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The DM Burnout and How to Get Past That: Advice?
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<blockquote data-quote="molepunch" data-source="post: 5753033" data-attributes="member: 6683467"><p>Wow, first of all, thank you all, fellow DMs and players alike, for your perspectives and input! Thanks for taking the time to post your suggestions and thoughts. I'm new at ENWorld so I'm not sure about the XP etiquette--i.e. am I allowed to XP all of you out of pure gratitude, heh!</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>I sent an email to the gang with some of the suggestions, namely, perhaps switching to a "pretzel and beer" Dungeon Delve night with everyone taking turns playing the "battle AI", or trying out a new system entirely, like White Wolf or Pathfinder.</p><p></p><p>My players can understand why I'm not having fun, as my main motivation to wear the DM hat is to "watch a good story unfold". I want my players to be the catalyst and not just sit there secretly texting or playing iPhone games when it's not combat time. I feel bad that they are bored, but I'm equally bored when they zone out.</p><p></p><p>Half of them are just not keen/not able to put in energy for RP. Some of them feel that 4E doesn't require/reward RP so it's more relaxing to sit back and roll a d20 with one hand and munch on a chip with the other. When they do try to RP, they get confused or lost, and I often end up stepping in, feeding them "lines" or options to help the scene move forward. Sometimes, they make decisions that are really out of character and reeks of metagaming, and groan when I won't allow the gloss-over and start questioning them about character motivation...</p><p></p><p>Trying out a new system is "too much work" apparently. Frankly, I am not confident that I can run a game well anyway, with my barely remembering the rules (Edit: rules of an entirely new system, that is). But it is still a good suggestion to try things out.</p><p></p><p>I did however, purchase Pathfinder and am considering running the game without minis. I live in Singapore and the scant few stores here that carry gaming books don't carry Savage Worlds, sadly, so I can't really browse it. Will google that later (ahck, I'm seriously ignorant of other systems besides D&D, PF, GURPS, and White Wolf). <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /></p><p></p><p>Maybe my buddies have a video-game mindset, often opting to "press A" to advance through the "boring NPC chat in Skyrim/Arcadia/JapaneseRPGia". Maybe I'm a lousy DM because I'm not flexible and I can't handle players who don't RP. Maybe I should be playing White Wolf or some other system instead. Maybe in the past they humored my style because no one wanted to DM.</p><p></p><p></p><p>Our next session is Tuesday night. In the email, I jotted down some things I'd like for the group to try before we decide what to do with the game. If the session falls apart, I will break out Dungeon Delve and close the campaign for now and figure out a plan B.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Can anyone please recommend *more good books about DMing? (I already have D&D DM book 2)</p><p>Can anyone please tell me how you work with non-RPing players? (it's ok if it's a no-brainer answer--it really helps to hear how other fellow DMs work)</p><p></p><p></p><p>Thanks all, and happy holidays!</p><p></p><p></p><p>*thanks scourger!</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="molepunch, post: 5753033, member: 6683467"] Wow, first of all, thank you all, fellow DMs and players alike, for your perspectives and input! Thanks for taking the time to post your suggestions and thoughts. I'm new at ENWorld so I'm not sure about the XP etiquette--i.e. am I allowed to XP all of you out of pure gratitude, heh! I sent an email to the gang with some of the suggestions, namely, perhaps switching to a "pretzel and beer" Dungeon Delve night with everyone taking turns playing the "battle AI", or trying out a new system entirely, like White Wolf or Pathfinder. My players can understand why I'm not having fun, as my main motivation to wear the DM hat is to "watch a good story unfold". I want my players to be the catalyst and not just sit there secretly texting or playing iPhone games when it's not combat time. I feel bad that they are bored, but I'm equally bored when they zone out. Half of them are just not keen/not able to put in energy for RP. Some of them feel that 4E doesn't require/reward RP so it's more relaxing to sit back and roll a d20 with one hand and munch on a chip with the other. When they do try to RP, they get confused or lost, and I often end up stepping in, feeding them "lines" or options to help the scene move forward. Sometimes, they make decisions that are really out of character and reeks of metagaming, and groan when I won't allow the gloss-over and start questioning them about character motivation... Trying out a new system is "too much work" apparently. Frankly, I am not confident that I can run a game well anyway, with my barely remembering the rules (Edit: rules of an entirely new system, that is). But it is still a good suggestion to try things out. I did however, purchase Pathfinder and am considering running the game without minis. I live in Singapore and the scant few stores here that carry gaming books don't carry Savage Worlds, sadly, so I can't really browse it. Will google that later (ahck, I'm seriously ignorant of other systems besides D&D, PF, GURPS, and White Wolf). :) Maybe my buddies have a video-game mindset, often opting to "press A" to advance through the "boring NPC chat in Skyrim/Arcadia/JapaneseRPGia". Maybe I'm a lousy DM because I'm not flexible and I can't handle players who don't RP. Maybe I should be playing White Wolf or some other system instead. Maybe in the past they humored my style because no one wanted to DM. Our next session is Tuesday night. In the email, I jotted down some things I'd like for the group to try before we decide what to do with the game. If the session falls apart, I will break out Dungeon Delve and close the campaign for now and figure out a plan B. Can anyone please recommend *more good books about DMing? (I already have D&D DM book 2) Can anyone please tell me how you work with non-RPing players? (it's ok if it's a no-brainer answer--it really helps to hear how other fellow DMs work) Thanks all, and happy holidays! *thanks scourger! [/QUOTE]
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