When your GameMaster flakes out

[Maglubiyet]

I've been part of a group for several years that rotates GM's. We have one guy who runs really good games - interesting and engaging with lots of preparation.

Recently we had a great campaign with him that ran for a dozen sessions or so. We were leading up to a climactic finale that would've been a great stopping point. We, the PC's, laid down our elaborate plans for a final assault that would make or break our team and set the tone for the future of the world. High excitement.

And then...nothing. The GM in question came up with a few other interesting campaign ideas and started running them instead. Our final battle is left in limbo. When I asked about it he said that the momentum was lost. He wouldn't look me in the eye when I made my pleas to continue, so I finally dropped the matter.

Very strange situation. Not sure why I posted except to get it off my chest with people who might understand/have similar experiences. Weird, huh?

[BWR]

Quite possibly GM burnout or some more pressing RL matters are taking up his time. Being a GM is often a lot of work and sometimes you just can't work up the drive to carry on even if the players are very interested.

[ComaVision]

I get that feeling when my game's going slowly. My group lately has been diddling around a lot and getting a fair amount of random encounters by camping in dangerous locations, so I've had to do almost no prep outside of game time. So, with my extra time, I'm thinking of the next campaign I want to run, to the point that I've drawn maps up and planned storylines. Now I just want to run that campaign even though I've probably got 6 months left in this one.

:smallsigh:

[Winter_Wolf]

Maybe the GM got a case of the yips. Sometimes the anticipation and pressure gets to a guy. When he said the momentum was gone maybe he meant that it got away from him. It happens, it's frustrating for everyone , and he's probably embarrassed by it.

[Maglubiyet]

Quite possibly GM burnout or some more pressing RL matters are taking up his time. Being a GM is often a lot of work and sometimes you just can't work up the drive to carry on even if the players are very interested.

We immediately started playing two other campaigns with him as GM, so it wasn't a matter of having no time. Burnout maybe.


I get that feeling when my game's going slowly. My group lately has been diddling around a lot and getting a fair amount of random encounters by camping in dangerous locations, so I've had to do almost no prep outside of game time. So, with my extra time, I'm thinking of the next campaign I want to run, to the point that I've drawn maps up and planned storylines. Now I just want to run that campaign even though I've probably got 6 months left in this one.

I've had that kind of feeling myself from time to time.


Maybe the GM got a case of the yips. Sometimes the anticipation and pressure gets to a guy. When he said the momentum was gone maybe he meant that it got away from him. It happens, it's frustrating for everyone , and he's probably embarrassed by it.

Yeah, almost certainly embarrassed. I've never known him to do this, which is why it's weird.

[Algeh]

I've done this twice as a GM.

Once, I was running a modern-day game set more or less in the real world, and a major Real-World Event happened. I couldn't process any good way to include that particular piece of reality into the game, didn't really want to think about how to include it, felt it really wasn't something that could be ignored completely in a modern real-world campaign at the time, and just generally told the players that we were going to take a break from that campaign for a while and were going to play something else in some other setting for a bit until that particular real-world thing was further in the past.

The other time, I had a big reveal planned that would be particularly meaningful to a certain player (a certain NPC from a prior adventure he'd played in was behind something big in the current campaign). That player then proceeded to skip our game with no reason given at the last minute repeatedly for over a month, so I kept putting off that session until the next week and doing a filler session since that player wasn't there. (I later found out he and his long-term SO, who was also a player in this game and started skipping sessions at the same time, had broken up and neither one of them told us. I finally found out about the breakup 6 months later when she moved in with her next SO and announced her new address to everyone.)

Anyway, it's probably not either of those reasons in your case, but I thought I'd give some reasons why this kind of thing has happened in games I've run.

[Stealth Marmot]

Sometimes a GM needs to spend time figuring out where you can go next. Getting creativity flowing is hard to force.

Until then, break out the Smallworld, Munchkin, and Settlers of Catan. Keep the group around, just do different things, or have someone else launch a mini side campaign.

[Pugwampy]

When players level up and accumulate more and more magic goodies , life becomes tougher and tougher for the DM .

It can suck when generous DM gives you all the magic goodies of your dreams but now he has to live with you guys farting everything to death in one round .

This is pretty much the norm of DND games . Very few multi session games have an ending .
Everyone plays till they break the game or they get bored ,then you start again .

You should be grateful for 12 sessions he gave you . Thats a nice campaign career for any gaming group .

Some DM wannabees cannot play for more than 2 hours and only one session . My fave DM gave us a whopping 22 sessions . When he DM,d again , it was only 6 before he ....... ran out of ideas / wanted to play .

Its not only the DM to blame but sometimes players can destroy a game or do something to upset the DM . My players turned evil and one murdered a fairy that made me cry on the inside .
Its possible your DM quit that campaign because of a player .

This is a very delicate cooperative game .

[Stealth Marmot]

It can suck when generous DM gives you all the magic goodies of your dreams but now he has to live with you guys farting everything to death in one round .


"I want a jock strap magic item that has an activation so that every time I fart I create a Cloudkill spell."

*DM cries*

[ellindsey]

The Pathfinder game I've been running has been going for 64 sessions. Unfortunately, I seem to be the GM flaking out now, as life changes and work pressures are making it harder and harder for me to run the game. I know that 64 sessions is a pretty good run for a campaign, but we're still only about 2/3 of the way through what I'd planned to run, and there are several major plotlines yet to resolve.

[Pugwampy]

The Pathfinder game I've been running has been going for 64 sessions.

You are no DM , you are a DM god . Dont ever feel guilty about quitting this epic campaign .

[BWR]

My current Mystara game is in our (counts fingers) 5th year with at least 40 weekly sessions per year, and probably at least another year or two before I consider it over (maybe longer if they achieve Immortality and want to run some Immortal adventures). Does that make me a super god? And some people have been playing their campaigns even longer; Über gods?

[Mai]

I'm learning to dm, someone here on the site is mentoring me. I am learning quickly how much work there is. To make it fun you need to balance to and combat, each encounter needs a balance too. 1 tough enemy v4 players could go down fast but also kill a player. Spread too thin it's just an irritating mess. Then every time someone wants to talk to an npc that's you. And you control the npcs who lightweight with them too. Your being an, player, every now, and creation deity in forming whatever setting and encounters you make.

When you think about it... You can't really blame dm's for quitting aometimes. You can't force creativity to slow endlessly.

I'm making my first campaign I guess you could call it. I'm worried now because players are unpredictable. If they just decide to ditch the first major town I have many encounters and whatnot for I need to have other ones pre ? planned just in case. The more player freedom the more the am has to work or the more likely things end badly as they try to cope and end up doing eveything impromptu. Then suddenly the players went way way off the plan and out of desperation to keep it interesting there is an earth elemental and someone dies...

[Faily]

My current Mystara game is in our (counts fingers) 5th year with at least 40 weekly sessions per year, and probably at least another year or two before I consider it over (maybe longer if they achieve Immortality and want to run some Immortal adventures). Does that make me a super god? And some people have been playing their campaigns even longer; Über gods?

I think this one is helped by couple of points:

- When we started out, we weren't set on a big overarching plot. We started out as low-level shclubs trying to become something and did a lot of good ol' dungeon-crawl. Most of the drama and roleplay were added in by the players as the characters slowly grew and became powerful. Considering we've played the same characters weekly for a good while, it was bound to happen. :smallsmile:
- We've taken small breaks from the game by either running something else (Laundry Files, or the briefly popular High School Harem Comedy that we also did a log on as we played), or the one time I GMed Red Hand of Doom for the group to give BWR a break.
- We also aren't insulted if people need a break, have to do something else, or cancel game night for whatever reason. The game goes on, or we just take a break that week if two or more cancel.
- The group gets along very well and we sometimes have sessions where very little happen because we end up discussing other matters too much. We game together because we like hanging out, after all, so talking about other things than the game are perfectly acceptable here. It's a very laidback atmosphere (except when I get up in arms about rules-discussions... :smallbiggrin: )

[GungHo]

I don't know the guy, but maybe he got writer's block and he didn't know how to continue that plot line. Or maybe he wasn't having as much fun with it as you guys were.

[Jay R]

When I asked about it he said that the momentum was lost. He wouldn't look me in the eye when I made my pleas to continue, so I finally dropped the matter.

Thank him for all the work he did in that campaign, tell him how much fun you had playing it, look back on the enjoyable sessions fondly, and move on.

[Faily]

Thank him for all the work he did in that campaign, tell him how much fun you had playing it, look back on the enjoyable sessions fondly, and move on.

This. So much this. :smallsmile:

[Phoenixguard09]

From personal experience, I know I can get to a point where I question if it is worth continuing on a semi-regular basis. (Having a campaign log no one reads probably doesn't help my self-esteem either)

Have you asked the other players in your group if they would be keen to finish it off? I know that some of my players are far more invested than the others. (Dev for instance likes the idea of playing far more than the actual gameplay)

[Maglubiyet]

Thank him for all the work he did in that campaign, tell him how much fun you had playing it, look back on the enjoyable sessions fondly, and move on.


This. So much this. :smallsmile:

No way, you guys are too nice. I'm going full on Misery with this one...kidnap the GM and take him to a remote cabin until he finishes the campaign. :smalltongue:

[Sajiri]

DMing is hard, some find it harder than others. The longest running campaign Im in, my DM's been running it for 213 sessions now over a couple years, with sessions lasting anywhere from 2 to 6 hours. The only way we've really managed to get that far though is by rotating other games in and out, and some have gone on hiatus at really frustrating parts. I used to get pretty anxious for more sessions until I started DMing so that the usual DM could be a player. Im around 45 sessions in the one I run and I really struggle and have to take long breaks between sessions sometimes, I dont know how he does it.

Sometimes the best idea is to just take a break and do some other stuff for a while, and then the enthusiasm will return over time. When a player asks to do more its likely just the player interested and wanting more, which is great, but to the person who has to run it all and is burned out, it can feel like more pressure. Hopefully your DM will feel refreshed enough to continue eventually.

[KillianHawkeye]

Does that make me a super god? And some people have been playing their campaigns even longer; Über gods?

You know that "super" and "Über" are the same word, right? It's German.