How to Delay or Avoid GM Burnout

[Retreater]

I started my most recent campaign full of excitement about a month ago.

• I picked a new campaign setting (Eberron).
• I left confusing new systems to get back to something more familiar, but with new options (Level Up - A5e).
• I did research and created interesting NPCs.
• I designed an interesting dungeon full of history and original puzzles (which the players should have loved).
• I decided to write all my own adventures for the first time in probably a decade, just so I would feel more passion and connection to the material.

Which has resulted in...

• My group is not really interacting with the setting. They're running from location-to-location and not seeing any of the sites or doing anything.
• They aren't interacting with A5e, trying to learn their characters or the system. In fact, I think vanilla 5E is too much for them.
• They didn't go into the dungeon - even though they told me what they thought would be interesting. Like, I spent weeks on this. (They know enough about the dungeon that if I recycle it and put it in front of them, they'll feel railroaded.)
• I'm already at the point where I don't want to create anything else. I'm exhausted - between work, natural disasters, family deaths, my master's degree work, and all the wasted effort I've already put into this game.

Would it be "bad" if I just told my players that I'm going to run something pre-published and they can keep their characters? I can free my mind from trying to design stuff. I'm just putting way too much of myself into something that the players view as a fun thing they do once a week, mostly to hang out with their friends.

 

[payn]

Not bad at all, you have a perfectly good reason to dial back. I do think you should address the players not biting on hooks this seems to be a common theme. From the postings it sounds like they want sandbox but are not meeting you in the middle for what you have prepared. Interests are not aligning. I think that needs to be cleared up whether you run homebrew or published adventures.

 

[KYRON45]

Players almost never care about the game as much as the DM. That’s just the cold hard truth.

Even when you ask them what they want and then custom tailor to their suggestions….they still find ways to make you feel like you’ve wasted your time.

I think this is why no one wants to DM. It’s work. When no one appreciates it; we start to resent the players. I joke when I say players ruin everything….but is it a joke?

 

[KYRON45]

I didn’t give any advice in the previous post so here it is….take a break.

Just don’t DM for a while. Someone else can give it a go. Suggest board games etc. to fill the void. When the players notice that they aren’t playing an RPG….have a serious conversation about why.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

My take on avoiding burnout is the following:

• Seek out your joy: Examine the moments in the game that make you smile, make it all feel effortless. Examine the tropes in whatever genre you're running a game in that resonate with you. Then focus on bringing those to the game.
• Seek out your players' joy: Same as the first bullet, except don't just listen to what the players tell you. Look at them during a game and see when they get excited, when they lean forward.
• Know your limits: running a game that requires more prep time than you want to commit or running a game you don't fully enjoy the mechanics of are surefire ways to burn yourself out.
• Consume inspiring and diverse media: Look for things that inspire you - good books, good movies, good TV, etc. But also look outside the box. Read philosophy, history, academic stuff that will help you think about and examine your game.
• If nothing else fails, take a break: If all else fails, rest, let someone else run a game.

 

[billd91]

How do you avoid burnout? Take a break. A nice long one. If your players want to keep playing, one of them can bear the burden.

 

[prabe]

Best way to avoid burnout is to do something else for a while--possibly not even anything gaming-related. Take walks, read books, go new places, do new things. Fill your soul with beauty and/or joy.

 

[BookTenTiger]

Take a break.

 

[aco175]

Have a conversation with the players. Mine seem to bite onto what I present because I ask them where they are going so that I can plan ahead and make a dungeon. If they then turn to something else when we next play, I just tell that I have nothing planned for that and we can not play tonight since I planned the other thing they said they were going to. Then, we tend to play that.

I play published adventures with a sprinkle of homebrew to add to it. Don't feel bad if you cannot plan like you want. Life is busy, that is why they make adventures.

 

[DragonLancer]

I had this in my first campaign back face to face after Covid. I had all these cool ideas that I had been bouncing around for the last two years and the first 6 or 7 levels worked really well and then... it just fell apart. The players liked the early stuff and a little bit more sandbox than I usually run, but they felt some campaign ideas weren't gelling with them. Honestly, I was struggling to come up with something each fortnight that worked and eventually I just admitted that I felt I had lost my mojo. We happily just set the campaign aside and I said I want to play again for a while. One of the players stepped up and ran a cool campaign that took us a year and a half too complete 1st to 20th.

Coming back now and picking up an easier system (D&D 2024) over Pathfinder 1st I really feel my mojo has come back. I'm running a campaign everyone seems really pleased with and I don't feel like the weight of the game is on my shoulders now. Having a good break and just playing for a while really recharged the old batteries. I'd suggest the same thing and ask one of your players to take up the GM's chair and play a while. See how you feel after that.