Burnout. That thing that threatens pretty much every single DM at one point or another, and it can even threaten players too though this works a bit differently.
What actually is this thing we call burnout?
Burnout occurs when you, the DM, feel like the combined energy you spend on both thinking about the campaign and preparing sessions for it outweighs the positive energy, fun, and excitement that comes from both running the campaign and the existence of the game itself. Most DMs feel this on some visceral level and cannot quite describe what is causing it. Indeed if they could, they might be able to fix it, and that is the problem too - unless you are very keyed into the dynamics of your table and your campaign, you will not be able to analyze problems effectively, and that’s why I’m writing this blog so fear only a little bit if you tend not to be keyed into the dynamics of your game.
What Causes Burnout?
This is actually a harder question to answer than one might think. I’ve personally burnt out of campaigns when I feel like I’ve failed to maintain the integrity of the game world to such an extent that there is no going back. Others get burnt out simply from having to do the prep work - they would rather spend their time elsewhere. Yet others get burnt out because they fail to manage the dynamics at the table or they fail to set social boundaries and thus they grow resentful of the behavior of their players and do not want to continue feeling that.
Whatever the cause, being burnt out feels awful and can cause the dissolution of even a really great campaign. It is one of the worst things that could occur to any DM.
So, How Do You Solve Burnout?
I’m going to venture a strange opinion on this matter. Unless there are actually unhealthy out-of-character social dynamics (in which case you should get out of the situation or make others get out of the situation and reconsider those friendships, fearing not about the game), your feeling of burnout, even if it is not ephemeral, should not be fought against with any significant force of will.
To elaborate on this, you ought to know why you feel burnt out so that you can avoid the things which cause that feeling in the future, and you can do this by reflecting on the chain of events or mental exertions that brought you to this point - at this point, you’re not trying to tackle anything, just trying understand what got you here and what influences are affecting you.
The reason why you don’t want to fight burnout with force of will is because it’s a losing proposition in anything other than the very short-term. It adds fuel to the fire, and while you can brute force your way through burnout for a bit, it is likely to create greater burnout in the medium to long-term. Burnout is often a mess of tangled thoughts, feelings: a sense of disgust or boredom, and a feeling of hopelessness. When you send the soldiers of your mind against it, you are feeding it and while you may win some battles, you will not win the war and you will exhaust plenty of mental energy in the process.
The best way to actually solve burnout is to do three things:
Keep running the game. Your sessions don’t have to be masterful, nor do you need to prepare as much as you might have used to, but you must keep the engine of the game going. (Worse comes to worst, run a session without any preparation - when your players arrive, recap the last session and by the end of doing so, you might have a few ideas about what could occur next, and your players may have some too.) Just keeping the game going, even on fumes, not only ensures that you still have something to go back to after your burnout ends but also lets the players continue adding energy to the game. Simply having the game in existence is powerful and will keep that engine from stalling completely. Do note also that players tend to be an accepting, overly-satisfied bunch. It frankly doesn’t take much for them to have fun, so don’t worry too much about them.
Detach from the game. Put the energy into it that it needs to continue existing, whatever that amount is, but where you once felt really strongly about the game or really cherished it or really wanted to take it somewhere, let yourself be okay with the new feeling of burnout. Exist in that space without fighting it. This does not mean that you like your burnout or want it to continue. It means that you accept the fact that burnout is there and let it be. You can tell yourself: “There is burnout. That’s okay. I will let it be.” By doing this, by actually letting those feelings of burnout exist without attacking them or trying to resist them, best if you can let them be without even having much of an opinion on them at all, the burnout will lose its intensity and eventually fade.
Remember the initial inspiration for the campaign, whatever it was, and look too at any new inspirations that might have come about whether from the players or from other ideas you’ve had in the meantime. You can do this by reading through some of your old notes or session summaries or by talking to your players about what has happened in the campaign thus far - you might notice that you haven’t actually gone back and poured through your old notes in a while and that’s a good thing to do anyway every so often. As your burnout becomes a husk of what it was when it started, you can then launch back into whatever your next session is with renewed vigor.
This “zen” state that I speak of can be difficult to achieve, but even a level of it will be supremely beneficial to you when experiencing burnout. You see, burnout is not your enemy, nor is it something to be dealt with or destroyed. It is simply a facet of your mind that appears at times and thus you have a lot of control over how powerful it remains.
This should help you resolve the feeling of burnout, but there is still a practical side too. Obviously, if you experienced burnout because of your lack of managing social dynamics, you ought to determine the minimum effective action you can take to improve the social dynamics and do so (more on this in previous articles and future ones). If you experienced burnout because you feel like your campaign is lacking in one way or another, you can work to improve your campaign or accept its current state and continue on with it as is. The point though is that you cannot do those things effectively while in a state of burnout and attempting to push forward and make improvements while in a state of burnout will only feed it.
There are legitimate reasons to end campaigns prematurely, but you ought never to do so while in a state of burnout because you are not in the right state of mind to make that determination. It is possible that whatever caused you to feel burnt out is also reason enough to end your campaign prematurely, but if that is the case, you will likely still be able to rid yourself of your burnout - the cause of burnout and the feeling of burnout itself are separate things.
I empathize with you if you are currently feeling burnt out. Let it be, keep the game going, and I think you’ll find that there are greener pastures on the other side.
I will talk soon about player burnout (often having to do with investment in their character). In the meantime, if you feel burnt out as a player, most of this advice is applicable to you as well but I will write an article specifically for you in the near-future. Stay tuned.