We've been playing a campaign for only about nine months (before this, we hadn't played for three months). Half the time, we didn't even play because somebody was gone or everyone just didn't feel like playing. Other than that, when we played, it was only once a week for two or three hours, so I don't understand why everyone says they're burnt out of DND. B this campaign; if we combine all the hours of this campaign, it has only been around ~40 hours in nine months. We could play 2 or 3 sessions a month ago, and I even had an exciting plot twist, but nobody wanted to do any more sessions after that. Everyone was "burnt out from DnD." I've been playing for over a year, planning the story and building maps, probably putting in over 10 hours a week for nine months, nowhere near my players, and I feel no burnout. I'm thinking that maybe my DMing is bad, and my players think they'll hurt me if they tell me that. What do you think? Am I just overthinking it?
I've also tried talking to them about it, but they simply do not respond, and change the topic a few hours later, after ignoring me
PS. One of the people in this party put over 200 hours into another game in a single month, and he felt no burnout at all, so it makes even less sense he'd be burnt out from playing for 40 hours in nine months.
Without being able to check with your players, it's impossible to say, but given your description it sounds like they're likely having a lack of interest in the campaign or have some issues with how you're running it.
But who knows, things could just be really busy for them right now leaving them without much time or energy to devote to D&D. Do they have kids? This is summer (in the Norther Hemisphere, at least) and adults tend to find themselves extra busy when their kids are out of school.
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Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
Bad DMing is not synonymous with lack of interest. It could really one of a thousand different things. If they won't talk about it, you might just ask if they want to start something new. If they say yes, it's probably just lack of interest in the world/campaign. If they say no then it could simply be lack of group dynamic, poor schedule, irl stuff.
Might be as simple as asking if they want to do a different night. It's really a guessing game without their input.
So far I have only been the DM of a campaign for three or so sessions, for only about a month long level one heist campaign with a unique story. In that time I have foreshadowed the boss around three times, at least once per session. Fear is what will keep the players interested, fear in a powerful boss. You need to play with their emotions, keep things new and fresh. If the players witness the boss burning down a building fifteen times, they expect them to burn down another house, not poison a crowd of people with toxic gas.
I really do not have a solution to this problem only because I haven't done that much in the way of being a DM. Hope you solve this problem.
We've been playing a campaign for only about nine months (before this, we hadn't played for three months). Half the time, we didn't even play because somebody was gone or everyone just didn't feel like playing. Other than that, when we played, it was only once a week for two or three hours, so I don't understand why everyone says they're burnt out of DND. B this campaign; if we combine all the hours of this campaign, it has only been around ~40 hours in nine months. We could play 2 or 3 sessions a month ago, and I even had an exciting plot twist, but nobody wanted to do any more sessions after that. Everyone was "burnt out from DnD." I've been playing for over a year, planning the story and building maps, probably putting in over 10 hours a week for nine months, nowhere near my players, and I feel no burnout. I'm thinking that maybe my DMing is bad, and my players think they'll hurt me if they tell me that. What do you think? Am I just overthinking it?
I've also tried talking to them about it, but they simply do not respond, and change the topic a few hours later, after ignoring me
It sounds to me like the group just isn't working. If they won't talk to you much about it they probably don't think your DMing is "bad" but simply that its "not for them" or maybe it isn't you at all and instead it is the other members of the party - and again it might not be that any of them are "bad" but simply that they don't synergize. The best example I can think of here is like sense of humour, people find different things funny and there isn't an objective truth for what is / isn't funny. But things just get awkward when you have a bunch of people with different senses of humour together in the same room. It's like that, some people just play D&D differently - some like RPing & character drama, others just want a hack&slash, others want to do whacky adventures, some want to unravel the story, some like to take the lead asking questions & investigating stuff others like to just be quiet and enjoy other people having fun. Some groups just don't work because they like different types of D&D and it's nobody's fault.
I would suggest you ask your players what they like about dnd, not what they don't like. Ask them what their ideal campaign would be like, and then try and implement some of those techniques into your campaign. I've been on the other end of this kind of thing, and I didn't have the guts to tell him that I want more/better roleplay in the campaign. But every situation is different.
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"Speaking of setting this forest on fire, it's your turn" - My favorite DM
Only your players can answer your question, but you should not interpret "burned out" as "too tired to play", but as "not really interested any more". It could be your game, it could be that they just lost interest in D&D in general (the person who put 200 hours into another game... I'm guessing that was a video game).
I'm afraid my advice is "give up". If they don't want to play, you haranguing them won't help. If you still want to play/run, maybe try to find a different group for that, and with your existing friends... do things that everyone actually wants to do.
We've been playing a campaign for only about nine months (before this, we hadn't played for three months). Half the time, we didn't even play because somebody was gone or everyone just didn't feel like playing. Other than that, when we played, it was only once a week for two or three hours, so I don't understand why everyone says they're burnt out of DND. B this campaign; if we combine all the hours of this campaign, it has only been around ~40 hours in nine months. We could play 2 or 3 sessions a month ago, and I even had an exciting plot twist, but nobody wanted to do any more sessions after that. Everyone was "burnt out from DnD." I've been playing for over a year, planning the story and building maps, probably putting in over 10 hours a week for nine months, nowhere near my players, and I feel no burnout. I'm thinking that maybe my DMing is bad, and my players think they'll hurt me if they tell me that. What do you think? Am I just overthinking it?
I've also tried talking to them about it, but they simply do not respond, and change the topic a few hours later, after ignoring me
It sounds to me like the group just isn't working. If they won't talk to you much about it they probably don't think your DMing is "bad" but simply that its "not for them" or maybe it isn't you at all and instead it is the other members of the party - and again it might not be that any of them are "bad" but simply that they don't synergize. The best example I can think of here is like sense of humour, people find different things funny and there isn't an objective truth for what is / isn't funny. But things just get awkward when you have a bunch of people with different senses of humour together in the same room. It's like that, some people just play D&D differently - some like RPing & character drama, others just want a hack&slash, others want to do whacky adventures, some want to unravel the story, some like to take the lead asking questions & investigating stuff others like to just be quiet and enjoy other people having fun. Some groups just don't work because they like different types of D&D and it's nobody's fault.
I would guess this is probably the answer. I'm running a campaign based around war, and I'm guessing my players don't like the setting of war. Them just not being interested makes the most sense.
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We've been playing a campaign for only about nine months (before this, we hadn't played for three months). Half the time, we didn't even play because somebody was gone or everyone just didn't feel like playing. Other than that, when we played, it was only once a week for two or three hours, so I don't understand why everyone says they're burnt out of DND. B this campaign; if we combine all the hours of this campaign, it has only been around ~40 hours in nine months. We could play 2 or 3 sessions a month ago, and I even had an exciting plot twist, but nobody wanted to do any more sessions after that. Everyone was "burnt out from DnD." I've been playing for over a year, planning the story and building maps, probably putting in over 10 hours a week for nine months, nowhere near my players, and I feel no burnout. I'm thinking that maybe my DMing is bad, and my players think they'll hurt me if they tell me that. What do you think? Am I just overthinking it?
I've also tried talking to them about it, but they simply do not respond, and change the topic a few hours later, after ignoring me
PS. One of the people in this party put over 200 hours into another game in a single month, and he felt no burnout at all, so it makes even less sense he'd be burnt out from playing for 40 hours in nine months.
Without being able to check with your players, it's impossible to say, but given your description it sounds like they're likely having a lack of interest in the campaign or have some issues with how you're running it.
But who knows, things could just be really busy for them right now leaving them without much time or energy to devote to D&D. Do they have kids? This is summer (in the Norther Hemisphere, at least) and adults tend to find themselves extra busy when their kids are out of school.
Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
Bad DMing is not synonymous with lack of interest. It could really one of a thousand different things. If they won't talk about it, you might just ask if they want to start something new. If they say yes, it's probably just lack of interest in the world/campaign. If they say no then it could simply be lack of group dynamic, poor schedule, irl stuff.
Might be as simple as asking if they want to do a different night. It's really a guessing game without their input.
So far I have only been the DM of a campaign for three or so sessions, for only about a month long level one heist campaign with a unique story. In that time I have foreshadowed the boss around three times, at least once per session. Fear is what will keep the players interested, fear in a powerful boss. You need to play with their emotions, keep things new and fresh. If the players witness the boss burning down a building fifteen times, they expect them to burn down another house, not poison a crowd of people with toxic gas.
I really do not have a solution to this problem only because I haven't done that much in the way of being a DM. Hope you solve this problem.
It sounds to me like the group just isn't working. If they won't talk to you much about it they probably don't think your DMing is "bad" but simply that its "not for them" or maybe it isn't you at all and instead it is the other members of the party - and again it might not be that any of them are "bad" but simply that they don't synergize. The best example I can think of here is like sense of humour, people find different things funny and there isn't an objective truth for what is / isn't funny. But things just get awkward when you have a bunch of people with different senses of humour together in the same room. It's like that, some people just play D&D differently - some like RPing & character drama, others just want a hack&slash, others want to do whacky adventures, some want to unravel the story, some like to take the lead asking questions & investigating stuff others like to just be quiet and enjoy other people having fun. Some groups just don't work because they like different types of D&D and it's nobody's fault.
I would suggest you ask your players what they like about dnd, not what they don't like. Ask them what their ideal campaign would be like, and then try and implement some of those techniques into your campaign. I've been on the other end of this kind of thing, and I didn't have the guts to tell him that I want more/better roleplay in the campaign. But every situation is different.
"Speaking of setting this forest on fire, it's your turn" - My favorite DM
Only your players can answer your question, but you should not interpret "burned out" as "too tired to play", but as "not really interested any more". It could be your game, it could be that they just lost interest in D&D in general (the person who put 200 hours into another game... I'm guessing that was a video game).
I'm afraid my advice is "give up". If they don't want to play, you haranguing them won't help. If you still want to play/run, maybe try to find a different group for that, and with your existing friends... do things that everyone actually wants to do.
I would guess this is probably the answer. I'm running a campaign based around war, and I'm guessing my players don't like the setting of war. Them just not being interested makes the most sense.