Help a burned out DM rekindle his spark

[Harmon]

Exercise does wonders for depression.

comment edited for content

 

[Salad Shooter]

Its been said often enough, but play some! You have 8 players (I think you said that...), and you've been DMing for years, they had to have picked up SOMETHING in that time. If they don't want to run full time, run a few small sessions, short, several session or single session games, you DM some and they DM some. Do it in a variety of settings and systems. Who knows, maybe one of your players will whip out something epic-like!

 

[cmanos]

It happened, I after 10 years of being DM, I lost the spark needed to create my games with. I don't know been so depressed lately haven't had the energy to plan or play in any games.

Where can a burned out husk go for insperation to get back into the game?

Hey guy, I'm right there too. I have so much stress in my real life I don't wnt to deal with the stress my players put on me. I have plans. I have about 3 years of plot planned, but I just ihit a place where I said "Is it work the effort?"

Eventually I'll run again, yes. I have taken the approach of "Someone else run for a while." But no one in the group has stepped up to that plate, so I went and found a different group to play with. I think I just need to sit back and relax and play for a little while, so I don't have the expectation of doing something spectacular every other week.

Take some time off. Read. Have your group over to play boardgames orcards so you stay together. Go to movies.Try something different.

 

[Greatwyrm]

I get burned out from time to time, too, although not as often as I used to. One thing I found was that a little more time between games helped. Instead of running every week, try every other.

Sometimes I'd take a month or two off all together -- no playing, running, or even reading rulebooks.

You also might want to try a mini-series to just do something different. It doesn't have to be radically different, just different. Have everybody make a character and then swap them all so no one has the one they created. Run a game where the 3 core books and the Draconomicon are the only ones allowed. Just something a little different.