The "Inspiration" deck!

I've an idea that might help improve the mechanic of "Inspiration" in DnD 5e. One problem in tabletop form, at least for me, is remembering to reward it. As an abstract thing, not a physical token, it's hard to remember. This can easily be remedied by giving a player a token or something to remember and turn in when they use it. Another problem that may just be my opinion is that Inspiration doesn't feel like too strong of a reward for doing something worthy of it. If a player actively does something inefficient or funny (in a non-hindrance kind of way) just to stay true to character, that deserves a good reward! Giving out one free advantage roll doesn't seem enough to me, who values roleplaying a lot more. This is the problem I am aiming to solve, using what I call the Inspiration deck.

The Inspiration deck is a simple deck of 52-54 cards. It is a simple deck of playing cards, the classic four suits with numbers and optional jokers. The idea is, if you are impressed with your player's actions, you can reward them with a draw of the deck. At the end of each session (or in the case of a PbP, episode or thread or what have you), the card is returned. If not used, it's lost.

So, here is the rough idea that I had in my mind.

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THE INSPIRATION DECK
A draw of the deck highly improves a player's chances during an adventure!
To be rewarded only when superior storytelling or role-playing is prevalent.

Any card in the deck can be used to the following effect on ANY die:

Ace: Reroll and add advantage.
2-10: Gives a plus to roll equal to the respective number
Jack: Add an additional die to the roll, and roll with advantage.
Queen: Add two additional die to the roll, and roll with advantage.
King: Add three additional die to the roll, and roll with advantage.
Joker: Draw two more cards from the deck and give one to another player.

If at any time a player does not want the card, they can do one of two things:
1- Give another player their card. This encourages teamwork and good storytelling!
2- Shuffle the card back into the deck to gain one of four effects, depending on the suit:
SPADE - The player inflicts disadvantage on any one enemy roll or check.
CLUB - The player regains use of 1 ability, spell, or die they have expended.
HEART - The player spends up to 5 hit dice without expending the dice.
DIAMOND - The player obtains an a random magic item of rarity according to level.

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What do you think? Is there anything you would modify, power up or power down?

The biggest issue i see with something like this, is that generally at a table there will be someone who gets cards far more often than the rest of the players, and some who rarely get them. I know if this were my group i play with in person, one of my players would hardly ever get a card because he's not as into the roleplaying as much as everyone -but he loves hearing the stories and things the others can come up with.

Now, this isn't an issue that's inherent with the concept, it's an issue with people really when you get down to it. But regardless of if it's mechanical or conceptual or just happenstance, there needs to be a way to balance it out so certain people don't feel sub-par, and others don't feel like they're all powerful roleplaying gods.

I would say that's a relatively easy thing to fix. If you know your players at least a little bit, reward them for the small things. They will most often than not chime in on something, and if they don't, it's kinda on the DM to include them some way. Often it's as easy as "Player C, what does your character think/do about this?" Once they have the spotlight, usually they will come up with SOMETHING.

At least in my experience, there are seldom few who play who don't give at least a little when they are singled out. No one sits at the table and has nothing to say all session long.

Interesting idea. My first immediate thought is "Woah woah woah! Advantage is super good in 5e! It's like, a huge reward!" my second thought is that I would strongly recommend you make custom cards, because you're going to slow the game down with a lookup table and a standard deck of cards (but the good news is custom cards aren't that difficult to make with GIMP, Inkscape or Photoshop and a tutorial or two or even Word with some cleverness and know how). Also some of those effects are going to add a lot more time rolling to your game -- i.e. adding die and rolling with advantage.

Also, giving up the card at the end of the session isn't fair to players who (for whatever reason) end up roleplaying a bunch at the end of the session. I'd recommend just letting them keep their card for the next session (cards carry over, just like Inspiration does). Because then it's not more valuable to RP earlier than it is to RP later. It's just always a good idea!

For me, I prefer the simplicity of Inspiration as it is. My biggest problem with it is remembering to give it out, so what I've done is given each player a poker chip and whenever another player does something they thing deserves Inspiration they put the poker chip in front of that players name badge (I have 6-8 players on any given day and they aren't always the same people, so we have character name badges that sit in front of them at the table). When I notice I ask what the poker chip was placed for and either say 'yes' or 'I don't think so'. It's been a really good way to (1) offload the responsibility of noticing inspiration-deserving actions (which is hard when you have 8 players and are trying to GM) and (2) incentivize players to pay more attention to each others actions and characters

Advantage is good, yes, but it's an underwhelming reward to me. See, when I GM I give advantage out all the time when the players give a reason for it. If they intentionally put themselves in a tactical advantage, I give advantage. If they can give a reason that they would be extra skilled at something, advantage. Giving Inspiration to a player to give them something I already give out regularly seems lackluster to me. Additionally, I wanted a system that allowed a player to go "all in" and cash everything in, pulling out the stops to make something awesome!

Will it really be that difficult to remember? The numbers add their number, and the bigger the face the more die you get... I just thought it was a pretty simple list :( The only two different ones are the Aces and Jokers, and if you play with the system enough you'll remember them. I could also easily have a notecard to remind players what does what with the cards and suits hanging over the Screen.

Fair point about letting it stay to the end. I can easily remember to write down on a scratch piece of paper what cards everyone had.

I do like letting the players give rewards to other players, but then you'll run into the problem where the shy players don't get anything, like ExperienceLtd said. I regularly DM smaller groups, 4-5 at most, so that isn't an issue for me.

I've actually found with systems like Inspiration that giving players the authority to reward each other (and spending the first few sessions modelling how to reward it) actually helps shy players come out of their shell more naturally. The pressure is lower because there is more support and encouragement (instead of coming from just one person - the GM - the incentives, nods, pats on the back and encouragement are coming from all around making the environment more supportive and welcoming).

I see your problem though. I'm not so generous with Advantage. The main sources are inspiration and ability effects. Outside of that it requires a sacrifice to get - like spending a combat round hiding and waiting for an opportunity will get you Advantage on your next turn.

You need something *different* from inspiration/advantage to compliment your generous advantage rewards. I do worry about the face-card effects (and the 7-10 number card effects) being too powerful. There's both a lot of variance in the effects (+2 to a roll is WAY less useful than +10) and the more powerful effects can be balance deforming (one +10 deployed at the right time can make what would have been a challenging encounter feel like a joke. It's one thing for players to trivialize your encounter with clever tactics or cool moves, but it's a lot less satisfying to overcome an encounter because you played a card and got a huge bonus to a critical roll.. that actually REMOVES tension because +10 almost guarantees success).

I actually like the card idea, but the direction you've gone is more of a super-amped Inspiration mechanic instead of something totally different. I'd go with totally different and borrow from Savage Worlds: the Adventure Deck. Cards in the Adventure Deck give players limited control over the game/story in a unique way - they are things like "Your Nemesis Appears!" and "Unexpected Ally!" and "Lucky Shot!". A player can play a card at any time for its effect, which can totally turn a scene on its head when the second in command of the big bad guy is a sudden turn coat and sabotages his bosses plans to help the party... (I find it adds a layer of fun for me as the GM since now I have to rationalize that move and adjust the story on the fly to make the sudden alignment shift make sense). Not every card is the deforming to the story, but importantly the effects are not just another modification of dice rolling to give players better odds. They are cool, strange, out of the box effects they can't possibly get from anywhere else.

How do you get the cards? Through really exciting role playing... additionally, everyone starts the session with 1 card (if they don't currently have one). This is important because it encourages players to use those cards and it also means that even shy players get to participate in the Adventure Deck mechanic.

Here's a free third party adventure deck to give you some ideas of what goes into this thing: http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/84380/Savage-Suzerain-Adventure-Deck

Another idea: make the bonuses reinforce role-playing. So you'd get a bonus or advantage, but on different kinds of skill checks only - NOT attacks. That way, role-players get a reward that helps them do more role-playing, without unbalancing the game so much for different players who aren't as extroverted.

Another possibility: instead of rolling additional dice, players turn in a face card for a reroll. Jack: reroll INIT. Queen: reroll a save. King: reroll an attack. Ace: force DM to reroll. Numbers could be turned in for bonus damage, not bonus to hit (+10 to hit is pretty overpowered, but +10 dmg is a good bonus)