Help me help my DM

[Shnigda]

Hey guys, I am having a little trouble with my DM (nothing horrible about him being a bad DM or anything though!)
My DM is saying that he is starting to burn out. He has been running his own campaign for almost 2 years as his first ever 3.5 campaign, so we have all learned a lot during that time. However, we recently took a 4 week break so that he could take some time off and prepare for the rest of the campaign. We had our first session back earlier today and he said that he is thinking of stopping as he is a bit burned out.
I would like to help him rediscover his DMing spark or help him out with the preparation somehow, but I'm not sure how to do this. The DM doesn't want players seeing his preparation beforehand as he has had people cheating in other games he has done this in. Are there any modules that are easy to set up that you can suggest that may help him improve as a DM or that could help him fully enjoy it again?
He has said that he doesn't want to run modules that are just pure combat or just dungeon delving, so some RP or exploration would be good! :)

One other in our group has offered to step in for a bit, but the current DM isn't too sure about this.

On a slightly selfish note, I really hope my DM doesn't stop the campaign as I have been really enjoying everything and the group dynamic is great! This is the only group I have been part of so far (for any length of time at least), so I really want it to continue.

Any help would be absolutely amazing!


(As a side note, we play on roll20, so modules that have resources available online would be great. We also have characters at level 10, but I think we might be willing to go back down to level 3 or so...)

[Crake]

Ask him a bit about how he goes about preparing for his games? I've found the best method to avoid burnout and having your plans thrown off by players is to learn to improvise, a lot. Have the existing world, have the antagonists have a goal, and a plan on how to achieve that goal, and then have them pursue that. Then, when the players come about, have them act and react appropriately to the actions of the players, and don't bother fully statting out anything until the players have even a chance to interact with that person or thing, it's otherwise just not worth it because the players may never proceed in that direction. Using this method, I've DMed for coming on 4 years now non stop, sometimes even 2 games at once without burning out. Recently, running 2 games almost got me, but I managed to pull everything back in gear before I actually burned out :smalltongue:

[Geddy2112]

Second the above as advice for the DM. As a player, here are a few things you can do to help your DM(it helps me when I DM at least)

Positive Feedback
If you had a good time, let your DM know. A good portion of the satisfaction that I get when I DM is that I designed a good session/story/campaign. That it was immersive, challenging, etc. That the players had fun and really enjoyed it.

Courtesy
Making sure that you are always on time, attentive, not disruptive. Having to herd cats and drag players through a module by a leash makes DMing suck.

Prepared
I don't expect you to be a rules expert, but for gosh sakes know the basic mechanics of the class you picked. If you cast a spell, I don't want to be asked "how does this work" after you cast it. Nor do I want to sit there and explain the basics of combat, what your options are, etc. I do know these things, but it grinds the game to a halt, and the player who can't learn the basics of their one character wants to depend on me who has to know how EVERYTHING works.

Delegation
In addition to being prepared, have somebody in the group handle some of the minor tasks. Have a rules expert who knows the rules or is willing to look them up on the fly. Have a quartermaster who keeps track of the party loot. Have somebody keep track of initiative, monster damage, stuff like that. You use roll20 so a lot of this is easier than the tabletop, but if you can volunteer to take overs some mundane tasks so the DM does not have to.

[Dousedinoil]

Two years is a long time to play one campaign. It sounds like it's about time to put it on the back burner and let another member DM a new campaign (if the current DM doesn't want him to take over).

Depending on the size of the group, another thing you could do is have a co-DM. Even if you feel super creative and want to improvise, you still need to have some prep done. Making enemies and coming up with tactics can be time consuming. Maybe the DM can ask the co-DM to come up with such and such an enemy type with such and such a CR.

If your DM is anything like me, doing all this stuff is half the fun and seeing it all come together is extremely rewarding. It's not about him not having fun, or enjoying it, it's about consistently having to put in the work. Someone else mentioned delegating which is huge. I get players to keep track of initiative for me, do recaps and keep track of all the money.

Oh and try and slow things down for him, of that would helpZ Roll play more and expect less combat. If you're used to having 2 combat encounters every session, aim for one. Another great tool for improvising is coming up with skill challenges. You don't have to come up with monsters and the players spend most of the time doing the work.

[KillianHawkeye]

There have already been some good suggestions for how the players might minimize the stress they're placing on the DM, but without knowing your group we can't really say if that's what is causing the fatigue.

To be honest, the best way to avoid DM burnout is to have them take a break for a while. And I mean a bit longer than 4 weeks. It takes time for the creative juices to recharge, and when they're depleted there's not a lot you can do to force them to come back faster. DMing is hard work, especially if you don't have tons of experience and aren't just naturally good at both storytelling and improvisation.

In my experience, the best thing for any group is to have the members share the load when it comes to running the game. Take turns being the DM so it's not all on one person's shoulders all the time. Let your DM be a player for a while, and things might turn around.

[dascarletm]

What has always helped me, is when one of my players run another campaign that I can be a character in for a while. If he is anything like me it won't be long until he is itching to get back to DMing.

*ahem* what KillianHawkeye said...

[Caedes]

What has always helped me, is when one of my players run another campaign that I can be a character in for a while. If he is anything like me it won't be long until he is itching to get back to DMing.

*ahem* what KillianHawkeye said...

My Group rotates with three different DMs about 4 months per game. So it has helped us tremendously with the burnout scenario.

:D

[KillianHawkeye]

My Group rotates with three different DMs about 4 months per game. So it has helped us tremendously with the burnout scenario.

:D

My original D&D group worked like that. What my current group does is similar to that but we have multiple games running concurrently and alternate among the active DMs to decide who's running from week to week. So for example, right now I am not running a game of my own, but two of the other players are each running a game every other week, and then when one of those adventures ends (or if the DM just needs some extra time for whatever reason) then I or another player will step up and run whatever adventure they've been cooking up in their off time. It tends to result in long-running adventures lasting for several years, but nobody is ever forced to DM more than twice a month, and when we take a break from DMing we get a long time off. It also means that sometimes we forget what was happening because we haven't played a particular set of characters for six months or something, but we've learned to at least take a few notes here and there.