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Inspiration Recovery

Inspiration is an extremely useful, yet rare commodity. Each player should be careful about spending it too freely, or he'll find his character out of Inspiration when he needs it most! Conversely, one of the best ways to gain more Inspiration is by wisely spending the points you already have. “Wisely” is the key! Spending an Inspiration point on an exciting maneuver that adds to the game and furthers the story is a good way to get a return on your investment; blowing an Inspiration point every time your character attacks two-bit thugs is a good way to waste Inspiration.

A character begins every story (but not every game session) with his temporary Inspiration pool topped off (equal to his permanent Inspiration). A character may end a story with a pool higher than his permanent score. Although there's nothing wrong with that, per se, the Storyteller may not be making the story dramatic enough. Adventure is a game of high excitement and amazing action, after all.

The ways a character may regain Inspiration are described below. As stated previously, a character's Inspiration pool may exceed his permanent Inspiration rating. (As with spending Inspiration, Inspired villains follow the same essential rules described here, regaining Inspiration for performing villainous acts instead of heroic efforts. It's only fair, right?)

Work Hard, Play Hard

An Inspired character regains one point of temporary Inspiration by spending two consecutive days on rest and leisure activities. If the character is under enforced rest, such as a hospital stay or an ocean voyage, but can't indulge in his preferred recreation, regaining each Inspiration point takes five days. The character's relaxation must be appropriate to his established personality, preferences and habits. A millionaire playboy regains Inspiration by partying with all his energy, but an ascetic priest regains Inspiration through meditation and reading scriptures. This method may be used only to recover Inspiration points up to the character's permanent score.

Wild Success

If you roll at least five extra successes beyond an action's difficulty but gain no benefit from such an amazing result - say getting an incredible result when picking a lock, seducing someone, coming up with a lie- the character receives a point of Inspiration. This does not apply to combat situations, Knack use or Sheer Heroism.

Inner Peace

Inspiration isn't necessarily tied to Willpower, but the two are related in the sense that both of them reflect parts of the character's fundamental nature. If the character would regain a Willpower point but already has the maximum amount of temporary Willpower, he acquires an Inspiration point instead.

Heroic Entertainment

When it comes down to it, Adventure is a game. As such, it's meant to be entertaining. Accordingly, if a player spends an Inspiration point for an action that is appropriately heroic for the character and benefits someone besides himself - anything from dramatic editing to activating a Knack - the character does not lose any of the Inspiration spent and even gains a single additional point. This may not happen more than once per game session for any given character. The Storyteller should maintain a reasonable stringent definition of “appropriately heroic” and may deny the benefit if a player has clearly calculated his character's efforts solely to scrounge up more Inspiration.

Inspiring Acts

This is similar to heroic entertainment, but specifically does not involve spending Inspiration. Instead, the Storyteller may award the character with one point of Inspiration if she feels the character did something especially appropriate to the character's primary Inspiration facet - a highly entertaining bit of social interaction with a rival, an amazing piece of non-Inspired athletics or something similar. A character should get this prize no more than once per game session and should not be rewarded for the same kind of action from one game to the next. (This prevents the player from trying the same routine over and over to scrounge points rather than make the story richer.) As with Heroic Entertainment, the Storyteller what deserves this benefit and should be fair and consistent in handing it out.

recovery.txt · Last modified: 2021/12/04 00:39 (external edit)