| Knowing When to Take a Break | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Aug 21 2011, 05:14 PM (367 Views) | |
| kismetrose | Aug 21 2011, 05:14 PM Post #1 |
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Anyone who's been keeping up with me in real life lately knows that I've been listening to my body a lot more and doing what it tells me to do. When it craves a food, I try to fulfill that craving (within reasonable limits). Yesterday, when my body restlessly told me to exercise, I went and did my workout though I had thought to take the day off. I've noticed that when I do what my body urges, I tend to feel great during and afterwards, and it's been making healthier choices for me as I've introduced healthier things into my diet. I know that when I used to hear people say stuff like that, I thought they were full of shit and there was no way that could happen to me, but here I am. But what does this have to do with gaming? Generally speaking, I tend to run games for about six months at a time before I need a break or a change of genre (or both). I usually resist giving up the DMing chair because I have enthusiasm and ideas stockpiled and I like to give the group a good run through the world before taking a break. But eventually I have to acknowledge that I need a refresh period and hopefully a chance to play before continuing. I've had a lot of enthusiasm on a pretty continual basis for our evil D&D campaign, to the point that it surprised even me. I expected to get worn down by all the bookkeeping and details, and even though they were considerable, by and large they were inspiring. I didn't mind working on the finer points and I didn't begrudge the time it took to build things up. I started to notice, though, that I found myself wanting a break from high fantasy. Reading A Game of Thrones began to clue me in, but taking a detour into horror fiction made me realize it further. I figured I would run at least through September before making a switch. Well, yesterday my brain gave me the score, rather like my body does. It told me that I just didn't have the juice to run, though I had planned a session yesterday and even had notes to work from that might have gotten us through. I really wanted to help everyone unwind and have a good time, the way I normally do, but I needed to start my refresh time sooner rather than later to avoid some burnout. You need to play, my inner DM said firmly, and a change of genre will do you all kinds of good. When you get back to it, you will be infinitely better off for it. But if you continue, especially right now when all kinds of real-life duties are piling up, you will do more harm than good. So, despite my natural reticence, I obeyed. I felt a little bad because we've been having a good time in Thay and our new player just started to get into his character (and the characters were just getting further entrenched in the setting). But the good thing is that I keep all my notes and they're organized enough that I can pick them up and start running again in relatively little time. And though I do like to start new things, I do bring old games back up again, the way we did with Thay earlier this year. I've run since February and we came a nice, long way in the development of the stories and characters. Whenever we get back to it, we're gonna tear some shit up. And did I mention how excited I am that I'm gonna get to play? I'm gonna be a Jedi! Like my father before me! And I'm gonna rock a light-saber! Finally! =D |
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1:25 AM Jul 11