I started another thread rather than derail Geek's.
For myself when it comes to gaming, less is more.
I run a game maybe once every three weeks. That's it. I don't even think about the campaign until about 4 days out from gaming, then I sit down and start planning out the next leg of the adventure usually staying about 2 sessions ahead of where we are at the time.
This way I'm actually looking forward to preparing adventures and the review of what I've already planned. By the time game day comes around I'm raring to go.
For those of you who aren't burnt out on gaming either running or playing and don't foresee it happening any time in the near future; what do you do to stay motivated?
I read a lot. Go see movies. Exercise. Anything, really, that separates me from gaming so that I can come back to it fresh. I think once a week is the perfect interval for me before I start facing diminishing returns.
I read, paint, go to a museum, go camping, take a road trip with my family, or sometimes work on setting/cartography for my homebrew. Most everyone hits the point where they need some time away from the table, I think, and we all deal with it in different ways. For me, however, watching Conan The Barbarian, visiting a unique place like Ronda (Spain) or the cave networks in S. Indiana/Kentucky, or reading a particularly good 18th or 19th-century historical account does wonders to fan the flames again.
Oh, yeah. You can't watch a film like Conan the Barbarian and not want to go splinter some orc skulls.
I guess the bottom line is that while roleplaying can be your main hobby but you should have other hobbies.
I basically take a break from RPGs about once a year. In that time a month or two, I do nothing but check message boards. I don't play and I don't GM and I don't work on new material.
Or watch that new Robin Hood series. And Krull. And Beastmaster. And Sword & Sorcerer.
Then I dare you to avoid saying "I can do _better_ than that in my sleep!"
Play lots of different games, and have a life.
Play Traveller.
Camping. It's a very nice physical activity. You get the oxygen in your brain. You get to marvel at just how fantastic the *real* world is. It isn't conflict-driven. It's the perfect other hobby, in that it covers all the bases gaming doesn't.
Besides, spelunking in a real cave is teh roxxors. No orcs, mind you, but still pretty fun.
I do think that the best cure to burnout is to keep gaming from consuming all of your free time, and if necessary, take a break. No hobby has to be engaged in constantly forever.
As an aside and no slight to Geek, but RPGs is the only hobby I've seen where people have this kind of "I'm quitting right now and forever, and I'm deliriously happy this way!" approach to burnout. Don't most people just take a break and come back fresh later when their past times get boring or unfun? Maybe it's me, but I've never understood the odd drama that occurs each time a RPGer hits their burnout point.
I also don't understand the drama.
I occasionally switch game son my players. Like tonight, I really don't feel like playing C&C, so I'm going to give them the choice between InSpectres and Dogs in the Vineyard (set in the Firefly Universe).
If they really don't like either of those, I'll run C&C like usual, but it won't be as fun for me.
Again, I think it comes down to the social structure behind RPG "culture." When "my group" becomes shorthand for "all my best friends" and game becomes "the way we socialize," then game becomes more than all consuming. It ends up taking a role that a hobby isn't meant to, and things suffer.
I don't mean to say that all burnouts have no friends. What I'm pointing to is the fucked up social structure too many RPG players pick up when they're ostracized in their youths.
Quote from: JamesVAs an aside and no slight to Geek, but RPGs is the only hobby I've seen where people have this kind of "I'm quitting right now and forever, and I'm deliriously happy this way!" approach to burnout. Don't most people just take a break and come back fresh later when their past times get boring or unfun? Maybe it's me, but I've never understood the odd drama that occurs each time a RPGer hits their burnout point.
I took a break, came back. Same thing. It's total and utter burnout. When its no longer fun it's time to leave the hobby.
QuoteI took a break, came back. Same thing. It's total and utter burnout. When its no longer fun it's time to leave the hobby.
Well, your'e right, which I hate to say. I went through a moment like this in 1993-1995 or so. I stayed out of the hobby for 2 years, and unfortunately I sold off or otherwise dumped a bunch of great AD&D 1e stuff I would love to have now.
But I guess the important thing is to pursue the things that you appreciate. THis- internet crap-- isn't the hobby, obviously.
Quote from: JamesVAs an aside and no slight to Geek, but RPGs is the only hobby I've seen where people have this kind of "I'm quitting right now and forever, and I'm deliriously happy this way!" approach to burnout. Don't most people just take a break and come back fresh later when their past times get boring or unfun? Maybe it's me, but I've never understood the odd drama that occurs each time a RPGer hits their burnout point.
Not drama. Incredulity. At least on my part. If I live long enough to hit 90, I'm going to get the old folks at the rest home to play with me.
What helps me avoid gamer burnout it the folks I game with. We play once a week and that's it. Everyone attends the game or we don't play. We just meet up the next week. Most of the group does not share the same interest -besides rpgs that is, so although gaming is very important to us, we also do other things. And besides, the thing is, we rarely talk about gaming. We are more of the I'd rather play than talk about it crowd.
Also, I think that because I'm adapt at changing my style of gaming and have players who are willing to do the same thing, gamer burnout, although a possibility, has never really occured. We try different things - games, disagree about certain things and move on.
Regards,
David R
When I lived in California, we had a sizable group. One guy in the group pretty much sparked a mass burnout in everyone else. Years passed before any of the survivors felt like playing again.
droog has got the right of it. Play lots of different games, and have a life.
My own group, every fourth session or so, we meet up at the usual time and do something different. Someone else GMs a game, play a board game, watch a movie, play football, whatever. And we run closed-ended campaigns. After one ends, we pitch others. If someone wants to go run a game with other players, that's fine. Last turnaround we lost three players and gained two, more or less even. We don't stick to Same GM, Same Group, Same Game, Same Day Each Week for years on end.
Quote from: JamesVAs an aside and no slight to Geek, but RPGs is the only hobby I've seen where people have this kind of "I'm quitting right now and forever, and I'm deliriously happy this way!" approach to burnout.
Video games for one.
Smoking cigarettes, if you want to call that a "hobby".
Quote from: joewolzI also don't understand the drama.
I occasionally switch game son my players. Like tonight, I really don't feel like playing C&C, so I'm going to give them the choice between InSpectres and Dogs in the Vineyard (set in the Firefly Universe).
If they really don't like either of those, I'll run C&C like usual, but it won't be as fun for me.
If anyone cares, we played the Dogs game and it went awesomely! Im really looking forward to next week's C&C game, although tomorrow is minis night, so I can look forward to that...but for tonight, homework!
Without a doubt, I think "having a life" is a crucial factor in not getting burnt out on RPGs. Interestingly, if you're banking on RPGs to give you all your entertainment, all your socialization, or worst of all, all your personal meaning in life, you are bound to run into problems.
I know that for my part, the only reason I'm ABLE to game as much as I do (running games three nights a week) is because I have a ton of other things that I do all the rest of the time.
RPGPundit
Smoking cigarettes is not a hobby.
Now smoking a PIPE, that's a hobby! :pundit:
RPGPundit
Variety. Not a variety in the games you play, but a variety of what you do in the game you do play.
Scenario: You just helped establish a caravan route to a once lost city. Your employer just promoted you to factotum at that city (company rep basically). Now a band of gnoll brigands is exacting "toll" from your caravans. Do you go and wipe them out, or do you hire them to keep an eye out for trouble on their part of the route?
What about their enemies? Other parts of the caravan route? Competitors in town? Officials? Taxes? Late or vanished deliveries? Early deliveries? Fakes and frauds? Natural or unnatural disasters?
Getting a trade route established is easy. Running it is the hard part. :)
Quote from: SosthenesOr watch that new Robin Hood series.
What? Where? WHERE!?
Quote from: JongWKWhat? Where? WHERE!?
BBC. They just aired the first episode. Words fail me...
I expected something similar to "Robin of Sherwood". What did I get? Just let me say that what little I saw of "The New Adventures of Robin Hood" was better...