GM Burnout?

[Anders]

Has anyone here suffered from a GM burnout? Have you overcome it? How?

I don't know if it qualifies, but I've certainly had periods when I couldn't come up with new ideas, new adventures. But that seems more coupled to my SAD than to anything specific for RPGs.

[RogerBW]

Originally Posted by Anders

Has anyone here suffered from a GM burnout? Have you overcome it? How?

I don't know if it qualifies, but I've certainly had periods when I couldn't come up with new ideas, new adventures. But that seems more coupled to my SAD than to anything specific for RPGs.

There have been times. Generally I gradually ramp up the amount of GMing I do, until suddenly I find I can't keep it all moving at the same time; then I back down and do other things for a bit. I do this for fun, after all.

[Nymdok]

What always helped me was a Genre switch. A change up pitch.

See one of the things that I enjoy most about GMing is the opportunity to absorb material with a purpose.

IF your playing a weekly Fantasy Game, then you may want to swap out for a Spec Ops, Espionage or other game.

When I do that as a GM, I then have a reason to go and both apply the rules to a new setting and can intake new influences with the purpose of sifting through the bits I like and want to use.

I've found it to be a much different experience to watch a tv show and to watch a tv show with the intent of making it gameable.

Nymdok

[PK]

There was a time a decade ago when I was the only GM of our group, and I was running three different games, each one at least once a week. After over a year straight, it got to be too much work, and I just crashed one day. I remember sitting at the table, saying "I just . . . can't," and apologizing, and just asking everyone to leave.

I ended up taking a break for a few months. No gaming, just going out and doing other stuff after work. I waited until I felt like I really wanted to run something before picking it up again, and when I did I limited it to bringing back one of the games, once a week.

[ULFGARD]

Yes and no. I've never quite crashed like PK, but I've gone through periods where it was more of a chore. Fortunately I have a much better balance now. When I might otherwise be "overloaded" (I had a weekend not long ago where I ran two games and played in one), because both of the groups I'm part of meet roughly semi-monthly I feel merely satiated. Two games in a weekend is barely enough, and that only happens about once a month.

But creativity does wax and wane, and there seems to be little I can do to control it. If the spigot is on, I have ideas flowing into my head on demand, often faster than I can record them let alone make use of them. It can get distracting. Other times I can barely get a trickle. As far as I understand it, that's how it works for most people.

[derendel]

The closest I've come to burn out was about 6 years ago when I just finally tired of D&D and dungeon fantasy in general. I can still run it but its brings me little joy. What was once a mainstay of my games holds no appeal to me. I've done and explored everything I want to do in the confines of that genre.

So I switched genres. So far so good.

I also have periods where I can barely motivate myself to work on my games. But like the OP, this is less roleplaying specific. When I get into those moods, I can barely derive joy from doing anything. In those cases I look for something to pass time: a long walk, sleep, or physical chores. Simple, time consuming. let the mind rest and recuperate.

[Phantasm]

I have. Again, nowhere near as bad as PK, but there was one game on IRC that was becoming a chore to me even when everyone else was having fun with the game.

What was worse for me was when I explained the situation to some of the players, they were begging me not to drop the game. Most of the players understood, but there were two that insisted that I keep going despite the burnout.

[ak_aramis]

Originally Posted by Nymdok

What always helped me was a Genre switch. A change up pitch.
[...]
Nymdok

Same here. I tend to burn out of a given setting, more than a given group.

Sometimes, it's just changing players that needs to happen.

[Edges]

I find the following to be generally true for me:

• If I am gaming for more than 12 hours per day, I get burned out after a few days.
• If I have only one or two players, I tend to get burned out after a couple weeks (as I find us going in circles).
• If two session in a row of a given campaign is of little to no fun for one or more people at the table for any reason, I will tend to find myself burned out on the campaign.
• If there is one or more rules-lawyers, argumentative players, or players who are generally untrusting of my GMing in a given group, I tend to get burned out on the group after about a half-dozen sessions.
• If the PCs make little to no progress toward their goals for two consecutive sessions or more despite my efforts to support their progress, I tend to get burned out on the campaign.

Otherwise, I am fine. In particular, I have never had to deal with a block in creativity (thank goodness).

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by Edges

I find the following to be generally true for me:

• If I am gaming for more than 12 hours per day, I get burned out after a few days.
• If I have only one or two players, I tend to get burned out after a couple weeks (as I find us going in circles).
• If two session in a row of a given campaign is of little to no fun for one or more people at the table for any reason, I will tend to find myself burned out on the campaign.
• If there is one or more rules-lawyers, argumentative players, or players who are generally untrusting of my GMing in a given group, I tend to get burned out on the group after about a half-dozen sessions.
• If the PCs make little to no progress toward their goals for two consecutive sessions or more despite my efforts to support their progress, I tend to get burned out on the campaign.

I don't do the first; I run two or three five-hour sessions a month. I don't do the second; I consider four players the minimum to start a campaign. I have had the third happen once or twice, but I didn't burn out; rather, the player complained to me, and we figured out a solution. My problem players tend to get voted off the island.

The fifth is more elusive, but I think I'm less concerned with the pursuit of goals. Though when I was running my first Transhuman Space campaign, one of the initial cases the detectives contracted to pursue was left hanging by the PC it was assigned to, and after three or four sessions I had the client send them another message about the urgency of getting something done. On the other hand, I've run campaigns where I'm not sure the PCs had anything as concrete as "goals."

Bill Stoddard