Our group swapped campaign notes for one shots for 8 weeks, it fixed our burnout

Been running the same D&D campaign every other Friday for like 2 years. About 2 months ago half the group started showing up tired or distracted, one guy kept checking his phone. I thought it was the story, so I tried bigger set pieces and it made things worse. Finally I suggested we pause the campaign and just do random one shots where people could swap who DMs. Did that for 8 weeks straight, no overarching plot, just silly level 5 characters doing weird jobs. We did a heist in a floating market, a murder mystery on a train, one where everyone was a kobold. Last week we went back to the main campaign and two people said they actually missed it and were paying way more attention. Has anyone else parked their big campaign to reset the table, or did you just push through and regret it?

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julia55724d ago

Honestly, just do it. I did the exact same thing with my group after a year of the same campaign and it saved us. The one shots let everyone try being DM for a change, which honestly made them appreciate the main game way more. Nothing kills a table faster than people showing up out of obligation instead of actually wanting to play. You're not quitting the campaign, you're just taking a break to recharge. Honestly, every group should know this trick, it works way better than pushing through. Tbh, the silly sessions became some of our best memories too.