To commemorate the opening of this server, and in the interest of preserving information, I thought I would re-post the all-time top homebrew thread from the subreddit, courtesy of /u/obsidiandice:
This rule came out of discussion with some fellow DMs, and several of us have adopted it to great effect.
Flashing Before Your Eyes
Any time you are incapacitated for your turn, the DM will ask you a question about your character or their history. If you answer the question, you get inspiration.
This has been amazing for reducing the frustration of characters getting stunned or knocked out without reducing the drama or impact. The player gets 30-60 seconds of spotlight time that keeps them emotionally engaged in the battle, and a mechanical reward that will help them shine when they return to the fight.
Here are some examples that have come up so far:
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Is this the nearest you’ve ever come to death? What are the closest calls you’ve had before?
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If you die in this battle, what is your proudest accomplishment?
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What is your biggest regret?
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What memory do you draw upon as you try to shake off the mind flayer’s influence?
This gives players an avenue for sharing backstory that’s memorable and dramatic rather than dry exposition. Anything you introduce will be great fodder for the DM to bring back in subsequent sessions.
Update: After playing with this rule for a few more months, I have revised it to, “The first time in a battle you are incapacitated for your turn…” I’ve found that the second time usually feels more forced and artificial, and granting inspiration every single round makes death saves too trivial.—
Something that Brenna Lee Mulligan does during Death Saving throws rounds, is that he gives players the opportunity to magical & spiritual characters to have a small spirit-journey during their turn, making full skill checks and the like to learn VERY IMPORTANT INFORMATION that has earth-shattering consequences, sometimes to the fight the players are currently in.
RAW, he should just be asking Kristen Applebee’s character to make a death saving throw. But instead they get to journey to heaven to meet with god, only to find that the dead Archmage principal of the school has cold-clocked god and is currently held up in the big guy’s main office, awaiting a return to the Material plane with a free time-stop to grant to the players to help them finish off the big-bad.
Another thing I noticed he does, is that when he wants to get quieter players into the game, thinking they should have an opportunity to spotlight themselves in a scene, is that he will say ‘your character sees this. What would you like to do, or what does your character think about this?’ This allows a player to explore their character, making a decision that immerses them into the scene, but doesn’t force them to perform an action if they don’t want to.
I love this idea!
Yeah, we do something similar in one of the campaigns I play in, and it’s a shitload of fun, and kinda takes the sting out of what is likely to be an inevitable death. We don’t grant inspiration for it, we just use it as a fun RP moment. Definitely helps flesh out characters and things that wouldn’t normally come to light during a campaign.
This is excellent - I think I’ll leave it open ended and ask them what flashes before their eyes and [how] does it relate to what just happened?
You’ll probably see more success with guiding questions. It can be harder to just come up with something out of thin air.
