IntroWelcome back to How to Be a Better DM, I’m Justin Lewis, here with my compatriot Tanner Weyland, and together we’re here to help you learn how to craft better stories while you DM sessions of Dungeons and Dragons.
Burnout: Main Topics* Brief description of cause: the causes of DM burnout (doing too much, to frequently, with not change) * Get help: * Ask others to DM * Stop writing your own content, or doing huge campaigns. Just look for content online. DMs guild and other sources exist to make your time easier! * Have online communities to ask advice from. An outside viewpoint can do a lot (Reddit examples of people in sticky situations) * Simplify: * Look at what you enjoy in DMing, and JUST do that for a bit (i.e. role playing with light combat, or just combat with light role playing) * Shorten sessions. * Consider switching up how you meet (if online, do in person; if in person, consider doing online) * Ask the players what they like and want, and just do that. Their enjoyment will fuel you. * Take a break: * As a subset of the other two tips, it is always okay to quit. Genuinely. Take a break. And then come back. If the other tips don’t work for you, playing longer will only create negative feelings between you and your players. The sooner you listen to yourself, the sooner you can begin a well deserved break without creating unnecessary ill will.
ConclusionMentioned in this episode:
Housekeeping Items
Welcome back to How to Be a Better DM. I’m Justin Lewis and I’m Tanner Weyland and we are here to help you tell better stories for yourself and your players as you dungeon master sessions of Dungeons and Dragons.We have a great show for you today, but first we have some announcements. If you want to skip the announcements, hit the skip button two or three times and you should be at the start of the show.To start off:One ShotWe have openings for our upcoming One-Shot. Go to betterdungeonmaster.com/one-shot and sign up to play in a free D&D session. One of the best ways to improve as a DM is to play as a player and you can for free. Get your spot today.FeedbackWe are still looking for feedback on the show. Go to betterdungeonmaster.com/feedack and give us your opinion on how things are going. If you want a specific response, make sure to leave your email so we can reach back out to you.Swag:I’m excited to announce that today, we have started selling swag! One of our listeners, Golden Sligting from Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/goldensligting/) was awesome and designed an alternative logo for the show. To give some appreciate to him, I slapped that logo on a Hoodie and now you can buy that hoodie. 50% of the profit goes straight to Golden Sligting so if you like the hoodie you should get one. Just go to https://betterdungeonmaster.com/shop/ and get yourself a hoodie. Or, if you too want to have something you designed on our store, send me your designs at howtobeabetterdm@gmail.com. You’ll 50% of the profit and become part of our community!I think that’s enough announcements for today. Let’s get to today’s show: