How do I prevent D&D from taking over my life?

[Simon Atavax]

I thought I'd post this here, rather than in 4e, since it really applies to any RPG, not just D&D. Besides, 4e isn't out yet anyway.

Brief background: I've been gaming in one form or another since 1980 (I recently turned 37) and I've DMed 3.5 off and on (more off) for the past few years until I finally burned out, completely and totally, almost to the point of not wanting to DM or play RPGs anymore.

But 4e has me excited, and hopeful. I'm especially intrigued that "easier to run" is apparently a design goal.

I thought it might be helpful to brainstorm a bit with you dudes about how to prevent D&D from dominating my mental energy and free time, especially when DMing. How do you prevent it from taking over your every waking hour?

[Note: Some DMs *want* D&D to dominate their lives. Some DMs live only for D&D. But I have a wife, a daughter, a rewarding, engaging career, a religion, and many other hobbies. I *don't* want D&D to be all I think about, heh.]


Simon Atavax
http://atavaxlive.blogspot.com

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

I'd wager that if you join/form a game group comprised largely of adults, you'll find that enough scheduling conflicts will arise that your gameplay will limit itself.

 

[WhimsyTheFae]

Well, since I'm reading this thread instead of working, I don't think that I can help.

 

[DaveyJones]

i just live in the moment.

when the moment happens to include D&D so be it.

 

[Crothian]

As long as you are aware that you don't want it to happen it should be ok. Right now 4e is just potential. There are many exciting things we are hearing and many can't wait for it to arrive. But once it does and we play it the excitement will wane. And things will go back to normal.

 

[Thornir Alekeg]

I thought I'd post this here, rather than in 4e, since it really applies to any RPG, not just D&D. Besides, 4e isn't out yet anyway.

Brief background: I've been gaming in one form or another since 1980 (I recently turned 37) and I've DMed 3.5 off and on (more off) for the past few years until I finally burned out, completely and totally, almost to the point of not wanting to DM or play RPGs anymore.

But 4e has me excited, and hopeful. I'm especially intrigued that "easier to run" is apparently a design goal.

I thought it might be helpful to brainstorm a bit with you dudes about how to prevent D&D from dominating my mental energy and free time, especially when DMing. How do you prevent it from taking over your every waking hour?

[Note: Some DMs *want* D&D to dominate their lives. Some DMs live only for D&D. But I have a wife, a daughter, a rewarding, engaging career, a religion, and many other hobbies. I *don't* want D&D to be all I think about, heh.]


Simon Atavax
http://atavaxlive.blogspot.com

When needed remind yourself of the following:
"My wife and children are real people, not NPCs"
"I cannot just kill my boss and take his stuff."
"My religious organization will not ask me to go out and slay its enemies."

Seriously, it is all about scheduling. If you feel DMing can take over too much of your time, then purposely schedule your prep time. "Two hours per night, no more than three nights per week" or whatever works for you and your family. If it isn't enough time to keep up with your game, then reduce the game schedule rather than increase the prep time. Make it clear to your group that you may have to do this. If the group wants a regular time that is more frequent than you can manage, either trade off DMing duty with someone else, or have occcasional sessions where you play board games or Munchkin or something so that you can catch up with your prep time.

Oh, and stay off EN World during work time or you will end up like me.

 

[Fifth Element]

"I cannot just kill my boss and take his stuff."

I can't? Dammit, there go my plans for getting out of working this weekend...

The comment above about playing with adults with lives is true. I play in two groups (minimum age of 29) right now, neither of which can play more than once every two weeks, which means I play once a week, and that's pushing my spare time to the limit as it is (wife, 2 kids, etc).

 

[werk]

Well, since I'm reading this thread instead of working, I don't think that I can help.

FACT!


...uh...I mean: DITTO!

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

[foxworthy]"If you find yourself chowing down on the office supply of Krispy Kremes, and apologize by saying "I failed my save!"....you might be a D&D geek."[/foxworthy]

 

[Scurvy_Platypus]

Limit the amount of time you spend on internet forums.
Seriously. There can be good advice to be found, and all sorts of other groovy stuff. There's also all kinds of stupidity. It seems like a rather large number of forum rats are people that don't actually play for whatever reason. People that aren't actively playing/running a game tend to have... different... priorities when they hang out on various boards.

Have another creative outlet.
If the only kind of creativity you get to exercise is doing rpg stuff, you're going to drive yourself bonkers and burn out.

Do other stuff.
It sounds like you've got plenty of other things to keep you busy. As long as you've got some other way to "play" besides just doing rpgs, you should be fine.

You're excited for 4E? Groovy. Me, I don't care. It's coming, and then it'll be here and I'll have to deal with it in some fashion. Maybe it'll be cool, maybe it'll suck. It doesn't really matter since it's inevitable. So along with limiting the amount of time you spend cruising forums, limit the amount of time you spend cruising 4E threads. You've got months to go before it comes out. Once it does, you're not going to be able to have a conversation about anything without 4E being involved. So just take it easy, and don't worry about 4E very much for now. You'll be able to join the gamer frenzy and enjoy it more if you haven't already spent yourself in these months running up to it.