The GM Support Group Thread

[Thierry-Advent]

Being the full time GM is not easy. RPG ADD is a thing!

My current group is all GMs. We alternate GM and RPG every 3 months. Keeps things fresh. No one burns out. My time GMing Dragonbane is almost over. Next the GM wants to do a Dune 2d20 stories for the Summer. Unless someone wants to do another RPG, it's back to my Dragonbane campaign in the Fall. We also have ongoing Call of Cthulhu and Vaessen campaigns.

Before that, I was the only GM for another group. I rotated between Fantasy AGE 1e, The Expanse AGE and Modern AGE to keep things fresh for me.

 

[Whisper-Kitten]

Being the full time GM is not easy. RPG ADD is a thing!

My current group is all GMs. We alternate GM and RPG every 3 months. Keeps things fresh. No one burns out. My time GMing Dragonbane is almost over. Next the GM wants to do a Dune 2d20 stories for the Summer. Unless someone wants to do another RPG, it's back to my Dragonbane campaign in the Fall. We also have ongoing Call of Cthulhu and Vaessen campaigns.

Before that, I was the only GM for another group. I rotated between Fantasy AGE 1e, The Expanse AGE and Modern AGE to keep things fresh for me.

The downside of being a GM is you will find it hard to go back to playing because other people then never want to GM. It's good that you have a group of people that actually like doing it.

 

[Fenris-77]

The downside of being a GM is you will find it hard to go back to playing because other people then never want to GM. It's good that you have a group of people that actually like doing it.

Who I GM for and who I play with don't have any overlap at the moment.

 

[ART!]

My biggest problem is GM ADD -- the desire after 5 or 6 sessions to move on to a different game or campaign. This can be exacerbated by long stretches between sessions. It is often relaxed by a really good session that reinvigorates my interest in the thing in particular. I sometimes need someone to talk me off the "abandon this campaign for a new shiny" ledge.

My first thought is to remind yourself why you started the campaign in the first place. Write down goals, inspiration, etc - whatever prompted you to run. Keep that somewhere you will see it between games.

I am tired of power gamers.

Ugh, yeah. They're like poison.

Shorter and less frequent sessions + both my groups seeming aversion to using discord or other forms of chat for in-game stuff between sessions means I cannot run as satisfyingly rich campaigns as I did in the late 90s and esp. in the 00s. They are still fun for other reasons, but not as player driven within a broad (but limited) sandbox as they once were, and I miss it.

I feel like the technology that opened new options for gaming (in the '90s and 2000s) now threatens to make it less fun. Maybe I'm imagining that.

 

[Deset Gled]

That is something that happens to all of us. The best advice that I can give with that is to simply change it up. It's always good to have a lot of extra little quests on the backburner that you can insert into any given area to help in these situations. Have you talked to your group about how they act during the game?

FWIW, this was a rant more than a problem that I needed a solution for. With just a little bit of self doubt, in the form of "I've been playing since the Mentzer Red Box, why the heck can I still not do this?"

On the big picture side, it really doesn't matter how long the PCs take, as long as everyone is having fun. On the dealing-with-the-moment side, I have a few tricks up my sleeve. The biggest one being that I'm not afraid of a little bit of meta.

 

[Fenris-77]

FWIW, this was a rant more than a problem that I needed a solution for. With just a little bit of self doubt, in the form of "I've been playing since the Mentzer Red Box, why the heck can I still not do this?"

On the big picture side, it really doesn't matter how long the PCs take, as long as everyone is having fun. On the dealing-with-the-moment side, I have a few tricks up my sleeve. The biggest one being that I'm not afraid of a little bit of meta.

Well, no word of lie, you can have been doing the same silly shizz since 1978 and no one will come to your door and let you know. I know, where are the mormons when we need them, but it is what it is.

 

[MGibster]

My biggest problem is GM ADD -- the desire after 5 or 6 sessions to move on to a different game or campaign. This can be exacerbated by long stretches between sessions. It is often relaxed by a really good session that reinvigorates my interest in the thing in particular. I sometimes need someone to talk me off the "abandon this campaign for a new shiny" ledge.

I started a Greyhawk campaign in January 2025 and it'll end during out next session. I've taken the charactesr from level 1 all the way through level 12, and it's the longest campaign I've run in many, many years. I usually run campaigns that last 3-8 months, but we faced a lot of cancelled sessions for a variety of reasons including weather, family obligation, illness, and other things, but we're finally going to be finished.

I think I'm done with D&D. At least running it. I've had a great time with the Greyhawk campaign, but I feel as though my enjoyment came in spite of the rules rather than because of them. Combat takes too long and I'm not keen on having the number of encounters suggested. The poor woman playing the Sorcerer makes a little frowny face every time her higher levels spells, like Disintegrate, end up not being effective against creatures with Legendary Resistance. The players are a bit tired of D&D as well, so the next few campaigns we have lined up are going to be other games, which is great at least.

 

[LordEntrails]

I think I'm done with D&D. At least running it. I've had a great time with the Greyhawk campaign, but I feel as though my enjoyment came in spite of the rules rather than because of them. Combat takes too long and I'm not keen on having the number of encounters suggested. The poor woman playing the Sorcerer makes a little frowny face every time her higher levels spells, like Disintegrate, end up not being effective against creatures with Legendary Resistance. The players are a bit tired of D&D as well, so the next few campaigns we have lined up are going to be other games, which is great at least.

Yea, same boat at our table in 2024. We tried a few one shots and things, but were all ready to step away from D&D for awhile. We decided on FrontierSpace as several of us were familiar with Star Frontiers but wanted a better set of rules. I've also joined a Cyberpunk Red game this year, and can recommend it as well.

As you know, try something new, it doesn't mean you are not D&D fans and can't come back sometime.

 

[GMMichael]

I can have a huge map that I think it will take the group hours to explore, with secrets and traps and little things everywhere, and they'll walk straight though from the beginning to end in 5 minutes.

Have you tried caltrops?