The Other Side of the Screen
It’s great to be a long term Game Master. Getting to unfold storylines slowly, building a world, and seeing your players interact can really make all that hard work pay off. However, running a game can also become exhausting. All the prep work regularly can build on you, and make it possible to have burnout. So sometimes it can pay off to take a break from sitting in the chair behind the screen, but that does not mean that you have to stop playing. Instead, you can trade places with one of your players, allowing you to get some time on the other side of the screen. Not only is it a relaxing change of pace, it can also be insightful!
Hello from the Other Side
The trope of the “Forever DM” is rooted very much in reality. With TTRPGs, especially Dungeons and Dragons, becoming more popular, there is a growing demand for people to run games. Those that can run GM have always been in high demand, but recently even more so. Often if someone offers to DM, they may end up in that role long term. Campaigns, even regularly running ones, can take years to finish. My current Curse of Strahd adventure will hit its two-year anniversary in October of this year, and there is still a bit of story to complete before the players can truly depart from the Mists.
The Benefits of Playing
Even if you are not running long campaigns, you just might always be the first person to offer your services as a GM. Especially if you are playing with a newer group, the role of GMing might seem daunting. Other individuals might also just prefer the role of playing over running the campaign. I have had some players that show up at the table with a fully thought out story and character in mind. For them, the best part about DnD is that intimate look at one character and how they interact with other members of the party and the setting itself. For them, they do not want to fill the role of GM.
Whatever the reason, being the Forever GM can easily happen. While it is not entirely bad, giving yourself time as a player can provide some very useful benefits both short term and long term, and provide you with some excellent insight that will make you a better GM.
A (Short) Rest
GMing can be a tiring task at the table. You are doing a lot. Writing out the story, balancing encounters, and making sure that everyone is enjoying the game. While the fruits of creating a game can be very rewarding, sometimes you might want a break from it. At the same point, however, you may not want to stop playing. Your regular TTRPG session might be a welcome source of socialization and fun for you and your group. The idea of stopping a game, even for a short time, might be something you do not want to do.
Games have a certain inertia in them, where consecutive sessions keep the momentum going. Stopping for too long might feel like it could be a danger to stalling out that momentum entirely, especially if it is hard for you to schedule sessions.. If that is the case you can bring up the idea of trading places with someone for a short period, and taking up the role of player. This will give you less stress about prep work, and a chance to catch up if you have fallen behind on your session prep.
A Different Perspective
As a GM, you can end up with a very specific view of the campaign. When doing all of that prep work for an adventure, you will often end up focusing on the specific details of an adventure, and understanding them. This is important for running the game itself, but can lead to a lack of understanding of what the players can see in an adventure. What I like to call GM Blindness, it can become easy to think a particular detail or clue is very obvious when in fact the party will not see it. There are ways to mitigate this effect that you can work into your session prep. I think one of the best ways to do so is sitting in the other seat for a time.
When you get some time as a player, the lack of knowledge that you have about the environment and adventure you are playing in becomes much more noticeable. Take, for example, a dungeon adventure. When you are sitting in the GM seat, you will know all of the hidden information. The party enters a room and you know what traps exist, and any hidden passageways As a player, however, you might know none of that immediately. Depending on the room description, you could have an idea that secrets lurk just beyond view, but this knowledge can be invisible to the player. Depending on how they choose to interact with the environment and how you describe the room, the players might not even think of looking into certain areas. Those areas might seem obvious to the GM, but as a player you see much less. This kind of change in perspective can be very insightful, and help you when building adventures down the road, and allow you to better control the amount of information you give your party in order for them to understand what you are trying to accomplish.
Trying out the Big Chair
Taking some time as a player can also allow space for someone else at your group to try out GMing. This can be a great for someone who has not run a game before, but is interested in trying it out. The TTRG hobby can always use some more GMs as the hobby is forever growing. Giving a player with interest the chance for a brief chance at GMing, one with a definite end time, can make the prospects of trying out this new role a little less daunting than it can normally appear. You have time to be a player for a while, and the player can safely dip their toes into GMing.
Spending time as a Player
So after reading the above, perhaps you feel like it might be a good idea to take some time as a player. You want some time to recharge, or want to get a better player perspective. Or maybe you have someone who wants to try out running an adventure. Whatever the reason, you now want to make that happen. You can go about this a few different ways. Some groups like to have multiple games going at once, with different people GMing in each of them. Others like to seek another table entirely to get a separate experience as a player. Any of these works, but often I would rather have a temporary jump into the game, putting my current game on hiatus.
I prefer this for a few reasons. First, scheduling and time commitments stay about the same as before. For myself and my group, we find scheduling additional sessions difficult. Our weekly, week day night schedule works the best for everyone involved and proceeds with minimal disruptions. Adding more to that would be a little difficult for myself or anyone else at my table and possibly require me to change the frequency of the game I am running, something I would prefer not to do.
I like to use this time spent as a player as a minor break from the act of GMing entirely. Taking time off periodically can help recharge my GMing Batteries, but I often worry that the time off can lead to a loss of momentum at the table. Take too much time off and potentially have a campaign not come back at all. By having someone else jump in as a GM, you keep the game playing and the dice rolling. Sticking to that previous schedule makes it more likely that you will return to your game.
Smooth Transition
If you decide to transition to player for a time, and put your game on a temporary pause, there are certain things you will want to do in order to make this change out smoothly. The steps are few, and somewhat simple, but it can prevent any miscommunication or confusion from anyone involved. You can avoid having your game never start up again, or the temporary GM from spinning their story out longer than intended.
Going on Hiatus
If you plan on letting this adventure temporarily take the place of your current campaign, then the first thing you will want to do is let your players know ahead of time. Communication is key in all elements of TTRPGs, and it will make sure to keep any confusion minimal. Whether you do it during a game night, at the beginning or end of a session, or through talking to the group out of the game, it is important to make a few things clear to your group.
First, make sure your players know your campaign is not ending, that this adventure is just going to be a temporary break in your normal campaign schedule. This might feel obvious to you, but that may not be true for the rest of your group. Many campaigns can suddenly end, so making sure the party knows that this is just a brief adventure will help mitigate any fears that the game you are running could be suddenly ending.
It is also useful to confirm with the other GM that the adventure they plan on running has a definite end point. The excitement of getting the chance to tell a story for the first time as a Game Master can be exciting. A new GM seeing their story come to life can be exciting and addicting, and that can lead to the urge to continue the story. While not the worst possibility, having two games with the same players and the same availability could lead to a competition for time and space. If any of your players have limited availability, it might cause them to have to make a choice between the two. You can resolve this easily by confirming ahead of time that this new story will end, even if for the time being. If a player enjoys the experience, just let them know you can always return to that adventure down the road, either as a one shot or perhaps a campaign of its own.
Final Thoughts
When getting into the player’s seat, you may find that you have a bit more time and energy. Depending on how long the hiatus will be, you can use this time to get some additional work in on your primary campaign. Especially if you have paused at the end of a campaign arc, this can be a great time to run a Session 0-2. Since you will have more time, it can be very useful use this stop to do a debrief on the current campaign you are running. You can check in with party members, see everyone’s thoughts on the main game. Since you do not have to focus on prepping for the next session, you can use the extra time and energy to do this and not have to worry about pausing the campaign.
You can also take this adventure a step further, and have it tie into the primary campaign you are running. If the player running the game is interested, you can help by giving them a concept or idea to build their one shot around that you can then pull into the main game itself. You can also just incorporate whatever they end up making into the world as well, especially if the world or adventure you make is home-brewed. This can make the GM feel like their work is much more important and ever lasting since it will be a part of the larger world you are creating. It can also add some interesting variety to your world you were not expecting. Having a “Guest” GM add some elements to the world you would have never thought of, with you as a player the entire time.
Conclusion
While you may prefer the role of GM, it can really benefit you to take some time on the other side of the screen. Having time to step away from the prep work involved with running a regular campaign can help give you a needed break and help you avoid burning out without having to worry about the potential pitfalls of stopping a campaign. You can also improve your understanding of the perspective of the players, which can help you avoid the dreaded GM Blindness that makes details obvious to you but hidden to the player. It can also be a great way to provide an opportunity for any would-be GMs to have a chance at trying out the role in a limited capacity, where they can have a less stressful introduction into this side of the hobby.
If you end up deciding that it would be a great way to pause your campaign and allow someone else, either player or another GM, to run your game, you can do so as long as you follow some simple steps to ensure a smooth transition. Making sure your players know that the game is pausing temporarily helps send a message to all parties involved that this change will not replace your current campaign. Confirming with the interim GM that their plans have a definite end will help make sure you do not end up accidentally replacing your campaign with something else.
I truly believe that getting time as a player can be beneficial to GMs in many different ways. I do not get enough time to do it, but definitely try to get as much time as possible. Do you take the time to sit on the Other Side of the Screen? Do you find it useful? I would love to know below!
I am working on a newsletter, which will let you know what I am working on! If you are interested in signing up check here.
Have a question I have not covered and want my thoughts? Want to collaborate on some work in the future? Reach out to me on Twitter or here and let me know! I always love getting new ideas, and love to work with other creators on projects! Either way, I hope to hear from you!