that is to say 'I spend an inspiration to get myself a +1 weapon!' is not allowed.
  • The item should be something the character desperately needs in the present moment, but not always useful/special in other circumstances (such as a crowbar to get past a door, or tools to reinforce a wall holding back a torrent of water).
  • Alternatively the item could be a source of information: blackmail material, incriminating evidence, directions to a key location, instructions left by a benefactor, clues to a mystery, etc.
• You may spend a point of inspiration to introduce environmental conditions to the scene.
  • The environmental condition should make sense for the biome, or at the very least have an explanation in-setting. If a blizzard happens in the middle of the sweltering tropic heat, there had better be solid explanation as to why.
  • The environmental condition could mean 'a thing happened'. A crane broke and a giant block of stone is blocking off a character's escape. The portcullis is barred for reasons that have nothing to do with the players. The tunnel caved in. Two gryphons were fighting and one of their corpses just slammed into the ground. You get the idea.
• You may spend a point of inspiration to establish a relationship between your character and an NPC.
  • While it should be plausable for the character in question, players are permitted to be as outlandish as they'd like without fundamentally breaking setting conciets (adventurers live strange lives).
  • The relationship should not be intense and close (although there's nothing stopping them from being that way once upon a time). Instead it should be more like a friendly acquaintance or that friend of a friend you're on good terms with. Minor rivals or disgruntled not-quite-enemies works just as well.