So, when you’re just not feelin’ it.

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CRKrueger

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6 players, 5 local one remote. Within the past few months...
One dies unexpectedly.
One finds himself a wife and job on the other side of the world.
One takes a job that will have him on the road for a year living out of hotels.
In the campaigns I’m running, those three were the party leaders, primary motivators. Add in some personal work/family/medical crap and lately I just can’t get any energy/enthusiasm to GM.

My Mojo’s gone.

I was thinking of starting a simpler game, maybe some old school D&D or DCC or Mutant Year Zero or Forbidden Lands.
Maybe do some cardgames or board games. Harder to do with a remote player though.

So what do you do to get back in the groove? I don’t know whether it’s better to just step away and recharge, or try to get back on the horse and play myself out of the funk.
 
I’m actually in kind of the same boat, though not as extreme. We were alternating two campaigns when Real Life threw everything off for most of the year (we last gamed in January). Everyone is ready to play again but I’m at a loss as to whether I should pick up where I left off, do something new, or what. And I’m in kind of a funk in general, so that doesn’t help, either.

Sorry, no advice...but I’d share it if I had it.
 
Sorry for your loss.
I'd take a little break. Mojo always comes back.
Maybe one of the others wants to take the reigns of GM for a bit...
 
I took a break from GM-ing for about six months. By the end of that time, I was itching to run a game again.
 
Well it doesn't compare to actual death (nothing does obv.) but our host got a dog for the family. A yappy, small, little dog that barks...a lot...I really hope he isnt reading this.
 
See if one of the other players can GM or otherwise taking a break I think is good advice. My group plays shorter campaigns (1 to 6 months) with rotating GMs for pretty much that reason.

There are some pretty cool social videogames, like Drawful, or the Jackbox games that work really well with remote players.

Main thing I would do: Bring it up with your group! In an email of you can't get everyone together. See what they think. Some people may be able to push or bend their schedules or make some accomodations (or not). Maybe they have some new friends who want to play, to replace players you've lost. Then you'll be able to move forward knowing what's possible.
 
See if one of the other players can GM or otherwise taking a break I think is good advice. My group plays shorter campaigns (1 to 6 months) with rotating GMs for pretty much that reason.
Playing in other people's games often helps me when I am burned out. Playing and running are very different, and running for a long stretch of time without playing can lead to me losing touch with the other side of the game. Playing a few sessions with a good GM usually gets me charged up to run something again.

I'm not sure if the advice helps in this case. If all your inspiring players have moved on, it doesn't leave a great pool of people to take over the GM's chair.
 
Play instead of run.

But even more than that.(this is what I do[not always] more often than not)
Play a game you find "not good". Don't worry about the rules or the system or why ever else you have issues with said game. Just play the damned thing and quit getting in your own head about all your issues with it, stop looking for issues not to play it and start looking for reasons to play it.
And/or
Also play with completely new people. It allows me a break from the normal crew, cuz sometimes it's not game burnout it's player(s) burnout. Plus the added benefit is you can add more players into your database of people you like to game with.
 
Yeah I'll second Sommerjon. Play.

As someone that GM's 99.999% of the time... and I'm constantly the one having to decide to add/remove players etc. I've been in your shoes a few times. It gets tiring. Especially these days where I'm looking for particular kinds of players that play at a certain level. It's difficult to muster the will to go through the process of "breaking them in" - much less actually finding them.

My suggestion - step back, assess, see if someone else will take the reins while you regroup and think about your next move. Then get back in the saddle.
 
I find that if I take a couple months off of games and really dedicate that time to reading more, I end up with so many ideas that I want to kick off five new games when I return to it.
Breaks are good for you.
 
6 players, 5 local one remote. Within the past few months...
One dies unexpectedly.
One finds himself a wife and job on the other side of the world.

I can relate to the first two. Had the exact same thing happen. I was also looking for a new place to live at the time. We got back to gaming after a few months, added a new player, but we changed games. The games we had been playing, well, they just weren't the same anymore. So yeah, a change of scenery, new injection of gamers and a different selection of games.
 
In the same boat, sort of - due to a variety of issues, I haven't gamed the last couple of times, I won't game the next couple of times, and in the end it will be a several month break for my campaign. the lack of continuity is kind of killing it for me. makes me want to scrap it just because of how hard it is to maintain interest.
 
6 players, 5 local one remote. Within the past few months...
One dies unexpectedly.
One finds himself a wife and job on the other side of the world.
One takes a job that will have him on the road for a year living out of hotels.
In the campaigns I’m running, those three were the party leaders, primary motivators. Add in some personal work/family/medical crap and lately I just can’t get any energy/enthusiasm to GM.

My Mojo’s gone.

I was thinking of starting a simpler game, maybe some old school D&D or DCC or Mutant Year Zero or Forbidden Lands.
Maybe do some cardgames or board games. Harder to do with a remote player though.

So what do you do to get back in the groove? I don’t know whether it’s better to just step away and recharge, or try to get back on the horse and play myself out of the funk.

Sorry that one of your plater's passed away. I don' know how close you were to the player in your group, but if you are still grieving, that might have a lot to do with a loss of motivation. If you are, I would give yourself time to recharge, maybe start by prepping a campaign but not planning to run it immediately. You might try playing for a while rather than running something. Also with that many players lost, you might also consider trying online groups until you find local people.
 
I am fortunate in that I have at least 2 or 3 groups running at any one time, which has meant that when 1 group goes down, I have cover until I can arrange something new.

As for dealing with drop in mojo, that's a tricky one. Trying something new or different like board games can help, but it can also serve to drop the mojo further. If the alternative can't stand on its own two feet, then it may simply be a temporary measure. Taking a break is probably my first suggestion. Define the length of the break so the remaining players aren't left hanging and then take the time to work out what to do next.
 
I feel a similar feeling of "losing my mojo"

I was excited to get a GURPS game going for Halloween but then I felt drained and zapped. Like I don't want to do anything, and then I look back on my failed attempts at running games and I feel even worse because then I feel guilty about myself.

I don't know what came over me, but I've been feeling depressed and creatively drained all of a sudden
 
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Sorry about your loss. And less but still fairly sorry for the players disappearing for less tragic reasons, too. :/

As far as getting back into the groove, though... I've actually been in that situation myself recently. After leaving rpg.net and having one fairly disastrous experience GMing Vampire: the Masquerade at mythweavers, I felt like I was never going to be able to run anything ever again. My solution was to run a few Savage Worlds games requiring very little creativity (Savage Worlds is pretty much the game system for not giving a crap). I've been going at it for a few months, and I'm actually feeling slighlty revitalised - possibly enough to run a game that isn't just about beating up the bad guys at some point in the future...
 
I second people's advice. Play. There's no point in forcing it if you aren't feeling it, but I suspect that playing for a bit will make you want to GM again.
 
Better to grieve and rest. Inspiration is a reservoir, too, and needs life experience to recharge. Sure, some discipline is good as well, such as regular socializing, playing, chatting, world building, etc. to stay sharp. But convalescent periods are not just for the body. :angel:
 
CRKrueger CRKrueger I've been in a situation like this, not as extreme, but the same result, no GM mojo.

Try to keep involved in a rpg group if possible, otherwise the drought has the potential to never be broken.

If you can be a PC for a while then that really helps, it's a nice break having no prep obligations, and gives you time to think of a game or genre you may want to run down the track.

When you do return, I would recommend GMing a new campaign, perhaps even a new system to keep things fresh.
If it is with your old group then the vibe may kick in to return to the pre-existing campaign at some stage, but there is nothing wrong starting off completely fresh with a new setting and system.

But I think give yourself several months as a PC to recouperate and centre yourself
 
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I'm going with "the play instead of run" trend. I also second the other option of taking a break and to start planning/prepping one of those games you've always wanted to run, but never had.
 
So what do you do to get back in the groove?

Let me know when you find out; been like that for a year.

And I didn’t even lose a player (sorry for your loss!).

It’s just that my time all goes into work and family life right now.

I’m not unhappy, but I do miss gaming.

I’m not even reading the books anymore, and I haven’t read anything that electrified me into running a game since Godbound.
 
Sounds like a break is in order. I get that way too. I've been GM-ing for a group of 6-7 for about a year. It can be draining so I'm going to take a few months off and let someone else run something. I'm lucky in that I have a group where other people will step up.
 
6 players, 5 local one remote. Within the past few months...
One dies unexpectedly.
One finds himself a wife and job on the other side of the world.
One takes a job that will have him on the road for a year living out of hotels.
In the campaigns I’m running, those three were the party leaders, primary motivators. Add in some personal work/family/medical crap and lately I just can’t get any energy/enthusiasm to GM.

My Mojo’s gone.

I was thinking of starting a simpler game, maybe some old school D&D or DCC or Mutant Year Zero or Forbidden Lands.
Maybe do some cardgames or board games. Harder to do with a remote player though.

So what do you do to get back in the groove? I don’t know whether it’s better to just step away and recharge, or try to get back on the horse and play myself out of the funk.
Frankly? I was close to this state for different reasons.
So I played as much games on my PS4 as I humanly could, started another group (no overlap with my main) which I'm running Feng Shui 2 for, train as much as possible given the situation, and try to use the rest of the time for reading, not watching TV nor writing on forums.
Between those measures, I somehow got reloaded enough to actually give semi-final shape to my big project, with my regular group.
 
So what do you do to get back in the groove? I don’t know whether it’s better to just step away and recharge, or try to get back on the horse and play myself out of the funk.
Hey man, first of all I hope things turn around soon, I know what you are going through. It's a crappy situation with no easy fix.

You could try joining a campaign as a player. I have found that few things motivate more me to DM and improve my own game than playing with a DM who isn't as good as me (but not too bad!). Meanwhile you can tinker around with DM projects in your spare time until you find one that sparks passion.
 
I have found that few things motivate more me to DM and improve my own game than playing with a DM who isn't as good as me (but not too bad!).

i feel this. I can’t even bear it. It’s sort of selfish, but... they aren’t that good! ;) I should probably focus on training up some others
 
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