Burning out on best campaign I ever played in

[Myrmidon]

I found myself in a very similar situation a few years back. I'd been running everything for a few years and was burned out. When one of the group offered to run a new campaign, I jumped at the chance to play. At first it was good, mostly because the other players and I had an excellent group of characters. After a few months we got into the "meat" of the campaign... and it was boring and frustrating. The PCs were led around by the nose, attempts at creative problem solving were frowned upon (often bringing on "grudge enemies" who would kill someone, then the GM -- realizing he was putting his game at risk -- would alter what had happened) it felt more like being read a story than participating in a RPG.

For months I thought I was alone in my dislike for the game. Everyone else seemed to be enjoying it. Finally I mentioned my feelings to one of the other guys, and discovered he felt the same way. By the end of the week we learned that the entire group (except the GM) hated the game. A few were planning on giving up on gaming. We decided that we would voice our concerns to the GM. He got angry and threatened to quit the group if we quit his campaign (in case anyone was wondering this guy was 25 or 26 at the time, but he was accustomed to getting his way when he threw a tantrum).

We quit and so did he. It was a very uncomortable situation, but for the good of the group we stuck to our guns. It worked out really well, after a brief period of "healing" the rest of us started a stretch of great gaming. Nobody really talks to that GM anymore, which is unfortunate, but I think it was best for everyone.

My advice: Talk with the other members of your group individually, see if anyone else shares your feelings. If most do, then talk to the GM, hopefully it will turn out better than my situation, and even if it doesn't it'll probably be for the best. If most of the other players think the situation is fine, it might be time to look for a new group. The bottom line is the game is supposed to be fun, different folks have different ideas of what "fun" is, so you have to find like-mminded people.

 

[Dash Dannigan]

Doh. Another work-a-holic, detail-oriented, and likely skilled DM lost to the darkside. When the game becomes so important to a DM that he controls the story of the world this closely he's got to take a step back. Ack, yes likely it would be best to discuss this with the other players first and see if someone else in the group would give DMing a bit of a try as a "breather" for a "change of pace" from the "intense roleplay" so the DM doesn't get "burn-out".

This will allow those feeling stifled by the campaign to play a bit of something else (and maybe even appreciate and enjoy their current campaign more) while simultaneously getting the DM to take a step back for a bit and play on the other side of the screen. This will either help revitalize the DM, make the DM realize he needs to loosen up, or help the players realize how tight-fisted their current DM really is.

IMHO a DM that spends too much time behind the screen can develop some heinous DM-blinders on occasion, where they lose touch with the player experience.

Goodluck!

 

[Graf]

I've been that guy (the DM). Creating stuff is tremendous fun for some people, myself included. Eventually though your game is swamped with stuff. Any given individual item, NPC, subplot, recurring villian, weird-area-that-exerts-influence-on-the-game, powerful political group, is cool or neat. Together they're an overwhelming horde of cr*p that overwhems players and makes them feel impotent and hemmed in. The game, theoretically, allows people time to do their own things (create items, develope fortresses), but there's always something happening demanding their attention. No sooner has the group managed to restore the knight's paladinhood through a quest (spawning a half-dozen carefully arranged sub-plots) than another adventure (the seeds for which were laid months ago) have germinated and their home city is being invaded by undead.

I've also been the player, in railroad games. We have an extremely linear game now, for very similar reasons to yours. Our group is part of an transplanar mercenary company (the Nameless Legion). So we get missions, never keep magical items, have no choice in where we go or what we do. The difference, from what you've said about your game, is that the DM isn't particularly picky about what we do. We can make a terrible hash of the whole thing, do things differently from what he wants, and he'll go with the flow.

If you can get your DM to feel you guys up a bit then it sounds like you have a good chance of playing and having a good time. Talking to him some more sounds like a good first step.

 

[Erithtotl]

A little more background on the situation. One of the players and I (we're probably the two most active players) got to talking a month ago and realized we had the same issues with the game. We spent a week trying to word an email that would best express our concerns without sounding too much like an attack. (I suppose that right there should be a warning sign, anyone you're that afraid to set off probably has issues, or you have issues about them!).

In retrospect, what we sent probably came off as too harsh, mainly because we had let stuff build up too long so it probably seemed like a rather long laundry list of complaints. We tried to temper it as best we could, but it didn't quite come out the way we intended.

The DM reacted VERY badly, answering every single point we made with a rebuttal, refusing to acknowledge that there could be anything in what he was doing that would lead to us having less fun, and saying we don't understand his concept for the campaign, and no DM could ever satisfy us.

I was almost ready to quit right there, but decided in the end it would be bad to make a stink like that since it would likely result in the end of my friendship with the DM as well as my participation in the game.

I put together another email this time only featuring four main points that we had issue with, and trying to present them in a more positive manner than the first email, after the DM had expressed some willingness to discuss the issues again.

While the tone of his response was much better, he basically said this is the way his campaign is, and while some of the upcoming adventures might be more our style, he's not going to make any changes just for us.

I decided I'd keep playing until I was sure the game was no longer fun. Last session, as I said, was maybe the worst ever. The entire session consisted of players running around, individually running errands, meeting their new follower NPCs, having sidebars in the other room, etc.

I made a suggestion that perhaps we didn't need to haul around the horde of NPCs with us everywhere and the DM responded saying he didn't see a problem with it, as we wouldn't need to bring them down into a dungeon with us. That being said, I still feel that these NPCs are going to drag sessions to a crawl. The party already has two full-member NPCs (two fighters who guard the wizards in the group), and while they have fleshed out personalities, they do tend to take a lot of the spotlight during battle.

The more I think about this, the more I think its time for me to leave, but its very difficult. To be playing in the group for three years is a very hard thing to give up. Especially like this, since the group isn't disolving. Rather, I'm voluntarily leaving...

 

[jollyninja]

oh, the empathy i feel right now is near impossible to contain. i have been in a group for years where the dm seems to like having his npc's be the main characters and having his world wide story arc be the main feature of the campaign with ultra powered npc's doing all the "important" fighting while player characters get the joy of sitting and watching. i quit his campaign for a few months and recently returned after being assured that things had changed. last session his central character decided to move to a different kingdom which meant all the characters had to move or be dropped from the party. i started a new character in protest. i will probably just start my own campaign when i get the DLCS (hey, it was my intro to dnd, i'm going back to my roots) and permanently remove my books from his gaming area.

 

[Norfleet]

Yes, the DM should never get so attached to his pet NPCs that they entirely steal the show.

On the other hand, a military campaign is a perfectly good example of what is generally considered "good" railroading: You have your orders, you're supposed to try and carry them out, not get sidetracked by personal issues. The question is, are your characters satisfied with their work? If the characters are doing fine, then maybe it's just you. Perhaps you should suggest taking a break from the campaign, and playing an entirely different game?

 

[Qvintus]

My advise is make sure you tell him you like his campain but you realy feel you would enjoy the game a lot more and you thinke all of you would enjoy the game a bit more if you got a little more time to you char's and he losent a bit up. 'Cause you dont want a DM to go in all out defencive

 

[Barak]

Well see, to me the problem is obvious. Over-preparation. You said that he has self-made "modules" made, enough to go to level 20. And yet, you are level 8-9. And by the feel of the campaign I get, each module more than likely requires certain things to happen for it to make sense. Now.. How can he be sure those things happen? Railroading. So he has two choices, railroading you guys, or seeing all his work go "to waste".

Too bad, really.

 

[SweeneyTodd]

While the tone of his response was much better, he basically said this is the way his campaign is, and while some of the upcoming adventures might be more our style, he's not going to make any changes just for us.

This tells me you should walk. Any good DM would be over the moon to hear their players making suggestions on how to resolve these kinds of difficulties. What, does he think if he just ignores them, they will go away?

I've been in that DM's shoes, and the addiction to detail is difficult to break. If he's not budging after being confronted with it, then he is not going to change.

I mean, he has a DM mouthpiece character tell you what to do each mission. He assigns the hirelings and followers he considers suitable. If your party ever goes off the railroad at this point, he's going to go ballistic and it'll probably wreck the whole group.

Better to say that your gaming style doesn't match up with this game, and move on. I do wish you luck, because it's a difficult situation.

 

[sithramir]

I think you should maybe try something drastic to show the DM what he's doing wrong by making you have little or no choices. Perhaps in some real big fight you let your NPC "retainers" handle it. Do that until several are dead and the DM realizes he's fighting himself because you don't think the situation was "dire" enough. This would for one lessen the ammount of NPC's in the group. It would also make a point.

Also when the emperor tells you of the next huge plan that needs taken care of decide that you need to make some magic items before going at it. He'll probably send messengers asking why you are sitting in town and you can say "I always like to be prepared. This will only take a few 'weeks' "

Make a point to show that you dont' want to be hoarded into some temple to fight for no reason. Since you have so much information try to hire other groups to take care of that and try to do something else. Since your levels are getting to wherea lot of cool spells are happening.
Surprise him by scrying the head guy and then teleporting in and killing him and skipping the rest of the hard work. Things to show that you don't need endless mazes of little monsters sent at you for something you didn't really care to be doing anyways.

Do this with the other group members that are unhappy. Have them work with you to show your DM that its just for fun. I'd never allow NPC's to be with me when theres 6 people and he's tring to throw 14 NPC's at you. I'd either refuse their service or let them die on the battlefield.

ALSO,
Try to start another game with the group where you DM. Maybe they'll like that since it'll be a change of pace. If you can't do a different day perhaps just try doing 1time a month in the same slot as a "break" from his campaign.

At least try some productive things to show him you want him to change and if not inform him you will no longer be attending.