DM Burnout

How does Veeky Forums deal with DM burnout? I'm feeling it real bad.

That's always a tough one. Sometimes it's a symptom of stress in other areas of life, but sometimes you really just do need a break.

Take some time off. See if any of your players want to take a turn running a one shot or short campaign. Go back to media you really enjoy and find inspiring. Take care of yourself, your physical and mental health.

Wait until you feel like you can really enjoy running the game again before you commit to it.

Sit back, relax, and drink some milk. Mebbe contemplate on what happened, talk to some buds, write down stuff you think is cool, play some vidya, watch a movie, all that stuff.

I play a game or two under a shitty GM (which if your friends are anything like mine, isn't hard to find). Nothing stimulates the desire to GM more than being trapped in a game with a shitty referee.

Switch genres. Don't get trapped in a single system.

Take your mind off of DM'ing and try to relax your mind for a while. Play some vidya, maybe draw some character art, catch up some shows you missed, overall just take a break.

This works for me, but I can't guarantee it will work for you or for anyone else.

I take time off, usually a month or more depending on how badly I'm burned out. During that time I generally avoid tabletop gaming altogether, though I'm tempted next time I'm burned out to see if I can convince one of my players to run a short campaign or a one-shot to fill the gap. Mostly I just play video games and watch shows during the hiatus.

Find a good stopping point in the campaign and Rotate gm's. We alternate between traveller and dnd right now

Ask someone else to do it. Guilt someone else into doing it. Make someone else do it.

Somewhat related,

What can I do as a player help my DM so they don't get burnt out?

How you deal with it depends on whats causing it. If its players, talk it out or find replacements. If its losing intrest in your world/setting, find what lit the spark and write more of that. Etc.

Encourage them, while still remaining critical when necessary. If something cool/fun happened and they dont know why, add your perspective. If you disliked something, voice what it was and talk about what could have been a compromise between what the GM was going for and what feels good (note that GMs want to have fun in encounters too, so dont be adamant about getting your way). Let them know your characters goals for next session so they can work within that theme/plot dynamic when appropriate (not 'i want magical thing' but 'i want to explore to find non-currency treasure').

All outside of game time, obviously.

I feel like I'm a bad DM and that my players are stuck with me for lack of another DM they are willing to play with. I feel like my game is bad. I feel like the game I'm a player in to help alleviate DM burnout is not good so it's not helping (the person DMing this game isn't someone most of my other group is willing to play with).

Of course I'm a wreck in most other regards so that's probably part of it too. I don't think I've had a relaxed, stress-free day in years. Even when I have no work to do and can relax, I still stress over things.

I know that feeling too. Lucky for me, one time I refused to run another session, I managed to convince my players to take a turn DM:ing, and since any game was better than no game, everyone still had fun.

Especially me, since that was the first time I myself got to play. One was somewhat lackluster while one was in my opinion better than myself, but most importantly, since then we've taken turns as a DM so everyone gets to play.

That's the best advice I can give: have the players run some one-off adventures for a chance. It's a fair deal for all the DM'ing you've already done for them.

Have you tried getting another player to GM?

In my group, we have two guys who GM alternating. One week GM1, one week GM2, then again GM1 and so on

Offer to run something yourself on your game night.

Personally, I got over the worst of my burnout over a long standing campaign by just trying to talk to my players and seeing if they actually enjoy the content you put out.

Knowing that people genuinely like what you do really helps in pushing past it.

PermaDM here, resigned myself to never playing and am OK with that. I get burnout often, and have found a couple of things that work fairly well. First, see if you can do an on/off sort of thing-- my current group goes 2 weeks on, one week break. The break really, REALLY helps me to step back, work on other things, or just decompress.
The second thing I do is watch videos for inspiration. I wont shill any here, since they're mostly personal choices, and videos are mostly braindead enough that I can get inspired while playing a game or just browsing here.
Third, dont come to Veeky Forums, or if you do, limit it, or have one or two days where you dont go here. Again, might not work for everybody, but (anecdotally) removing yourself from shitposting in general has helped lift my spirits.

Advice to the players who want to help their DMs, I have a few tips as well. Run a premade or oneshot-- but that's been covered already, so, next.
Understand that DM burnout can be a result of depression, lack of preparedness, or just plain boredom. Offer to switch systems, or work to shift schedules to have a day off, or just have a board game night or video game night-- movie night if you wanna get real braindead.
Last tip for players, ASK YOUR DM. often, i've seen DMs run themselves into the ground before they realize they're burnt out, and then they will quit running the game entirely. If you notice your DM flagging, ask them after (or even during) the game if they want to take a break and recuperate. Communication is good.

I got super burned out on the bloatedness of 5e. Prepping was a chore and not fun anymore. I told my players I needed a break and tried my best to get them to run a oneshot, but they're lazy fucks so no one ever did.
Ended up on a month hiatus, found LotFP and fell in love with OSR. It's so much simpler than 5e, way less math and bullshit. Prepping is a breeze. Now I actually look forward to DnD again. Players enjoy it more too

Stop DM'ing for at least a year or two. Force other players in your group to take up DMing duty instead. Best option IMO.

Be someone else's player. It'll drive you nuts

In my most recent long term game after each session I'd write a recap of the session from my character's perspective, which provided good reads and something for people to check if they forgot what happened last time we played. I also brought extra baked goods from work and gave them to the dm and players too if there were enough.

Kept the dm going even when work was getting rough.

Let the autist that sees everything as spreadsheets and thinks that you can run a game without any prep between sessions GM for a while
You'll want to get back in the saddle by the fifth time he freezes for half a minute only to resort to naming the NPC 'Bob'

Let the players know, put a pin in the game and try something else.

First, give yourself a break. I think we can all agree on this. Then identify the problem. Do you lack the inspiration to come up with good stuff? The energy to create enough? Or maybe you just don't enjoy what you enjoyed before?

Try another hobby for a month or two. Could be similar (like game dev) or completely different (like ice skating). Go back to the source of your inpiration. The thing that got you into TTRPGs/GMing, like an adventure or a story someone told. It will help you get excited again.

Keep in touch with your players. Sometimes their excitement and energy is contagious.

Run a fucking game yourself and get good at it. I'm done with RPGs altogether now because there were only ever 3-4 other GMs in my extended friend group and they all sucked shit at it. You can't deal with burnout if you have no way to enjoy a good game.