My group has been playing pathfinder for almost 3 years now. Granted it hasn't been the same campaign, we've taken a month or two off, and we've had players come and go. The only members from the original group are me and our current GM. Now to the heart of my problem......
I'm worn out.
Our weekly game, for me at least, has become more of a chore then fun. It has become more a source of frustration and anxiety, but I'm not sure anyone else feels that way. I've got one person on my side, but I haven't spoken to the rest of the group yet, and I'm not sure how they'd take it (especially the one guy, but thats another story entirely). I've looked at other systems, like shadowrun and world of darkness, but none of them really 'clicked'. I've even started thinking about......ugh....4th edition (I feel so unclean). I need ways to make monday night fun again, but I'm not sure how.
What do???
Speak to the rest of the group. If they're having the same issues with it, come to a group decision.
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Sometimes it becomes a drudgery if you focus too much on combat and rules. Branch out into your character and put some effort into him/her to make them more interesting to you. Here are some options:
1. Develop a crush on another character; Determine randomly.
2. Become despondent about something and develop an addiction.
3. Start keeping a journal about your innermost thoughts as your character. Reveal it at a thematically appropriate time.
4. Come up with a personality quirk that doesn't get old quickly, preferably an embarrassing one such as farting or puking in certain situations.
5. Make some long term goals, such as Immortality or becoming a king of your own kingdom. Bonus points if there is no way you can do it via RAW.
6. Devise some hidden personal tragedy and have an emotional breakdown when something reminds you of it.
7. Have an emotional breakdown and explain it away with some bogus hidden personal tragedy.
8. Take a vow of silence for a short time.
9. Purchase an animal from a market and try to keep the poor thing alive.
10. Ask your GM if you can invent some new Spells/Weapons/Fighting styles that make your character unique.
11. Bring more Oreos to your monday nights. Gotta have good snacks.
12. Maybe most important of all, find out what other people like about RPG's and see if you can't make it happen. Service is a great way to have satisfaction.
If none of those appeal to you, go ahead and take a break yourself. Sometimes you don't appreciate things until they are gone.
encourage a tpk, then encourage everybody to step out of their comfort zones with their new characters. i know this sounds extreme but i've tried it and it really can spice things up.
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There are a number of 3.5 adventures that have been converted to pathfinder, that could spice things up. A new campaign setting helps. There is also a full update to the psionics system, which can really change the feel, and flavor. In fact, having a full psionics, nearly magic free game could be quite fun.
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encourage a tpk, then encourage everybody to step out of their comfort zones with their new characters. i know this sounds extreme but i've tried it and it really can spice things up.
Expanding on this a bit, what my group once did was toss names into a hat and whoever's name you drew, that's who's character you'd make (if you drew your own name, you'd have to redraw.)
It takes an open-minded, mature group to pull off, but if you've got that, it can be very rewarding to be pulled so far out of your comfort zone.Another thing is to detail your characters fully. My group is pretty big into L5R and one of their things is a section called "20 Questions." Basically, before you worry about your character's mechanics, you answer these pre-determined 20 questions about who your character is, why they're doing what they're doing, who their family is, etc.
Not a good idea for the quickie campaigns, but really gets you interested in your character for the longer stories.
I'm worn out.
Our weekly game, for me at least, has become more of a chore then fun. It has become more a source of frustration and anxiety, but I'm not sure anyone else feels that way.
Hard to give advice on how to change things up with something so broad. Anything specific? What is frustrating- rules getting in the way of things you want to do? Players not doing the kinds of things you are interested in? Adventures and quests all feeling the same? Too many cliches from other players or the GM? Difficulty level not challenging enough for you?
Actually elaborating on the source of your emotions will probably present solutions to you. It will at least give you something to act on, even if it's wrong, and it's entirely likely that doing something about your problems will help you feel better. (This applies to everything besides gaming, too)
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If you don't normally play evil campaigns, try the evil AP by Fire Mountain Games. I am saving that for our group against the day everyone gets really bored.
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I can totally understand how one could get burned out. I'll tell you some of the things we do in our gaming group to keep things interesting.
Firstly, we don't have a set DM. All but two of us rotate DMing games. This adds a different feel to the game because everyone has their own style of DMing. One is very rules/combat oriented. Another is extremely good at storyline, etc.
Secondly, Pathfinder has a HUGE range of options that most groups don't even consider. For example, here are a list of some of the campaigns we have going right now.
1. The Slayers Campaign. The theme here is that everyone in the group as a primary stat that they are extremely good at, and one they are very bad at. So, each player was allowed to chose which stats those were going to be. The good stat starts at 24. As they go up in level, if they chose to put their ability score increase in their good stat, it'll go up by 4 instead of one. The bad stat is a 6 and can never be raised by any means (no magic items, not able to put ability point increases, etc). So, we have a rogue in the group that has now a 32 Dexterity and a 6 intelligence. The situations he gets into are ridiculous and humorous.
2. The Warrior Campaign. Think 13th Warrior. All the players are fighters, and there is no magic. This makes them really think about tactics, since if they get hurt, there's no healing potions or clerics. I'm using the hero points system to help survival.
3. The Dragon Campaign. Using a houserule version of the dragon PC from the old Draconomicon (made MUCH easier since pathfinder homogenized dragons). In this game, the PCs have class levels as normal, but are also adult dragons. You can imagine the situations that can happen here.
4. We're about to start a Gestalted Dark Sun campaign. In fact, we're starting that one tomorrow.
How many people have seen a 60 strength on a PC? How often do characters get to play as monsters (and I'm not talking about the "monsters as PCs" races... I mean real monsters). Are the PCs too powerful? Put them up against something with 10,000 hit points.
In short: Don't be afraid to play with the system, it can handle it.
if you really did the same thing every week for years, it's only normal that you get worn out. If you like pizza you wouldn't want to eat it once a week for years too.
I don't know your group, but I would recommend to talk to them. Perhaps you just need a break and have got plenty to do and don't mind not seeing those people as often.
But perhaps others feel that every two weeks is plenty and you could make a card-game weekend every other week. So you just show up for card/boardgames and take a pause from PF until you feel the excitment of playing again.
As others said try something different within PathfinderPerhaps olay we be goblins.
Or try something else that's not taking about taking everything serious.
Or try out another system for a change.
I like Dark Heresy very much and for some people Rogue Trader or Deathwatch is nice. All three are from fantasy flight games.
I hope it is ok to say something here.
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Try Boardgames for awhile.
STOP. DROP. ROLL! Before the rut gets you!
I agree. A change is as good as a holiday. I recommend doing something totally different. While you could play a dungeon crawl board game why not try something like Saboteur, which is a lite little card game that our group played.
I'd suggest a break or change for a bit. Go for some Call of Cthulhu or pick up A Dirty World (One of my new favorite games). Both work quite differently than Pathfinder and will give you a huge change. Or whip out your graphing calculator and try Eclipse Phase, it's free.
Or just take a break from RPGs for a bit.
Down here, if we get tired of playing DnD or whatever, I find a good ol' game of Gamma World or Fiasco for a night or two really livens up our spirits. Try a movie night! Or marsupial kickboxing!
When our group is getting bored and stuck in a rut, it usually means it's time for a session or 2 of Paranoia or a superhero game. If you want to do something more serious, make sure it's nonfantasy. Sci-fi,Cthulhu, modern special ops, old west, just anything but fantasy.
I'd suggest a break or change for a bit. Go for some Call of Cthulhu or pick up A Dirty World...
This.
This is what we did a few years back when we started losing interest in medieval-fantasy settings. We turned to Star Wars RPG for a while and had a lot of fun. Then, when the urge came back we switched again to D&D.
Just a change of scenery. Feels good sometimes.
:)
Ultradan
Wow, my group must be really burn-out resistant. We've been playing since 1999. Second edition, third edition, 3.5, Pathfinder... aside from two short Star Wars Saga entries in-between, we've been sticking with our guns. Something like 5-6 campaigns to level 20, Kingmaker aborted at fifth level, both Star Wars games until sixth... we are at level 11 in Carrion Crown and going strong.
Are you playing APs or home brewed?
If:
- You're worn out
- It feels like a chore
It sounds like you need a break from RPGs for a few weeks.
Why is it a source of frustration and anxiety? This is probably the source of the problem. If the game isn't fun and relaxing, you're doing something wrong.
How do you feel about the other players? Would you like to hang out with them outside of the game or are they gaming buddies only?
Why are you trying to convince the rest of the group to quit when you're maybe the only one who needs a break?
Hiya.
Lots of generally good suggestion. The one I recommend is to actually just sit back, smile, and say What the hell...lets do it!. What I mean by that is your anxiety/frustration is probably comming from you thinking you have to "win" or otherwise "succeed". The problem is, that in RPG's there really isn't a definitive "you win when..." or "you are allways trying to achieve...". So your brain is trying to reconcile some connection between what's happening in game and one of those two concepts.
Your brain is hurting. ;) Honestly...it's causing you to basically think of gaming like a "job" you don't want to do but know you have to. Stop it. Give your brain a kick in the junk and say What the hell...! I'm going to just have fun!
How? It's actually easy, but hard to start. Kind of like jumping into a luke-warm pool or lake. You *know* it's going to be cold, so your brain is keeping you from doing it...but once you take that first step, the next ones get easier and easier (re: you start warming up to it).
Suggestions:
-1- Re-write your character *without* using any game stats or number-specifics.
-2- Draw (or find on the net) a pic of your guy and print it out. Alternitively, us a miniature or other figure. A visual cue to your brain that *you* arn't actually in danger of 'loosing', your character is.
-3- Try not to suggest any game mechanics at all...instead, just tell the DM what you want to do. Try not to think in terms of what you are good at, or bad at, or anything number wise...remember, you're trying to intone the What the hell...! Lets go for it! attitude. Let your DM tell you what to roll...it's not your problem.
-4- Have your character do something you normally wouldn't think of doing. For example, if you are playing a wild barbarian, have him hit the artisans market and take in a bawdy-play, or maybe listen to a bard wax poetically, or even just go to the bath house and pay for the Extravegant, Private Bath & Sauna and basically 'pamper' himself with a shave, haircut, the whole ball of wax.
-5- ...make a new guy that is 'well rounded'; e.g., don't try and think about makeing a "super effective" character. Think of making a 'normal guy who became an adventurer'. Not a 'guy who has been training to be a hero since he was 4 hours old'.
^_^
Paul L. Ming
I can't recommend enough a rousing session or few of Call of Cthulhu to scrub the brainbox a bit.
I also like the "what the hell" approach to make things more interesting. :)
My group got ridiculously burnt out after an Eberron game that went to 21st level. We switched to Vampire and a Pathfinder game that was based on equal parts Final Fantasy 1 and kids cartoons. Vampire didn't work out, but the Pathfinder game worked out amazingly. Sometimes you just need a goofy game to make it fun again. I've tried to keep things the same feel by running a by-weekly game with no other point than to get to 20th level. The players get to goof off between combats with no overly realistic consequences, everyone has a good time, and we leave the real roleplaying to the more serious games we have going.
encourage a tpk, then encourage everybody to step out of their comfort zones with their new characters. i know this sounds extreme but i've tried it and it really can spice things up.Expanding on this a bit, what my group once did was toss names into a hat and whoever's name you drew, that's who's character you'd make (if you drew your own name, you'd have to redraw.)
It takes an open-minded, mature group to pull off, but if you've got that, it can be very rewarding to be pulled so far out of your comfort zone
Our group did this exact thing and it was quite a bit of fun. It was interesting to see how other people at the table interpreted each other's play-style and character preference.
We also have run single race and/or single class type one-shot adventures; everyone rolls up a dwarf or half-Orc, etc, or we all roll up rogues or fighters and so forth. It challenges us as a group and provides a way to keep the game fresh.
I'd also suggest having a board game night as well; we have played Settlers of Catan recently and liked it a lot.
Finally, if your group uses miniatures, I'd recommend having a mini painting night - it can take a little bit of prep work to set it all up but food and drinks and music and everyone hanging out painting miniatures can relieve a little stress and boredom.
I find that the biggest drag on game nights is familiarity. I've been gaming with most of the players for 10+ years, and I'm pretty tired of hearing the same story, which i was there for, for the eighth time. Understandably, it's to a new player or friend, but it gets repetitive. I make a point to go out with guys from the game group outside of the game environment.
A bit embarrassing most times, but like the captain morgan commercial, there's no point in going out unless you're coming back with a story. I've done some pretty stupid things, even though I'm old enough to know better, because invariably, I've gotten that story.
So, my advice is, find your comfort zone, and take one or two of the game group with you. Do new things, like play flag football, softball league, bar night, strip club night. whatever meshes well with your lifestyle and your friends. Having something new to talk about outside of the game makes for a more interesting down time doing that 'same ol' thing'.
note: I'm not saying exclude anyone, perhaps doing different things with different people will enhance it. Maybe they'll figure it out that you're always at the center of making life interesting for them. It has benefits.
We just finished the 'Rise of the Runelords' campaign... And now that we started 'Corse of the Crimson Throne', I must say it's pretty darn refreshing to start again with low-level characters and two-minute-long melees...
:D
Ultradan
Expanding on a few similar notes - change formats entirely for a while. Break out some Smallworld or Munchkin, grab Diablo III, or run the other direction entirely with some oldschool HeroQuest. Then when you come back to paper'n'pencil, you'll not only be refreshed, but you'll have some awesome new AP options.