It is a fear of every GM that haunts us between every session: that dreaded feeling that comes over you before you write your next session - that you can no longer run your game any more. It could be that the idea well has run dry or that your will to GM has been sapped. In either case, you are moments from emailing your group and pulling the plug on your campaign. Don’t touch that “Send” key until you read this post.

The first thing you should know is that the feeling you are experiencing is normal for a GM. GMing is a creative process, and like all creative processes, your energies ebb and flow. Right now your energy has bottomed out. Your mind thinks that this is the end, that if you can’t think of something creative for your campaign, perhaps it has reached its natural end. This is not true, so don’t panic. The important thing to remember is that your energy is going to recover. There are even a few things you can do to help speed your recovery process.

Put Some Ice On That Burn

The first thing you need to do is to take a step back from your campaign. The well has run dry, and you are not going to get any good material out of your head right now; so don’t try. You need to take a break, a mini-vacation from your campaign. Consider doing some of the following:

• Switch GMs and let someone else run something for a few sessions
• Take a session or two off and play some board or card games
• Run a one-shot from a different system
• Do something besides RPGs: see a movie, play some WOW, Xbox, etc.

The idea here is to get some distance from your game. Try not to think about it so that you don’t further burn yourself out. You will know how much distance you need, and then make sure you get that distance. Your energy is not going to come back while you are grinding your brain on ideas for the next session. The brain is a funny thing. It often works better when you leave it alone. In this case, your campaign needs some time in the corner of your mind to get itself sorted out. In order to do that, and not obsess on it, you are going to need a distraction.

I am a pretty intense (read: compulsive) type of person. So when I need a distraction, it can’t be something remotely related to gaming. I need to do a 180 and put my brain onto something completely different. I wind up reading some fiction, watching TV, or working on some project on one of my Linux boxes. I find that the less I think about gaming, the better it is for me.

Step Up And Testify

The next thing you need to do is to tell your group you are suffering from burnout. It’s OK; they will feel better once they know. If your players are invested in your campaign, they are going to get nervous when their GM goes silent on them or cancels a session out of the blue. Let your group know that you need some downtime.

While you are talking to them, put some of their fears to rest. Those guys put a lot of work into their 15th level Vow of Poverty Warforged Monks and are panicked that you may pull the plug on your campaign because of your burnout. Assure them that you are not going to do anything rash like cancel the campaign, and they will relax, which will ultimately allow you to relax as well.

A supportive group will help you find that downtime you need, and will keep you company. They may be anxious to play again, but as long as they know they are going to play again, they will give you that downtime you need.

Name Your Demons

Now that you have admitted your burnout, it’s time to be honest with yourself and figure out why you are burnt out. Is it that you are running your game too much? Are there some negativity issues at the table that are dragging the group down? Have you just run out of ideas? It’s going to be important that you do some soul searching and figure out what the core of your burnout is because you will not heal until you can resolve this issue.

There is not nearly enough room to address every possible reason that could lead to burnout, let alone a course of action for each one. I recommend that you look around online, at this site as well as other gaming blogs. Many other writers have addressed specific issues, that could be the cause of your burnout, in various articles.

If you want something a bit more interactive, then let me suggest the Treasure Table Forums, hosted by Martin Ralya at treasuretables.org. This forum has a large membership of GMs with with a great depth of knowledge, and amazing advice. They are friendly and very helpful to newcomers. There are frequent posts from GMs asking for advice about specific issue that have arisen in their games.

The bottom line is that you are going to have to confront what brought on this burnout and come up with a solution for it. It may take some work or may require changes in how you are running your campaign. As you work through these issues, talk to your group about them, and let them help you come up with solutions. Once you have dealt with the source of your problem, you are going to be ready to move on.

Don’t Pick That Scab….Yet

After some time you are going to start to feel creative again. Your optimism for your campaign will start to come back. You are going to get that itch to get running again and then feel some desperation because you have missed a few sessions. Don’t Panic. You want to go slowly. This is a delicate time, when you want to ease yourself back into running a full session. If you push yourself too hard, you may start to burnout again, and do serious damage to your will to keep your campaign alive. Test the waters by starting with some easy exercises to rehab that creative process.

A productive process for getting back into your campaign is to do some light brainstorming, work on some ideas for some future material. Use this time off from writing sessions to stockpile some ideas. Your energies may ebb on another day, and it will be best if you have some ideas stocked away. Don’t worry if your brainstorming is yielding anything that is going to be useful, at this point you are just getting out your ideas and getting that creative process re-established.

Once you have built up some confidence from your brainstorming, start talking to your players about your game, and ask them what kinds of things that they would like to see in the game. Harvest their ideas and stockpile them too. Now that you are talking to your players about playing, they are going to get excited. That energy is going to feed right into you and help to energize you. Let yourself soak that in, and let it kickstart you back into your game.

Getting Back On The Horse

Your burnout is waning, and its time to start running again. Remember that your are just recovering from your burnout, so make your first session back an easy one. Don’t over-write the session, and don’t try to make it some blockbuster. Yes, your game has been down for some time, but you do not need to make it up to your players, and to yourself, all in one session. That is the kind of pressure that can trigger a relapse.

You want your return session to be a bit more relaxed. Start it slowly, and don’t worry about the chatter at the table or the breaks in the game for jokes and such. If your group does not see one another outside of your game, this will be the first time they have seen each other in a while, and they are going to want to catch up with you and with each other. Let that happen for a bit, and then ease into the session. You and your players are going to be a bit rough starting up again; take that with a grain of salt. That feeling will go away in a session or two.

Down The Road

It’s now been a few sessions and things seem to be back underway. Your ideas are flowing again, and your overall outlook of your campaign has improved. You are on the road to recovery. Your instincts are going to be to forget that you ever burned out, even if it was a short time. Before you let your mind glaze over the details you want to remember two things:

First, remember whatever it was that burned you out in the first place. You need to make sure that you are always vigilant. Do not to let that situation happen again. If you burned out because you were running too many sessions in a row, then remember to schedule some periodic downtime or get another GM to run something every other week.

Second, remember that burnout is not a dead end. It is just a low point in a natural cycle. A forest that has been burned by fire, eventually regrows, just as a mind that is burnt out eventually becomes creative again. The next time you feel the beginnings of burnout setting in, know that it is avoidable, and if not avoidable, it is something that with some time and reflection can be overcome.

Share some of your stories about how you have overcome burnout or a near-burnout situation in one of your campaigns….