Gamer ADHD - Fight It Or Embrace It?

[Harl Quinn]

So, having come back from a four-day break in which I attended a relative's funeral, I am - for whatever reason - facing a case of what I can only call/diagnose as gamer ADHD. I'm running one PbP game already here, but I'm itching to start up another...

Rather than just jump right in, I'd like some advice. How do you handle gamer ADHD - do you fight it and stick to only one game, or do you embrace it and run multiple games with reckless abandon, consequences (like dead/stillborn games) be damned?

If you DO run multiple games, do you stick with the same system or run multiple systems?

If you'll excuse me, I'm going to go sit in the corner and fidget nervously...

Harl

 

[Spinachcat]

I am a naughty squirrel. I can't commit to long campaigns for so many reasons so I run short arcs. 10 sessions at most, players drop in and drop out. I handwaive the reasons for the various PC crews from session to session, actually building in game world reasons. So by the time Gamer ADHD kicks in, I'm ready to prep a short arc for something else.

The BIG problem with me for Gamer ADHD is finishing my damn game I want to (vanity) publish.

 

[AsenRG]

So, having come back from a four-day break in which I attended a relative's funeral, I am - for whatever reason - facing a case of what I can only call/diagnose as gamer ADHD. I'm running one PbP game already here, but I'm itching to start up another...

Rather than just jump right in, I'd like some advice. How do you handle gamer ADHD - do you fight it and stick to only one game, or do you embrace it and run multiple games with reckless abandon, consequences (like dead/stillborn games) be damned?

If you DO run multiple games, do you stick with the same system or run multiple systems?

If you'll excuse me, I'm going to go sit in the corner and fidget nervously...

Harl

Depends on how much free time RL is leaving me. I account for family, work, training and live sessions times first, then I calculate how many games I can realistically play and/or run.
Until now, I've never had the opportunity to run more than one.
But I don't stick to one system, no, and I see no reason to.

 

[Ragr]

I wouldn't diagnose it in any way but I tend to be running either 2 or 3 online games alongside each other but in different time slots - fortnightly Tuesdays and Sundays, monthly Saturdays. There are just so many different games that I like this is the only way to ensure some of them will see some action. It does cause the occasional prep headache, but is otherwise really enjoyable. The games tend to be mid-long campaigns (CoC/Yggdrasill/NBA) or ongoing episodic (Ashen Stars). It works for me.

 

[TristramEvans]

I have a fiend with this issue, and I amusingly call it by the same name. I...just sort of go with it (except when it comes to wargames, because there's only so many distractions from painting my Skaven I'll put up with). But it surprises me a bit that he finds it satisfying (or maybe the lack of satisfaction drives it). I much prefer a functional set of rules that fall into the background, as I'm more about "The Campaign" as an entity unto itself, but don't mind bringing in other rules-sets to cover specific situations within the campaign (Knighthawks for space battles f'rex).

 

[Dumarest]

I don't consider playing numerous games to be a negative. I get tired of reading books by the same writer and like to switch up genres and eras, why wouldn't I do it with games? I have about a dozen I can run without difficulty and another bunch I'd like to get better at and the way to do that is to play them.

It's only a negative to me if a ref is shutting down a game the players are still enjoying.

 

[Simlasa]

Back in the Wayback it always seemed to be a goal to be in an ongoing campaign... one that lasted for years and built up its own internal lore. But I've been in several of those now and... meh. They have highs and lows... the lows being the points where we should probably have stopped and played something different, at least for a while.

Nowadays I'd much rather play finite adventures in a series of different settings... even if the rules stay pretty much the same. We can always return to the ones that seem like they'd be fun to revisit.

 

[K_Peterson]

How do you handle gamer ADHD - do you fight it and stick to only one game, or do you embrace it and run multiple games with reckless abandon, consequences (like dead/stillborn games) be damned?

The only times I suffer from Gamer ADHD is when I'm not running a campaign. It's those times that I have half a dozen OneDrive/OneNote folders with varieties of campaign note, maps, scenario-possibilities, NPC descriptions, etc. And when I agonize over what system to use for these different campaigns. It's the "free" time that leads to the indecision.

The moment I commit to a campaign, and there's a game session scheduled on the calendar, is when the ADHD is over. That one system, and that one campaign premise that gets my full attention. Everything else melts into the background; I get GM tunnel-vision; and all the other campaign ideas and systems fuck off. That might be "fighting" ADHD but I tend to think of it more as focusing, and putting as much energy and creativity into that one campaign, that I think it deserves.

But, I only do FtF gaming - no PbP or other online stuff. It'd probably be a different situation if that was my main source of gaming and I didn't have a set session schedule.

 

[Voros]

These days I’ve found I like one shot and games that run a few sessions. Longer campaigns are a lot harder to sustain with everyone’s jobs and family commitments. The longest campaign I’ve ran since coming back to RPGs was Curse of Strahd.

 

[Dumarest]

Back in the Wayback it always seemed to be a goal to be in an ongoing campaign... one that lasted for years and built up its own internal lore. But I've been in several of those now and... meh. They have highs and lows... the lows being the points where we should probably have stopped and played something different, at least for a while.

I've known a couple of people who seemed to want to run a long, never-ending campaign solely so they could talk about how they run a long, never-ending campaign...

 

[Harl Quinn]

I have a fiend with this issue, and I amusingly call it by the same name. I...just sort of go with it (except when it comes to wargames, because there's only so many distractions from painting my Skaven I'll put up with). But it surprises me a bit that he finds it satisfying (or maybe the lack of satisfaction drives it). I much prefer a functional set of rules that fall into the background, as I'm more about "The Campaign" as an entity unto itself, but don't mind bringing in other rules-sets to cover specific situations within the campaign (Knighthawks for space battles f'rex).

But how do the Skaven feel about the distractions? I can't imagine they would put up with it either.

Thanks for the advice, folks. I think for the time being I'm going to just do the one game as my Traveller game is fairly young and already I've had one person bow out (hopefully temporarily).

Later!

Harl

 

[Charlie D]

I come

So, having come back from a four-day break in which I attended a relative's funeral, I am - for whatever reason - facing a case of what I can only call/diagnose as gamer ADHD. I'm running one PbP game already here, but I'm itching to start up another...

Rather than just jump right in, I'd like some advice. How do you handle gamer ADHD - do you fight it and stick to only one game, or do you embrace it and run multiple games with reckless abandon, consequences (like dead/stillborn games) be damned?

If you DO run multiple games, do you stick with the same system or run multiple systems?

If you'll excuse me, I'm going to go sit in the corner and fidget nervously...

Harl

I come to RPG Pub and post about all the RPGs I don't have time to run. Like writing Yog-Sothoth in red crayon in the back of the closet over and over again, posting my RPG ideas here soothes me.

 

[Harl Quinn]

I come

I come to RPG Pub and post about all the RPGs I don't have time to run. Like writing Yog-Sothoth in red crayon in the back of the closet over and over again, posting my RPG ideas here soothes me.

Hey, at least you're not writing that one guy's name in yellow over and over... If that's the case we might have to have an intervention. After all, that's how you get weird stuff like this:

Spoiler

Ia! Ia!

Harl

 

[opaopajr]

I believe in indulgence and discipline. Often to the point of rapidly vacillating so as to achieve a transcendental state. So give in to your desires until it hurts , and then deny them until you cannot take it anymore , and then go back and forth , over and over again , faster and faster !... and then succumb to the visions.

It works for writer's block, too! (In real life, I'm a cenobite! )

 

[The Butcher]

Embrace it!

I wish I could run two and play in two games at any given time but like the idiom goes, ain't nobody got time fo' that.

I too have mostly done 10-12 session mini-campaigns and miss long-term play. Some systems, like most versions of D&D and Runequest/Mythras, lend themselves particularly well to it.

 

[Edgewise]

How do you handle gamer ADHD - do you fight it and stick to only one game, or do you embrace it and run multiple games with reckless abandon, consequences (like dead/stillborn games) be damned?

Well, my general approach to the problem is that I-

...Wow, I just noticed how huge this Contessa bundle really is. I don't know when I'm going to get through half of these! And I had just picked up the Valley of the Hawks sandbox supplement from Frog God games. It's only 28 pages but it's really dense like a slightly more verbose Wilderlands. Great stuff, but I've still barely touched it. I've also picked up Zzarchov's two latest adventures, and I have to say, I was a little disappointed. Kind of a first for Zzarchov there.

What were we talking about?

 

[Harl Quinn]

Well, my general approach to the problem is that I-

...Wow, I just noticed how huge this Contessa bundle really is. I don't know when I'm going to get through half of these! And I had just picked up the Valley of the Hawks sandbox supplement from Frog God games. It's only 28 pages but it's really dense like a slightly more verbose Wilderlands. Great stuff, but I've still barely touched it. I've also picked up Zzarchov's two latest adventures, and I have to say, I was a little disappointed. Kind of a first for Zzarchov there.

What were we talking about?

Squirrels. We were talking about squirrels. Or seagulls and geese... Oh, wait, that was a different thread.

Frog God's sandbox supplements are nice. Lots of good ideas to make use of if you're at a loss as to how to flesh out your setting.

Harl

 

[Doc Sammy]

I am the epitome of Gamer ADHD and I so wish I wasn't.

If I could see an idea through to completion, I'd die a happy man.

 

[Dumarest]

I am the epitome of Gamer ADHD and I so wish I wasn't.

If I could see an idea through to completion, I'd die a happy man.

As long as you enjoy all your brainstorming and projects, it's all to the good.

 

[Dumarest]

I have a fiend with this issue...

This fiend?

 

[Shipyard Locked]

I am the epitome of Gamer ADHD and I so wish I wasn't.

If I could see an idea through to completion, I'd die a happy man.

If it's any consolation, I've seen people grow out of it.

 

[opaopajr]

I am the epitome of Gamer ADHD and I so wish I wasn't.

If I could see an idea through to completion, I'd die a happy man.

I can help you with this desire. I have so many radishes to show you...

 

[TristramEvans]

This fiend?
View attachment 2130

That's a Githyanki. Which I dislike immensely, so no, not that one.

 

[Baeraad]

I have not only Gamer ADHD but some serious problems concentrating in general. I try to fight it to an extent - any book or video game I finish, I count as a minor personal victory. The same is more or less true for roleplaying. I try to exercise some discipline and not quit a campaign the moment something else starts looking shinier, but I also don't want to torture myself unduly on a matter of principle.

About one year is what I try to aim for, with campaigns. Then I give myself permission to run off and do something completely different.

 

[Shipyard Locked]

... but I also don't want to torture myself unduly on a matter of principle.

Trouble is, creating strict arbitrary principles to stick to appears to be one of the better ways humans rise above shortsighted, indulgent weaknesses. Old school Alcoholics Anonymous gets a lot of flak for including a step where you submit your will to a vaguely-defined higher power, but this approach has worked for a very large number of people who could otherwise find no exit from the negative cycle of their addiction. I say that as an atheist by the way.

 

[Baeraad]

Trouble is, creating strict arbitrary principles to stick to appears to be one of the better ways humans rise above shortsighted, indulgent weaknesses. Old school Alcoholics Anonymous gets a lot of flak for including a step where you submit your will to a vaguely-defined higher power, but this approach has worked for a very large number of people who could otherwise find no exit from the negative cycle of their addiction. I say that as an atheist by the way.

Yes, but... so what? Quitting games ahead of time isn't destroying my life. And as I said, I do apply some standards to myself instead of just doing whatever feels groovy at the moment.

 

[CRKrueger]

Yes, but... so what? Quitting games ahead of time isn't destroying my life. And as I said, I do apply some standards to myself instead of just doing whatever feels groovy at the moment.

There's nothing wrong with Gamer ADHD or doing short campaign arcs or even a never-ending string of one and dones.

Still, I think every GM owes it to themselves to do at least one long campaign.

 

[Shipyard Locked]

Yes, but... so what?

Nothing if you don't feel it's a problem. I was speaking generally I suppose, and could easily include some of my own foibles. Discipline sometimes feels like a vanishing art.