CanadienneBacon
Explorer
Time.
Go do things other than DMing until your zest returns. You'll know when that is.
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D&D 5E I don't want to homebrew anymore...
- Thread starter Remathilis
- Start date
Go do things other than DMing until your zest returns. You'll know when that is.
ExploderWizard
Hero
CONAN FAIL!
CRUSH YOUR PLAYERS. SEE THEM DRIVEN BEFORE YOU. HEAR THE LAMENTATIONS OF THE TPK.
Seriously though, a break from the DM chair can be wonderful for a recharge. Just getting to relax and play for a while without having to worry about prep may do a world of good.
der_kluge
Adventurer
Kudos to you for being so creative. I tried getting into the homebrew thing when I was younger. Made complex maps of continents, and found I just didn't have the patience for that level of detail.
I took a long time off from D&D - mostly because I burnt out from trying to manage the schedule of a group of adults, who often have children and busy lives. It's like trying to herd cats.
I get my gaming fix from DDO these days, and have played it over 6 years now, but the itch is coming back, and I've also been looking at 5e and really admiring its simplicity and elegance.
Way back in 2e days, I used to hand-write every module. Between game sessions, I had to come up with what was going to happen at the next game. It was laborious, and I'm pretty sure I really sucked at it, but my players were good, and we always had fun, so it worked out OK. Once I made the realization that I just wasn't really good at building over-arching plots, I started to steal bits and pieces from everything, and that has proven to be so much more effective. Now, my time is spent fleshing out the individual NPCs in the town, because my ultimate goal is to have a town where a quest could literally be behind every shopkeeper's door. The mayor is a paladin who takes care of her brother, the bookstore owner, who is currently being cursed by a strange book. The innkeeper is a vampire spawn. The priest of Lathander is actually a doppleganger and has the actual priest bound in the basement. The blind boatsman who ferries people down the river is actually an extremely high level druid. I'm fairly good at coming up with little nuggets like that, but the rest is all stuff I've taken elsewhere - the main campaign is Tomb of Abysthor (but it could just as easily be Rappan Athuk or something like that). The gods are all from Forgotten Realms. The campaign setting is the Wilderlands of High Fantasy.
Like others have said - there's no shame in using the work of others. They are professionals in a very real sense, and it tends to be way better stuff than my own.
I took a long time off from D&D - mostly because I burnt out from trying to manage the schedule of a group of adults, who often have children and busy lives. It's like trying to herd cats.
I get my gaming fix from DDO these days, and have played it over 6 years now, but the itch is coming back, and I've also been looking at 5e and really admiring its simplicity and elegance.
Way back in 2e days, I used to hand-write every module. Between game sessions, I had to come up with what was going to happen at the next game. It was laborious, and I'm pretty sure I really sucked at it, but my players were good, and we always had fun, so it worked out OK. Once I made the realization that I just wasn't really good at building over-arching plots, I started to steal bits and pieces from everything, and that has proven to be so much more effective. Now, my time is spent fleshing out the individual NPCs in the town, because my ultimate goal is to have a town where a quest could literally be behind every shopkeeper's door. The mayor is a paladin who takes care of her brother, the bookstore owner, who is currently being cursed by a strange book. The innkeeper is a vampire spawn. The priest of Lathander is actually a doppleganger and has the actual priest bound in the basement. The blind boatsman who ferries people down the river is actually an extremely high level druid. I'm fairly good at coming up with little nuggets like that, but the rest is all stuff I've taken elsewhere - the main campaign is Tomb of Abysthor (but it could just as easily be Rappan Athuk or something like that). The gods are all from Forgotten Realms. The campaign setting is the Wilderlands of High Fantasy.
Like others have said - there's no shame in using the work of others. They are professionals in a very real sense, and it tends to be way better stuff than my own.
S
Sunseeker
Guest
I agree with Grassy on all points, but I wanted to emphasize this one. As someone who is also feeling burned after countless hours of creation and am coming up with nothing, these are all excellent points.
Azzy
ᚳᚣᚾᛖᚹᚢᛚᚠ (He/Him)
It sounds like you need a break as you're suffering from DM burnout. You could take a break from DMing altogether, and be a player for a while. Failing that, I think it would wise to go with the option you already brought up—use the Realms and the APs. I'm not a fan of the Realms, myself, but using a prefab with minimal workload would be the best option.
I hope this DM malaise passes quickly for you so that you can enjoy the things you love to do.
I hope this DM malaise passes quickly for you so that you can enjoy the things you love to do.
I have Princes of the Apocalypse, but haven't read it yet. However, I am reading Out of the Abyss right now. You might want to give something like that a try. The story is there and the outline of the adventure is there, but it does require the DM to fill in quite a bit. It might give you enough of a break, but still allow you to get creative with it. Maybe the story that is there would motivate you to fill in the details with your own ideas.
Mercule
Adventurer
I hear you. I've been gaming since 1983, on so. I was only a player for about 6 months before I got the GMing bug and have spent 85%+ of my time behind the screen. My home brew world started to take form in about 1985 and I used it continuously for about a decade, before taking a couple years off for WoD and Hero. I rolled right back into it, though, and finally realized in the mid-2000s that it had run its course, so I decided to sunset it with one "finale" campaign that would answer some questions I'd left hanging for years. The 3.5 system was so heavy that I wanted to drink bleach by the time I did wrap it (about the time 4E was released). I found 4E... less than inspiring, and it darn near took me out of gaming permanently. 5E was perfectly timed for my group, though, so here we are.
That's a long way to go to say, "Don't sweat it." After a break, I have several ideas floating around in my head. I'd love to build a new home brew world. I'm also excited by some other systems out there, like FATE and the nWoD. But... my whole group is at that "career and kids" stage. We mostly just want to blow off some steam. So, I've been running the published modules. I've been using Eberron because I loathe FR and the players wanted to go with a published setting. It's fun. We're all having fun.
There's no pressure, but I can get in and tweak some to fit Eberron whenever I feel like it. Or not, if I don't have time. That pretty well scratches the world-building itch. The fact that WotC hasn't done a worthwhile 5E conversion scratches the tinkering itch. Surprisingly, I've discovered I have more of an itch for tinkering with rules than setting. I'm still drawn to building my own setting, but it's not a burn. I very well might build a new world, when we get done w/ PotA, but I don't know.
I've also realized that successfully running a published adventure is its own skill. I guess I've always known that, but what I've learned is that it's not an "inferior" skill to rolling your own; it's potentially as difficult and rewarding. Give it a shot and see what you think.
Either that, or do as others have recommended and see if someone else is willing to GM.
That's a long way to go to say, "Don't sweat it." After a break, I have several ideas floating around in my head. I'd love to build a new home brew world. I'm also excited by some other systems out there, like FATE and the nWoD. But... my whole group is at that "career and kids" stage. We mostly just want to blow off some steam. So, I've been running the published modules. I've been using Eberron because I loathe FR and the players wanted to go with a published setting. It's fun. We're all having fun.
There's no pressure, but I can get in and tweak some to fit Eberron whenever I feel like it. Or not, if I don't have time. That pretty well scratches the world-building itch. The fact that WotC hasn't done a worthwhile 5E conversion scratches the tinkering itch. Surprisingly, I've discovered I have more of an itch for tinkering with rules than setting. I'm still drawn to building my own setting, but it's not a burn. I very well might build a new world, when we get done w/ PotA, but I don't know.
I've also realized that successfully running a published adventure is its own skill. I guess I've always known that, but what I've learned is that it's not an "inferior" skill to rolling your own; it's potentially as difficult and rewarding. Give it a shot and see what you think.
Either that, or do as others have recommended and see if someone else is willing to GM.
Clancey
First Post
Back when I used to DM (in the 80's) I cribbed ideas from fantasy books I was very familiar with. I used PJ Farmer's World Of Tiers series and Zelazny's Amber books as source material. Having read those series so many times, it was easy to fill in around their background. Maybe if you tried using books you love as inspiration you could get a fresh perspective?
Remathilis
Legend
Thank you all for your suggestions.
I'm currently also playing in a game (another DM and I alternate weekends) and we share 50% of a group (I have 3 players he doesn't, he has three player I don't). Right now, we're starting OotA in his game (in the Realms, no less) and we're having a blast.
Perhaps though, that's the thing that has me spirits down; I put a lot of effort into crafting a (somewhat) unique world and stories, and we have just as much fun doing that as we do in the other guy's AP + canned setting, and he has much less prepwork. He spends an hour or two reading the next chapter and adding details, I spend 4+ hours crafting dungeons and plotlines. The players enjoy both equally. Seems like a lot of work for diminishing returns.
I'm not against running campaign settings (I ran Eberron once a long time ago, I'd kill for a 5e Eberron book) either, if fact it was a very nice change of pace from my fairly standard D&D world. I kinda wish 5e had more settings (and yes, I know about Primeval Thule, its cool but not my cup of tea) or a few more AP choices, but alas.
That said, I'll look into a few options. I don't want to end this campaign yet (for a few reasons), so I'll look and see what else I can add to keep the juices flowing...
I'm currently also playing in a game (another DM and I alternate weekends) and we share 50% of a group (I have 3 players he doesn't, he has three player I don't). Right now, we're starting OotA in his game (in the Realms, no less) and we're having a blast.
Perhaps though, that's the thing that has me spirits down; I put a lot of effort into crafting a (somewhat) unique world and stories, and we have just as much fun doing that as we do in the other guy's AP + canned setting, and he has much less prepwork. He spends an hour or two reading the next chapter and adding details, I spend 4+ hours crafting dungeons and plotlines. The players enjoy both equally. Seems like a lot of work for diminishing returns.
I'm not against running campaign settings (I ran Eberron once a long time ago, I'd kill for a 5e Eberron book) either, if fact it was a very nice change of pace from my fairly standard D&D world. I kinda wish 5e had more settings (and yes, I know about Primeval Thule, its cool but not my cup of tea) or a few more AP choices, but alas.
That said, I'll look into a few options. I don't want to end this campaign yet (for a few reasons), so I'll look and see what else I can add to keep the juices flowing...
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