[Rant] I burned out last night...

[Flexor the Mighty!]

After the third person told me, "This would probably be more fun if you were enthuasastic", and related comments I realized that running the game had become a chore, not just 3e but D&D, or any other game, in general. When a good friend, who STILL cannot remember what most spells do, even when they are cast on him every single goddamn session, I nearly told him to get away from the table and leave. After the new guy accidentally bounced a dice off a miniature I went off on him. That sucks as he seems to like playing even though it was only his second session with us. But I'm so tired of spending hours painting figures only to have them laugh as they hit them with dice all night long and chip them. At least five times I had to bite my tongue to stop from ripping into a player who asked me a question or forgot a rule. I finally got to use my Vampire miniature that I bought just to represent the Blackguard Vampire that they were to encounter and I wanted to make a reoccuring villian. I forgot half of his abilities during the game, same with the trog cleric, and found I didn't care even if it turned what should have been a pivotal encounter into a joke. When a player would ask me if something would work, I just said, "sure, whatever" even when I knew they were reading the rules wrong. I'm tired of idiots asking me how something works when they have played the game for two damn years! I'm tired of players who have played the damn game for that long not knowing half their damn abilities and where anything is on the character sheets.

I've hit the wall, Dm'ing has quit being fun and my chances of one of the other guys running a game is non existant. One said he would run a GURPS Cyberpunk game awhile back, but that never happened I've ran this campaign for two years and never once had the chance to play. I'm going to a local con next month just so I can finally play 3e for the first time. One guy is too busy playing Everquest to do anything game related. He can't remember the name of the major city they have been to a million times, but can probably sprout any kind of moronic fact relating the the Everquest world. Nobody buys ANYTHING for the game, well one of the group bought a PHB, and everyone always shows up late. Nobody puts even the slightest interest in getting into the game world. If I can find a new group I'll probably tell them I don't want to play D&D with them anymore the way I feel now. I'm trying to describe a critical point in the adventure, and one guy keeps saying, "lets keep goign until we find something to kill". I wanted to kill his PC right there and started thinking of just killing them all and closing the book and saying, "GAME OVER".

These are my best friends, and I have game with a few of them for a lot of years. But last night I nearly blew up on all of them and may have given the new guy a bad taste of what D&D is about, but I guess I really didn't care.

Whew that was a lot of rambling bile to spout but it made me feel better.

 

[diaglo]

i'll referee for you. but it will have to be Original D&D (1974)

 

[Ashrem Bayle]

I'm not sure what's causing it, but their seems to be a dramatic climb in the number of burned out DMs of late.

I know.... I think I'm one of them.

I think my problem is more with my group, or lack there of, than anything else. I've got one dedicated player....

The status of my new Midnight campaign is looking bleak and it really makes me sad because I've finally found a world thats got me excited.

 

[Buttercup]

You need to take a break from D&D. Perhaps a very long break.

 

[Ravellion]

I burned out like that a couple of years ago. But I actually pretty much did the 'game over' thing you hinted at. Started combvat with a 13th level freezing sphere agaisnt 4-5th level PCs. They were down one man (the one who said "let's go kill stuff guys") before initiative was rolled.

It's a tough job, and sometimes very thankless. Be thankful you didn't pop I did.

Rav

 

[Zogg]

You need to take a break from D&D. Perhaps a very long break.

I don't think he needs a break. Just a new group.

And probably a bigger table, so people don't hit the mini's with their dice.

Best friends don't necessarily make the best gaming group - if you've reached a point where you want to play with focused, knowledgeable gamers that are on the same page as you, then that's what you want. Consistently playing with people that are unfocused, late, inconsiderate and uninterested in developing themselves as gamers WILL burn you out.

The simple solution? Don't play with these people again. Some wives, no matter how hard they try, can never change a husband's bad habits. It's the same with a DM and his players - they aren't going to change, so you have to divorce them.

 

[Cybern]

Glad (..) to hear that I'm not alone. In our group, we each take our turn being DMs, most of the time in completely different campaigns. I started out a new campaign in a homebrewed strange setting, and my players were all happy about it. Then for four weeks the game was postponed because someone had something else to do (we usually play 1-2/week). I gave the XP by email some days after the game session, but told my girlfriend in person (we live together).

Then it happened again, she started whining about how much I gave to the others but not to her and blablabla...

She always whine about something unless she DM's, and our couple is going down the drain because of RPGs... and that's sad.

So I burned out a month ago, and we don't speak of RPGs at home. It sucks, real good. She loves RPGs, but have this paranoïa/anger management problem, and it's worse when we talk about gaming. I introduced her to RPGs some 5 years ago, and she got hooked as fast as on heroine. But whenever she dislikes one little detail, I get about a week of bul"/$%.

Anyway, I once played with a group like your own, and at one point we kicked the non-serious gamers out, and got on. While we were only 3 (2+dm) after that, the game was much more fun. I believe that you cannot LOVE the game but get stuck as the only potential DM. If it gets to be a chore, it needs to stop. That's what I did.

 

[GoodKingJayIII]

I think I feel your pain, to an extent.

While I'm far too new of a DM to burn out, I get very frustrated with my players at times. I have two groups, one at school and one here at home. I am good friends with both, but they have different approachs. The group at school is great--very much into roleplaying and their characters. They are new players, so they haven't been sucked into the "number crunching" traps.

My group here at home has one or two dedicated roleplayers. The others are very rules- and numbers-oriented. Don't get me wrong, there's nothing wrong with this. Everyone has a tendency to do it. My problem is, they won't stop when I ask them to. I feel like it ruins the roleplaying experience. I try and create very plot- and roleplaying-oriented games.

It gets frustrating. I hope you can work something out, whether with a new group of players, or actually becoming a player yourself. Good luck.

 

[Numion]

I guess every group has a player(s) that just don't learn the rules. My groups rules kludge has played D&D 3e for 3 years, playing in three campaigns totalling about 50 levels.

He still asks once a session (and he must've played in over 100 sessions) how to calculate his damage. Damage with a melee weapon. Or how to calculate to hit bonuses. Or what he can do in a single round (ok, thats not as simple, but he plays god damned dwarf barb/fighters every time!).

He enjoys the game a lot, but I'm beginning to see why his piloting lisence has been complete minus the written test for 1.5 years.

I guess this was a minor point in your burn-out, but just thought to share that you're not alone in this. Sounds a lot like my campaign actually, but one of my players finally agreed to DM. And turned to be a fine DM, even if a bit limited (no freestyling, only pre-made adventures, core only). I've weathered the burnout and am ready to run the next campaign.

 

[der_kluge]

Tell your players how you feel, and then play something completely different. Heck, play Scrabble every week if you want. Or, create an EverCrack account, and get sucked into that. I think it's time that you pick up a player's handbook. I find that I get my DM'ing juices rolling when I play in a really bad game of D&D, because I keep sitting there thinking, "I wouldn't have done that, I wouldn't have done that..."

Seriously, tell your players, and come up with an alternative. You're just going to end up losing your friends if you continue down this path.