Tutorial #20: Inspiration, Obstruction, & Archons
As a Conflict progresses, the Players’ characters will feel the effects of Inspiration or the lack thereof. This effect is brought into the game through the use of Inspiration Tokens. Inspiration Tokens allow Players to shift an instant in the game more into their elohim’s favor.
Inspiration Tokens can be used in a variety of ways. Some common uses are making Adjustments to a roll; allowing Epic results from Epic Rolls to be adjusted; gaining extra Action Points; reducing Exertion, Falter, or Knockback; and temporarily increasing Endurance, Resolve, or Passion. However, almost any way you can think of to use Inspiration should at least be considered by the Host. A much longer list of uses can be found under Inspiration in the game wiki.
Effects of Inspiration can often break game rules and can enhance the fun of the game. Keeping fun in mind, only 3 Inspiration can be used at once for the same purpose if the result would be offensive, causing harm to the elohim’s opponents. Against an Archon, only 1 Inspiration per instance can be used offensively. Archons are the lead enemy in a Conflict and will be identified by the Host. Defensive uses are not restricted or limited.
Only player characters are able to gain and use Inspiration. Player character elohim that are 1st Heaven start each Conflict with 3 Tokens. This is number is then adjusted by plus or minus 1 for each prevailing level of Good or Evil Area Influence.
Once the Conflict has begun, player character elohim can gain further Inspiration by receiving distribution from the Inspiration Pool, being affected by Boosting Spiritual Effects or Boosting Songs, or Defeating an enemy of at least equal Tier to the character.
The ebb and flow of a Conflict is tracked using the Inspiration Pool. As events happen in favor of the holy elohim, the Inspiration Pool will fill. As events happen that are in favor of the unholy elohim, the Inspiration Pool will drain and even fall into a negative state. When the Inspiration Pool fill far enough to the positive the Player characters will receive distributions of Inspiration Tokens from the Inspiration Pool. If it drains too far into the negative, however, the unholy elohim will receive additional Obstruction Tokens.
Inspiration is added to or removed from the Inspiration Pool when there are uncancelled Epic results in a roll, when a player character has at least 3 Hits with a Strike against an enemy, when Defensive Hits are caused by a player character, or when a player character completely Resists a Spiritual Effect or Song. The amount added to the Inspiration Poll from uncancelled Epic results depends on the number of Epic results. One Epic result shifts the Pool by 1. Two Epic results shift the Pool by 3. Three Epic results shift the Pool by 7. Four Epic results shift the Pool by 12. If there are ever five or more Epic results, the Host will determine a special effect of appropriate proportions.
Inspiration is a reward of involvement in the game and so tracking and adjusting the Pool in positive directions is a responsibility that falls on the Players. If an opportunity to add to the Pool is missed and moved past, the addition may be denied at the discretion of the Host.
It should be noted that Epic results are for all visible dice rolls and do not require the involvement of a player character elohim to changes to the Inspiration Pool. Any time numbers other than “12” or “1” are treated as Epic results, these do not add to or remove from the Inspiration Pool. If Inspiration would be removed from the Inspiration Pool and there is no Inspiration to remove, the Inspiration count can go negative. In this event, place Void Tokens into the Inspiration Pool to track the amount of Inspiration that the Inspiration Pool is negative.
Whenever there is at least 7 Inspiration in the Inspiration Pool, 1 Inspiration is given to each Player Character from the Pool and then 2 more Inspiration is removed from the Pool. This can never cause the Pool to fall below 0. Conversely, if there are ever 7 or more Void Tokens in the Inspiration Pool, give an Obstruction Token to each Archon and remove that many Void Tokens from the Inspiration Pool plus 2 more. If there are no Archons, the Host will choose who to give them to.
In addition to these means of gaining Inspiration, the Host may also give the group or individual Players Inspiration to honor a Player who is really adding to the gaming experience by their enthusiasm or their roleplaying. While this may happen occasionally, it should certainly not be the expected norm.
A character may not have more than 12 Inspiration. If they would gain more than 12, any extra is not gained.
Archons are essentially the unholy version of Players characters. They stand out among the unholy forces and as such have the benefit of an effect similar to Inspiration called Obstruction. Unlike Inspiration, Obstruction can only be used defensively to protect the Archon. The Host will determine which, if any, evil characters are considered to be an Archon in each Conflict. Often the Host may determine an unholy elohim to be a Chief Archon and his strongest cohorts will in turn be Archons. Ultimately, the Host will determine how much Obstruction will be given to any Archons. Every Obstruction spent by a Chief Archon has increased benefit.
This concludes Tutorial #20: Inspiration, Obstruction, & Archons. In the next Tutorial we will talk about Social Dominance and Parley.