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

[Oofta]

Well I'm the perfect DM and do everything perfectly every time. If I had to come up with a flaw, it would be that I'm simply too modest.

 

[Oofta]

For an actual answer ... I'm horrible at running mods. I just can't do it well, especially if they're more than one and done. I lose track of what the mod said, start improvising and then the next section makes no sense.

There are a ton of other areas I can improve. I'm decent at accents (it's not a Scottish brogue, it's a dwarven accent, honest!) and voices, but I could be better at evocative descriptions. Not just of NPCs but rooms and locales. I'm also terrible at taking notes, fortunately my wife documents everything. When she asked me to do that for her game I had like 2 lines for the entire game. Something about one of the PCs talking to a shopkeeper with no other info. In any case, there's always room for improvement.

Fortunately my players have had a lot of truly horrible DMs* so they put up with me.

*Like the AL DM that had the PCs wander around a dungeon for 3.5 hours that had been evacuated. Just an entire session of going from one room to the next with "it's an empty room" and "you search but there's nothing there".

 

[Baldurs_Underdark]

Oof, lots of things to improve. If I have to pick one that wasn't mentioned before in this thread:

I love running an open sandbox game where lots of stuff happens and the players choose their own destiny. But bringing such a campaign to a close with a big finale after which we all feel that "we are done" is something I have failed at miserably. The campaign never ends!

 

[Bacon Bits]

Going off script while running a module. Like the actual transition from following the module to making stuff up. Once I'm off script I'm fine. It's just hard from me to make that transition.

For example, I messed up during Age of Worms adventure path, which is a series of modules in Dungeon. The PCs decide to look for an NPC that has been mentioned by other NPCs as a Bad Dude. This NPC is... nowhere to be found in the module itself. They're detailed in the overall location documentation, but the module itself never says where they are during the events of the module. The NPC is explicitly not at their home and not at their own workplace... but it never says where they are or what they're doing. They're not a critically important NPC, but they may theoretically have information and they are a minor villain.

The PCs insist on looking for the NPC. I stop and try to find where they are, unsuccessfully. I've read the entire path, but it'd been maybe six months since then and I don't remember what the NPC does in the future. The only encounter I recall with the NPC was in a prior module when the NPC had his hired goons try to pick up the PCs. However, that encounter takes place at a second NPC's residence who now is involved in a conflict with the NPC the PCs are looking for due to their actions in the last module. Also, the PCs were actually pretty good about not getting on anybody's radar and successfully avoided attention. Well, until they started looking for the NPC.

I just... didn't let the PCs succeed. They waited several in-game days and I was too worried about breaking a later module for him to come back. Nobody knew where he was, nobody knew when he'd be back, nobody had any information. Well, his goons still in town weren't open to any discussion of their boss.

I was too hesitant to go off script and make something up. I knew the NPC wasn't really important, but I just... resisted letting the PCs accomplish something or getting information that they were barking up the wrong tree or using their behavior to invent a completely new side quest about the Bad Dude doing Bad Things. They were really convinced that NPC was important, too. It felt like I was just intentionally letting them get frustrated. That's not necessarily wrong, but here it just didn't feel good. It felt like a bad story beat, or that I was punishing the players for trying something I didn't expect.

 

[kelvan1138]

I really don't consider putting on an accent to be a DM skill. They're cringey even when well done in my view and can be left off entirely.

So, as far as I'm concerned, don't feel bad about not being able to do them.

To your point I don't even think it's necessary to speak as the character. 3rd person indirect is fine so long as the intent, motivation, and personality are described well enough.

 

[kelvan1138]

Double post

 

[trentonjoe]

Clarity.......in my head every plot makes perfect sense and all the clues I drop are both subtle and obvious at the same time. In my eyes, I am so near perfect that brilliant is an insult.

I doubt my groups thinks so highly of me, as 85% of what I try to foreshadow is missed.

 

[Istbor]

I seem to need improvement in a variety of areas. What I feel I am worst at though, is making villains that are hated, without getting mustache twirly evil, or beloved NPCs that the players actually trust and can rely on as friends/allies.

I mean... sometimes apparently my best efforts turn benevolent NPCs into hated rivals or enemies, and villains as sympathetic victims. Luckily some of these campaigns are pretty sandboxey so I can roll with it when my players end up hating Lucien the Arrow because he was a good rogue and got paid twice for the same job.

Though, when I get it right, it feels really good.

 

[TheAlkaizer]

There's surely more, but I've identified a few areas of improvement last year.

1. When my players engage into social interactions, whether its negotiations, intimidation, or persuasion, I tend to give them all the information without asking them for rolls. My players with high skills in those areas mentioned a few times that they'd like to be able to shine more.
2. After almost 15 years of DMing, I still overprepare every single time.
3. I'm not great at accents. But again, I'm a french canadian DMing in english, so it's an accent on top of an accent.
4. I sometimes fall a little too much on the linear/rail side of things. I almost never force my players in a direction, but sometimes they'll be strongly hinted through social interactions. I'm often trying to hold back on it but it's an hold habit. No players ever complained about it though.

 

[iserith]

There's surely more, but I've identified a few areas of improvement last year.

1. When my players engage into social interactions, whether its negotiations, intimidation, or persuasion, I tend to give them all the information without asking them for rolls. My players with high skills in those areas mentioned a few times that they'd like to be able to shine more.

Hmm, so they're effectively asking for more uncertainty as to the outcome and meaningful consequences for failure so they can roll dice and potentially get some kind of payoff for their investment in these skill proficiencies. A bold strategy on their part. I'd be perfectly fine with getting the information without rolling. But then, knowing how you resolve social interaction, I'd probably not invest in those skills. No big deal.