[GM's] How much should you play?

I've been gaming for WAY too many years now, and it almost always seems that I wind up as the GM. Sometimes it's because I have a cool idea I want to try. Other times, I'm the only one around here willing to run anything. Every so often, I'm the only GM people are willing to play under.

This, I don't have a problem with. I enjoy GMing. I love the chance to tell a good story, and help my friends have fun. I'm often regarded as one of the best GMs in my area.


BUT....
If I don't play, I burn out.

I've found that if I go too long without sitting on the other side of the screen, the games I run start to become stale. I get in a rut, and everything starts looking the same. It gets frustrating. The only cure I've found is playing under someone else for a while.

Anyone have any ideas why this is? Does being a player once in a while really help a GM that much?

Have any of the other full-time GMs out there run into this problem?


BTW, something else I've noticed. After I have been GMing for a long period (I mean months, not just a long session), I find that my ability to just sit back, relax, and PLAY the game suffers. Usually I wind up driving other GMs crazy for a while, nitpicking rules, arguing rules calls, and demanding minute details about everything. Afterwards I look back, and realize I've been a jerk, but I can't help it. It usually takes me a couple weeks of solid play to calm down and learn to be a player again. I guess I get too used to seeing one side of the screen, and forget what things look like from the other.

Anybody have this happen to them?

And finally, I've noticed that it's often really hard to stop myself from metagame thinking. It's like I'm constantly asking myself, "If I were the GM, what would I do right now?" and forcing myself to remain silent when I figure out what's likely to happen based upon typical GM thought patterns.

Any GM's out there suffer from this 'third-person oracle complex' when playing?


This is starting to drive me nuts. I love to play. I love to GM. Are the two really that compatible? Is it possible to live on both sides of the GM screen and not lose your mind?

I have not played the game in years.

I have not played 3rd edition yet.

Sometimes I get in that DM rut and I think my games are boring or stupid, but then my players always say they are having a hell of good time, so I appreciate that and just forget about my feelings. I really do want to actually just sit back and play, though. I think it will be great. I will not have to think about all that DM stuff for a change, just play my character and have lots of fun trying not to die doing all those hero-type actions.

But I have not played yet, so I cannot say for sure how I will be on the other side. One of my players is getting ready to run a great kingdom campaign after we finish Forge of Fury. I can't decide on a character yet. There are so many ideas I want to try. But I will finally get to play in a few weeks. We should only need 2 or 3 more sessions to finish the Forge.

I'm a regular GM, have run (biweekly) campaigns for the last 10 years or so (not only D&D, but that's not relevant here).

I also play a lot, and always have. In general that is no big problem, but I've discovered a few challenges with playing and GM'ing at the same time:

1. Rules discussions: I tend to focus a bit more on rules when playing, and whenever we have rules discussions, it is mostly the different GM's that in it. But it all in good fun, and the focus is to understand the rules better, not to prove any points. Thus we are pretty relaxed about it, and the current GM always has the last word. I guess being close friends also helps, with an unsure GM the issue might be more dramatic if he felt that we were really challenging his game.
2. Monsters: Whenever the GM throws a new monster at us, I ache to look it up in the MM. Not because I want to know its stats in this combat, but to see how I can use it in my campaign. I can usually hold out until the combat has ended, but its become something of an issue, and one of my regular GMs has asked us to leave our MM at home. Personally I find that a bit of an overreaction (as long as we wait until the combat is over), but its not a big deal.
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   However I cannot really see myself as a GM only, its too much fun to play, and I need to recharge my batteries with playing.
   
   .Ziggy

I've been DMong solely for the past 20 years, but thats how I like it to tell the truth, actually prefer DMing to playing..
I have however over the past couple of weeks been playing again as well, eventually found a group in my now hometown of Leeds... and loveing it, but would still prefer to DM....

Mortaneus said:

BUT....
If I don't play, I burn out.

Anyone have any ideas why this is? Does being a player once in a while really help a GM that much?

Have any of the other full-time GMs out there run into this problem?

BTW, something else I've noticed. After I have been GMing for a long period (I mean months, not just a long session), I find that my ability to just sit back, relax, and PLAY the game suffers. ...
Anybody have this happen to them?
...
Any GM's out there suffer from this 'third-person oracle complex' when playing?

This is starting to drive me nuts. I love to play. I love to GM. Are the two really that compatible? Is it possible to live on both sides of the GM screen and not lose your mind?

Click to expand...

Yeah sure. About your problems... know them. When I was only playing, I've never been a ruleslawyer... rather the opposite. Since I have been DMing again, ...

I play in one group and DM three others now and then. The DM in the single group has problems with me, he kept on penalizing my player since he considered him overpowered compared with the other characters (who had 3-5 more levels )

I had a hard time too not to metagame. I didn't manage. Everytime he used a custommade magical item, I craved to get my greedy fingers on it.

Well. Having a talk with my DM now. I think he's gonna change the level differences in our group. I will stop helping the others out with advice. (Yeah I am talking too much at the table). He will stop penalizing my char, I will start to play again

Let's see how it works.

As for playing helping you to DM. Yes. It's sooooo nice to go to a gaming session without preparing everything. Simply enjoying that helps me a lot !

Since 3e was launched I've got my second campaign into 15th level, and both campaigns started at 1st level. That's quite a lot of playing! Not as much as you may think, because I run a combat-heavy game. We've played once a week for 1 1/2 years. (On the average. Sometimes more, sometimes less.)

And yes, I've felt the staleness creep into the game. The new campaign was mostly RttToEE, which was nice for me because I could keep on DM'ing even when I wasn't 100% into the game. It was such a long undertaking that now I'm over the slump, and eager to set out on new adventures.

I've already hinted at my players that this will be my last campaign for a while. If ELHB is as good as I expect, the campaign will last for quite a while, but it's gonna have to be someone others turn at the wheel after this one.

I've had DM burnouts in other games, but D&D seems to be ideal game for me, since they come much quicker in other games. The scope of adventures can be so vast that it takes time get bored.

Avoid DM burnout!

I've been playing for 20 years, and DMing for almost as long.
The system we currently use seems to reduce DM burnout the best.

I run a D&D game on a weekly basis. The PCs are faily high level (for us) and this is considered the "main campaign" by the group.

Sometimes, I do get burnt out. At that point, I relate my burnt-ness to the players and one of two things happens:

1. Another DM steps in to run a different game. We have one GM who runs the occasional Wierd Wars game, and another who runs Shadow Chasers. (note that these games are run as a campaign, and we sometimes play two or more sessions in a row, giving me an exteneded break)

2. If I'm just burnt on the "D&D thang", I run a different game system for a game or two. I usually like to run Pulp Heroes in this case.

So, yes, being a player can be a great cure for GM Burnout. And it's never bad for a player to sit on the other side of the screens. I prefer to GM most of the time, but seeing one of my players run things once in a while is always fun for everyone.

Hope that helps.

Tom

I have found that playing 2 different capaigns at once works well. We play one game with one DM one week. The next week we play a diferent game with a different DM. This lets the DMs play, gives them 2 weeks to prepare for a session, and lets everyone else experiment with different kinds of characters.

I alternate weeks with another DM so I get to play. This goes a long way towards helping with burn-out.

Also I find it's a good idea to schedule a yearly campaign hiatus around the holidays. Gives you the opportunity to recharge and if it's scheduled generally the players are fine with it as well.

Al that being said I can certainly identify with being a different sort of a player because I am also a DM. I find that I'm always looking for possible abuses with the characters I play, and often times I'll correct them myself. Sometimes I think this is to my disadvatage because I often am over sensitive and end up totally nerfing my own character.

Alternating is good. GMing is hard work, as fun as it is, and you don't want to get to the point where you feel it's a chore more than it's a joy. Swapping out to other players to run campaigns that go on side-by-side, or even just running them through modules, can be exactly the break you need.

I've actually become a module convert. While I would like to dedicate the time to a full campaign, I just can't. I burned myself out completely. But I still wanna game, and I miss it. Now we've turned to modules. And it works. We like the big meaty ones that give us the feel of a campaign but without all the work. No shaming in having to step back because you are there to have fun, too.