D.T. Pints
Instigator
JACKERCON 2018: WITH GREAT POWER COMES GREAT RESPONSIBILITY June 22-July 1st
Posts: 2,857
Currently Playing: D&D 5e, Pathfinder, DUNGEONWORLD, Star Wars Edge of the Empire
Currently Running: DUNGEONWORLD, PATHFINDER
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Post by D.T. Pints on Mar 7, 2014 8:29:08 GMT -8
I wish I could get someone else to GM. I haven't played in over 12 years. Jaaaaaaaaaackercon! There are still spaces left. In fact I would love for you to be a part of the KISS: Phantom of the Opera game or Flight of the Living Dead just because savagedaddy runs such SHINY games on G+ and it would seem you certainly appreciate the shiny... If you can't make this one the next one (because lunafeline sorta suggested it) will occur in the "northern summer conjunction of druidiness" or sometimes called July. We are now in a five session rotation with our GMs and it is great. By the time I finish session five I've got lots of ideas and shit to work on and I get a break to get even more inspired while playing in the next game. By the time that fifth session as a player ends I'm bouncing around ready to sit in the big boy chair again.
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D.T. Pints
Instigator
JACKERCON 2018: WITH GREAT POWER COMES GREAT RESPONSIBILITY June 22-July 1st
Posts: 2,857
Currently Playing: D&D 5e, Pathfinder, DUNGEONWORLD, Star Wars Edge of the Empire
Currently Running: DUNGEONWORLD, PATHFINDER
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Post by D.T. Pints on Mar 7, 2014 8:32:42 GMT -8
I wish I could get someone else to GM. I haven't played in over 12 years. That is a sad statement. You're supposed to play/relax/recreate too. You are one of them. Like this TONY ROBBINS !?! We are in the company of greatness...
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Post by HourEleven on Mar 7, 2014 9:35:55 GMT -8
D.T. Pints, it's like a red light blinks in your house when someone mentions Jackercon, haha. Assuming I have a place to live, and that that place has an internet connection - come July I will be all over that. I'll run something and play in as many things as possible.
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Post by squeatus on Mar 7, 2014 10:42:06 GMT -8
That is a sad statement. You're supposed to play/relax/recreate too. You are one of them. Like this TONY ROBBINS !?! Or maybe...this one?
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Post by Malex on Mar 7, 2014 14:32:05 GMT -8
Take a break, read a few books, get wasted a couple of times, catch up with your non gaming buddies, clean the house, do all that real life shit you've let slip, intend to go back to the gym a couple of times . . . Before you know it you'll be planning your next game and getting the group together again with anticipation. Sometimes, I feel, you just need a break to have time to consolidate your ideas and generate new ones. The burnout tends to come from the week to week prepping - as the story evolves more threads emerge and eventually you find yourself 'fire fighting' rather than prepping in advance. You need time to chill and get ahead again . . . Aaron Basically that was what I was doing after I broke from the group I had been with for 12 years. Got out of the house on weekends and spent time doing non-gaming things. The breaking from the group happened because I had a significant life altering event happen last year, and that every game that group wanted to play revolved around combat and needlessly dealing out death turned me off. Even when I tried getting them to play games that were geared more toward cartoonish "violence" (bonks on head), they still wanted to be vicious (bonk with axe). This made my already kindled burnout intensify, so I left. Fun.
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Post by CreativeCowboy on Mar 8, 2014 0:17:56 GMT -8
The breaking from the group happened because every game that group wanted to play revolved around combat and needlessly dealing out death turned me off. This made my already kindled burnout intensify, so I left. and this: I wish I could get someone else to GM. I haven't played in over 12 years. are connected by us vs. them argumentative thinking built into game systems. Malex, I would say that by the time you left, you were already outside the group. Thus, you did/could not actually leave.....
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Post by Kainguru on Mar 8, 2014 2:56:58 GMT -8
Take a break, read a few books, get wasted a couple of times, catch up with your non gaming buddies, clean the house, do all that real life shit you've let slip, intend to go back to the gym a couple of times . . . Before you know it you'll be planning your next game and getting the group together again with anticipation. Sometimes, I feel, you just need a break to have time to consolidate your ideas and generate new ones. The burnout tends to come from the week to week prepping - as the story evolves more threads emerge and eventually you find yourself 'fire fighting' rather than prepping in advance. You need time to chill and get ahead again . . . Aaron Basically that was what I was doing after I broke from the group I had been with for 12 years. Got out of the house on weekends and spent time doing non-gaming things. The breaking from the group happened because I had a significant life altering event happen last year, and that every game that group wanted to play revolved around combat and needlessly dealing out death turned me off. Even when I tried getting them to play games that were geared more toward cartoonish "violence" (bonks on head), they still wanted to be vicious (bonk with axe). This made my already kindled burnout intensify, so I left. Fun. Well, noting your social-psych sig, you should be looking at the functioning of the group as a whole - your role/burnout being a symptom of it's dysfunction. Now, without wanting to pry or make an admittedly huge set of assumptions about "life changing event", it may be a contributing factor. Your personal circumstances outside the group have changed and, by virtue of you unavoidably bringing the consequences of this change with you into the group, you have changed it's dynamics. Of the several outcomes that could be postulated I'd hazard a guess at a 'most probable two': Either how you perceive the emergent interactions of your group have changed, ie: because of your 'life altering event' you now perceive the interpersonal constructs of group collaboration differently (the group hasn't changed your viewpoint has); OR, because any group is a 'living and dynamic set of constantly changing relationships that reflects and responds to the participation of it's members', the group has changed it's 'style' in response to your changed circumstances in a dysfunctional manner. Note that most likely the dysfunction isn't intentional rather it is an, admittedly failed, attempt to accommodate the changes you may have bought into the dynamic. Perhaps the solution may have been better communication, an off the table conversation with the group about how your circumstances have changed and how that has changed you with an explanation of your expectations that have resulted (ie less killy killy slash slash). Whatever the case maybe, contrary to the advice immediately above (transactional analysis 101: "I'm OK, You're not OK" is a poor base from which to begin deconstructing events), you are/were never outside the group . . . you are/were an integral part of whatever unique construct emerged that was/is that group: once you left that group, because of your participation in it's being, it ceased to exist, whatever has carried on without you is a new construct, a new group, a new set of interpersonal dynamics with a new emergent identity. Acknowledging that you have changed, without too much introspective naval gazing (for down that path lies the potential to develop an unfairly poor self-esteem*, leading to negative self-evaluations/perceptions which spiral down to depression as serotonin/dopamine levels change in response feeding back into ones thinking/emotional state further driving said hormone levels towards imbalance), maybe you just do just need a change of pace and a new group. If/when you join a new group, as either a player of GM, the process will be equally interactional ie: despite the changes in your life you might find new perspectives from this new group that influence, for the better, how you perceive this change: “Men are disturbed not by things, but by the view which they take of them” - Epictetus (55-135 AD) (*we can be our own worst critics) Aaron PS: see you cunts, I can be serious
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D.T. Pints
Instigator
JACKERCON 2018: WITH GREAT POWER COMES GREAT RESPONSIBILITY June 22-July 1st
Posts: 2,857
Currently Playing: D&D 5e, Pathfinder, DUNGEONWORLD, Star Wars Edge of the Empire
Currently Running: DUNGEONWORLD, PATHFINDER
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Post by D.T. Pints on Mar 8, 2014 7:28:13 GMT -8
Do the lights dim a bit when you fire up that "cerebro" of yours Aaron? Phew! Now I've got to go print out that post ON PAPER and carry it around with me for a while and figure out exactly why all of that hit so close to home...Fucking mental health people and their annoying insights .
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Post by Malex on Mar 8, 2014 7:55:51 GMT -8
What happened was, my sister developed cancer at 25. Taking the pycho-social route a second, such an event forces a change in a person's outlook. Concrete ideas are shaken loose and leave 'holes' in a person's sense of self and belief structure.
The ultra-violent tendencies found in a lot of heavy combat games began to look like "wait, so this being that I'm terminating pre-maturely may not need to be dealt with in this manner". I tried to talk, but had been absent a lot due to hospital visits, so you're right Aaron, I was already halfway gone physically and the only remaining strands of attachment were cut with Burnout. It culminated in a game where the party was confronted with an encampment of orcs who were dying from a plague; I said we should go talk to them the party was set with murderous intent. They went back in the middle of the night, while my character was asleep, and slaughtered the camp so I had no say.
The transactional approach mentioned was reversed "You're having fun so you are fine, I'm not thus I'm the problem". So instead of making a big fuss it was easier to cut losses and move on.
I did find a new group, and things have been going much better.
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Post by Kainguru on Mar 8, 2014 8:16:05 GMT -8
What happened was, my sister developed cancer at 25. Taking the pycho-social route a second, such an event forces a change in a person's outlook. Concrete ideas are shaken loose and leave 'holes' in a person's sense of self and belief structure. The ultra-violent tendencies found in a lot of heavy combat games began to look like "wait, so this being that I'm terminating pre-maturely may not need to be dealt with in this manner". I tried to talk, but had been absent a lot due to hospital visits, so you're right Aaron, I was already halfway gone physically and the only remaining strands of attachment were cut with Burnout. It culminated in a game where the party was confronted with an encampment of orcs who were dying from a plague; I said we should go talk to them the party was set with murderous intent. They went back in the middle of the night, while my character was asleep, and slaughtered the camp so I had no say. The transactional approach mentioned was reversed "You're having fun so you are fine, I'm not thus I'm the problem". So instead of making a big fuss it was easier to cut losses and move on. I did find a new group, and things have been going much better. Oh, that's some bad karma to deal with and unavoidably viewpoint changing I'd guess your burnout was inevitable under the circumstances. To clarify, the transactional observation was directed at the defeatist advice in the post preceding mine rather than your personal difficulties . . . D.T. Pints . . . I dunno but the electric bill goes up a bit Aaron
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Post by Malex on Mar 18, 2014 17:19:27 GMT -8
Anyways, any ideas about burnout after a short period of time?
I GMed 4 game sessions recently after not touching d20 systems for over 6 months. I came away from the first session feeling really good, and the players expressed a lot of enthusiasm. However by the end of the fourth session I was ready to be done, and the some of the players were not very enthused.
It's just an odd thing to be done after such a short period of gaming.
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tomes
Supporter
Hello madness
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Currently Running: Dungeon World, hippie games, Fallout Shelter RPG hack
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Post by tomes on Mar 18, 2014 19:16:36 GMT -8
I GMed 4 game sessions recently after not touching d20 systems for over 6 months... It's just an odd thing to be done after such a short period of gaming. Maybe ^that's your problem in this case?
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Post by guitarspider on Mar 19, 2014 8:51:18 GMT -8
I GMed 4 game sessions recently after not touching d20 systems for over 6 months... It's just an odd thing to be done after such a short period of gaming. Maybe ^that's your problem in this case? I second this notion. If you want to get away from combat a bit, any d20 system is probably not a good idea. In fact, it may be time to leave adventure-type games behind for a bit, because the adventure structure often supports violent solutions. I'd suggest trying something completely different. Maybe your group is big into TV series and you can sell them a game of Primetime Adventures, or they're into british crime stories and you can convince them to try A Taste For Murder, or they're into Ghost Busters kind of comedy and you can get a game of Inspectres on. Maybe you even have a group that's a tad crazy and not afraid to pretend to be crazy cartoon animal lawyers who are prosecuting an important case in Animal City’s highest court and in that case, Sea Dracula is your game. Those are just a few examples, but there are a lot of games out there that are not adventur-y and most of them don't have to feature violence at all. That is one of the great advantages of today's RPG scene: the mindboggling variety it offers. In addition, most of these games are geared towards 3-5 sessions at most, so even if you feel burnout again, you'll probably be able to finish the game anyway.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Mar 19, 2014 18:49:14 GMT -8
I'm in the sad position to want to PLAY more games, I have a group I gm for only once a month, and I have a planned campaign I cannot get off the ground. Its really sad that I can't play during the week
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk
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Post by Malex on Mar 30, 2014 18:14:38 GMT -8
@ Steelsteve: You could try an online game.
@ GuitarSpider: I've been thinking about taking Fiasco and Fate: Accelerated Edition and blending them together for very short games that are very light on GMing. FAE features combat that has a Saturday Morning Cartoon feel to it, which should make for fun times.
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