PDA

View Full Version : Ever get bored and need a long break?



randomhero00
2013-03-02, 11:44 AM
I don't mean, like taking a week or a month off, but like needing to take a year or more off?

I haven't played in about 1.5 years but I still think I need a bit more of a break. I'm hoping I'll get interested again. Or do you think I just got sick of DnD? Keep in mind I've only played 5 years on and off and I have played other systems/edition than just one (exalted, 3.5, PF, and 4e.)

SiuiS
2013-03-02, 11:47 AM
Depends on what you want out of role playing, honestly. It's a lifetime toolset, so if you ever find yourself wanting something out of a game, that itch will be there again. But I don't know if that really counts, I mean is it a break when you give up at a young age and the dive back in just before your deathbed? At what point is it no longer a hiatus and is instead starting anew?

randomhero00
2013-03-02, 11:51 AM
I don't know. I'm hoping to hear personal experiences so I can extrapolate and hopefully guess how long my boredom might last.

Rhynn
2013-03-02, 11:55 AM
I've read plenty of experiences on OSR blogs about people coming back to the hobby decades after their first experiences in their teens or in college. People lose interest in things and pick it up again later all the time. I used to be into really bad fantasy novels. There's a terrible possibility that, some day, I will be into them again. (I sure hope not.)

Slipperychicken
2013-03-02, 12:45 PM
I haven't played in about 1.5 years but I still think I need a bit more of a break. I'm hoping I'll get interested again. Or do you think I just got sick of DnD? Keep in mind I've only played 5 years on and off and I have played other systems/edition than just one (exalted, 3.5, PF, and 4e.)

If you don't feel like doing it, just don't do it. If you feel into it later, great. If not, whatever. It's not that important.

Kol Korran
2013-03-02, 12:48 PM
I played since childhood till about age 16 or so and then... stopped. don't quite remember why anymore, but I think I got too much into it, and wanted to take time off to experience other things in the world. I got back to playing in my late twenties, upon finding a hobby shop which had RPG materials, and finding the 3.E book of D&D.

But the gaming and it's atmosphere are quite different. I've become a different person, and the game takes a different niche in my life now. In my socially awkward childhood days, it was both means of escape and making friends. now it's an outlet of creativity and an exercise in amateur improvisational acting? not quite sure.

Most of the people in my group and 2 other groups I know stopped playing at some point and returned to the games many years later. about 80% of the roleplayers I know.

Negativethac0
2013-03-02, 02:55 PM
Most of the people in my group and 2 other groups I know stopped playing at some point and returned to the games many years later. about 80% of the roleplayers I know.

That’s actually interesting, and comforting, to hear as I’ve encountered more or less the opposite. There does seem to be a tendency that age correlates with the amount of people leaving the game where I play.
I suppose it makes sense, though, when addressing the original poster’s question. People eventually want to try something new and at least go on a break if they do something for too long. Personally, I’ve played since I was around 15 and never really grown tired of it (30 today). I’ve been frustrated though, that some of the great people I’ve gamed with have left either because they became tired or found other things to do, but as said: that’s life.
It can generally be a welcome change of scenery to join a new group entirely. The times in which I’ve been most bored/frustrated about it, I tried posting for an entirely new group in which nobody knew each other beforehand. While it has resulted in some situations in which people didn’t mix, some of the best groups have started like that, and it can be quite inspirational when you’re in a GM-position.
Alternatively, take some time off, really. Do something else, something new entirely, perhaps. Eventually you will know whether you’ll want to come back.

Jack of Spades
2013-03-02, 07:50 PM
I've gotten bored or frustrated with specific groups and games and even styles of game, but I don't think I could ever walk away from roleplaying as a whole.

When I'm bored with a rules-y system, I kick back with some Fiasco or Baron Muchausen. When I can't play Fiasco, I'll run InSpectres or something else whose sole purpose is to be silly. If I'm grinding my teeth at a specific setting, I start pitching other games at the group. Or, there's those days when no one really wants to play a game. Usually booze becomes the night's entertainment.

In the end, time you set aside for gaming should be more about enjoying the company of the people you're with than it is about the specific campaign or game. If you lose sight of that, you've lost sight of the entire point of the hobby.

Crazyfailure13
2013-03-02, 08:09 PM
I take breaks like that all the time, if I get bored with something for a bit I would go and try something else instead of trying to find entertainment in the thing that bored me, If it really was something I was interested in I would eventually return to in and enjoy it again.

If you need a break take one.:smallsmile:

Surfnerd
2013-03-02, 09:54 PM
I've taken several breaks also. Sometimes gaming groups don't work out, I've gotten bored, no one else wanted to be DM and I was tired of it. Whatever the reason. Ideas or creative thoughts about RPGing are never far from my brain and I try to just jot down notes I like in those times away from the hobby so I can incorporate them when I return.

I've never really thrown down the hobby and stormed away, just got interested in other stuff or lost interest in RPGing. I just recently got back into it again after about a year and a half or two years of taking a break. Our gaming group was just all on different pages and it didn't work out.

We only play about once a month nowadays so its hard to get burned out on it. I'd love to play more, but I have other hobbies, a family and career so its nice to have a break from all that and just relax and play make believe for a couple hours, besides I've never been a big fan of poker and this is as good as poker night for me.

Jay R
2013-03-03, 09:56 AM
I've never "needed a break". But sometimes other hobbies took precedence, for years at a time.

Far more often, I will get itchy to play because the group can't get together often enough.

I also will occasionally switch genres. After a few years of fantasy, I really enjoy a superhero or historical adventure game.

Matticussama
2013-03-03, 10:12 AM
Is it that you want to enjoy roleplaying experiences but just don't particularly want to play D&D/PF/d20? If so, then maybe try another system?

New World of Darkness is a nice, rules-lite (compared to D&D) system that focuses primarily upon RP and the narrative and less upon the crunch. As with any system the crunch is there, of course, but since it is entirely a point build system you don't have to worry about class/prestige classes combinations in addition to all of the various magic items, rare metals, etc. Instead, you get to focus on building the character you want for the story without any class limitations holding you back.

I love D&D for what it does, but every now and then I just get tired of the crunch of it. When I do, I prefer World of Darkness since it offers a much different RP feel and allows you to run/play a very different kind of game.

Lorsa
2013-03-03, 01:54 PM
I was a bit uninspired for roleplaying for about a year or two of my life. That's when I played World of Warcraft instead... (not my proudest moment). Then when I got back to it my friends and I couldn't meet very often and the time we did have together they wanted to to do other things too (the horror) so when I moved city and found some nice roleplayers I started playing A LOT instead.

It can certainly happen that interests come and go, if you've indulged in them too much. Sometimes you just have to try again though because the "feel" won't get back until you start.