Hey DMs. You ever get like.. sad? Like immediately following a session? A few of my other DM buddies have relayed this to me, and I can totally relate. There’s this feeling that people were bored, or they thought the session was stupid. Regardless how many words of affirmation my party sends my way, I’m continually second guessing the quality of the content, my own delivery, and the consistency of my judgements. It usually goes away after a few hours, but that DNDepression is real, man.
— Jesse's Dungeons and Disasters (@JDisasters) June 10, 2020
Aye, all the time over the years. I’ve spent a LOT of time thinking on it, and I know much of it stems from overall human insecurity… which is often compounded by players also feeling the same insecurities. A table of people all worried they let everyone else down. Pleasant words can only do so much when you can play the critic to your own choices, or feel the energy was off, etc…
It just sucks. We can’t always live up to our expectations we hold ourselves to… and that isn’t always healthy either.
— Matthew Mercer (@matthewmercer) June 11, 2020
If it helps at all, though… looking through these comments, you should very much know now that you aren’t alone. <3
— Matthew Mercer (@matthewmercer) June 11, 2020