Fighting DM Burn-Out

[maggot]

So how do you fight DM burn-out? What was the longest you were burned out, and how did you come back from it? Did you come back as DM for the same campaign or another?

 

[Tinker Gnome]

Well, I burned out a couple of months ago. I find that being a player seems to help as I do not feel strssed to come up with something for the weeks game. I am not DMing again yet, but I probably will again sometime.

 

[Lasher Dragon]

Play a few games with a piss-poor DM... works for me

 

[IronWolf]

Depends some on the situation... DM'ing more than one game? Try to cut back if you can. If you find yourself thinking about the game all the time try to catch a movie or let yourself just veg a little. Pick up a new book to get enthused again if you think that will help. Maybe an assistant DM if you group is big enough? Or turn the reigns over to an aspiring DM in your group and just play for awhile.

 

[Crothian]

to avoid burn out I spend few days workjing on the game and doing other things

 

[EricNoah]

Get in a game as a player.

Try other games or other genres or settings. Even if it's just a one-shot.

Both of these help me immensely.

 

[twofalls]

Its happened to me before, but its been a while. When Magic hit the market I was really tired of AD&D and at the time couldn't afford both hobbies so I stopped roleplaying completely for several years and spent my spare time and money on cards. I still have a 10K card box filled with nothing but 4 of a kinds going back to beta's... though I stopped playing after Tempest.

I started to miss telling stories but was still sick of AD&D so I ran Earthdawn for quite a while, and a little GURPS. Then 3rd ed hit the market and now I've been running two games for over 3 years and am still loving it.

I find that I've been a really lousy player for GM's, as I like a game where the GM can really get descriptive and suspend my sense of belief. I found a couple who could do that, but most just didn't statisfy my inner storyteller. So I stopped being a player oh, about a decade ago and haven't played in a game sense. Wonder if I've matured enough now to be able to handle it once again?

 

[Lonely Tylenol]

I try to pace myself by not putting too much creative or mechanical burden on myself. For example, I might steal locations or NPCs from a module or Dungeon magazine, pilfer other game-world sourcebooks for interesting locales or ideas, and generally just make sure that I'm not the only source of plot for the game. Too much creativity in one go can really bleed the well dry quickly. It's better to just use imported ideas that sound interesting here and there, so that your own ideas can come at the natural rate without having to force them.

 

[delericho]

I've been burned out at various times, although never for more than a month or so. Some things I've done to fix things:

Try a radically different system or genre. Even running the same game in a different way helps.

Play for a while. Truth be told, I'm a really bad player, the same way as I'm a really bad passenger - I like to be doing the driving. So, within a couple of weeks playing in a game, I'm always itching to get back to DMing (no matter how good the DM).

Just relax. There was a point, about last July, where I'd committed to running a fairly intense game, and found that I couldn't bear the thought of spending one more minute creating setting details. Unfortunately, the other DM in the group wasn't in a position to run anything. So, I took a step back, and started running the Shackled City path from Dungeon, in a very old-school "kick-in-the-door" style. The characters are wafer-thin, the setting is no more detailed than its presentation in Dungeon, and we're having a great time. Plus, by the time the PCs were third level, I was busily dreaming up campaigns for the future.

If all else fails, just take a break. Don't DM, and don't play. Don't even watch fantasy films, read fantasy novels, or otherwise immerse yourself in your usual sources. Instead, branch out into other fields for a while. Basically, give your brain a change of diet.

 

[scourger]

Mine was a sort of burnout, which I call a DMing embargo in response to players' boycott. Long story short: some players boycotted games of mine they didn't like by not showing up. I responded at length with an embargo by not running their favorite games. I DMed other games on weekends. My embargo of weekly DMing lasted a year, but I have yet to go back to certain players' favorite games. The true irony is that a couple of the biggest boycotters quit the group (although they have tried to leave a foot in the door just in case something acceptable to them comes along). The whole situation really torqued me off. I'm still trying to salvage things. That, combined with the fact that I get bored of running a game after about 6 months, makes it really more challenging to run games these days.