D&D 5E I don't want to homebrew anymore...

[Remathilis]

I've been playing D&D for 20+ years. I've run a half-dozen campaigns and homebrewed my own world. I have a hard-drive full of house-rules and custom material for nearly every edition since 2e (save much for 4e, I didn't stay with it long). And 5e is legitimately the easiest version of D&D to houserule and homebrew for.

Then why don't I want to do it?

Seriously, I can't get inspired. I had a nagging feeling of this during my last game, but that was high-level Pathfinder with all the bells and whistles, so I figured it was math and system lag that sapped me. I'm currently playing 5e through the first few levels using PHB only*, which is the antithesis of my last game, but the odd fatigue remains...

* I have no real desire to create home-made materials, from races or subclasses to spells and monsters. I mean, I have a dozen things that exist in my world that don't have 5e equivalents yet (rakasta/cat folk as an example) but no real urge to complete them or try to balance them.

* I'm having a hard time creating interesting new storylines: I had an idea playing on the cliche of the evil wizard who controls a kingdom, but for some reason, its not gelling like I thought it would. I'm not sure where to take the story next, and its partially hurt by the idea the group decided to make PCs that aren't native to the area, giving them less of a "fight for your homeland" element and more "take out the evil wizard because he's evil" motivation. As of this game, they will be finishing up my version of Reavers of Harkenwold, and I have no idea where to take the plot next.

Honestly, for the first time in my gaming career, I think I would be happier running Forgotten Realms with an AP like Princes or Hoard doing the heavy lifting. I'm still having fun AT table, but even with 5e lightening my prep load significantly, I'm still feeling burned out.

So right now, I'm looking for advice as to what can recharge the batteries a bit and breathe some life into this DM. Because I love 5e and enjoy DMing, but right now I can't seem to get motivated.

Thanks

 

[abirdcall]

My advice is to not look at running an AP as a bad thing or as giving up.

If you run an AP you still need to be creative. It is a framework but you and your players still create the story. They are also easy to modify, so you could start with it and then tweak it with homebrew until you are satisfied. This will be easier than doing something from scratch.

I went through something similar. I used to homebrew, but now I buy premade adventures. I have never had more fun running a game. With the hard work done for me I have more time to add in my own creativity. And if I happen to have a busy time away from the game or I am particularly tired that week I can rely on the adventure to do the heavy lifting instead of cancelling the session.

 

[nomotog]

Well you can just play forgotten Realms. It's a neat setting. Not everything needs to be home made.

On the other hand, If you really want some creative inspiration, you might have to look outside of the D20. (pathfinder and D&D 5ed aren't actually that different.) Look around for something really odd and see if that sparks anything. Have you looked at monster hearts? Maid RPG?(The two off the top of my head for different games.) How about video and board games? Try expanding into new places and seeing if it sparks something.

 

[werecorpse]

Start a small homebrew campaign consisting of a hook, a town, an adventure location, a dynamic adventure event and half a dozen NPC's. Then the players make characters and let them drive what happens from there.

edit: assuming you want to homebrew. I have run a few AP's and they are fine and each time we went off track a bit from time to time.

 

[lowkey13]

*Deleted by user*

 

[steeldragons]

Well, my initial response is, "If you think you'll be happier just running the AP...then run the AP."

But that seems more like a treatment of the symptom not the cause.

One question...when was the last time you played instead of DMed? Would you feel better having someone run a limited, even just a one shot, for you for a week or 3?

But, again, this is a temporary solution, I think, as the fatigue may/would return when you were back in the DM chair. [I'd advise doing it anyway just for the fun of getting out of the DM chair for a minute.]

I would recommend...taking "a day off" and "getting back to your roots."

MOOOVIE DAAAAY!!!

Any/all genre tropey goodness and badness you can muster/tolerate. Take a few evenings, maybe a weekend, and just binge watch a bunch of old fantasy flicks that you remember fondly. Throw in a few you might not remember fondly...or haven't seen at all.

That always charges my batteries.

Suggested viewing:
LotR trilogy is a no brainer...[All of the Harry Potters are running on ABC Family this weekend, fyi, if you go in for them. Not really my thing, but I know a lot of D&Ders like them] Snow White & the Huntsman was another [visually beautiful] newer one that has some great steal-able things in it [Charlize Theron's Wicked Queen is friggin' amazing]...but I'm thinking a lot further back and cheesey than these.

2 cups Excalibur for shiny knightly goodness and some top notch "old religion" spellcraeft.
1 cup Legend for a bit o' the fae'rie and Tim Curry demon-awesome.
A pinch of Time Bandits for dwarven thieves, dimension jumping, and evil wizard shenanigans.
A lil' Princess Bride for some dread pirate yuks, romance to taste.
A dash in some Dragonslayer....cuz, ya know, a dragon, a wizard, and a "slayer".
1/2 tbsp. of Labyrinth for some goblin prince/muppet cheese.
1 tsp. of PAN'S Labyrinth gives a surprisingly dark depth of flavor. Not too much of this, it can overpower the dish quickly.
3 handfuls of Ladyhawke to get your polymorphic curses and romance on.
2 tsp. of Willow, cuz every dish needs a little pict and a lot of sorcery.
1 cup of the Rankin/Bass animated Hobbit, and Return of the King (whether you watch the newer ones or not, the animated ones have a "fantasy/-tical' je ne sais crois that the live action can't quite grasp).
2 pinches of Rankin/Bass animated The Last Unicorn...for unicorns, witchery and added curses and romance.

Optional, to taste: Flash Gordon ...cuz Hawkmen, duh!

That oughta give you a bunch of ideas...not to copy directly, of course (or necessarily). But intentionally in the, "I've done this already. I can do this better and/or differently." way. Your mind will reel with the random thoughts/tangents/alternate possibilities as you watch the predictable tropes and paths of the scripted stories.

If a weekend of that doesn't get your juices flowing...dude...sorry to say it, but I'd say you've just got a n official case of the "burn outs" and have to walk away from the DM chair, if not whole table/game, for a little while.

 

[AaronOfBarbaria]

I've gone through a similar burn out, though mine was more a constant feeling of wasted or unappreciated effort as I continually sought to generate excitement in my various players about the worlds their characters exist within by inventing the world just as it seemed the players wanted it (seriously, I built brand new campaign setting material for basically every campaign I ever ran for a solid 15 years - hoping with each new iteration that it would be "the one" and my players would finally show interest in the world beyond the tiny slice that was their own characters).

In the end, I gave up and just used whatever pre-fab setting an adventure was attached to, or the players chose, or I basically just didn't give out or bother thinking of any setting details until the moment they were actually asked for, which worked to stop me from feeling I'd wasted effort building a setting that the players cared nothing for, but didn't actually stop me lamenting that the world around the characters basically didn't matter. So I asked my current group of players if they were interested in collaboratively building a setting for all of our campaigns to take place in, with each completed campaign become a piece of the setting's history for future campaigns, and there was a burst of excitement at the idea, but the follow-through proved to be just me slogging away trying to please players providing me no more feedback than "yeah, that sounds cool, I guess." and "whatever you want, dude, I'm not really picky about it." Which meant that I went right back to feeling my effort was wasted.

Eventually, I got fed up again and decided to start reading old D&D settings I have on hand that my current players have never experienced before... and I found my "lost love" of a setting that I used when first getting into D&D, but moved away from as I ended up in groups of players that preferred AD&D over my own preferred Rules Cyclopedia version of the game. After rediscovering that setting (Mystara), I was chatting with my players and sharing anecdotes of this or that about the setting and I realized that something very important was happening; my players were responding with excitement at the prospect of getting to know this setting, because when I talked about it I was excited.

That's when it dawned on me that all of my prior failures to get my players interested were not just that, but also failures to get myself interested - and have solved all of my issues by choosing not our own unique flavor of home-brew to set all our campaigns in, but to use Mystara as the foundation upon which to build or own history of campaigns (and we are well in progress).

So after that great big long rambling, I arrive at my point: As a DM, you have to play to your strengths - don't force yourself into doing something that doesn't ultimately appeal to you, and acknowledge that there is nothing at all wrong with using pre-fab material. In fact, that's why the stuff exists in the first place, so that someone can help you with the "heavy lifting", prevent you from straining yourself and getting burnt out, and free up your mind to focus on the parts of the game that don't leave you feeling something besides enjoyment (like actually sitting down and playing).

 

[The Grassy Gnoll]

It's natural to feel burn out, especially if you've been Dming all this time without much of a break to spend time on the other side of the screen.

First, don't feel bad.

Second, don't feel that a published AP is somehow a lesser achievement to DM than a home brewed setting. That's why they exist - to give you a place to play without you having to do all the work. It's a mini-sandbox, presented to you with sand, walls, spade and toys. You don't have to make the whole beach yourself.

Try being a player. Try being a DM without being an author. Try a different game. I've got a hankering to crack open Golden Heroes for both a blast from the past and a total change of scene. Move away from fantasy and go sci fi, modern, superhero - anything different. A change is as good as a rest.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Take a break from running FRPGs. I've been on one for a few years now.

I've been playing since '77, and most- 80-90%- of my campaigns have been set in fantasy realms. So it is no surprise that I found my well tapped and caught myself "mailing it in". My last FRPG players caught me too.

I'm perfectly willing to run campaigns in other settings, but there is not enough interest from my fellow gamers. So I wait, and let others run games.

 

[Cristian Andreu]

What about switching to radically different ideas? Whenever I'm feeling creatively stuck, I try writing another setting, or material that belongs to a genre that differs from what I was doing before. If today you're stuck with high fantasy, maybe try coming up with an idea for an Age of Discovery world or try think of a ridiculously exotic idea and see if you can turn it into something cohesive.

Sometimes it's just a small exercise that will end up with two pages of Word text before you go back to your usual stuff with renewed energies (and maybe new ideas you came up while making the other stuff). But every once in a while you might stumble upon a really cool concept and continue developing it throughout the years, maybe eventually creating an entire new setting for you to play in.

I guess it works like food, which is nice to change around every once in a while so you can re-appreciate your usual flavours.