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

[TheDelphian]

Mine is taking notes. I tell players they make notes or things may not be there when they get back. Forget to write an NPC's name down is a god way to make them be absent in the future. Of course I remember the bad guys well enough.

 

[Larnievc]

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?

Describing things in the environment. I almost always have to draw any area they are in.

Flavour text for areas is a god send for me.

 

[Larnievc]

Filler Words and Stuttering.

Can relate. Have stammer.

 

[Marc_C]

Accents for sure. I don't do them except if its slang in French or Quebecois.

I always forget to write down NPC names created in the heat of the moment. Luckily I have a player who writes down everything in a shared google doc.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

Describing things in the environment.

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.

 

[Campbell]

I have a terrible sense of physical space. I went to film school when I was younger so my sense of physical space, distances, and the like is much more intuitive and cinematic. I can't draw maps for the life of me. My dungeon crawls are more point crawls.

 

[kenada]

I’m terrible about reading and following my notes. I never read boxed text or descriptions as written even when I’m the one who wrote them in the first place. Consequently, my notes have evolved away from written descriptions to lists of things I can use in a description.

 

[prabe]

I can't draw. Any "visual aids" I provide look suitable for a preschooler. An inept preschooler.

I cannot sustain an accent not my own for more than about half a second. Tops. I can muster some characterization in spite of that, but my range is limited, and anything more than "the players can tell when I'm talking as GM from when I'm talking as a character" is gravy.

My brain doesn't work in a way that lets me take notes while I'm GMing. At least not notes that are coherent or even useful later. Fortunately, my wife takes good notes in-session.

 

[Campbell]

I can't draw. Any "visual aids" I provide look suitable for a preschooler. An inept preschooler.

I cannot sustain an accent not my own for more than about half a second. Tops. I can muster some characterization in spite of that, but my range is limited, and anything more than "the players can tell when I'm talking as GM from when I'm talking as a character" is gravy.

My brain doesn't work in a way that lets me take notes while I'm GMing. At least not notes that are coherent or even useful later. Fortunately, my wife takes good notes in-session.

I take all my notes immediately after the session. In the middle of a session things flow better if I just try to stay present.

 

[not-so-newguy]

I suck dealing with technology. My few forays into online ttrpg have been frustrating failures as a player and a DM.

There might've been other factors, but technology was definitely a common denominator.