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Message: <blockquote data-quote="molepunch" data-source="post: 5760926" data-attributes="member: 6683467">Hey again, all!Thanks again to all who posted and offered their insight to help me troubleshoot my group. Swedish Chef might be right after all: maybe I just need to stop reading all that "DMing Guides" and just figure out what my players are into first and foremost.Here's what happened (apologies I'm quite verbose):<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">We decided that my DMing style has probably become too "high brow" for the group as a whole, with my leaning towards "character development storytelling *snore*" and their leaning towards the board-gaming/action *hack'n'slash* play-style.  My house-rule/compromise of rewarding XP for RPing (the idea was that they had to RP three character traits they put down on their character sheet before the night was up) was deemed too trite by some.  I announced that I would end the campaign after the next session, no hard feelings, etc.</li> </ul><ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">My other player, "J", a very strong RPer (who is also a good friend and my colleague--a fellow resident actor in the same theatre company) decided to help me cycle out for a break by taking over the DM reins.</li> </ul><ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">He is a big time 4E fan, and did not want to explore Pathfinder or Savage Worlds.  So we started a new campaign using everyone's current 4E Essentials characters.  I made a Fighter (my favorite class) and thought up a character background and all that juicy stuff.</li> </ul><ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">We had our 2nd game a few days ago. (We play D&D weekly.)  Unfortunately, I was bored as any semblance of RPing we had before was now completely gone.  It's pretty much a board-game at this point, not unlike Descent.  My spouse and I try to RP in the game, but it's often met with immersion breaking antics, all unintentional I'm sure; we just sorta gave up after a while.  I didn't get bitter or upset by it, however.  I went along with the board-gaming mentality and threw in some RP-lite dialogue at the right moments: you know, stuff like "Not so fast, kobold!" or "... And I just repaired my shield this morning."</li> </ul><ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">I intend to continue attending the games. I can silently have my own RPing in my mind even if everyone else isn't in on it <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f61b.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":P" title="Stick out tongue    :P"  data-smilie="7"data-shortname=":P" /></li> </ul>My humble thoughts:I can definitely handle playing in a RP-bankrupt campaign more than I can handle DMing for RP-reluctant players, apparently! <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" />I'm not burnt out on DMing, but I'm certainly burned out DMing for this group (for now?).  I'm grateful to J for stepping in to DM while I have a break.  There must be something else in 4E or RPGs that they like for them to choose to play it instead of Descent.  I just don't know what, yet.Also, I realize now that I am quite a Diva DM LOL.  Maybe I'll make a new thread about this revelation hah! XDAgain, thank you all for your posts! <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=":)" /></blockquote>

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