D&D General What are "soft" skills that a DM benefits from learning?

[Quickleaf]

There are a whole bundle of skills that a Dungeon Master can learn from reading the books, talking to fellow DMs, and watching streamed games. And then there are "soft" skills that DMs tend to pick up as a result of either trial-and-error, mentorship by a more experienced DM, or just raw talent.

What are the important "soft" DMing skills that the DMG is silent on?

I ask because a friend and I are collaborating on an adventure to help new DMs learn how to be a Dungeon Master. I've jotted down these twelve...

1. Improvise NPCs & Dialogue
2. When to Roll Dice… and When Not To
3. Learn Your Players
4. Present Scenarios with Multiple Paths to Victory
5. Encourage Outside the Box Thinking
6. Know When to End a Scene
7. Handle the Start of Initiative
8. Running Combat, Monster Tactics, and Keeping Track
9. Group/Table Management
10. Flow Between Players & DM: Action-Reaction
11. Adapt the Rules to Cover Situations Outside the Rules
12. Pacing

 

[Laurefindel]

13. Know the themes and gaming styles you like yourself.

 

[Shiroiken]

Campaign Design: don't believe that a campaign will go all the way to level 20 (real life often screws with this) and don't be afraid to design a story that ends at a lower level. Dragging a campaign on after the story has been told is often unfun for both the players and DM.

Also, while many won't like it, but something a lot of new DMs need to understand: when to quit. Not every campaign idea works (most are better in your head than IRL) and sometimes you need to cut your losses. In addition, some new DMs aren't actually good at DMing, and shouldn't feel bad if they're not.

 

[Son of the Serpent]

Campaign Design: don't believe that a campaign will go all the way to level 20 (real life often screws with this) and don't be afraid to design a story that ends at a lower level. Dragging a campaign on after the story has been told is often unfun for both the players and DM.

Also, while many won't like it, but something a lot of new DMs need to understand: when to quit. Not every campaign idea works (most are better in your head than IRL) and sometimes you need to cut your losses. In addition, some new DMs aren't actually good at DMing, and shouldn't feel bad if they're not.

The hard thing some people need to hear.

 

[Iry]

@Shiroiken is absolutely correct. There should be a section specifically about Dealing With Disappointment - what to do when your players don't seem to be having fun, when you don't seem to be having fun, how you can mix things up or sit down and talk with them, and even just dealing positively with players who have gotten frustrated or completely derailed your plans.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Don't make numbered lists.

 

[iserith]

Time management. Few DMs in my experience really think about how long a campaign will take and whether the group will make it through. So the DM really needs to think about session length, frequency of sessions, and number of sessions to complete a campaign before committing to anything. This also helps with pacing of individual sessions.

 

[hawkeyefan]

Keep the shared experience of the game as the primary goal.

Did your favorite villain just get killed due to clever player action? Accept it. Did your encounter prep just get undone by a spell? Accept it. Let the players have the victories...this is more important than your prep or your villain.

 

[Lakesidefantasy]

Keep the shared experience of the game as the primary goal.

Yes. In an attempt to scuttle the "me versus them" mentality, I have recently switched to using words like "we" and "us" when writing my adventures to reflect the fact that I as Dungeon Master am a part of the adventure too.

 

[Nagol]

Active Listening
Plausible situation extrapolation / improvisation
Maintaining consistency in rulings