One of the most pressing issues for roleplayers both as players and as storytellers is the matter of burnout. As someone who's gone through burnout several times over the years, it's something that requires a complex and nuanced approach to really deal with and work with effectively.
My own experiences with burnout have come in various ways: I've stopped being interested in certain games, I've stopped wanting to run games, I've stopped wanting to play in games, and everything across the spectrum.
The good news is that burnout isn't necessarily permanent, and it's something that you can fairly easily avoid when you do things the right way.
Going In With Your Head On Straight
Unless you're a professional, you're not roleplaying for any extrinsic benefit. The activity must be rewarding in and of itself to be something that really matters to you. This is where it's important to go in with your priorities made and know what experience you're looking for.
I rarely enjoy playing or running Dungeons and Dragons, for instance. It's not a bad game, by any means–I'm quick to recommend it to others–but it just doesn't satisfy my reasons for playing. Every time I play D&D with my longest-running group, we spend hours slogging through combat and rules look-ups. Some of that's on my group (I've had experiences with other groups that have run more fluidly), but a lot of that's just the way D&D is set up. I feel like D&D doesn't let me make the characters I want to play, and it doesn't necessarily have a style that matches what I want.
So, when going into a game, I do better when I choose one that matches what I like to see:
- Very fast, streamlined mechanics.
- Storytelling focus with clear rewards for roleplaying.
- Mechanically deep and customized characters.
- Thematically deep/dramatic focuses as opposed to comedic (generally)
- Real consequences for player/character failure
As a player, you need to decide what your priorities are and make decisions that help you find those games. If you're lucky, your group has a wide array of experiences with different games and systems so you can find something that matches what you're looking for, and if not you'll be able to at least communicate what the issues are that are pushing you toward burnout.
Haven't Started and Already Anxious?
For some reason, I encounter a lot of people who haven't ever played a tabletop roleplaying game who are anxious about burnout when they encounter the hobby. Either they've heard stories from people who have gone through burnout or they've seen information about it on the internet and they're worried about starting to play, investing all the time and money, then finding out that they enjoy it for a while before beginning to hate it and then having to deal with all the angst that entails.
Basically, go in with your priorities straight, then talk to the group you're thinking about joining about what their priorities are. If it's a match, you probably don't have to worry about burnout.
Not everyone even seems to be prone to burnout. It's likely a personality thing, but I'm not quite sure where it falls on the personality spectrum; some players just always enjoy anything they play, others are picky, and some find that they can enjoy something for a bit and then burn out.
It's A Group-Focused Game
So, one thing I want to point out here is that you need to be aware that you're playing a game with a group of people.
This means two things:
- If your priorities are different than the group's, you may not really have a good recourse when you're in that group.
- You need to remember that you ultimately may need to make a decision about whether you want to stay in the group and play in a game you're not really enjoying for social reasons.
Now, there is a counterpart to this. If you're having issues, and you think there could be an easy solution, then you might want to just say that you're having issues with the game.
You might be surprised by the number of people who agree with you.
On the other hand, you need to be careful with how you do this. There is a fundamental rule of thumb for dealing with things like this:
- Go to the person privately and express your concerns.
- Go to another trusted member of the group to talk about your issue.
- If you continue to have issues, take it public or leave.
This advice really works best for players, since they have the clear ability to talk to a GM one-on-one and it works well.
However, a GM can burn out because of player actions too, and this system of conflict resolution is a reliable one.
By talking to the person who has the power to change the situation first, you eliminate any concerns about gossip and you prevent back-stabbing people, which is generally a no-no in social situations. You can also get their thoughts on the matter. Sometimes they haven't thought about the matter, and can make a change to fix the issue relatively easily, or maybe they have but have been afraid to act on it for fear of disrupting what they perceive to be a situation that everyone else is happy with.
You can also go to another person who's a trusted group member. By this, I mean someone with maturity, not necessarily someone who you are closest to. You want someone who is going to address your concerns in a responsible way, bringing them up as appropriate but also having the discretion not to rub them in. They may be able to help you recognize patterns in your own behavior that neither you nor the person you perceive as the source of an issue have seen.
Last but not least, you can raise the issue publicly. The important thing to remember in this case is tact. You are part of a group, not an individual. If you're the GM, you're probably going to wind up ending the game if you're burning out, so that's when you're going to want to bring it public. If you're a player, though, you could be inadvertently undermining the authority of the GM (or worse, being a turd and intentionally undermining the group dynamic). Make sure that you make your statements respectfully. Most burnout I've seen (and experienced) has come from things that are matters of preference, not anyone's willful decision making, and you shouldn't rush into the situation pointing fingers and saying "You are the reason why this game isn't making me happy!"
If you do that, you deserve to be asked to leave (if the group is polite enough to ask instead of forcefully demanding your departure).
If you're concerned that you won't have the ability to bring the matter up gracefully in the group, and you've already talked to people privately, then you need to make the decision about leaving the group, either temporarily or permanently.
Another potential solution is to run alternating games, if you're in a weekly group and people are okay with this. This lets you have games that everyone enjoys running, while maintaining the same social bonds that you've already established with your group.
Focus on What You Enjoy
One of the things that I have to do whenever I play D&D (which I'm using as an example here because it's the game that I've had the most burnout issues with over the years) is to focus on what I enjoy.
If you look at my priority list, it has, at least, two of the priorities, and potentially three depending on the person running the game.
Now, that's not a passing score on any test I've ever seen, but it's also something where a large portion of what you enjoy will come down to your mindset when approaching the game.
I'm naturally just a little bit neurotic. If something goes wrong, I have a hard time ignoring it. Fortunately, I'm conscious of that fact, and the more you intentionally move toward a positive outlook, the more you'll find you enjoy things even when they're not perfect.
When I play D&D, I change my perspective. I hardly worry about the rules of the game and anything like character optimization, and instead think about the last two.
Now, unfortunately, the two points where D&D almost always delivers are in the dramatic tone and punishing mistakes. Those are not my highest priorities, and as a result it isn't always a good game for me.
But, I can also work with my second priority, which is rewarding roleplaying. Instead of looking at my character sheet and numbers, I look at the world as my character would see it and pursue unlikely paths. In combat, I do clever (well, as clever as I get) things, like playing a ranged attacker who relies on ambush tactics, and in other places I try to draw in my character's persona as often as I can. Since D&D has a few mechanics that reward this, and my DM uses them, I can pull off an occasional coup and be rewarded for my efforts in this way.
I also spend a lot more time on the backstory of my character than I do on the mechanics of my character. This is important: if I don't get into a character, I don't try playing them. Unfortunately, it can be difficult because some of the time I'll just not click with a character, which means that I'm once again in danger of burning out.
As a player, you need to figure out how to get what you most enjoy from the game that you are playing. That's not just good for combating burnout, it's also something that helps you do your best in general, and it makes good use of your time. When you enjoy the game, you will typically be better for others.
There is a slight caveat here: if your enjoyment means that nobody else gets a significant chance to play. This can happen both with players and game masters. Everyone has seen that one player who has much more experience with the game and steps up to beat every challenge before anyone else has their shoes tied. Don't be that guy. However, if you're a game master, you also need to make sure that you let your players do things. The number one cause of disgruntled players is a GM that forces them to do certain things without giving them a good reason.
Getting Over the Burnout
Despite doing everything right, you can still get burnt out.
That's a natural part of any hobby, especially one that you can get highly invested in like roleplaying.
What happens then is of utmost importance. You typically want to find a way back into the glory days of pre-burnout roleplaying, which may be something of a fantasy.
You need to make a decision: do you take a break and walk away, or do you slog through the burnout.
If you do take a break from the game, use this time to figure out why you burned out. Was it something wrong with the social situation? Did you spend twelve hours preparing for a three-hour game with eight players in it? Do you just not enjoy the particular game that your group was playing?
Experiment. Try another game with another group. Try being a player in the group you were running games for (if someone else will step up to run a game), or run a game for that group if you were a player when you burned out and you can muster up the energy and will to do so.
Alternatively, you can slog through the burnout.
This is risky; burnout tends to compound. When you start burning out, it triggers something like a vicious cycle. You lose enjoyment from the game, and then you hit a point where your outlook on the game goes from positive to negative.
Sure, you get to see friends once a week, but you don't enjoy the activity you're doing with them.
You're putting yourself in a situation where you'll be prone to making poor decisions (at least if you're like me and tend to get a little snippy). You're also effectively turning your leisure time into a source of stress, something where you're investing energy and time into something with a negative return.
If you really want to enjoy the hobby again later, distance might be what you need. Tell your group that you're going to take a break for a set amount of time, and then check back in. If it doesn't work, don't force it. Keep a lookout for other opportunities, and keep in touch, but don't force yourself to do something that builds resentment against the hobby.
Wrapping Up
Burnout is an insidious part of the roleplaying hobby. As something that requires investment but also comes with great rewards when you're enjoying it, you need to know what you really want out of roleplaying.
You can't turn a bad time into a good time magically, but you can think about what you really want out of a game and try your best to find it. If you're still not able to, you need to consider what changes you can make to help you overcome the issues you're struggling with, be it time away from the game, a different game, or a different approach.
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You mentioned so many important things in this post so I can't comment on them all.
Game mechanic and rules influence how you play. There are game systems like D&D where a group can work with a player who had a bad day or who normally doesn't participate much aside from rolling the dice when needed. Others, like FATE, need constant participation because you have to think more about the "how" to deal with situations in the game.
Additionally to changing systems you can change being the GM. GMing is fun, but playing is fun too ;) We do that in my "The dark eye"-group. I'm looking forward to playing when I'm the GM and vice versa.
The differences between games is something that I don't think people can ever state enough.
People often approach tabletop roleplaying as something where you've got this sort of universal act of roleplaying, and the game is just a facilitator.
In a sense, that's true, because a lot of the social dynamic is almost universal and the way you play will typically be the same.
However, there are so many variables that change that you can't really predict what you'll enjoy and what you won't. I remember getting a little burnt out when I first ran Shadowrun, but I look back on it very fondly because the only real reason for that was that I had eight players (with a peak of seven at any given session) in the first game I ever ran. That's a bit many.
The Dark Eye is on my roleplaying bucket list. Back in the day I got an older edition of the rules off of DriveThruRPG (I believe it was translated and distributed in the US by FanPro), but it wasn't quite a full edition like you would really want. There are a handful of other games (Symbaroum, Earthdawn, Fading Suns, Heavy Gear/Mekton Zeta, the Battletech RPGs, Legend of the Five Rings) that I'd really love to play sometime.
I have yet to experiance burnout with tabletop but that has more to do with my relative newness to the hobby. Being a shy child made getting a group together to play with near impossible (Glad that's all over). However, one of the people I've found to play with has told a few stories of it. The way he talks it gets pretty bad and can end up ruining friendships when handled poorly.
The best comparison I can make is putting down an MMO. Runescape, WoW, Guild Wars, lots of time dumped into them. Haven't touched any of them in years because of the burnout. Stayed out of guilds for the most part so I could fade off without ruining anyone else's plans. Realizing that this happens to me a lot has ruined my enjoyment of the genre for better or worse. I miss them a bit but none of it really mattered. The rules you layout for avoiding and dealing with it are well thought out and helpful. It makes it a little clearer why you started making your own system.
The big thing with burnout is that dealing with it well really comes down to being prepared and knowing that it exists. A lot of people who have really catastrophic burnout don't really know what it is until they have a moment half-way down the path where they're like "Ah, I'm burning out" but at that point a lot of the remedies are a little too late.
Yeah, MMO burnout is real too. I actually thought about talking about it for a while; I've never been much of an MMO player, and I tend not to play any one thing for a particularly long time, so I'm not as familiar with it first-hand, but it's a similarly big issue.
The funny thing is that I've pretty much always tinkered with my own systems (I was introduced to tabletop roleplaying by 1km1kt, which is a hobbyist community dedicated to making free games), but it wasn't until I started having to deal with burnout that my games became decent. It's not a destructive, entropic experience necessarily, but rather something that's just part of the package, like soreness after you exercise too hard.
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