Time off from gaming can be very therapeutic and useful if managed right. Here are a few things that you can do to pass the time and make yourself ready for a new Game.

1) Study

"Wow, Sounds dull." you must be thinking, but cracking the old Game books can be the best thing for burnout and for killing time before a new game. It is startling to me how often I open up the game books and realize that I've been running something wrong or reread a set of rules that has eluded me and finally got it. Many times,I've found a passage or two in a game book that caught my imagination and gave me an idea for a campaign. It is also shocking to me how many people are basically ignorant as to how the actual game systems work. It is a good idea to occasionally refresh one's memory.

Study isn't necessarily confined to game books either. One of my favorite thing to do is learn about stuff related to gaming. I once surprised a friend of mine who was a Political Sciences major. we were playing Cyberpunk 2020 and he was digging in his book bag trying to find his dice and as he pulled a number of his schoolbooks he was astonished to discover that I had read most of them for "fun" (Many of his books had to do with the CIA and other organs of the Intelligence community. I dig espionage,what can I say.)

2) Conventions

Cons can be a great place to game and to meet people, and let's face it, no matter how misanthropic you may think you are, Gaming is a Social activity. Take every game off your shelf and make a character that will fit well into a good Con Game. You might even take on the mighty task of developing a good stand-alone game for a Con. ( a Tip, The Ravenloft setting is practically made for One-Shot gaming.) Con Gaming can also be a good way to build history for a campaign that is in progress or on vacation. (for example, Running a Call of Cthulhu game and using the players actions as history in your real CoC Campaign or even in your World of Darkness Game. Or maybe running a Top Secret S.I. game and using it as background in a Delta Green Campaign.)

Here's another tip,Mostly for newbies to Con going, If you are running a game, don't expect the Gamers who come to have their own characters. Actually,this is misleading, If you expect the gamers to provide their own characters, Expect at least one of the characters to be 3 times as powerful as any of the others. Make Pre-gen characters for any game you run.

Another good guideline to follow is to make sure that your character can actually stand alone. Characters that are intimately tied to a particular game world or characters that rely heavily on social contacts are very difficult to play.

3) Floaters and Drop-ins

The World is a big place, and to paraphrase Steven Wright, it is a bitch to paint. I used to think that it was necessary to create as much of a game world as possible so that the Characters could run in any direction and find adventure. I was younger then....

Which brings me to Floaters and Drop-ins. Floaters are NPC's that are not tied to any particular place or situation and thus can be used at a moments notice. I also use this term to indicate any Character that I create that is not tied to a particular area and can thus be used anywhere. (I.E. if I go to a Con, and want to play in a game of Werewolf, I've got at least one Stargazer and one Silent Strider who could be anywhere and could get involved in any game. They specifically designed for this.)

Floaters are good because you can use them on the fly or pepper and salt them into an existing plot to create complications. A good example of what I'm talking about is a character in my World of Darkness Game who is named Tomas Tsimovich. Tomas is criminal defense lawyer and a Gypsy besides. Tomas has become the personal lawyer of at least a dozen supernatural people both P.C. and N.P.C. and as such is a possible hub of plots.( " I have a Client who would like to meet you, at a place of your choosing.") Whenever creating a Floater, Personality and Identity are more important than the physical circumstance(which can always be filled in later.) Every N.P.C. should have a possible story within them but I always try to come up with 2 or 3 so that I can more utility out of them.

Drop-ins are almost the exact opposite. Drop-ins are places complete with the people who inhabit them and are like little pocket worlds. The thing about Drop-ins is that they have drama going on into which the players bumble into. Perhaps what I mean to say is that there is an ongoing drama that is happening independent of the presence of the Player Characters. The Characters come into the place on some completely unrelated errand and get caught up in events or become the catalyst for events. Some of the best examples that I've ever seen are contained in Destiny's Price.

One such place in My WOD campaign is a Gas n' Go station which is the hangout and hub of a pack of Werewolves called the Working Stiff Pack. It is their home mainly because their Theurge works the 3rd shift at the station. at any time of the night, any or some or none of them may be there and it can interesting to stop for gas and beers and snacks and have some mook try to rob the place only to be ripped apart by the counter-girl who turns into a 10 foot tall Garou engine of destruction. I haven't placed this Gas station in any particular area, I just wait until the Gamers need gas... Heh heh heh.

D&D games of course have all manner of possibilities in this regard. Pubs and Inns being the most common. Floaters could include wandering hermits,minstrels, a merchant train, a traveling circus, etc.... Slap together a few of these and you will be surprised at how simple some game things become.

4) Culture Dive

It has been said that the creative process is very much like taking a shit. At times, one is blessed with regular movements with thoughts that are all of a piece. At times one must work and struggle and strain to get each chunk out, and at other times one runs to the bowl only to drop a watery mess hardly worth the trouble. It is a truism for both Shit and Art that what is yielded is a direct result of what one is fed on.

If you are burning out,and you know if you are or not, here is some help.

If you are like me and you play White Wolf Games and you have a favorite. take a vacation from that favorite before it gets stale. go dive into some other game in the set and then bring things from that game back into your favorite.

The best thing you can do is stuff your mind full of new inspirations. Movies,Anime,Music,Books of all sorts(not just fiction),read the news, surf the web, Dive into classical literature or history and maybe you can tell an old story in an entirely new way. Heck, there have times when I've been completely stuck for a beginning or an ending to a story and I've broken out my Tarot deck and let it tell me what to do. (It works. try it.) Visit an art gallery,visit a different church, go on a trip. You get the idea.

One thing you might do is find a way to go somewhere new and people watch. Never been to a Goth club? Find one and go undercover it might interest you, it might make you laugh but at least you'll be able to portray it realistically. Riding the bus and serving Jury duty are another great way to people watch. Give it a try, you might be surprised.

Hope this advice makes it all tolerable until you're in the saddle again.