DM burnout is a real thing.
Some people may think it’s silly that someone could be “burned out” by hanging out with friends and playing their favorite game every week, but those people have obviously never been Dungeon Masters for an ongoing campaign.
Because it can be tough. All DMs know it can be tough.
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From coming up with plot hooks to creating battle maps to organizing notes to practicing voices in your bathroom mirror so often that your roommates are seriously worried about your mental state (I’m fine, you guys, for reals), DMing is work, first and foremost.
It’s why people can actually get paid to be professional DMs, and it’s why players should be thanking their DMs at the end of the session. The 3 or 4 hours of D&D that the group plays each week is built upon countless hours of prepwork on the DM’s part that is often done behind the scenes screens, but it can and does pile up.
And it’s more than okay for DMs to give themselves a little break every once in a while.
I know that can feel like an impossible thing to do for a lot of you DMs out there. Sure, it sucks if a player can’t make it to the session, but the rest of the party can still have a good time without them… the same can’t be said when the DM takes the week off.
A DM not playing D&D that week means that no one plays D&D that week, which is especially tough considering that consistency in scheduling is the key for any ongoing campaign.
But no D&D is better than bad D&D, and if a DM is tired, burnt out, and unprepared, it’s likely to lead to a bad session of D&D.
So take that week off, tell your party ahead of time, and maybe even see if one of them wants to host a one-shot during your regularly-scheduled D&D day. A lot of players aspire to DM at some point, so you’d be surprised at how many would be eager to take you up on the offer.
Don’t worry about your campaign fizzling out if you take one week off. Don’t worry about your players being mad at you for the break.
At the end of the day D&D is about everyone having fun, DM included, and if running the game starts to feel more like a chore than it’s worth, you should probably take a break rather than burn out completely.
I’m sure your party will understand.
But that’s just my two coppers.
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