How to deal with GM burn-out?

I guess I'm lucky in that 3 others at my gaming table (of 7) are accomplished GMs in their own right. One more a beginner GM, but creative and improving. So though I'm the primary GM (over the course of a year of play, I run about 2/3rd of the time) and we switch off, letting individual GMs to run the campaign or their version of the campaign for a month straight. While I prefer to GM vs. being a player, its nice to switch out from the GM's chair now and again. It keeps things fresh. Try to get one of the players at your table to give the GM's hat a try, and work out where you might run most games, but as burn-out begins to take its toll, switch with that player. In the end it will be a good experience for someone only used to playing to learn the task anyway.

Glad to hear that many people seem to think GM burn-out is a 3.xE thing and that others have found that high-level gaming under the system isn't as much fun as they thought it would be. Well, it's not "good", as such, but it's nice to know I'm not alone there.

I definitely enjoy getting together with the group once a fortnight, hanging out and talking all things gamer. I don't think I'd want to stop RPG'ing to have a break though. I think if I did that it could result in not getting to start back up again. My group is not a friend group that I grew up with, so we don't see each other much outside of our fortnightly sessions. So I think if I stopped playing the group could break up and it may be hard to get them back together again at a later date (the group ranges in age between early 30's to early 50's, so we have plenty of other things going on in our lives).

I'm thinking that I'll just power through these next couple of months. The baby enforced break from gaming should definitely help, as should one of my players running RTtToEE when I start back from my break. I think I'll enjoy being able to focus on 1 character for a bit.

By that time, I'm hoping 5E will be out (my expectation is a Gen Con 2014 release) and we can give that a go. If 5E is as expected it should be a bit less of a burden on a GM to run.

Olaf the Stout said:

Glad to hear that many people seem to think GM burn-out is a 3.xE thing and that others have found that high-level gaming under the system isn't as much fun as they thought it would be. Well, it's not "good", as such, but it's nice to know I'm not alone there.

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I burned out on 3rd Edition back in 2006. I never went back either. I run 4e now, after two years of d20 Modern. The biggest concerns were:
1) Not enough help for DMs. DMs on many forums who complain about overpowered or complicated crud get attacked. DM guides only offer vague or basic advice.

2) Don't play with jerks. (I just threw one out of my 4e game, and it's a huge relief.) The built-in imbalance and lack of DM support makes it easy for jerks to mess with your game.

3) Not enough NPC resources. I'm pretty sure if Paizo's NPC Codex had come out years previously I would have run 3rd Edition for another two years.

(Psi)SeveredHead said:

I burned out on 3rd Edition back in 2006. I never went back either. I run 4e now, after two years of d20 Modern. The biggest concerns were:
1) Not enough help for DMs. DMs on many forums who complain about overpowered or complicated crud get attacked. DM guides only offer vague or basic advice.

2) Don't play with jerks. (I just threw one out of my 4e game, and it's a huge relief.) The built-in imbalance and lack of DM support makes it easy for jerks to mess with your game.

3) Not enough NPC resources. I'm pretty sure if Paizo's NPC Codex had come out years previously I would have run 3rd Edition for another two years.

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1. Really? Maybe I haven't been reading RPG forums much lately (or maybe not the "right" ones), but I can't remember seeing someone complain about overpowered or complicated stuff in 3.xE and get attacked by others for it. Glad I haven't encountered that myself.

2. I learned that one through first hand-experience. This was why my second DM'd campaign ended. One of the guys constantly took issue with some of the rules in D&D. One such is example was that he thought that players should be able to get critical hits, but not receive them in return. There were many other rules he wanted me to change and his grievances with the rules would come up us basically every session.

He quit the group (taking his close friend, who was another player in the group, with him) after a third player brought in a Druid PC that had an animal companion that resembled a small dinosaur. Apparently that was a deal breaker for him.

Of course, he had no issue with dragons flying around, people casting spells, etc. Heck, I even let him play a character that had a split personality, which meant he was effectively playing 2 characters in the one body (a barbarian and a sorcerer) with completely different stats, hit points, abilities, etc.

That was so far removed from the RAW it's not funny, but none of the other players in the group ever complained about that. But an animal companion that resembled a dinosaur was a campaign that he just could not play in!

As it was, at the time I was kind of happy that he left the group. In hindsight it worked out fantastically for my group. The two replacement players we got were awesome and I no longer had to deal with the player whining about the rules and badgering me to change them EVERY. SINGLE. SESSION.

The only downside was that he joined the game that one of the other players in my group was running. After 6 months or so he had a hissy fit in that game (not sure over what, but I think the DM wouldn't make the changes to the game that he wanted) effectively ending that group's campaign as well.

So I've definitely learned not to play with jerks. Thankfully I haven't played with any jerks since that guy.

3. I have issues with NPC's but, unlike yourself, it's not really related to statting them up. I've found enough places that I can steal NPC stats from if I need it (or just wing it). If I had to name my one biggest fault as a DM, it would be that my NPC's are too flat and one-dimensional. That's where I fall down.

I think you're doing 2 good thing by taking a (baby) break and then being a player for a while. Those steps have worked for me in the past to recharge my gaming batteries.

I also suggest playing a different game, or a different genre, or both. I really like Savage Worlds because it is so much easier to prepare & run, even for a fantasy game. Give it a look. There are many settings available for it that are not medieval fantasy. Give it a try for free: http://www.peginc.com/freebies/SWcore/TD06.pdf

Since you are already familiar with d20 and Gamma World, I also recommend the very concise Omega World d20 mini game. I has many concepts to make it easier to run: mutation powers without long spells lists; science fiction equipment in place of magical gear; level 10 "limits"; simplified experience; and a short bestiary with ideas on re-skinning other d20 foes to the game. It really is a brilliant little game and worth picking up for under $5: http://paizo.com/products/btpy7zeq

The beauty of a game like Omega World d20 is that once you get away from the D&D tropes, especially magic, the game becomes much simpler to run. Foes remain challenging without being as complicated to run. PCs are powerful with mutations & equipment. It just feels more fun to me.

I think WotC tried to get that same feel with the latest version of Gamma World. It is a fine simplification of the 4e rules, but it lacked depth for the players in my group. They just didn't fee that there was much real distinction or development potential. I think those things were present in Omega World d20.

Lastly, you might look at something like E6 or Dungeon Crawl Classics (DCC) to make your DMing load more manageable. A game that sort of ends levels (E6) or takes longer between levels with level limits (DCC) might be better for you if you intend to run long-term campaigns. It takes a lot of time & effort to prepare & run D&D regularly into higher levels. Something has to give.

Unfortunately I'm really not sure whether my group would be interested in running a different system. My group is a pretty sheltered one. I’d say that there are 4 players in the group at the moment (there’s another player that’s technically in the group, but he hasn’t attended a session in 6 months now).

Out of those 4 players, only 1 of them owns any books beyond the PHB. On top of that, outside of the one-shots I ran a while back, only 1 player in my group has played something other than D&D. When I did run the one-shots of other systems, one of the players was so against giving them a go that he was simply not going to attend. I convinced him to attend a session of Paranoia that I ran, but that went over like a fart in an elevator, so he didn’t come to any more.

So I don’t know if they’d be willing to play another RPG system on an ongoing basis. I really think a couple of the players in the group like playing D&D, as opposed from playing RPG’s (or possibly even fantasy-based RPG’s).

Personally I’m interested in a number of different RPG’s. I’d love to play a Call of Cthulhu, XCrawl, Feng Shui, Year of the Zombie or Paranoia campaign. I doubt that would happen with my current group though.

[MENTION=13703]Olaf the Stout[/MENTION]

I suffer from burn out too. It's actually been one of the biggest obstacles for me when I DM. I've found that if I'm not DMing every week, the little breaks between sessions are enough to let my batteries recharge. The last campaign I ran went every other week. It also helped that when I wasn't DMing that one of my players was running a game too. So if one of us wasn't able to run the other would. Great for those times when the creative juices weren't flowing.

Something that worked for me is having a "Standard list of Spells". When I'm prepping spell casters, there's a standard list that I use for most of the NPCs. Some spots are open for minor customization but it greatly cuts down on prep time with most of the work already done. Plus I don't have to worry about what all the spells do if I have a bunch of them recycled.

Lastly, get a confidant from the other side of the DM screen. Someone you know that won't meta-game. Talk with them about your thoughts for upcoming sessions; what they think the party is going to do. For me, that was my wife. Being able to talk with her was a great help in coming up with some interesting and sinister plots.

I wish there was more that I could offer you.

Hey Olaf

I feel your pain. I also burned out on GMing, but I don't think blaming the system as some have done is really the answer. Playing online, I got tired of people showing up late or not at all, with no notice... people whining and complaining when they couldn't import their favorite house rules to my game (which is pretty much by the books)... people feeling entitled to my time away from the game, etc. etc. Of course it would be terribly easy to say blame the "bad" players or blame the "bad" system, but I think after giving a LOT as a GM for so long, you just need a break. In the army they used to say there are no bad squads, just bad squad leaders, and I think there is a lot of merit to that, since blaming is not what winners do.

What is working for me, is I took 6 months off to just play. My game of choice these days is pathfinder, and I found a great pathfinder GM and joined his game. My players are not happy about that, but I told them I was burned out and needed a break. They just have to live with it. I will probably continue to play for another 6 months before I get back on the GMing horse, because it is so fun to just relax and play in someone else's world and enjoy their hard work. Already, I am getting new ideas and the urge to run a game, even though I am only half way through my self imposed exile, so I am thinking, I really, really needed this break.

Plus, if one of your players picks up the GM mantle for a while, I think it will make them a much superior player in the future, since they will come to understand first hand, all the work and pride that goes into creating and running a world for others to play in. So, if you can, I would recommend strongly letting someone else in your group GM for a year or so, while you rest and recharge; I think there are numerous benefits to this approach for you and the group. When you come back, start a new game from scratch with the ideas you get over your year of rest, I think you will once again enjoy GMing at that point. Best of luck to you and your group,

Olaf, sounds like you've gotten a lot of good advise, but you can never have too much, right?

Like others have said, a more rules-lite system may be of interest. I recently got into Numenera, which is a very rules-lite system with a lot of flexibility for the GM. It's actually very close to the style of DMing I've been doing for years with 3.0/3.5. I'm running two PbP games of it (one of which is on these boards), and it makes adjudicating combat and skill checks extremely easy, as it's all within a single unified mechanic.

Someone mentioned doing a less combat-driven campaign (or occasional session), where you concentrate on things the players do that don't involve killing things. Shenanigans at a tavern, fun at the market, encounter with an oracle, a murder mystery, a chase scene, infiltrating a noble's party, or even going undercover with some gladiators all can be run with little or no dice rolling. I've been doing a campaign for close to a year that's city-based (we're in Waterdeep in the Forgotten Realms) and we've probably had half the sessions without more than a roll or two, and my players are having a blast.

Or, since you said your group might not be up for a whole new system, what about the E6 rules? It's still 3.5, but the levels top out at level 6. You can get more feats and whatnot as you continue to gain XP (link has more detailed info), but it relieves everyone of the breakage and necessity to detail that can occur in high level play. Players still are cool and effective, but can still be scared by something that doesn't require three pages of notes to run.

Since a lot of these suggestions might require you to do more free-form NPCing, and you said sometimes you feel they're a problem for you, might I recommend shamelessly stealing personalities/voices from books/TV shows/movies? It's a super-fast way to inject a little color and then you don't have to come up with everything on the fly. There's also a book I've used a lot, AEG's d20 Toolbox that has scads of NPC traits, professions, and names to choose from if you get stuck.

Best of luck with the impending third babe, and I hope your game turns out well!

Olaf the Stout said:

Unfortunately I'm really not sure whether my group would be interested in running a different system. My group is a pretty sheltered one. I’d say that there are 4 players in the group at the moment (there’s another player that’s technically in the group, but he hasn’t attended a session in 6 months now).

Out of those 4 players, only 1 of them owns any books beyond the PHB. On top of that, outside of the one-shots I ran a while back, only 1 player in my group has played something other than D&D. When I did run the one-shots of other systems, one of the players was so against giving them a go that he was simply not going to attend. I convinced him to attend a session of Paranoia that I ran, but that went over like a fart in an elevator, so he didn’t come to any more.

So I don’t know if they’d be willing to play another RPG system on an ongoing basis. I really think a couple of the players in the group like playing D&D, as opposed from playing RPG’s (or possibly even fantasy-based RPG’s).

Personally I’m interested in a number of different RPG’s. I’d love to play a Call of Cthulhu, XCrawl, Feng Shui, Year of the Zombie or Paranoia campaign. I doubt that would happen with my current group though.

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I feel your pain. My Pathfinder campaign from a couple of years ago had BARELY reached 8th level by its conclusion . . . and already I could see the drowning tides of rules and crunch that awaited me the next 3-4 levels.

Truthfully, the only thing that saw me through the last 2 months of the campaign was LIBERAL use of pre-made NPCs, with basic adjustments in feats and gear. The Pathfinder Gamemaster Guide and Rival Guide were my only hope.

If your group is truly a fan of the d20 / 3.x style system, but YOU want something easier to actually RUN, I highly, highly recommend taking a look at Fantasy Craft. It's definitely a part of the d20 / D&D family, but redesigned to provide a more consistent play experience, AND be easier for GMs at the same time. Complexity-wise, it's no better or worse than Pathfinder, but once you understand its basic NPC generation system, you can make NPC char gen as complex or simple as you want, without sacrificing flexibility or playability. Fantasy Craft fit my GM style to a "T."

To be sure, it slaughters tons of "sacred cows." The two biggest ones being armor is damage reduction, and spell casting is not even remotely "Vancian--but its a very compelling system, if your players truly don't want to drift too far from the D&D family tree.

One thing I've also discovered --- your players will largely take their cues from you about your excitement level to run a new system. It's not enough to be "interested" in running a different system; you need to be enthusiastically committed to running a new system, and expressing that to the players.

If the players can REALLY see your enthusiasm for a new system you want to try, they'll be much more willing to give it a go, in my experience.

One of the things I noticed about the systems you're interested in trying---they're all RADICALLY different from D&D, both in rules, tone, and genre. That's fine, but would your players be more receptive to switching if it was to a D&D variant, retroclone, or even something like Savage Worlds that recreates the "bones" of the core D&D experience, even if it doesn't go about it the same way?

Having played Savage Worlds now using "familiar" fantasy tropes, I can say without hesitation that it is a FANTASTIC vehicle for playing a "D&D-like" game, while being much more rules-lite, elegant, and radically easier to GM.

All said though, despite any of my suggestions I think the pre-destined break for having a baby, and an opportunity to just be a player for a while (4-6 months) would / will do a world of good.