I think it is time for a break.

[Scribe]

I am beginning to think the mistake might have been trying to return to professional freelance for gaming. I don't need the money, and it is much more difficult to get motivated that I had expected it to be. And the work part might be draining the leisure part.

This is for sure not an uncommon experience.

 

[Autumnal]

No one I don't think (?) has mentioned solo RPG games; I read more and more positive experiences by people who've tried this way of playing.

I’m going to!

I had several years of less and less gaming thanks to family demands and declining physical and mental health. Then several years of no gaming at all during after drastic physical collapse. I still can’t play with others, but have found may way to good times with solo play. There are several systems I like and I’ve been able to explore some options on my long, long-term wish list and some I’d never thought of until now.

Nothing is for everyone all the time. I mean, duh. But it’s great for me currently.

 

[Simon The Hunter]

Played a bunch, wrote and published a bunch, moved interstate and had no RL games anymore so I bought and read a lot of rules, and got bored of it all... Now I play solo, I just experiment with rules as I play, nothing is set in stone, stuff comes in and out, it can be fun, but yeah, at the moment, there's a loss of joy.

<joke> Personally I blame my advancing age and increasing grumpiness </joke>

 

[Richards]

Well, if it's time....

Johnathan

 

[Older Beholder]

It happens.
When 3.5 came out I was still trying to find a regular game several years after moving from my hometown to the city. In the end I found a group but didn’t click with them, and found I was no longer enjoying the game.
I stopped playing for about a decade from 2004 - 2014.

Instead I focused my energy on my art and having exhibitions. Why spend all that time and energy in entertaining 3 or 4 people when I could entertain 30 - 50 people and sometimes even make money as well?

I didn’t even think about playing during this time. It wasn’t until 5E came out and both the rules and people playing the game were closer to what I’d always wanted, that I started playing again.

Even in the past decade where I played more DnD than any other time in my life, there has been a year here or there where I didn’t play at all. I find it helps to have other hobbies that scratch the creative itch.

 

[trappedslider]

 

[payn]

 

[Zardnaar]

I am beginning to think the mistake might have been trying to return to professional freelance for gaming. I don't need the money, and it is much more difficult to get motivated that I had expected it to be. And the work part might be draining the leisure part.

Theres a professional DM here. Last I heard he was up to 5 games. I mentioned it yesterday and he said he's up to 13. Works in game store.

Cant remember what he's charging or his hours worked at store.

That may be to much. He's got a lot of toys like biats, 3D terrain and flip books of full colour mats.

 

[dbm]

Changing things up definitely helps me recharge batteries. I am fortunate in having two long-term, stable groups (with a large overlap between them). In total we have about 4.5 rotating GMs so we all get to play a big chunk of the time. The groups are also open to playing a range of different systems, so there is a lot of variety.

And one of the groups also play board games as part of our regular gaming, so when we aren’t quorate or the GM is just too busy / tired to run a session we do that instead. It’s a no-pressure thing.

There have been multiple times when I have been able to ‘just’ play rather than needing to ‘put in the work’ of being a GM, and there have been periods when we focussed more on board games (or war gaming at some times) than on RPGs.

Hopefully you have a group who understand these things @Reynard and you can take a break from doing whatever is drained of joy and focus on some other part of the hobby while you restore your energies.