D&D 5E Understanding DM Fatigue

[jgsugden]

I'd like to collect some stories from DMs that have suffered 'DM fatigue' in 5E games about why they think they fatigued. For these purposes, DM fatigue would be losing interest, as a DM, in continuing a D&D campaign before a planned conclusion is reached.

Some situations where I have experienced fatigue as a DM in prior editions (as I have not experienced it in 5E):

* Players went off on a tangent and began to ignore the planned storyline and instead began to treasure hunt. The 'good' PCs decided that it was not their responsibility to protect others and went so far as to use a village as bait to trap a dragon.

* Players had interpersonal problems that required constant managing. I dreaded seeing the bickering exes every week.

* I failed to adapt the game and my expectations to the advancing power of the PCs. I'd place a murder mystery in front of them and not account for their magic that could solve it with a spell or two. I'd put a McGuffin into play that solved a problem for a village, but the PCs would just solve it with magic or diplomacy. I didn't have a true understanding, at the time, that I needed to start assuming the players would have perfect knowledge and alternate means of 'small' problem solving, so I became frustrated by my inability to challenge them. (In retrospect, I was failing to give them the right challenges was the problem - not that I couldn't challenge them).

With a focus on your 5E experiences - why have you experienced DM fatigue?

 

[Iry]

* Players had interpersonal problems that required constant managing. I dreaded seeing the bickering exes every week.

This is the one that impacts me the most. I have had many groups over the years, and I would never expect them to get along like peaches and cream, but the amount of OOC drama can become quite exhausting. Especially because you end up playing therapist and moderating.

But there have been a few other reasons, such as:

* Scheduling conflicts are a huge part of playing D&D as an adult. I've had to ask players to leave because they could not show up consistently and gave little notice. When it happens often enough, I take the good players and simply go somewhere else.

* Lying about expectations. I used to run games for money a while back, and despite making an effort to be clear about what kind of games I would be providing and my expectations, some people simply lie to get in and become unhappy and disruptive when I provide exactly what I said I would provide.

* My own expectations. I used to have the energy and time to create elaborate maps, make beautiful props, and sit down for countless hours plotting out elaborate politics. I did this because I genuinely loved doing it, but because of the above reasons I sometimes had games simply... die... and I never got to use even a fraction of my investment. I would later go on to recycle most of it of course, but I invest far less into my games these days than I use to. And that makes a part of me sad.

 

[iserith]

I haven't had an issue with DM fatigue in a good 10+ years and it was generally due to the group dynamic and the personalities therein. Back in the day you sort of had to deal with it because your player pool was limited to whoever lived in the area. Dealing with scheduling and personality conflicts during the game was a regular issue that led to, well, not wanting to deal with it anymore.

Now with many good ways to play online, I'm able to build fantastic groups of very skilled and affable players. No bad eggs manage to make it through my screening process and there is no group conflict as a result, just good games. As a result, I don't get fatigued by dealing with players.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

This, definitely. When DMing meant managing bad player behaviors of varying sorts, it was easy to have dread start to war with the anticipation of a gaming session. Having good players that you look forward to gaming with and hanging out with makes a world of difference.

* Players had interpersonal problems that required constant managing.

 

[Stormonu]

I had an instance of 5E fatigue simply because of real-life job issues. On top of my normal job duties I had to study for MSC (Microsoft Certification - SQL Admin) within 3 months. So, I was quite stressed, felt I didn’t have time to prep for a game much less design any adventure material. I picked D&D back up a year later when the stresses were much lower.

I’ve had burn-out in previous editions as well, usually because I do 100% of the DMing. Some time away from the system, as a player in another system, usually helps sort me out.

 

[Fenris-77]

DMing is a lot like teaching (yes, I'm a teacher). It involves an enormous amount of micro decision making, which is a exhausting at the best of times. When you layer on any other nonsense burnout is almost inevitable, whether that is real life stress on the DM, or stress from badly behaved players. This is one of the main reasons I don't have a lot of time for interpersonal nonsense at my table. If you can't behave like a grownup you can shove off, to put it bluntly. DMing already waaaaay more work than playing, so pretty please, with sugar on top, stop being a flaming bag of poo.

 

[Salthorae]

I think my DM fatigue is usually more related to the rest of my life.

Not enough residual mental energy/time to funnel into DM'ing because of things happening in the rest of my life causes me to fatigue/burn out on trying.

 

[pogre]

In previous years it had everything to do with my players. When there is OOC drama I shut down things pretty quickly. Either I boot a player or shut down the campaign. Probably the number way I have burned out is when I have felt my efforts were not appreciated.

Thankfully that has not happened in a number of years.

 

[HawaiiSteveO]

DMing 4 hour game weekly, week in week out very consistently for months at a time. Core group is very committed.

I use WOTC adventure books, but still need to read them, check monster stats, keep up to speed on what PCs are capable of, etc. It got to a point I just didn't care and it was a slog. I was also concerned that momentum was my friend (well, it is... sort of) and if I missed a week the group would fall apart.

I also had really high expectations of myself and wanted everything to be epic all the time.

We took a shorter break (few weeks) and back on track. I don't run full length campaigns any more and enjoy flexibility with shorter 1-3 session adventures from Ghosts of Saltmarsh, Yawning Portal and dmsguild etc. If the adventure is not going great at least it's short and can try something new, plus variety is great.

My players seem happy with "Here's the adventure! If you want to wander off and improv see you next week." Everyone seems happy with things, and we get to play and have fun.

 

[Umbran]

I think my DM fatigue is usually more related to the rest of my life.

Not enough residual mental energy/time to funnel into DM'ing because of things happening in the rest of my life causes me to fatigue/burn out on trying.

I don't doubt that a lot of DM burnout we see may be good old-fashioned depression that happens to manifest in gaming, because it places significant demands on the GM.