DnD and Burnout
DnD was my introduction to playing TTRPGs in 2018, like it is for many. We purchased the green beginners box at a local TTRPG store back then. From there, I pretty much played it exclusively for years, before the inevitable burnout set in. There was attempts to branch out (or more attempts by other people to make me branch out), but it remained mostly unsuccessful. I was aware of other games, mostly Pathfinder 1e, Vampires the Masquerade and Call of Cathulu, but the dread of having to learn a whole new system kept me from truly engaging with them. I was a forever DM, until 2024. Then my ex started running a Waterdeep campaign where I was a player. It was fine. That's all there is to it. It was a plaster on a stab wound, it kept the underlying dissatisfaction from bubbling to the surface for a while, but it wasn't enough.
When we started playing DnD in 2018 I filled the seat of the GM. We started with Lost Mines of Phandelver. I didn't find it all that fun to run prewritten adventures. After that, I attempted my write my own. That was more fun, suddenly there was purpose to worldbuilding, which I did for fun beforehand. This campaign was relatively short lived, we could only play weekly for a very short period of time as everyone went their own ways.
The group was cut in half, with sessions being nothing but irregular. It was still fun, and having weeks between sessions made it easy on me. Around that time I would also run one-shots, at first with Excel as battlemaps (yes, I know), and then switching to Roll20, with PDF character sheets (I did not like Roll20 automation) and discord. Actually playing didn't happen a lot, sadly. It was mostly making characters and thinking of "What if" scenarios. Around this time, the campaign I was running was benched, too. It simply lost momentum, and I also lost interest.
Then, in 2022 things would change. I was invited to play a oneshot with a complete stranger, which managed to bring motivation to run back for me. I was also introduced to Foundry VTT in that game. (And I liked it a lot more than Roll20)
That year, I purchased Foundry, started experimenting with it and recruited friends to revive the old campaign. Here I already made a mistake (or many actually). Instead of starting from scratch, building something i was much more interested in running, I gave in and brought back the old one. It had been 4 years since I started writing for it, and 4 years in your early adulthood is still a lot.
Two of the people I would play with were from the original game, both excited to bring their characters back after a 2 year time skip. I was also excited to bring some of my favourite NPCs back of course. But I was more inspired to run something else.
My second mistake was player count. To vet players I hosted a oneshot for uni friends. It was a good game and I found I wanted to play with them (all of them). So I ended up with 6 players in total. Not a good idea.
My third mistake was with character creation. I set very clear limits when it came to combat mechanics, but not for backstories (I did have requirements mind you, but nothing close to CATS and other tools to set a vibe). It's a typical pitfall for games like DnD, since all of its mechanics revolve around combat, and barely any for story. So I ended up with a colourful mix of characters (typical Anime protagonist feeling characters to compelling tragedies with deep interpersonal conflicts). And the worst part is, I didn't reign them in. So I had tonally different backstories with massive implication I had to tie together. Another mistake was a lack of time frame. I only really had a goal for the opening ark. It's fine I thought. The opening is strong, and then I will see the direction everyone is going.
Of course, the planned time for the opening was too short of an estimate, my plans of 4 sessions for the first section turned into 11 sessions. Then 4 sessions of travel (with fights, story revelations etc), with my group finally arriving in the capital by session 16. A bit of time for them to get to know people, before I would destroy the city, so that my players have emotional reason to confront whatever caused this.
When we finally got to the apocalyptical downfall of the city, I was burned out and we were 25 sessions in.
I felt guilty, I felt like I could no longer do enough for my players to be truly invested. Running became a chore.
We never really took proper breaks in these 6 months of weekly sessions. Just some weeks skipped due to exams or due dates, other obligations or because I was too tired because of a job next to uni.
Sessions turned from weekly, to sometimes. I even forgot for how long I continued running sessions at that point, I thought I stopped in February 2023, but there is sessions dating to much later. Around February 2023 I made an OC I enjoyed a lot. DnD until that point was the thing that kept me going through all the stress. Then he came in, and DnD was replaced with something that was just for me. I started drawing more, writing more for myself, becoming obsessed with new topics.
The next mistake was an undefined hiatus. No end date, to approximate time frame. Very stupid.
I was clearly burned out, that much was obvious. Burnout always starts creeping in after 10 sessions. I didn't know at the time because it really was my first experience running weekly over a longer time period. The most invested players kept talking about their characters. Kept writing things about them, kept drawing them. It was inspiring in some ways, to have your players turn small moments into comics, animatics or illustrations. On the other hand, it builds pressure. I felt so guilty for having lost this much passion, as my players were yearning for more. Reassurances from them turned up the guilt instead of helping. It was always about how much I inspired them.
It was unfortunate.
Then came half a year abroad. Playing was out of the question. Then spring 2024, where my ex started Waterdeep Dragonheist. She actually made a lot of the same mistakes I did. But I won't go over it much.
It was a smaller group, with a new player. In total we were 4 players and one GM.
It was really fun at first, but even from the player side, 10 sessions in you become a bit burned out.
Then I would revive my campaign again. Smaller group, same people as the Waterdeep one. I was anxious. People kept reassuring me that I never had to bring it back, but I knew they would be sad. So I did. I had more things planned through, but I still didn't have an end in sight. Very stupid.
And I hadn't even addressed the core issue. This campaign was fundamentally not a story anymore I wanted to tell. I loved the player characters, I wanted to see where things went. But not the world. Not the big story.
The smaller player count and the new player helped at first. Interpersonal issues would tear a rift, so even the group aspect tuned sour. It stopped being fun in any way.
I tried to cling unto the sinking ship. It didn't work.
My campaign will never see a proper end. It's dead.
I've noticed both in my campaign and the campaign I was playing in how things always fizzle out around session 10. You tend to plan a big thing, it takes longer than you thought to get there. Once you arrived at your big set piece you stress about it being perfect. Then once it's over you don't have the energy to plan the next big thing. And play turns boring. A cycle you can't escape.
Games like DnD are notorious for these cycles of burnout. Encouraging over prepping which eventually turns into unmotivated under prepping, and sessions that turn nowhere.
On top of that, DnD 5e has a lot of glaring issues. DM support for one is scarce. The DMG is full of Magic Items, and unhelpful worldbuilding advice.
Monster Statblocks are fine, for the most part, but their CR is hardly accurate. Balancing encounters is a pain in the ass. It doesn't work. So I found myself running less and less combat. So eventually playing was propped up on the half a page describing Roleplay in the Players Handbook.
Classes are unbalanced, especially subclasses. If you pick wrong, class features either make you feel like shit and will end with you never end up using them. If you pick a martial, you have levels 1 to 3, maybe 5. Then you're useless. Outclassed my casters in every way. For the GM this turns into a problem because some people are too effective, and others barely at all. Making an encounter where everyone at the table has fun (and feels effective) turns into a herculean task. And don't expect any good advice from the Core Books. You have to puzzle together tips from various sources on the internet (and hope their advice is actually good).
The goal of multiple encounters for each long rest quickly falls away. Prewritten adventures are not good either. A lot of background information for a world which has been decades in the making is missing, sending you to a wiki with lots of contradictory information. Encounters are fine, but never really good.
And it's not fun to prep them as a GM.
On top of that comes prepping maps. I started making my own using Dungeondraft because like this the walls and light are already done. I started to dread using VTTs. Oh and maintaining my own notes, so I could keep track of all the info I gave out. A nightmare.
You really don't know what you're missing until you play other systems. Pathfinder for one has a lot more options, and it's second edition is a lot more tight. It's balanced, all classes are viable. All the mechanical choices make characters feel much more unique, but they can feel overwhelming. Encounter building is also more tight. It just works.
Narrative Systems flow, stories practically write themselves. Many PbtAs have the opposite problems of DnD. Not enough players for too many GMs. Running is so much easier, less prep, more help, more rewarding.
I started branching out Summer 2025. Not much, then. Two narrative games that didn't lead to much, but still made me think of alternatives. Then a bit of Pathfinder 2e combat. Then properly branching out in 2026. Since then I have played a session of Girl by Moonlight, World Wide Wrestling 2e, a mini campaign of Invisible Sun, two hacks of Goblin Quest, and an 8 Session campaign of Urban Shadows 2e. Now I'm running Daggerheart (I will probably write about that as well).
I'm still deeply fond of DnD. Some of it's mechanical options are near and dear to my heart. Still, I really wouldn't want to run it longterm anymore.
While stories like mine, of never ending and ever returning burnout are concerningly common, DnD continues to dominate TTRPG spaces. While more and more people are branching out, it would be a lie to claim Dnd is not the King of TTRPGs when it comes to sales and playerbase.
The OGL Crisis made many people jump ship (that, and the steady decline of first quality when it comes to first party content). But it really only made a small dent. My group for instance was stuck with DnD until we finished the campaign (which effectively meant we would never change system), and most of them were casual, never keeping up with news and such.
Still, change is noticeable. Local conventions now offer way more games than DnD and the other big ones. In febuary I attended one, I played World Wide Wrestling there. Many of the titles offered I had never heard of. The monthly library event also offers many different games now, there only are 1-2 game of DnD on offer.
I've noticed that especially GMs are jumping ship. More excited about games which offer them more. I'm in the same boat.
Right now I am preparing a small campaign for Daggerheart which starts soon. I'm looking to run Deadpilled, Eat the Reich and a few others. Me and a friend are looking to do a GMless game of Invisible Sun and I'm playing a GMless duet of Pathfinder 2e (also there is soloplay...).
It's not perfect. Some of the underlying issues I had are not fading away so quickly. I'm learning. Still, the amount of positive experiences I had with other games makes me hopeful.