Solo Advice: Countering Solo Burnout

All roleplaying games tend to have a degree of burnout involved. There are a lot of causes for both gamemasters and players (even if the gm/player-divide is less viable as a tool as many rpg-philosophers claim) but at the core the general issue remains the creating a story together and finding a balance between the real world, the self, and the collective fiction with the added stress of a regular (or semi-regular) meeting time. Some new tools - adventure crafters, virtual tabletops, and a wealth of pre-written adventures with plenty of systems for virtually every style of play - help but it can be hard to be on point week after week especially as things shift and change. We also have a historically high number of people with blogs like this one willing to offer their own advice. 

But what about if you are the gamemaster and player at the same time? Where taking a rest, taking a backseat, or any of the usual advice means the game just ceases? It can be tricky in a way that a multiplayer game can involve communication and talking it out.

As a person who has now been doing solo play for a couple of years - and running/playing multiplayer stuff for around four decades - I have experienced various of burnout. Including in my solo stuff. There are ways I've come up to help myself. Some of it might help you.

This is with the caveat of it being a) stuff that can work for me and b) stuff that will be a bit contradictory in places because what works for one case might be the opposite of what works elsewhere.

1. Honestly, Embrace the Burnout

Just to start with the simplest and possibly core answer: if something about solo playing is burning you out to where you don't want to do it then take a step back for the moment. One of the glorious things about solo play is that it reduces a lot of the stresses of multiplayer games. You no longer have the social obligation to show up at regular times or to bend your narrative around a group effort (unless your solo play is shared via blog/video but even then its up to you). If you take a week or two off, it doesn't detract from your game. 

You can use that space to be honest about what is and is not working for you. Is stuff too complicated? Too simple? Too easy? Too hard? Just not feeling it? Having a moment to reflect about what you want from your game might provide all the answers you need to the problem and make the rest of this post a bit redundant. 

2. Try Changing Up Your Play on a Temporary Basis

Generally the best thing that works for me is to just try something new in the way I am playing for just a session or two and if it works then I embrace it for longer. The idea here, though, is to not worry about any long term changes but to give yourself the freedom to just try out something. New voices. New tools. New patterns. Don't have a scheduled time play? Make one. Do have a scheduled time to play? Move it to a different time.

If I am doing a story-heavy game and that's starting to drag down my ability to play because I have to juggle a lot of story then maybe I have a session or two where I just break out of the story and get into action-heavy stuff.  Or vice versa. If I am not enjoying the POV I have picked I might introduce another POV character for a short burst. If I am getting tired building up missions, I might try something more pre-designed. Some times it is pretty theater of mind. Sometimes I like to build pretty definite maps. It keeps it fresh.

A big example of this was getting burned out on juggling 3+ campaigns at the same time and switching it from "campaigns" to "arcs within a campaign" and then playing one arc at a time. 

3. Try Trimming Your Table Tools

The next thing tends to work for me is if I find that solo play is starting to stress me out is I try to peel it back to as simple as I can and just focus primarily on (1) myself and (2) the game world as currently understood by me. At the most extreme I just ignore the rule book and just play the dice based on my current understanding of the game so I have virtually zero look-up to distract from the joy of play. 

Pulling back a bit from journal creep can help. Shrinking the stack of oracles and tables to just a few. Removing accessories and extras that are not going to come up in a session. Just pick a few enemies per area for combat oriented games. Just pick a few NPCs per area for more social games. 

With things like miniatures or maps, break them down to more generic versions. A point crawl maybe. Stuff you can put together more on the fly and change up endlessly.

Time is the most important tool in a solo payers toolkit besides themselves and some of the trimming is just that. Shorter sessions. Breaking sessions down into three or four bursts. 

The idea is to get as much efficiency as you can. Remove the having to sort through files or tracking a dozen characters "off screen." You can always complicate it again later. Remember, the first step is to try out some temporary changes.

4. On the Other Hand: Sometimes More Is Better

Occasionally I hear people complain about the opposite problem. They are keeping a minimal amount of notes, keeping NPC interactions minor, and keeping things going fast. For some people, myself included, there is a point where things get a bit too minimal. In those moments, adding in a bit more can help me to actually feel like there is a point to my playing. Working out more character interactions. Adding in elements and background. Expanding out a bit of the world even if I am only focusing on a core bit.

This can also apply to table tools. If things start to feel a bit same-y it can be a sign that you should work in a new oracle or two, some more random tables, or other elements that bring in some stuff. Not necessarily for all of your games but having a weird mission can help make the normal missions feel a bit more brighter when there's a chance that the next one could be an odd duckling.

Likewise if you are getting to the point where you feel like you are just telling a story with a pretense at dice, try adding in some twists or a more robust gamemaster emulator like Mythic 2 or a more robust NPC emulator like Universal NPC Emulator to reduce a few elements of control while still playing a game that fits your expectations.

I would generally say start small. Don't add enough stuff that you immediately have to start ripping it back out.

5. Replenish Your Well of Inspiration

If you get to a point where your game seems to be stalling out and you are having a hard time trying to figure out some interesting hooks or interpreting some meaning, going back to the Well of Inspiration can help a lot. Try watching some other solo play Let's Plays. Reading some genre fiction. Look through some modules or accessories that might talk about optional rules or some pre-built adventures. Reconnect to the kind of stories that made you want to tell your solo play narrative to begin with.

Things I like to do in this category is look at stock art. Listen to music that has the right sort of vibe. Play a video game. Even just go on and look at some maps that folks have made. Think about things like, "How would I play out that scenario differently?" Then, when I play, I forget all about the scenario and do something else instead. It just helps to rebuild some joy.

In this category can be to try things like short one-shots (very short one-shots), gamebooks, or solo board-gaming just to give you space to play without the entanglements of a main campaign. It is super easy to get attached to a campaign that has been going on for a bit and become convinced you need to complete all three-hundred-and-twenty-seven sessions of it. Taking a step back from that and looking at other systems, settings, and scenarios can help to remind you what you like and don't like without the overhead. 

Just be careful.  You don't want to end up with two campaigns. Maybe make that one-shot very one-shot-ty. Alternately, set it in the same world with different characters where if you do end up getting inspired to explore more,  you are just building up additional lore. 

6. Prep as Play Can Cure Multiple Ills

It is possible to write advice and my experiences for far longer than anyone would want to read so I will leave it with something that I do all the time as just  a way to launch myself into play. Which I have seen other solo payers recommend to avoid burn out. Namely, just prepare stuff for your game. Or for another game. Or for no real game in particular.

What does this look like? Make some characters. Make some scenes. Create some art. Prep a few tables worth of encounters. Sketch a map. Come up with a handout like you might make if you were running this for someone else. Pick a couple of worldbooks (etc) that could be useful and put them close to hand. Double check rules in your core book that are likely to come up. Get the gist?

Do pretty much everything you might do during solo play except the play. Or do the play, too, if you feel inspired. If not, you have some tools to speed up the process the next time you feel like it. 

Like I said, I tend to do a version of this at the start of every "chapter" or so in my solo play arcs. Just sit down, come up with possible NPCs, come up with some possible locations, sketch out some layouts, work out some possible twists. Once I get there in play I might change anywhere from a little to a lot of it. That's not the point. The point is try and fish around in my brain until I find that idea that goes, "Yeah, yeah, pick me!"

And then I do. And if I don't find anything to pick, I take a rest instead. Rest is important, too.