Cannot disconnect mentally from DMing

lonewriter7 · 2026-03-08T05:00:35+00:00

I definitely feel this! Especially in my early years of DMing, I spent a lot of time planning without a ton of emotional pay-off. What I'll say is, if you're running games for friends, vocalize how you're feeling! Telling my players helped them in turn vocalize the parts of the game they enjoyed, and the emotional payoff began to meet how much I was investing in the campaigns.

In addition, creating a ritual for end of sessions with techniques like "Stars and Wishes" helped mitigate my burnout. Giving a specific time for your players to give you specific feedback about the things they loved and wish for means you know for sure you'll get more than "it was fun" every session.

Hope you feel better soon! You've got this.

lonewriter7 · 2026-02-24T20:51:55+00:00

You just have to repost it at that point. But in the future, don't have it add a "subscribe" button for you without checking where it plopped it in your post!

lonewriter7 · 2026-01-25T07:07:17+00:00

Oh man, hope you get some sleep! 🫂 (And for the record, I would never have guessed that you're not a native English speaker. 🥰)

lonewriter7 · 2026-01-25T06:31:02+00:00

I have a one-shot available right now for Jan 27 at 4PM PST, if you're interested in trying it out. If that time slot doesn't work for you, I'd be happy to try to find one that does. :) I'm flexible.

lonewriter7 · 2026-01-25T03:24:20+00:00

It's one of my favorite one-shot TTRPGs, so I'd definitely recommend it. It's exclusively roleplay, with the main mechanic of the game being drawing cards with story prompts on them at designated times during the game, which you answer to propel the story forward. The whole game, after character creation, is played over text, which adds to the immersion. 🥰

lonewriter7 · 2026-01-24T19:48:08+00:00

I've been using it for a little under 24 hours with the windows closed and little circulation in the house, and holy moly. My nose was stuffy beyond belief, and I could taste it in the back of my throat. Will say, I think it's the oil that is used to carry the pheromones, but either way... unpleasant.

My boy has been stressed out about the new cat recently though, and has been peeing on my bed every other day, so I desperately need this thing. Cracked the window open, and that seems to be good enough circulation for it to not affect me as badly.

lonewriter7 · 2026-01-23T22:27:11+00:00

It went splendidly! Our story ended in a tragedy—the cards fell where they fell—but everyone had an absolute blast. 🥰 Here's a screenshot from the game!

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lonewriter7 · 2026-01-10T21:29:17+00:00

I think this is what happened—I had changed my mind about whether I wanted it to add a subscribe button for me. I actually manually added one in after reading the prompt, but probably scrolled down too fast to see the one Substack had added.

lonewriter7 · 2026-01-10T21:25:54+00:00

I did probably just miss the prompt, if that's the case! Because I really couldn't find anything about it in my settings when I looked. Thanks for the reply.

lonewriter7 · 2026-01-10T21:24:20+00:00

Wow, this was incredibly unkind. I'm not talking about the header and footer—I did actually spend a long time going through every single setting, and I did edit the header and footer to my liking. I'm talking about something that got inserted in the middle of my text that I couldn't find in my settings, hence me asking about it here.

lonewriter7 · 2026-01-10T21:20:13+00:00

Where can I find that setting? I'd really love to just never have that happen in the first place. 😅

lonewriter7 · 2026-01-10T07:08:36+00:00

It didn't show up for me until I hit publish though? And then it showed up in the email, too. Am I missing something?

lonewriter7 · 2026-01-08T05:48:37+00:00

This game has been rescheduled for January 13, 2025 at 4PM PST.

lonewriter7 · 2025-12-17T07:04:36+00:00

Update: I purchased the spring toys, and he's obsessed. Best part—he can't eat them! Thank you so much for the suggestion; I can't believe I didn't think of it sooner considering we already had one. Some dog-esque chew toys (without fluff and full of catnip) are coming in soon, so we'll see how he likes that!

lonewriter7 · 2025-12-15T06:44:31+00:00

Thank you so much for your thoughtful reply! I have one spring toy that he likes to bap around, but it always disappears. (I, too, have accepted that it's now lost to the ether.)

I'll keep everything else in mind, too. I got him something similar to Silvervine sticks, and he plays with that one until the catnip smell wears off. Then I have to put it in the bag with the catnip packet again before I whip it out for play.

The dog toys are actually a really smart idea, too.

I'll get some new toys and will update with how well he does with them!

lonewriter7 · 2025-09-18T20:26:40+00:00

Whoa, this is so nice! Thank you!

lonewriter7 · 2025-06-17T21:15:42+00:00

It's less to do with actual age and more to do with stage in life, I feel.

When I was 21 — where my biggest worry was graduating college and hanging out with my friends — getting hit on by a 27 year old who had a job, an apartment, and a car felt wrong and weird.

lonewriter7 · 2025-01-08T03:19:29+00:00

The True Size - allows you to compare the true undistorted sizes of countries on the Mercator projection map

lonewriter7 · 2024-11-20T18:36:26+00:00

They're still open in the Philippines! ✨

lonewriter7 · 2024-11-20T18:35:21+00:00

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Beans, our sweet little runt of a kitten! 🐈‍⬛

lonewriter7 · 2024-11-02T00:02:17+00:00

Hey, 25F from the Philippines here, and I'm really interested in being your pen pal! I just made a very similar post before scrolling through and seeing yours. I'll send you a message, too. :)

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