Dealing With DM Burnout

[tkdco2]

Some useful tips on how to handle with it.


www.youtube.com/watch?v=A9asQvvK__0

[Finarvyn]

Interesting video. My solution is almost always (1) to be a player for a bit, which always makes me want to get behind the screen again, and (2) to re-read old source material (OD&D booklets and Arneson's FFC, mostly) because those also inspire me a lot.

[tkdco2]

I seem to be stuck in the DM role, so I run different games and settings. I can't say I have been dealing with burnout lately since I haven't been doing a lot of gaming in the last few years. Sometimes getting friends to play can be difficult, as tabletop rpgs aren't high on their gaming list.

[ThrorII]

Our group is small (4 of us), and only two of us DM. I am the DM who runs short-ish (4-6 month) games using different systems. The other DM likes long games (6 mo - 1 year), and tends to run B/X.

Our solution is for him to run 6-12 months at a time, interspaced with short hiatus campaigns run by me in-between. Currently, he is wrapping up a 30 session B/X game (16 months) for a hiatus, and I am gearing up to run a short campaign (3-6 months).

[doublejig2]

A DM knows what kind of DM he is. Is this always the case? Maybe self-doubt creeps in or fatigue.  


Or, as DM, just stopping the game midturn to declare a 10 min break in order to review a complex encounter or for whatever reason! 
Tune up. 

[samvandenberg]

Great topic tkdco2 ! After having given much thought on the subject myself, I believe the best solution is a rotation of DM's.

The problem then becomes: How do we get more people willing to DM?

I think the answer involves at least the following:

• Using a simple ruleset
• Allowing DM authority during the game (i.e., no arguing)
• Moderating player expectations

[Deleted]

I'm actually energized at the prospect of just running a new and different rules set for a new group. Runequest isn't simple compared to Basic D&D but it's quite evocative. I think that's a hidden component. You have to be excited about the fantasy and the prospect of discovery and the unknown. Being in a position to help expose new players to ttrpg now helps a lot, too.

[tkdco2]

Using a different ruleset and/or setting definitely is a breath of fresh air, especially to the GM. Since I have a collection of games that I've rarely played, I can always run one of those games and remind the players about the variety of games out there.

Sometimes a change in setting is enough. I ran a couple of games in the Forgotten Realms, which none of my players were familiar with. Only one of the players was experienced with AD&D, but he usually played in Greyhawk. He wasn't too comfortable with the new setting, but he could learn alongside the other players. I much prefer the FR setting anyway. If truth be told, part of my burnout as both a player and DM came from running and playing only AD&D set in Greyhawk. The rest of the group were familiar with MERP and other rpgs, but they didn't want to change, and I needed variety. That was one of the reasons I left that group.

[aramis]

For me, changing rulesets isn't enough. I have to change genre, as well.

[ThrorII]

Nov 27, 2021 16:29:59 GMT -6 aramis said:

For me, changing rulesets isn't enough. I have to change genre, as well.

Our other DM is the B/X guy. I tend to branch out more. Starting 1/1/22, I'm running 3 one-shots for our group. They will decide which game system/campagin they want to play (Far Trek, ICONS super heroes, Shotguns -N-Saddles OR Wild West Cinema [undecided which rules set, both designed by the same guy]).

[tedopon]

Nov 27, 2021 8:42:20 GMT -6 samvandenberg said:

Great topic tkdco2 ! After having given much thought on the subject myself, I believe the best solution is a rotation of DM's.

The problem then becomes: How do we get more people willing to DM?

I think the answer involves at least the following:

• Using a simple ruleset
• Allowing DM authority during the game (i.e., no arguing)
• Moderating player expectations

I prefer playing in games where there is a rotating GM, but (I hate to say it) there is always a Bump in the Road GM when you do this. 
I LOVE how in rotating games the focus and feel of the game changes every few sessions.
I LOATHE passing it off to the person who always grinds things to a halt and adds in a bunch of material that only they are going to develop...and expect that all events from this moment forward will reference this thing (whatever it is). I understand that "needing more time in between sessions" and "metaplot mastery" are two different traits, but they're almost always shared.
Rotating GM model is my favorite, and objectively the best scenario for most groups, but there is always one person who is not playing the same game as everyone else and wants to turn our good time laughing into their unpublished novel.
I have played in a rotating GM model for most of my gaming time (I started in the 80s), and I find it works much better in a One Shot group than a persistent campaign. It works fine for persistent campaign but you will hit a telegraphed, easily predicted point in the rotation where you know it will get really hairy or die. I have gamed with several different groups that the overlap is me and maybe one other person total and it is the same result every time. Always one person in a rotation bigger than two that will not play the same game on the same timescale and be incredulous when everyone loses interest.

[samvandenberg]

Good points, tedopon . I certainly understand. Maybe "How to be a good DM" is a separate problem. To be clear, I'd favor each DM having a separate campaign. Such a boundary might provide protection for each DM's creation, and prevent resentments. I think there is a saying, "Good fences make good neighbors", or something.

I envy your situation. Too many DM's is the problem I think we all should want.

[ffilz]

Interesting video with some good suggestions.

One thing I have found that helps - with switching to virtual table top for real time (as opposed to play by post) gaming, I no longer have any need to have the same players for the next game. This makes it easy to run what I want to run next. I had made a mistake when we wrapped up a TFT campaign I was playing in of trying to pick a game everyone wanted to play and landed on Traveller. I did enjoy the resulting campaign (though the only player who stuck with it was the TFT GM...) but it wasn't really what I wanted to play. So when my wife started a once a month Friday meeting, I decided to try a once a month start up something I wanted to play. I was bummed I couldn't find players for Cold Iron, but pivoted to RQ, but instead of trying to run two Glorantha campaigns, I decided to take another game I had been interested in running off and on, Thieves Guild, and make an RQ/Thieves Guild mashup. That's been working great though who knows how long it will last. When I start to burn out on that (probably before the Glorantha campaign), I'll either look for something to play in (good suggestion that - be a player some times) or spin a different game.

On rotating GMs, I have a hard time visualizing how that would work well for a long term campaign though it certainly works well for one shots or very short campaigns, but I have little interest in those other than an occasional break from a long term campaign. The one place where I can see rotating GM working maybe is the huge "West Marches" games I've started to see. But do the GMs play characters? How do you keep an overall campaign consistency and tie things together?

[aramis]

Dec 2, 2021 9:29:37 GMT -6 ffilz said:

On rotating GMs, I have a hard time visualizing how that would work well for a long term campaign though it certainly works well for one shots or very short campaigns, but I have little interest in those other than an occasional break from a long term campaign. The one place where I can see rotating GM working maybe is the huge "West Marches" games I've started to see. But do the GMs play characters? How do you keep an overall campaign consistency and tie things together?

Having done it, onne of the keys is to define whether specific NPCs are "public" or "private"... or "check first"
And you need to communicate about location needs.

In games like Ars Magica and Pendragon, it's best to handle a whole character year per GM.
In Trek, L5R, spy stuff, TOR, or other mission based settings, it's one mission at a time.

Some rotation groups simply have multiple campaigns. Say, Week 1 is Joe, 2 is Fred, 3 is Joe, and 4 is Mark... Joe's got long ongoing plots, Fred is doing a short KTAATTS Dungeon Murderhobo with short adventures (such as the seasons 1-4 DDAL modules), and Marc is doing a mission based game... Not a mode I like but some love it. I had a Warhammer group that I ran for 2 weeks out of 3, and on the third week we did one-shots with the wife of the missing player (He was in law enforcement, and on a multi-shift rotating schedule. If everyone is good with such rotations, it's fine... Many groups only play once a month or twice a month.

[ffilz]

Dec 2, 2021 14:58:25 GMT -6 aramis said:

Dec 2, 2021 9:29:37 GMT -6 ffilz said:

On rotating GMs, I have a hard time visualizing how that would work well for a long term campaign though it certainly works well for one shots or very short campaigns, but I have little interest in those other than an occasional break from a long term campaign. The one place where I can see rotating GM working maybe is the huge "West Marches" games I've started to see. But do the GMs play characters? How do you keep an overall campaign consistency and tie things together?

Having done it, onne of the keys is to define whether specific NPCs are "public" or "private"... or "check first"
And you need to communicate about location needs.

In games like Ars Magica and Pendragon, it's best to handle a whole character year per GM.
In Trek, L5R, spy stuff, TOR, or other mission based settings, it's one mission at a time.

Some rotation groups simply have multiple campaigns. Say, Week 1 is Joe, 2 is Fred, 3 is Joe, and 4 is Mark... Joe's got long ongoing plots, Fred is doing a short KTAATTS Dungeon Murderhobo with short adventures (such as the seasons 1-4 DDAL modules), and Marc is doing a mission based game... Not a mode I like but some love it. I had a Warhammer group that I ran for 2 weeks out of 3, and on the third week we did one-shots with the wife of the missing player (He was in law enforcement, and on a multi-shift rotating schedule. If everyone is good with such rotations, it's fine... Many groups only play once a month or twice a month.

OK, I can see how it could work with an episodic, including mission based, campaign where the crossover between episodes is limited so the GMs don't have huge secrets that need to be carried across.

Rotating games with different GMs is certainly doable. The TFT campaign I played in included two of my RQ players, and they and the GM also played in my Traveller play by post. I do sessions every other week which is the lowest frequency I would be comfortable with, especially with my sessions being limited to 2 hours. Even with a longer session, I found anything less than every other week resulted in too big a break if a session had to be missed and it was hard to keep players committed. Of course that is a bit different if the same group is playing every week but rotating through a set of campaigns and one shots, but these days with virtual table top gaming, I find it more effective to recruit independently for each campaign (though inviting players from other campaigns). Then you get players who really want to play the game rather than some players who might be playing just because it's what the group is doing.