What are your weaknesses as a DM/GM?

[Olaf the Stout]

I started a thread here on what people thought their strengths as a DM/GM were. This is its sister thread, what are your weaknesses as a DM/GM?

For me I think my weaknesses are:

NPC Voices – I have no trouble making different NPC’s in terms of appearances, motivations, mannerisms, etc. However, I struggle to come up with unique voices for each NPC. I have a couple of different voices/accents but, for the most part, all my NPCs generally end up sounding alike. It’s a bit annoying as different voices can really help bring NPC’s to life and make them memorable. I’ve seen a number of other DMs come up with a wide range of different voices, but it just something that I struggle with.

Writing Adventures – I’m pretty good at adapting pre-written adventures to my own game (changing things to work better with my players and the current campaign). I also don’t have much trouble in figuring out what to do when my players going completely off-base from what is covered in a pre-written adventure. However, I suck at coming up with my own adventures completely on my own.

I’ve been playing for around 20 years and have DM’d almost exclusively for the last 8 years. Yet the only time I think I’ve ran an adventure completely of my own design was back in the late 90’s when my group at the time used to rotate the DM role. I can’t even remember what that adventure was like, but it was unremarkable at best. Part of my problem is time limitations. I’m married with 3 children under 7yo and work full-time. So I just don’t have enough free time to sit down and come up with my own adventures. However, I think I’m just not creative enough to come up with completely fresh ideas on my own. I’m just lucky that pre-written adventures are plentiful!

Spell Knowledge – While my rules knowledge is pretty good, my spell knowledge isn’t great. If I read half the names of the spells in the 3.5E PHB I’d probably only know what half of them do (and even then I’d probably still need to read the description to know exactly how they worked). This is a problem as many BBEGs are casters and a lot of monsters have spell-like abilities. So the game often slows to a crawl when I’m running a combat with multiple casters or monsters with spell-like abilities as I try and figure out what the best spell to cast is.

I’m currently playing a Wizard PC in a game at the moment (a rare chance for me to be a PC), so that will help my spell knowledge. However, we’re almost certainly going to switch to 5E at the end of this campaign, so I’ll be back to square 1 again!

Dealing With Aggressive PC’s – One of the players in my group tends to play characters that are very forceful in trying to get what they want from NPC’s. It doesn’t matter what type of character class he plays, they all tend to be very aggressive and quick to threaten my NPC’s with physical harm to get what the party wants (usually information).

I’ve yet to find a way to deal with those situations that doesn’t result in either combat or the NPC getting overly hostile with the party. If the PC in question doesn’t get what he wants from the NPC it seems to get confrontational very quickly, even when the NPC in question is friendly with the party. Maybe it’s just the player in question, but there must be a way of handling the situation better. So far I haven’t found it though.

So what are your weaknesses as a DM/GM?

 

[BigVanVader]

There's a lot of quit in me.

And I don't think this is a weakness with me in general, but it does make running a rules-heavy system like D&D a bit difficult: I cannot possibly be bothered to look up rules. If you want to climb something hard and I like the sound of the plan, just roll a d20 and add some bonus to it. It worked? Congratulations, you climbed the demon's sweaty, swinging heavy junk. Now what do you wanna do before it notices and kills you?

Also, trying to get me to start a game is like pulling teeth. I'm never, ever, ever ever ever ever 'ready' to run a game, I never feel prepared, I never have notes. I'm just badgered by the group until I have a panic attack and then jump into it.

 

[JamesonCourage]

I hate prepping for games, so I end up winging almost everything. I can't stay focused while reading APs or modules, either, no matter how good they are; I just skim, pick up some ideas, and wing the rest. It makes it slightly less "objective" when I don't have solid stats in front of me and my players are going up against certain DCs I set, fighting off certain enemies, etc. I have guidelines I use, even in multiple systems, but rarely statblocks.

 

[Lindeloef]

I hate prepping for games, so I end up winging almost everything. I can't stay focused while reading APs or modules, either, no matter how good they are; I just skim, pick up some ideas, and wing the rest.

Replace "hate prepping" with being extremely lazy and the quoted part describes my weaknesses to the T.

 

[Hand of Evil]

NPC Dialog & Character Builds -- This is how they act and present themselves to the characters, what their personality is like. Away around this I found is to take characters from movies, and use them for important NPCs and to stereotype the common ones like bartenders, city watch, etc. I also get my players to do builds of NPC as homework.

Adventure Writing - I am not sure I would say it is a weakness but I bullet point a lot of stuff and don't go into detail. I then run the game from the hip.

 

[Neonchameleon]

I'm dyslexic. I literally can't take more than two line notes in sessions without losing track of everything. Which is fine for short or episodic games but means I really struggle at anything longer.

I also have problems putting my NPCs in that sweet spot between "Limited ability to adapt when their plans are ruined - their contingency plans weren't good enough to deal with unexpected PCs" and "Machiavellian mastermind".

 

[Piratecat]

Organization. My notes are a scattered mishmash of scrawled phrases on random monster sheets, and it's six years into the campaign and I still haven't drawn a proper map.

Tactical combat. Really crunchy combat that isn't cinematic has the risk of boring me. As a DM, I'm a bad match for players who like really complex, simulatiuonist combat.

Running short campaigns. The last campaign I ran was 16 years. These two campaigns are at 6 years each. I can run one-shots easily, but I've never managed the 3-12 month game.

 

[pogre]

I'm the opposite of Piratecat these days. I used to have very long campaigns, but 6-12 months seem to be my norm these days. I let little things frustrate me and ended up wiping the slate clear.

There are some player styles I just do not cater to very well - folks heavily into acting are not a good match for my campaign.

I struggle with providing a spotlight or focus moments for non-combat PCs. I do try, but it is a weakness.

 

[Grogg of the North]

I love to DM. Working with players to tell a story is a great feeling. With that being said, I'm an introvert. DMing is an extremely draining experience for me. If I DM more than once a fortnight, I can't recharge my batteries effectively. I burn out. And the campaign dies with a whimper.

 

[Wednesday Boy]

Dealing With Aggressive PC’s – One of the players in my group tends to play characters that are very forceful in trying to get what they want from NPC’s. It doesn’t matter what type of character class he plays, they all tend to be very aggressive and quick to threaten my NPC’s with physical harm to get what the party wants (usually information).

I’ve yet to find a way to deal with those situations that doesn’t result in either combat or the NPC getting overly hostile with the party. If the PC in question doesn’t get what he wants from the NPC it seems to get confrontational very quickly, even when the NPC in question is friendly with the party. Maybe it’s just the player in question, but there must be a way of handling the situation better. So far I haven’t found it though.

Instead of your NPCs reacting with hostility you could have them cut ties with the party. One instance of threatening someone should have them dry up as resource the party can count on. Or you could have the aggressive PC gain a negative reputation. The local constables would be wary of the PC because they've received complaints of the PC threatening violence. Innkeepers and merchants would be wary to deal with the PC because they've heard about their temper.

Or you could take an out of game approach and speak with the player about their character's hostile interactions and explain how they are going to earn them a bad reputation and lose them friends and allies.