As far as Inspiration goes, I hadn't given much thought to the exact mechanical effects. Taking from the original source of the term OTOH, I had envisioned it as a source of pulp-grade superheroics, your Shadows and Doc Savages and Sherlock Holmeses and Modesty Blaises and so on. The effects are largely mental - to use Deidre as an example she could rightly be called The World's Smartest Woman thanks to her Inspiration - but there's a physical component as well. Inspired individuals are tougher to kill, have some form of limited damage resistance and regeneration that allows them to tank damage that normal people can't. The classic example is the old bullet-to-the-shoulder gag: an Inspired adventurer can take a bullet (arrow, whatever) in the shoulderblade and not be as impeded as someone like you or me who'd need a fair bit of surgery and PT to be able to use the arm properly again.
There's also a paranatural element to it. Sometimes this results in magic or superpowers but for the most part it involves luck. The Inspired have the devil's own luck: when it's good it's great but when it's bad it can turn a milk run into a complete clusterfuck. The Titanic scenario Sam Wildman talks about in the forum post above is a great example of this. As an Inspired adventurer his mission to rescue the Titanic's passengers goes swimmingly right up until his luck turns and they run into a nest of desperate Draka on a sinking ship. What makes a veteran guildie (or looper) great is the ability to survive when the dice turn bad.
Which leads into thee only other thing I've thought about Inspiration: the effects aren't 100% permanent. You have to at least keep up a pretense of maintaining Inspired skills or else they'll start to fade. So working out, studying the Ancient Arts or keeping up with Interworld Scientific American are important parts of a field op's downtime.
And on that note, some origin story coming later today.
Mr. Fnord interdimensional man of mystery
FenWiki - Your One-Stop Shop for Fenspace Information
"I. Drink. Your. NERDRAGE!"
There's also a paranatural element to it. Sometimes this results in magic or superpowers but for the most part it involves luck. The Inspired have the devil's own luck: when it's good it's great but when it's bad it can turn a milk run into a complete clusterfuck. The Titanic scenario Sam Wildman talks about in the forum post above is a great example of this. As an Inspired adventurer his mission to rescue the Titanic's passengers goes swimmingly right up until his luck turns and they run into a nest of desperate Draka on a sinking ship. What makes a veteran guildie (or looper) great is the ability to survive when the dice turn bad.
Which leads into thee only other thing I've thought about Inspiration: the effects aren't 100% permanent. You have to at least keep up a pretense of maintaining Inspired skills or else they'll start to fade. So working out, studying the Ancient Arts or keeping up with Interworld Scientific American are important parts of a field op's downtime.
And on that note, some origin story coming later today.
Mr. Fnord interdimensional man of mystery
FenWiki - Your One-Stop Shop for Fenspace Information
"I. Drink. Your. NERDRAGE!"