Waste of time?

Everything you do as a human being is a waste of time spent in futility as you wait for the end of your life.

Might as well have fun with it.

>>52539356
Yes, yes. "Time enjoyed is time well spent" and all that shit.

But if I were to read a book, after I do, I will have read that book.
If I draw something, I will become better, and in the end, will be able to draw better.
And I'd still enjoy it, you know?

>>52539699
So do that. Do what you wanna do man.

>>52539699
As a forever DM I find great enjoyment and reward for prepping and running games.

Like what you said about drawing, I've learned how to be a good writer, storyteller, and improv'er from DMing.

Maybe you need a break, or consider DMing might not be your strongest suit.

As the GM you are supposed to be deriving your fun from the players fun or at least find a sense of pride in it. At the end of the day everything tg is a hobby; design to waste time constructively for the purpose of your own enjoyment. Take a break from GMing if you can't stop feeling this way.

>>52539699
Roleplaying builds your ability to think on your feet, rules help your short/long term memory, worldbuilding opens your mind to a lot of different possibilities. Nearly everything you do helps you improve as a person if you learn to take the right lessons from it, but if you weigh these benefits differently then just switch to something that you find worthwhile.

>>52539261
I used to worry about this too.

I do indie game dev in my spare time, but back when I was a teenager I spent... what, four whole years hacking Super Mario World. Thing is, you can't sell a romhack, no one outside of a small community cares about a romhack, it's harder to explain romhacks to people, you get very limited feedback on a romhack, you're stuck with the original engine, etc. It's pretty thankless work, too. So eventually I stopped and decided to make baby steps in Game Maker instead.

And I looked back on my romhacking days with a sort of anger. Why had I spent all these years clumsily making shit next to no one cared about? Sure, I knew how to import graphics into Super Mario World and how to use utilities to add extra resources to the game and how to design levels for that exact engine, but you can't bring any of that knowledge to indie games!
Why did I do this as a kid when I could have picked up an engine (or hell, a real programming language)? I'd be making real games by now! What a colossal fucking waste of time!

Later, a couple years into game dev, I had an important realization.

Everything you do, every project you finish that doesn't get attention beyond a small circle of friends, everything you have to drop because it doesn't work out, every idea you trash for any reason, all the crap you waste hours of your life on, only for it to be completely meaningless in the end.

None of it truly goes to waste. It's all compost.

Look at it this way: all your DMing know-hows and ideas are going to spend a long time in the back of your brain, decomposing slowly while your neurons break them down into their basic elements. And years later, when you're writing a book and drawing from past ideas and experience, these dead ideas, this LITERAL shit and waste, will make fucking FANTASTIC fertilizer. You may not be consciously aware of it, this is where your future work will draw its nutriments from.

Your brain is a garden, OP. Dead plants matter.

>>52539261
I don't really think so. It keeps my mind going. Worldbuilding and session-planning are good mental exercises. I think a hobby where you need to think is a good hobby to have.

>>52539261
I spend two hours a day in transit five days a week. I spend that time brainstorming for sessions. Ten hours a week is plenty of time.

>>52539699
GMing is a skill.
It involves conveying concepts, reading and observing others, improvising solutions, and many other skills.
Become a better GM, become a better person.

Everything is a waste of time.
Waste your time wisely.