So, in playing Adventurer’s League Dungeons and Dragons, I often come across players who are new to the game, and/or haven’t learned the rules very well yet.

Another issue that often comes up is that DMs (myself included) often don’t hand out inspiration much.  We tend to forget that it is even a mechanic that we can hand out to reward people playing in a way the DM likes.

I’ve come up with an idea that might at least help a bit with both.  Technically it’s bending the roleplaying-based intent of inspiration, but would definitely help with people playing in a way that we all enjoy more.

 

Dungeons and Dragons Inspiration Sheets

Start by creating a series of one page worksheets that ask a small number of questions related to the rules of dungeons and dragons.   Start with the basics.

Early example questions:

—

1. Which die is rolled to determine success or failure in Dungeons and Dragons (circle below)?

2.  Please label the dice above.

3.  If you are told you have advantage on a roll, you roll two d20s and take which result?

4.   If you are told you have disadvantage on a roll, you roll two d20s and take which result?

5.  Who is the final arbiter of rules at the game table in dungeons and dragons?

—

Each player at the table would be given one sheet each night.

Each sheet of correct answers would be worth an inspiration to the person that completed it.  The sheets would only be given one per night, but I might allow them to turn in two on any given night.  This would allow them to take some home to work on, without allowing them to stack up a lot for boss battles.

The idea of this is to use a reward-based system to get people to actually take the time to learn the game.  This way it would be broken into manageable bite-sized chunks instead of throwing a book at them and telling them to RTFM.  *breathes deeply*

To make it more reasonable to complete in a short period of time, I’d list the chapter and/or the pages that contain the answers.  This would hopefully serve the added benefit of getting the players more familiar with their Player’s Handbook.

Over time, I would ramp up the complexity and specificity.  I would start with basic rules, with a theme for each sheet (physical combat rolls, equipment types, conditions, death saves, spellcasting rules, etc).  Interspersed with those I’d probably put in sheets that are specifically designed around things people get wrong or confused about consistently.

Examples:

What type of action does it take to drink a potion?

When can you transfer hunter’s mark?

Should you pay attention and try to plan your moves ahead between your turns?

Should you spend at least a little time learning HOW TO PLAY YOUR CHARACTER BETWEEN SESSIONS?!?!?!?

….I’m calm.  I’m calm………

Let’s just say that people have hit some nerves repeatedly and I’m hoping I can convince my group to try some things to avoid that a bit.  *remembers that one guy who never remembers his character’s second attack even though all he really DOES as a character is hit things*  *twitches*

 

So, since my printer is down for a while pending some work with the manufacturer, I may be working on these sheets for a bit.  I’ll start with dissecting my PHB into bite-sized chunks of questions, and hopefully find a way to make these things look nice with open-source/creative commons artwork and templates.  Maybe I’ll get better at the rules myself (and avoid hypocrisy) in the meantime.

If I can figure out how the licensing works, I may even see about publishing them to DMsguild.

 

General Updates:

3D printer is still out of commission, I have to get it returned to the manufacturer for replacement.

I’ve decided to replace the title Non-Post with COM|POST.  I think it’s punny and more memorable.  It’s communications, it’s a post, and it might be a random assortment of… stuff that isn’t always so fresh or long-term relevant.