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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Holy Bovine" data-source="post: 6231220" data-attributes="member: 203">Having gone through multiple 'burnouts' over the years this is the hardest cause for me to overcome.  If I'm not motivated to run the game I put zero effort into it and just 'wing it' with predictable results.I have often found even taking a break from GMing won't help in this case as you are only treating the 'symptoms' not the real problem.  You really have to break down what, exactly, is the cause of the loss of motivation.  A few examples might beLong prep time?  Find a pre written adventure that can be run 'as is' with no modification at all (use pre made PCs too if you players are willing - they are usually tailored to fit with the power level of the adventure)Long/Boring/Overwhelming Combat options (I think you mentioned this earlier) - find a true 'rules light' system with minimal combat.  Or run multiple sessions without actual combat (use lots of skill checks instead - even feats of strength).  Make the adventure all about the PCs and their motivations and personalities.  One of the single best examples of this kind of adventure I have ever found was called 'A Rough Night at the Three Feathers' for the old 1e Warhammer Fantasy RPG.  It centered around an in called The Three Feathers and all of the bizarre patrons who showed up one night (including the PCs).  It spanned 3 sessions in my weekly WFRP game (keep in mind we played for 6-8 hours per session and this adventure was supposed to take place over the course of a single evening!) as the PCs tried to figure out who was involved in what shenanigans in the inn.  One actual fight during that whole time, although they did get into arm wrestling for cash and even target shooting at one point.  That was nearly 20 years ago and we still remember it fondly.  Getting sidetracked? - by this I mean - are you spending too much time on your encounter preps and not enough on your story development?  I found this one was huge for me.  I would spend hours creating NPCs with elaborate backstories then realize the PCs had no way of ever finding it all out or even any motivation to look.  Or spell lists.  Oh god spell lists!!!  Any spell slinger over 5th level started to become a nightmare as I would have to pick all of their spells (including those in their spell books if any)and most of them died after casting 3-5 spells anyways.  I made a rule for myself as DM that I would only pick 6 spells that would be cast for certain (assuming the NPC lived that long) and these would usually be the highest level spells the NPC could cast normally.  If they really, really needed some low level spell cast to save themselves or their buddies they would just have it.  I did something similar to skills and had a list of the best/most important skills each class should have and gave the NPC in question max ranks in the those skills only.  If they suddenly needed to know Rope Use (ha!) they had 1/2 ranks.  Gear & ability scores were also done by this 'package' method.  By the end of my 3E DMing career I could stat up nearly any type of NPC of any core class in about 5-15 minutes.  Then 4E came along and had all of this stuff hardwired into the game rules already.  Really a time-strapped DMs dream come true.Good luck Olaf!  Hope you will overcome this bout of burnout quickly (and it will pass - most of mine lasted 3-9 months but I did have one stretch of 5 years)</blockquote>

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