Lost My Love

[Naurohtar]

Hey I'd like to start with im Autistic & ADHD
So I've not DM'd for a while and thought id enjoy creating a campaign and got one planned fell hard became my hyperfocus as I thought it would but now I've fallen out of love with the campaign but I feel bad as the players have made characters and are super excited haven't even played one session and I already want to throw in the towel idk what to do any help would be great.

 

[ichabod]

I don't know where she got it from, but my Zen teacher likes to say, "Fall down nine times, get up ten." You just gotta get back into the slog and try to reconnect with what you loved.

 

[The Soloist]

Hey I'd like to start with im Autistic & ADHD
So I've not DM'd for a while and thought id enjoy creating a campaign and got one planned fell hard became my hyperfocus as I thought it would but now I've fallen out of love with the campaign but I feel bad as the players have made characters and are super excited haven't even played one session and I already want to throw in the towel idk what to do any help would be great.

It happens. I ask the players what they want to do before the game and prepare that for them. Often they surprise me and it reignites my interest in the campaign.

 

[MNblockhead]

Never run a campaign on guilt. If you are not into it, you're not into it. If you start dreading running sessions like a guy who hates his job dreading Monday, you are no longer playing, you are working. Maybe after some time away from it, your interest in the campaign will reignite.

I had a similar situation a couple years ago, though for me it was the system more than the world building. My friends wanted me to run a Mage: the Ascension game. I put a lot of time into world building and creating story arcs, NPCs, plot hooks, etc. But I just hated trying to run games in that system. Also, it was an additional campaign on top of my main one and even the world building and session planning was getting to be too much. I just told my players that I didn't have the bandwidth to run another campaign, especially one where I was struggling with the rule system.

There are lots of enjoyable ways to spend your free time, don't waste it by bringing more stress into your life.

 

[Celebrim]

I can totally relate to that. I have that super intense excitement when I first start setting up a campaign where I can spend 20 or 40 hours a week for weeks at a time setting up, and then after running it a while suddenly it becomes a slog to get anything ready.

The weird thing is that it usually has no relationship to how much I enjoy running the game or how much I want to run the game. It's just a mood that comes and goes.

And that's the thing. It comes and goes. I'll not be motivated for months, and then I'll crank out another 30,000 words.

Don't mistake current feelings for forever.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I would focus on prepping exactly what the players are interested in. It doesn't even have to be in the setting you've created.

"I want to play a half-orc monk and explore ancient ruins."

Great! Now you know your setting has orcs, humans, orders of monks and has ruins. Just build that, for now. Maybe even start them off in the PC's monastery. (This is a good excuse to rewatch Kung Fu Panda.)

Flip through the Monster Manual and find some low level monsters you like. Maybe these ruins are overrun with kobolds who worship a giant snake as a god.

That's enough for the first session.

After that, ask the players what they want to do and start prepping the next adventure -- and their immediate settings -- or two.

Maybe you can roll the old campaign work you did into that. Maybe not.

Worst case scenario, just run a few small premade adventures from DMs Guild or DriveThruRPG.

Don't worry about painting the Sistine Chapel right now, when all your players need you to do is paint a bedroom wall.

 

[aco175]

First, @Naurohtar welcome to the site, hope you find what you are looking for and stay a while.

I would add to the others that you once liked the setting. Ask yourself what you liked and go from there. It might just be that you are looking at everything and feel overwhelmed on where to go and what to do next. Skip all the rest and only look at what the PCs are doing now and next. Are you looking at a first level adventure, fine. Prepare one part of it today and another part tomorrow.

Do not be afraid to scrap things you do not like. If you prepared that the leader of the town was X and now want Y- kill him off and go with what you like. You can take that point and make an adventure out of it.

You can also work on mundane things until your excitement comes back. Make a list of names for NPCs, draw a town, create a new monster, whatever.

Talk to the players. Tell them you are not felling whatever part of the campaign you thought was going to be cool. Maybe they feel the same, maybe they come up with something cooler. Make them part of the solution.

End of the day though it is your campaign. If you try and still find you not liking things, tell the players and scrap it.

 

[The Soloist]

I would focus on prepping exactly what the players are interested. It doesn't even have to be in the setting you've created.

"I want to play a half-orc monk and explore ancient ruins."

Great! Now you know your setting has orcs, humans, orders of monks and has ruins. Just build that, for now. Maybe even start them off in the PC's monastery. (This is a good excuse to rewatch Kung Fu Panda.)

Flip through the Monster Manual and find some low level monsters you like. Maybe these ruins are overrun with kobolds who worship a giant snake as a god.

That's enough for the first session.

After that, ask the players what they want to do and start prepping the next adventure -- and their immediate settings -- or two.

Maybe you can roll the old campaign work you did into that. Maybe not.

Worst case scenario, just run a few small premade adventures from DMs Guild or DriveThruRPG.

Don't worry about painting the Sistine Chapel right now, when all your players need you to do is paint a bedroom wall.

Excellent post.

I stopped world-building a long time ago. All you need is a detailed village, a god for the cleric and a mission for the characters. You build the rest as you go using the character's actions as a springboard to creativity.

 

[TheLibrarian]

Sounds like you've done a lot of work on it already so why not give it a try anyway? Only speaking for myself here, but in the past its helped me to get past DM's Block by getting content off the page and into the world. Interacting with the players sometimes breathes new enthusiasm into projects.

And then... sometimes it doesn't. So maybe make it a short engagement, say, a self-contained story of 3-5 game sessions w/ opportunity for expansion.

Just be honest with your players that you're having mixed feelings about a full blown campaign and it might not last long.

 

[Jahydin]

@Naurohtar
This happens to me all the time. Not sure how you feel about things, but for me I go from thinking I'm creating the greatest thing EVER to thinking I just wasted all my time and everything I've done is terrible. It's only with story/adventure/campaign ideas though; I can fixate on mechanical house-rules seemingly forever...

The way I've combated it over the years is to buy professional modules. That way I can read just enough to run a session, add a few details of my own, and run the game as soon as possible before I "get bored with it". Rinse and repeat. That way, everything stays novel and I have less desire to move onto something "better".

As for being interested in running, I've found before games I always experience feelings of "meh" and begin thinking of good reasons to postpone, but those feelings quickly fade once everyone is talking and having fun. Maybe push yourself to play at least once and see if your experience is similar?

This has kind of been my cycle for 20 years now and works for me.