Symbaroum – battle outside the entrance to the Tomb of Dead Dreams
Last year was an all-time RPG low for me since our re-boot of playing RPGs back in 2010.
I can see several reasons for it.
One part is adult life – just not for me but for the players. Last year one of the players got divorced for the second time, resulting in him prioritizing dating and carousing instead of gaming. Another player lost his father, and several of us have had various problems with our teenage kids. Yet another player met the new woman of his life, so spending time playing games isn’t his main objective at this point. On top of that, there’s the ever-growing work thing as well as several of us either have changed to more demanding job positions of new jobs altogether.
And one player has stated that he will henceforth only play in our Call of Cthulhu games, while another won’t play Cthulhu at all.
Also, I have a rekindled interest in physical activity, so I’ve spent a lot of the time I previously used for game prep outdoors, trail running and road cycling.
In conclusion, many factors have resulted in less time and less interest in gaming during 2019. Which in turn has contributed to what I would describe as a GM burnout on my part. I have been GM:ing constantly for the last 9 years and now I feel I need a break and the developments of the last year have only reinforced this feeling, especially since I have felt that most of my “GM energy” has been spent trying to keep the group together and to actually manage to book some game sessions.
Thusly, I plan to take a GM timeout for at least 6 months, maybe the whole year. One of the other players is going to run a D&D 5e game instead, in which I will be a player for a welcome change. Also, I have started reaching out to other RPG groups and will, in fact, participate in a new Forbidden Lands campaign starting soon in a nearby game club. I will also try to go to various old school game conventions (one – KryptCon III – coming up this very weekend actually). I’ll also try to play more online games if possible.
And maybe, if the drive comes back, I’ll try to write and publish one or two adventures as well.
Hopefully, this will help to get both me and my table gaming group back on track…
Nerd-O-Mancer of Dork 
Interesting post. Take care of yourself first and foremost. I feel sorta similar right now. Not necessarily GM burn out but gaming in general. I feel like I need to step away from the hobby a bit. I will more than likely run the occasional oneshot online game but I will definitely reduce the number of games I play in.
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I know the feeling. At the same time I really like playing, so I’ll try to play and not GM for now. Also, I think I will sell off some of the RPG surplus that I have – there’s a lot of games I’ll never use on my shelves (and stuffed away in storage) now…
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And take care yourself 😁
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I did wonder why the gaming reports had petered our and I understand how draining it can be worrying about keeping a group together, are they happy?, could you do anything to make them happier? is asking them to fill in an in depth questionnaire a step too far?
Its always good to mix up the experience of running and playing to avoid gaming burnout.
Any time you want a quick game of classic Cthulhu/Delta just give us a shout. Happy gaming for 2020 La Batard will always be in our hearts.
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Hey there 😁 Thing is, this group consist of my old gaming crew and they’re also my old buddies. They like to play like once a month but in between they care little. I stopped writing the game reports since I discovered that they couldn’t be bothered to read them before games and given that each report takes a few hours to write I grew tired of it. Different players play for different reasons. There’s only one hard core RPG:er. Then there’s one who is only in it for the social thing. The others are there for a mix of both I think.
I’m afraid that they wouldn’t fill in a questionnaire – I’m having problems getting them to answer if they’re playing the next session or not…
And thank you for the offer to play CoC or DG. I will definitely come back on that subject 😁
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