D&D 5E Understanding DM Fatigue

[iserith]

One thing I've noticed as well, especially in observing a lot of DMs do their thing, is that there is often a lot of focus on things that aren't important which increases prep and adds to the overhead in table management. A lot of forum posts I see it's like "Why do you even bother with that?" or "Why should you care about that at all?" To be fair, it's not entirely obviously what is core to the experience and what is extraneous that could be ignored. And it's that extraneous stuff that can contribute to the DM burning out.

DMing is not hard. And it's not a lot of work to produce an enjoyable experience. But sadly we have to slog through a lot of hard work it seems to understand it's not all that necessary.

 

[Prakriti]

DMing is not hard. And it's not a lot of work to produce an enjoyable experience. But sadly we have to slog through a lot of hard work it seems to understand it's not all that necessary.

I've learned this over the years too. Like some people here, I've had the experience where I put a ton of thought and preparation into a campaign only to be disappointed in how my players did or did not engage in it. The solution, I've found, is not to look for "better" players, but to invest less time and energy into campaign preparations in general. This sounds lazy, but it's not; in my experience, it actually creates a funner experience for everyone involved, because now you're actively reading the table and improvising accordingly. It means you're more willing to jettison the parts of your campaign that aren't working and to create the best experience for that moment in time. In the end, you save yourself a lot of time, and everyone has more fun.

 

[The Crimson Binome]

With a focus on 5E, the one thing that contributed more than anything was the sheer amount of combat required to get a party of high-level characters to the point where they had to begin thinking about taking a rest. Then, after slogging through thousands of HP worth of purple worm or kraken, they take a rest and it all starts over from scratch. It's mind-numbingly tedious, and even if I try to keep things interesting with the descriptions, it starts to wear thin about an hour into each session.

 

[iserith]

I've learned this over the years too. Like some people here, I've had the experience where I put a ton of thought and preparation into a campaign only to be disappointed in how my players did or did not engage in it. The solution, I've found, is not to look for "better" players, but to invest less time and energy into campaign preparations in general. This sounds lazy, but it's not; in my experience, it actually creates a funner experience for everyone involved, because now you're actively reading the table and improvising accordingly. It means you're more willing to jettison the parts of your campaign that aren't working and to create the best experience for that moment in time. In the end, you save yourself a lot of time, and everyone has more fun.

Also, get better players.

 

[oriaxx77]

I usually burn out when we play officially published campaigns. E.g. in the middle of ToA. It is like being back in school again where you have to memorize things.

 

[MNblockhead]

With a focus on 5E, the one thing that contributed more than anything was the sheer amount of combat required to get a party of high-level characters to the point where they had to begin thinking about taking a rest. Then, after slogging through thousands of HP worth of purple worm or kraken, they take a rest and it all starts over from scratch. It's mind-numbingly tedious, and even if I try to keep things interesting with the descriptions, it starts to wear thin about an hour into each session.

I highly recommend experimenting with other forms of leveling up. Not only is grinding through volumes of monsters tedious, but it strips the game of mystery and even, ironically, danger. In all three of the campaigns that I've run since 5e came out, none use typical XP for combat systems, at least not for long.

First Campaign: homebrew.
I started off with a mix of XP for combat based on published XP numbers in the MM, which you could also earn by avoiding combat (depending on the challenge), and milestone leveling. This was pretty much in line with the DMG's advice. Eventually, starting around tier 2 we switched to pure milestone leveling. The players just increased their level every 1-3 sessions, after the completion of a quest, adventure, or other important milestone. That allowed us to play through all 20 levels in about 2 years. Now, some of those levels were only played for maybe 8 hours, but it worked for us.

Second Campaign:
A ran Curse of Strahd using R Pardon's "A Structured Milestone System for Curse of Strahd" which I made modest changes to. Basically you earn points based on a mix of major foes defeated, macguffins found, places explored, moving the story forward, and blocking Strahd's goals. The party levels together based upon the number of points they have earned. It is a good system to encourage all forms of play and is dead simple for a DM to use. I had a one page sheet where I would check off milestones and keep a tally of points. And we are talking about a max of maybe 50 points, so very easy to track. The only change I would make if I were to do it again is to use only whole numbers. Pardon uses a lot of quarter and half points. It would be even simply to just have milestones worth 1 to 4 points.

Current Campaign:
I'm currently running Rappan Athuk by Frog God Games using an XP for GP plus milestone system. I love how it rewards more creative styles of play. Also, in a setting as deadly as Rappan Athuk players are not punished for doing the smart thing and being sneaking and running away. It does mean that leveling can go very slowly, especially since there is no XP for sold magic items. The party hasn't hit tier 2 yet after a year of play. If we decide we want to increase the pace of leveling, I'll likely handle it in two ways. (1) I will start rewarding XP for the value of magic items that are given to allies, use for an important quest purpose, or even sold if it involves significant effort in finding a buyer, (2) more and bigger milestone awards, and (3) just deciding to move up a level.

 

[MNblockhead]

I usually burn out when we play officially published campaigns. E.g. in the middle of ToA. It is like being back in school again where you have to memorize things.

Sometimes poor memory is a good thing. Read over the adventure, get a good sense of it, make sure you understand some of the more complicated challenges and encounters, but if you get stuck, just wing it. It helps made the adventure your own and helps make your groups experience of it unique.

It is a hard lesson for many DMs to learn but I find I enjoy the game more, and so do players, if I don't try too hard to keep to script and certain it isn't fun for anyone when the DM is spending minutes flipping around a book or running searches in a PDF to look things up.

It was fun to watch Chris Perkins run Curse of Strahd in Dice, Camera, Action. He wrote the book and, if anyone knows the material, he does. But he had no problem deviating from the text. Lesson being, don't be a slave to the text.

 

[oriaxx77]

With a focus on 5E, the one thing that contributed more than anything was the sheer amount of combat required to get a party of high-level characters to the point where they had to begin thinking about taking a rest. Then, after slogging through thousands of HP worth of purple worm or kraken, they take a rest and it all starts over from scratch. It's mind-numbingly tedious, and even if I try to keep things interesting with the descriptions, it starts to wear thin about an hour into each session.

I tie the advancement to certain number of sessions. I do not calculate XP based on combat because it would turn my players to murder hobos. I also keep the party synced even if someone misses some sessions. The number of sessions required to level up goes up at higher levels. I think I borrowed the idea from Dark Albion.

 

[oriaxx77]

Sometimes poor memory is a good thing. Read over the adventure, get a good sense of it, make sure you understand some of the more complicated challenges and encounters, but if you get stuck, just wing it. It helps made the adventure your own and helps make your groups experience of it unique.

It is a hard lesson for many DMs to learn but I find I enjoy the game more, and so do players, if I don't try too hard to keep to script and certain it isn't fun for anyone when the DM is spending minutes flipping around a book or running searches in a PDF to look things up.

It was fun to watch Chris Perkins run Curse of Strahd in Dice, Camera, Action. He wrote the book and, if anyone knows the material, he does. But he had no problem deviating from the text. Lesson being, don't be a slave to the text.

There is no problem with DM - ing. The players enjoy it.
But for me half the fun for being DM is to create my own stories. With a published material it is missing. I like reading published material for entertainment and ideas though. Running a campaign for half a year and not building my own world is just a waste of time for me. It is just not my story. I also dislike FR. No flavor, just a lot of random ideas smashed together. I would like to see more, shorter published materials that I can include into my campaign and my world and give my own lore to it.

 

[TheSword]

Biggest thing for me is gaps between playing. We play monthly for a full 2 day weekend, 2 different campaigns. If we miss one month that’s ok. But once we get to two months it’s hard to get the momentum back. I’ve never had a campaign recover from a three month gap.