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Message: <blockquote data-quote="CleverNickName" data-source="post: 9602563" data-attributes="member: 50987">1.  Burnout is real, for sure--it hits me at least once every campaign.  I think this campaign was a little more resilient to DM burnout than my other campaigns because of a few decisions I made early on.First, the setting:  the world was a huge ring of islands that spanned from the planet's equator to the pole, so everything was modular and isolated and each region of the game had a distinctive feel.  Every new island they visited was a literal "change of scenery."Second was my level of involvement: there was no massive, overarching story that I had to manage and push the heroes toward, there were no huge complicated maps and lighting configurations for me to prepare ahead of time.  Like I said in my previous posts, I used a rough outline, my players' input, and random tables to "write" the adventure, and used theater of the mind whenever I could (and generic maps with Fog of War whenever I couldn't).  Both of those decisions paid huge dividends over the years-long campaign.2.  Nah, we don't like milestone leveling.  My players describe it as "DM-May-I," as in "DM, may I have a level now?"  And for me, it feels like I'm driving and the kids in the backseat keep asking "are we there yet? are we there yet? are we there yet?"  I understand that a lot of DMs prefer it, and I understand their reasons for liking it so much, but it's not for me.3.  I don't think so.  We played 3.5E in-person for years before the pandemic struck, and while those campaigns never quite reached 20th level, they did last for years.  We still had just as much fun, throwing pretzel sticks and high-fiving each other and laughing at my feeble attempts at mapping on a wet-erase mat.  The format might have changed in the years since, but it has always felt like D&D to me.4.  This was the first time I've ever hit the Level Cap in a campaign.  And if I'm being honest?  I doubt I'll ever run one like it again.  The best parts of the game (for me, as the DM) are between 6th and 12th level, so from now on--for me and my gaming group--I think I'll cap the characters or wrap up the campaign at ~12th level.5.  I'm a player in my wife's in-person 5E D&D group, and I'm the DM for a very infrequent BECM game on Roll20, but this 20th level 5E campaign is with my regular group.  We play 5E D&D mostly, but every now and then the DM won't be able to play or too many players will cancel, so we'll run a one-shot of Call of Cthulhu or Star Wars over Roll20, or we'll play a game of Deep Rock Galactic over Steam.6.  The players all have a standing offer: if their own characters are starting to feel dull, or if they saw a cool character class/species that they wanted to try out, they can roll up a character and play it for a few sessions.  I'll work them into the story as best I can, their "regular" character will hang out in the background, and they can play something else for a while.  And nobody has ever taken me up on that offer.  I guess they're committed to their roles?</blockquote>

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