Loss of Motivation to DM

What the fuck, are they paying you? No, they aren't. Tell them you don't like this shit.

Also with the interwebz now it's not really a porlbme to find other groups.

>All my games seem to devolve into comedy adventures

I assume you're running d&d.

Stop doing that and run a system with some weight and tone to it like zweihander.

Everyone wants to play a dumb shit comedy game because everyone is a subhuman pleb. You'd seriously have more fun playing videogames alone than playing in ttrpgs in a group. Just quit now.
>the strange thing is, that no one seems to mind me putting less effort in it, guess I am just good at winging it.
They probably don't actually care for quality. As long as they can have some laughs and make some fart jokes they're pleased.

Dming is like playing but with more work and less choice. It's definitely hard to DM for players all the time.

I had the same issue pretty much. I wanted to run very complex, story heavy, character driven ges that were dark and brutal. My players were uninterested and incapable of playing in those sorts of games. Every campaign either devolved into comedy lolrandom fantasy or ground against itself and ended in frustration for all involved.

It is not because you have the wrong idea about GMing, you just aren't finding players who want what you want. There are a lot of different ways to play and not all people want to or can play every way.

There are two solutions. Run a game your players will be comfortable in and stop trying to force a square peg into a round hole. Or go and find other players who have more your interest. Doing one or both of those will relieve the problem, and hopefully let you have fun again.

If you want complexity and nuance maybe just write a novel.

>All my games seem to devolve into comedy adventures, even if I design them to have some seriousness, none of the players seem to take them seriously. I wing all my DMing now, I don't even bother crafting long term adventures, because I know my players will do something "fun/random" to derail it, and I let it happen and roll with it. No one has ever noticed any difference. This isn't just one group, seems to happen to all my games.
Had the same issue, stopped GMing eventually after going though very similar pattern with few different groups. There is always a person or two in each group that find it great idea to turn everything into a joke OoC and before I even kick them out after their first game, entire party rolls with it already, meaning I would have to literally say something in tune of "stop having fun, guys!".
Don't get me wrong, funny bits by players can work. But not when you are running bloody Call of Cthulhu campaign and they start cracking jokes in the middle of it. It not only kills the mood, but also my desire to run the game at all.
What for and why even bother with roleplaying things or putting effort into the scenario, if all they care about is throwing jokes around, never seriously taking NPCs and situation around and then usually throwing a tantrum when bad things happen (caused directly by their carefree and joval attitude).
I've eventually got so sick and tired of this, I've stopped GMing for anyone at all and last time I run something was last December. The game turned from political intrigue to jokes about the sides of the conflict and I've openly informed the party I'm no longer interested in running the game haflway through the scenario, packed my things and left.
I didn't run or play anything since then, not counting a one-shot in July, run by a different guy, with the whole game predictably turning into series of jokes and references half-way through, so I've again packed my things and left.

Feels sad.

Ive felt like this for years. You just need to accept that most people dont want serious adventures, or work harder at finding a group that does.

Just tell them that from the start. My rule that I give every player is that if goofy things happen by circumstance then thats fine, but you shouldnt be planning for things to be funny, or doing/saying things because they might be funny.

I was doing this. It was just happening all by itself. Normal contingency plan is to kick out the person that kills the mood, but it's problematic when this happens during the first game, the rest of the party assumes this is how things will be going and by the end of first meeting, entire group acts like that. They had their fun and spend past few hours enjoying themselves.
I meanwhile felt like shit and knew already where it is all heading. After few games I was just informing everyone to look out for new GM, since "new schelude at work, can't come up with enough free time". The worst part is that they really enjoy themselves and have fun, but I'm just sitting there and forcing myself not to scream and shout at them and always end up with genuine "But your games are great, man! How we are going to find anyone to replace such great GM?!".

Like I've said, eventually I've stopped running games completely. I just can't bear the fact the next group will go exactly like every previous one. How the FUCK I'm suppose to run a game, if my players don't care about it at all?

Also, explain me what's funny about chasing after a monster or being tangled into a political intrigue. Because if someone finds it a great time to joke about disembowled, rotting corpses in a dimly lit cavern, I hardly see how it's me giving them reasons to laugh.

Establish your limits clearly and from the start. You gotta stop those kinds of things from even beginning.
All you can do now is damage control. I'd say find new players and start anew.

Start running a death simulator campaign. Gimp their stats from the start. Make it so they die if they fuck around. Caught stealing for the "lolz"? Off with their hand. Make NPC's as strong as them so they will have to seriously consider how to deal with them. If the party acts retarded and stop following leads, let them roam until they have a fatal encounter.

Sounds like you need to instill some fear into these guys again.

Be an autist. If the party seems to have the wrong impression tell them so. If the way they're acting is making the game less fun for you, just SAY SO.

Mediocre players are a dime a dozen, and you lose nothing by testing to see if they care what you think.

This never works out, user. All this leads is players getting bitter, because you stopped them from having fun, this leads to pointless arguments and by the end of it, there is just a lot of wasted time, wrecked nerves and bad aftertaste

The real answer is to look for a new group and inform them flat-out what kind of game you are running. Not interested after the first game with your scenario/running style? THEIR problem, not yours. As far as my experience goes, it's harder to find a GM than an entire new party.

I'm managed to run out of people at the uni to run for. Now I'm no longer even a student for two years, meaning I don't even know where to look for new players.
And I still don't feel like I want to go back to GMing. Doctoring scenarios and modules designed by my friend feels good by itself, because I can make things without bothering with players rolling over them.

I have problems with GMing too. Short greentext story:
>be a good GM
>have some good campaigns, my friends was happy
>played with my GF (i was GM), she was happy too
>later played as player with my GF with someone else than me as GM
>gf was orgasmic on how other GM made a campaign
>she used "seduce" on enemies and use her "bed voice" when she speaks with GM as her char ("you shouldn't be jealous user, i was just playing as my character")
>she was super happy after campaign
>she never was THAT happy about adventures that I made for her
>lost all of my passion and began to thought that every of my campaign is stupid
>now I have aversion for real life rpg meetings and play only online

Now I only play play-by-forum games and online text rpgs (in my native language of course, cause my english is shit).

Worked wonders for a friend who GM'ed stuff for me and others back in the 90s. We would get unruly and start acting like snowflakes to try and RP randumb stuff. Then he switched styles and we quickly changed as well when the atmosphere of the game changed. A GM that activity tries to kill you can be a drag yes, but it is imo different from a GM who portrays a likely but harsh consequence for dicking around. Sure you could lose some players from this. But were they worth keeping in the session after all if they got themselves killed because they wanted to fight a dude with a sword by throwing cutlery at them for example?

user, but that's just passive-aggressive bullshit. Don't take it wrong, but how old were you back then. A teen, right?
Doing this shit with adult players, who decided to still come up for a game in their very limited free time not only will lead to real, serious and well-justified anger, but also make everyone feel they are wasting time.
Acting like a mature person requires flat-out stating what the fuck is wrong and/or looking for new group after doing so. Not doing a two-sided masochism tango. I literally don't have time for such thing.

>online text rpgs (in my native language of course
Vallheru master race?

Maybe you weren't actually a good GM

Sounds like you were just a tolerable GM. No shame in that.

aye
seems like that - this story is less about "hurr my gf and this other gm is stupid", it's more like "i was overconfident, got stabbed where it hurts most and now I lost any motivation".

Online text RPGs are literally the only thing that keeps me in the hobby. That's the only place where if you state out something at the start of the scenario, people stick to it, rather than doing dumb shit, because all that there is to do is the scenario itself. If you don't have the initiative to take part in it, then the game crumbles, thus forcing people to roleplay and do things according with atmosphere and scenario variables.
I remember how painful it was to suddenly return to tabletops in 2014 and realise people, despite following the scenario, don't give two squats about it and are more concerned with just killing things. I quickly retreated from running games first given chance.

everyone wants to be "the best" (like no one ever was), especially when it comes to your beloved. Maybe it's not shameful to be mediocre, but it's quite demotivating

I know that feel bro. Players must know that you put a lot of effort. If they don't care bout that, then they don't want to tabletop - just want to meet and do something in break between smalltalks

Considering he's into Vallheru in current year, I seriously doubt he's just your average, run-the-mill GM.

You can have sophisticated interests yet still be shitty at engaging people with them

Online text RPGs are also the very reason why you end up having expectations waaaaaay too high toward playing a tabletop game. After all, they play out as if writing a novel together. It's fun, it's engaging and complex, but there is just no way to translate it into tabletop format, no matter how hard you try.
If your party is also with such background, it might still work out, but if you as a GM expects from party of random nobodies to put out effort equal with text games, then all you are going to get is frustration.

Different user and to not repeat myself:

Imnotthesmartperson.jpg

Part of being an adult is coming to terms with the fact that you wont be the main character in anybody's story, maybe not even your own.

>Vallheru
Anyone care to explain what the hell is that? Google gives nothing

still it's nice to be appreciated (especially by people that are important to you) and sadness because of inferiority to sb is actually normal. Not pleasant, but it's part of life.

Still - knowing that doesn't help in doing things that don't give you as much fun as before

engine for online, web-browser MMORPGs, based on text, roleplaying gameplay (and some typical mechanics of browser games). There was (vallheru-based games are almost extinct) "taverns" (chats) where you could play in real-time, "mails" where you could play private message based adventures and in newest versions of browser, also forum-like place for campaigns (like in play-by-forum games).

This engine probably was used only in Poland (if I'm wrong, please, tell me) and now people use more self-developed engines.

Pic related

Nope, Vall is purely Polish invention. The name itself comes from the first game like that, and the guy who wrote it made the engine open-source, leading to absolute explosion of those games in mid-to-late 00s. For most people living in remote/sparsely populated areas that was the only way to ever get into the hobby.
Also, present tense. They are still a thing and the one you've posted still holds pretty well, all things considered.

Double dubs of truth.

Thought a lot of vallheru-like games owners tell that "our game is not vallheru-like, it's our own engine" even if all of basic features are like in vallheru's.

The one posted is one of TWO (out of about 400 at their peak) that have their own, genuine and original engine and not just some face lifting job done to the source code. And the only one not written in php.
The fun part is how the source code is almost entirely in English, sanse few table names, but nobody ever tried to "export" the game outside Poland or just even translate it fully.

>Amorion on Veeky Forums

>forever GM for 4 years
>play nWoD shit almost exclusivley for 3 years
>get into Eclipse Phase, read almost all of the available rulebooks because I enjoy the setting so much
>try to introduce my group into it, they hate it(mostly because they don't enjoy SF that much)
>stuck playing fucking nWoD
>even if I wanted to change the group, there are virtually no groups playing EP in my city
I just want to play this fucking game

>Has a group already
>Doesn't have group for specific game
user, if I drop my current group, there is literally nobody to replace them with. The joys of living in a town with 928 people in.

On the plus-side, we play what the group feels like playing and we take turns at who's the GM.

You don't have time for it no. So you stop fucking around and play the game the GM wants you to play. I would argue it has nothing to do with passive agressiveness if the GM introduces harsh consequences for dicking around, just like there are real life consequences for dicking around in real life, it works for real life why not a game as well. Additionally the GM can tell people how he wants people to play but if he is gonna have to talk to people every time someone goes down a jokey road then this sounds worse for the mood of the game than just inserting a natural consequence for doing so. Because you are wasting someones time? Isn't the problem being discussed in this thread that there are players who fuck up a game and waste the GMs time? Like I said it worked well for my group back in the day. I'll agree to disagree.

>The joys of living in a town with 928 people in.
Is everyone at least your 3rd cousin?

>You don't have time for being straighforward
>But you have time for playing passive-aggressive cat-and-mouse
user...

>harsh consequences for retarded actions that fuck up a game is passive agressiveness.
>having to tell your players how they are supposed to play instead of letting them adapt to stuff actually happening in the game because of said retarded actions is good for the game.

Guess we can play the greentext game if you want but I've made my case.

Two decades ago the town had a population of 4869.
Closing two coal mines within seven months can do that do a demography. But before you start imaginging some run-down post industrial dirty town, once things stabilised in early 00s, you wouldn't even notice it was a mining town and everything runs smooth.
Just a bit too big for current population when it comes to urban sprawl, but even the railway station is operational, so go figure.

Not him, but its not a very good one. Just try telling them once and seeing if it sticks. How are they supposed to know anything other than that you're a dick when they drop like flies?

I get that. And I was never arguing not being honest and talking to the players. But if one of the players wants to duel someone with a sword by using a butter knife in my game, they will drop like a fly.

Same, all my group wants to play is Dnd. I don't have anything against dnd, but I do want at least try other systems.

Then tell them so, Jesus. It's not a rocket science.
>"So here's the deal, I would like to try to use this game. No, you don't need to learn the rules, I'll handle everything"
>"And by chance does any of you want to try something else for the veriety?"

>hey guys. I really want to run more of a serious game.
Thats all you really have to do. Session 0 stuff.

You need to balance it too. Having both is imporant. Do you think people who are at war are grim all the time. No they have fun and joke around too.

>porlbme
It's also not a problem to learn how to fucking spell, user. Yet here we are.

>tell group of players ill run a game for them, feel excited and shit
>immediately feel no motivation and regret half an hour later
>"just anxiety with a new group dw"
>still feeling the same way and now plan on flaking out
I hate flakes myself, but I do at least plan to let them know.

So let me get this straight - you still didn't run a game for them and already get burned out? Now that's some massive case of a flash in the pan