Things you don’t like about DMing

[Scribe]

If there is a part about GMing -- which i love, snd far prefer to playing -- that i force myself to deal with, rather than do out of joy, it is learning rules. Even when I want you try a new game, what i really want is to watch a couple YT videos and download a couple cheat sheets, but I know that's not REALLY learning a new game. So I force myself to try and understand the nuances, for the benefit of my players, even though I honestly do not give a single solitary crap.

Very much agree. Its gotten to the point, I dont know if its age, patience, mental bandwidth, whatever, where the biggest hurdle by far for me in any new game is learning the rules to the point where its become a real negative. I just do not care to put more things in my head.

 

[Umbran]

The thing I probably most dislike about GMing...

...is all the people online invested in claiming you're doing it wrong, for any value of "you".

 

[Lidgar]

I like pretty much everything about DM’ing. Prep work can be fun, and running the game even more so.

About the only thing I don’t really like is when the players get on a really bad dice run while my dice get hot. We roll in the open for the most part, so we tend not to fudge things, preferring to let the dice lie where they may. So it’s tough to see a TPK go down like that, but we take it in stride.

 

[Clint_L]

The only thing I dislike is that I never get to have a night off and just play.

 

[Li Shenron]

One thing that keeps me from DMing more often, is the awareness of how easily I might get trapped into a time sink in the over-preparation of adventures. It happens because I actually like it, but then I regret having taken too much time away from other activities I might have wanted to do.

Otherwise, there's a bunch of bad player behaviours that I don't like happening when I am the DM, but they are usually solved by the good-old "kill them and take their stuff" method.

 

[Fenris-77]

Players?

 

[GrimCo]

Learning new rules is big thing i don't like. When i was in HS or Uni, learning new medium to high crunch game was fun. Now it's chore i would rather avoid. Problem is, for my main group, rules light games aren't fun for more than one shot or very short few session game.

Other thing i'm not really fond of is improvising encounters and creating back up options if players choose to go off rails.

 

[Fenris-77]

I am very over learning new high-crunch games generally. I'll make exceptions if it looks super cool, but mostly no thank you. I have enough of those in my library already and they mostly aren't the games i really enjoy.

 

[Benjamin Olson]

I hate juggling enemy and npc stat blocks, and most issues of game complexity for me are basically issues of whether the stat block is so complicated I actually need it at hand, or so simple it gives me no support for characters doing anything off-script.

 

[Retros_x]

I think its absurd to ask "why are you even GMing" if you have some aspects that feel like work or not enjoying that much. I yet have to encounter any hobby / freetime activity where I love every aspect.

Its more rational to try and minimize the stuff you don't like and focus on what you enjoy. I for example tend to procrastinate hard map work, technical preperations etc. - so I run mostly TOTM with improvised abstract maps on a gridded battle map.
I also hate to juggly a lot of enemy and NPC stat blocks - so I use simplified stat blocks and improvise the rest.

Pre games nerves I also get even after all these years, especially if last session is a bit longer ago or when its a new group of players or a new campaign. But I played tons of amateur theatre in my teens and twenties, so I am used to stage fright and learned even to use it to my advantage - adrenaline is a hell of a drug!