Well, emailed my gaming group this morning and advised them I'm taking December off. I've been distracted, disinterested, and distracting to the group for a few weeks now, and it isn't fair to them to let my malaise affect their Saturday night. Not sure what has come over me (mid-life crisis maybe?) but for some reason the RP sessions for the last few months have been completely unsatisfying.

So, yeah - maybe going to do some writing or work on some maps or something instead of the usual Saturday gig. Have you ever taken a leave of absence from the table, and if so what'd you do to get the spark back?

Quote from: Werekoala;421322Well, emailed my gaming group this morning and advised them I've taking December off. I'm been distracted, disinterested, and distracting to the group for a few weeks now, and it isn't fair to them to let my malaise affect their Saturday night. Not sure what has come over me (mid-life crisis maybe?) but for some reason the RP sessions for the last few months have been completely unsatisfying.

So, yeah - maybe going to do some writing or work on some maps or something instead of the usual Saturday gig. Have you ever taking a leave of absence from the table, and if so what'd you do to get the spark back?

A couple times, yes - I recently had a fairly long break from gaming so as to focus on being a student full-time. I have generally found that when I start to miss playing, it's a sign that the "spark" will turn out to be there already when I start back up.

By finding what you love about the hobby and savoring it. Sometimes, the hassles associated with actually playing get you down and I've always thought the best thing to do is figure out what you love and then roll around in it for a while like Demi Moore on a bed full of money.

Seanchai

I get bored and quit fairly often. Every year or two I quit playing for 3-6 months in favor of writing or video games. It is a hobby you can't quit though.

Quote from: Cranewings;421351I get bored and quit fairly often. Every year or two I quit playing for 3-6 months in favor of writing or video games. It is a hobby you can't quit though.

I dont know if that is true.  I am seriously thinking about totally quiting because I am not satisfied with gaming anymore.  It doesnt have the enjoyment level it used to have.

I have taken breaks and that doesnt seem help.  It may not be a hobby you cant quit, for me, I am not so sure anymore.

Well, I could see it happening. I have exactly 3 friends that really make gaming worthwhile for me (despite knowing dozens). One I just started gaming with a few months ago and another is in Afghanistan.

Trying to find other groups in real life has been almost impossible. Generally speaking, I hate running games for people that want to tell me about how the rules work, and I hate playing in games where the point of the exercise is to have a series of jokes about how ineffective the player characters are. Sense those are the dominant kinds of games and gamers, I don't have a lot of options.

I mostly love gaming because of how good, and good natured, a couple of my friends are at it. Maybe you need to find better people.

Quote from: Werekoala;421322... Have you ever taken a leave of absence from the table...

No.  'Cause Jesus hates quitters!

Quote from: Werekoala;421322Well, emailed my gaming group this morning and advised them I'm taking December off. I've been distracted, disinterested, and distracting to the group for a few weeks now, and it isn't fair to them to let my malaise affect their Saturday night. Not sure what has come over me (mid-life crisis maybe?) but for some reason the RP sessions for the last few months have been completely unsatisfying.

Sounds similar to what I've been feeling recently.  I've attributed it to plain simple burnout on 4E D&D.

Quote from: Werekoala;421322So, yeah - maybe going to do some writing or work on some maps or something instead of the usual Saturday gig. Have you ever taken a leave of absence from the table, and if so what'd you do to get the spark back?

I took a 15+ years hiatus.  I completely missed 2E AD&D and 3E D&D + d20 bubble.

I came back to rpg games literally by chance.  An old friend phoned me up one day and asked if I was interest in playing an evening 3.5E D&D one-shot pickup game.

Once when I tried to just take 2 weeks off that wasn't going to affect a game at all I had the host cancel on me, quitting gaming entirely then spend an hour yelling at me over Yahoo Messenger effectively calling me a friendless loser for daring to cancel at all.

Even though I was pretty much there every week for 4 fucking YEARS outside of when his sorry ass changed schedules (something he did constantly cuz OMG he has kids and everyone should be impressed he was too stupid to use condoms and had his first a year before he was even legally able to drink) to a day I worked for a while.

Yeah.  He was a dickhead.

I've had to disengage because of group dynamics...I have a few friends that are just very ill fits for my games, it seems.

We're on a month off right now for a variety of reasons, but we're going to wrap it up with a five day face to face get-together during the second week of January.

I had a complete DM burnout and meltdown in the mid nineties. I even went so far as to sell off my entire AD&D and AD&D 2nd Edition collections. That was a ton of stuff!

I then proceeded to sell off almost every RPG I owned at the time. That was over fifteen years of accumulated material. I thought I was done with all of this RPG madness.

I didn't run a game again for almost five years. I played sporadically during this time and in a variety of different groups. I got into a 3e D&D game and enjoyed it. So I picked up the core and got inspired to launch a campaign. I've been gaming on a regular basis ever since.

I've recently thought about quitting again, although I won't sell off everything this time around. But most of that is due to the frustrations of crunchier game prep and group meeting issues. Our group hasn't met since early October and I'm a bit annoyed by real life stuff getting in the way of hobby fun.

I'm also suffering from GM ADD. I have too many systems I'd like to run but not near enough time to read or prepare all of them. I certainly don't have the time to play all of them anyway. Choosing one of them has proven difficult.

Taking a long break from GMing certainly did me some good. I came back though. I really enjoy the hobby when things are going well.

Quote from: PaladinCA;421745I thought I was done with all of this RPG madness.

Same here.

That is until I got a phone call completely out of the blue one day from an old friend, asking me if I was interested in playing a 3.5E D&D one-shot evening game.

My reco is to do different shit with different people, provided this ain't the result of life intruding or a genuine anhedonic mental illness.

I've stepped into a lot of groups over the years, and I'm amazed at how stagnant some of them are, telling the same stories the same way over and over. One thing I like a lot about my current group is that the DM and I talk quite a lot about our gaming, and we try to do at least one new thing in each campaign we're in, so that our games are always improving and growing richer. The novelty that brings helps keep things interesting.

See, it;s normal to have burnout and periods of growth and not.

But no, I've never felt a need to step away from my appointed post.