D&D General What DM-skills are you bad at?

[Orius]

I've never really bothered with accents, and I probably would do them badly anyway.

Roleplaying and improv are my weakest points. I'm iffy with the RPing stuff, and I can't DM well at all without prep. The RPing isn't too serious an issue though, because my players like to hack and slash anyway.

Protip: Always use High Gygaxian to describe rooms. Use a combination of really old or 25 cent words that your players likely don't understand (such as vermillion) with words you just make up (like lacofite).

The beauty of it is that no one wants to appear stupid; so they will just nod their heads as if they understand what the room looks like no matter what you are saying.

That wouldn't work at my table. I'd get a "WTF are you talking about!?" and then half an hour would be wasted trying to explain.

 

[cbwjm]

For me my biggest weakness is accents. I'm SO bad at them, that I don't even try.

What's the DMing thing you're worst at?

I don't bother with accents because I don't think they are necessary. What I'm really bad at though, is introducing new PCs. Last player that joined ended up being a "Here's a lizardfolk, he's a party member now."

 

[cbwjm]

I have difficulty remembering what voices I gave to NPCs the last time the players talked to them. I also can only do like 6 different voices so it's like Skyrim where you can hear when they used the same actor to play 80 different characters.

When running combats against high-CR foes that have complicated stat blocks (resistances, immunities, legendary actions, lair actions, reactions) there is a very good chance I will miss stuff and run them incorrectly.

I just imagine them meeting someone and they have a thick Scottish accent. Next time, they sound like they're from Texas.

 

[Burnside]

I just imagine them meeting someone and they have a thick Scottish accent. Next time, they sound like they're from Texas.

You’re not wrong.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

Heh. That was done back in my 30s. I imagine that if we grew up reading the same dungeon advice, looking at the same maps in modules, there would end up being spontaneous similarities. And that was for an adventure I ran using OD&D, so I was deliberately trying to mimic older styles.

That looks strangely similar to the first dungeon map I ever used (my cousin made it).

 

[Manbearcat]

Being irresistibly handsome.

My players often just get too distracted that it’s impossible to keep them on task.

It’s frustrating.

Being so handsome.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

Being irresistibly handsome.

My players often just get too distracted that it’s impossible to keep them on task.

It’s frustrating.

Being so handsome.

 

[Helldritch]

Ho boy, that thread is going to derail into a joke fest...

Seriously, my worst ability as a DM is VTT. I tried Roll20... after 5 hours I was not even with a full session worth of encounters. Import map? Image is too big... WTF???#@!!!#@##@@!!!! I had used the same image like 10 minutes ago and now it's too big??? I simply suck at VTT. So we resorted to TotM, discord and messengers for pictures of the maps.

My second weakness was and still is, a tendency to over prepare. I could prepare a whole campaign for level 1 to 20 only to see the group die at level 10... Now I still over prepare, but it is a lot less. I try to keep ahead for 2 to 5 levels only...

It is not that I can't improvise. Some of my best games were entirerly improvised and the players never saw the difference. It is just that I much prefer to prepare.

 

[Oofta]

Where did you find my gif?

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

Same. When I had to switch to online gaming at the start of the pandemic, all the VTTs I tried just felt like too much for me. I finally ended up going with Discord using the Avrae bot and have been humming along splendidly ever since.

Ho boy, that thread is going to derail into a joke fest...

Seriously, my worst ability as a DM is VTT. I tried Roll20... after 5 hours I was not even with a full session worth of encounters. Import map? Image is too big... WTF???#@!!!#@##@@!!!! I had used the same image like 10 minutes ago and now it's too big??? I simply suck at VTT. So we resorted to TotM, discord and messengers for pictures of the maps.

I also over-prepare but will gladly throw stuff away at the drop of a hat and improvise if the players zig instead of zag. Sometimes that lost stuff comes up later, or I can re-configure it for use. But really, I know I enjoy preparing for my sessions, so I'm fine with having more stuff than I'll ever use. And really, the more I understand the gaming world and the story we're crafting together, the better I am at improvising and coming up with new stuff later.

My second weakness was and still is, a tendency to over prepare. I could prepare a whole campaign for level 1 to 20 only to see the group die at level 10... Now I still over prepare, but it is a lot less. I try to keep ahead for 2 to 5 levels only...

It is not that I can't improvise. Some of my best games were entirerly improvised and the players never saw the difference. It is just that I much prefer to prepare.