How do you deal with burnout? My group is fairly decent, but honestly all the minutiae and chatter is really, really wearing me down. I just dread showing up to run the next session, even if I have no real complaints with them, but I know if I stop I'll never start again. Like it's hard enough getting everyone together regularly, I know if I lose the momentum we might as well toss it in.
>>92567756Take a break anyway.If they care they'll show up again.If they don't you discovered why you were burning out and can look for others to play with.
>>92567756My group has found that rotating the GM role every so often can help a lot. So letting one of my players do a one-shot, giving me a couple of weeks free from GMing stuff to take some pressure of, and devote more time and energy to thinking of ideas for when I resume.
>>92567756Are you the gm or a player? In the first case i found that a good way to avoid burnout is to plan short: make tight standalone, in media res, adventures, then flesh out the world procedurally having fun with tables (check the solo general and the osr general for ideas and materials). Don't plan whole campaigns from the get go, have things develop as you go, this way you'll get some sense of novelty and discovers alongside your players.If you're a player then retire your current character and make a new one, if feasible randomly determined. Make sure to just outline it, find some table for randomly fleshing out some trait/details, leave discrepancies pending and resolve them as you go. On top of that communicate with your group that you would like a change of pace, sometimes may happen to remain entangled in meaningless play-acting that, although fun, may become tiring. Ask the gm to use some procedures for handling part of that.
>>92567756If the only reason the game is going is because it hasn't stopped, then there is no wonder you're burned out. Take a break, tell them it's time for a break, you need to recharge your GMing batteries. If you're sly you'll suggest that maybe someone else can run something while you recharge, and if that isn't an option so what? You're describing this as "wearing you down", you "dread" it, "hard" - that doesn't sound like a fun game night to me. Whether that break ends, or if that break ends for them specifically... Who knows? You can figure that out later.How do I deal with burnout? I don't do shit that burns me out.
>>92567756>Dealing with BurnoutBleach.Just keep drinking it until the burnout is gone
If you force yourself to continue you might burnout completely. Take a break for a few weeks or even a few months.
>>92567756What this >>92567788 anon said. Ask for one of the players to run a one-shot and tell everyone you're feeling burned out. Play at the same day/time so you don't lose the slot. Relax and be a player for a few months. The energy and interest will return.
>>92567756buy a deck of cards and play one of a bajillion games with them at your next group meet up. make EXP or magic item rewards for winning at cards.
>>92569660good idea
>>92567756Do it like me. Find a real life inspiration. Read the Bible and realize that Dwarf as depicted on /tg/ is the prideful race, and you can use Turks to explain Orcs and Dwarves. It's never been more fun to antagonize elf haters by making them question everything they know about the word 'genocide'.
>>92567756Alternative to taking a break, run a big dungeon.No plothooks to come up with, no narrative to sculpt from the madness, no NPCs.You got work once and then you let the game play.It lets your mind relax a bit, you can take a break when they fail your elementary school puzzles and stuff like random encounters make you more an observer rather than having to brute force every part of the game
