In recent months, I've cut back on gaming quite a bit. It's not that I've lost my interest in it, it's just that in many ways, I find that I often enjoy the idea of gaming much more than actually playing. Now, I don't want to get into detail as to why I'm personally burned out on gaming (as people in my group sometimes read my columns, and I don't want anyone taking anything the wrong way!), but I do think that this month's topic will be "How to tell that it's time to take a break from gaming." Before we get down to my hastily concocted list of signs, let me say that sometimes a break isn't enough. If you can't stand anyone in your group and you're not enjoying the game, it's time to quit and either find a new group, or in extreme cases, find a new hobby. But be polite about it! Don't give everyone a detailed list of what you hate about them and why they made gaming a miserable experience for you. Quietly bow out. You don't even have to talk to the group at all, but you do need to notify the GM. It's just good manners. Also, sometimes you just need to switch characters. If your frustration is from feeling underpowered, redundant, useless or bored, it may be your character. I started our Wednesday Scion game very excited about my robot-building daughter of Hephaestus. For the first few sessions, she was awesome. But I quickly grew irritated at how the rest of the group was off having fun while I had to spend entire sessions in the lab working on my creations. As much as she was an awesome concept, she didn't work out in a group setting. I'm having much more fun playing a sword-wielding daughter of the Morrigan who appointed herself as party leader. If neither of these situations describe you, then it's time to consult the list of Signs It Might Be Time For A Break. You start to take things personally. Your character gets attacked, and you say to the GM "Oh sure, just kill me!" in your most passive-aggressive voice. Or you see every stupid thing that someone else does as a purposeful attempt to derail the game and annoy everyone else. You can't keep your eyes off of the clock. When you keep checking the time and practically counting down the minutes until the game is over so you can go home, something is definitely wrong. You feel like you would have been better off staying home. Thinking to yourself "I could be at home reading that awesome new book or beating that sweet new game" is understandable. Thinking "I could have done so much housework!" is not. You switch characters constantly. I think it's always good to try a different character before you quit a game, but if you're bringing in a new character every other session, it's probably a sign that you're just not going to have fun no matter what. Players that you used to be friends with now annoy the bejeebus out of you. If you've reached the point where you can't think of one good thing to say about the play style of anyone else in the group, and you don't even want to hang out with players who used to be your good friends, it's definitely time to take a break. You don't want to let a bad gaming experience sour your friendship. You get into out-of-character fights over in-character things. This is a bad, bad sign. It's bad for you, it's bad for whoever you're fighting with, and it's even worse for the rest of the group, because they're caught in the middle of it. I've been involved in more of these than I really care to admit. You no longer care about the story or your character. Unless everyone in the group is feeling the same way (in which case, it's a problem with the GM), this is a sign that you're burnt out and gaming has become a ho-hum experience, something you just do because you always do it. Ideally, you should take a break until you find that you miss gaming. Conversely, I'd like to present the list of Signs You Should Take A Break From GMing. You put off working on your game until right before the next session. If you can't bring yourself to put some time into developing a good game for your players, you probably need a break to recharge your batteries. You suddenly find yourself ripping off movie plots, recycling old games, and resorting to silly gimmicks just to give your players something to do. If you've previously offered up high-quality, well-developed games and you suddenly throw your players into a thinly-veiled rehash of Star Wars or the campaign you ran back in '98, no one is going to be happy. All of your players are bored and no one seems interested in the game. To some extent, players only get what they put into a game, but you need to make it interesting for them. If you find that your games are lacking that spark, it's time to take a break. The campaign has gotten stupid, everyone has god-like power and ridiculous gear and now they go around doing whatever they want. Ok, admit it, it's time to let it go before it gets even more out of hand. You approve everything the players ask for out of hand, because it's too much work to look it up. This quickly leads to an unbalanced game. If you don't have the energy to research player requests and see if they're reasonable, you need to take a break. Entire sessions go by where nothing happens. This is usually when I stop running games. If you've run out of story hooks and you're just expecting the players to roleplay without any goal or plot or anything, then it's time to take a break and come up with a way to refresh your campaign. Well, that's all for this month. Until next time, happy gaming!

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Copyright © 2008 By AJ Reardon E-mail AJ at: ErtheFae@aol.com Visit AJ at: www.erthefae.com