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Message: <blockquote data-quote="WizarDru" data-source="post: 783315" data-attributes="member: 151">Sometimes, just some time off, from gaming, is a good thing (tm).  One of my players volunteered to run a game, and that certainly helps.  Having always been the DM for twenty years, you want to actually PLAY some times, and it's nice when you can.Second, do something no gaming, possibly even non-genre, to recharge the batteries.  Read a book, take a walk, go see a movie.  Ideas are wonderful wellsprings that flow from nowhere...find a way to tap a spigot into one.  I honestly find my best ideas in the car listening to music, or musing in the shower.  Third, find something that IS genre/gaming related that WILL put you in the mood.  Find some quiet spot and watch Fellowship on DVD, or listen to the soundtrack to the 13th warrior on CD.  Imagine a heroic situation, and a way to put the characters in it, after you've gotten one in your mind.Fourth, assuming your players aren't oposed to the idea, find some things that you CAN do to bring them into less combat-centric situations.  If all the group does is beatdowns, sooner or later, everyone will get bored of it (although thresholds vary dramatically).  The trick is to offer the promise of a grand battle on the other side (a promise that MUST be kept, btw).For example:  You want some court intrigue.  The players want a battle.  Meet them half-way.  Have the king secretly ask them to attend a royal ball, to locate an assasin who stalks the crowd that he believes has been sent by the queen, or his own spymaster (or heck, why not both?).  The players need to use their skills to ferret out the killer.  Set up the situation to make a purely physical solution difficult, but have it end in a swashbuckling battle.  Higher level players?  Have the royal court swathed in protective enchantments, that don't stop magic, but make it more interesting.If that seems like it would be too much, try making the combats more interesting by throwing the rules to the wind, if need be.  To use an example from my own game:  Recently, the players were fighting a Lich ex-Druid/Blighter on a demi-plane of the World Ash.  The battle took place in a large area that was hollowed out of the rampant overgrowth of the plane.  The lich had the ability to pass without trace, allowing her free movement throughout the plane, ducking in and out of the plant growth.  Their target was (unbeknownst to them) her phylactery in the form a great black crystal spike.  The spike was shooting a beam of shadow energy skyward, splitting the battlefield in half.  Anyone using a magical movement effect across it found it reversed (teleport through it, and find yourself on the other side of the battlefield).In short, find your bliss, and maybe you can help the players find theirs.</blockquote>

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