Worst & most common DM mistakes

[Cadfan]

Number One

Not managing your player's expectations.

If they expect to come to the game session and have an adventure about an evil necromancer, and they do, they won't be upset. If they come to the game expecting a game session about being pirates, and instead there is a game session about an evil necromancer, they will be upset.

If one player creates a character who is a pirate, and another creates a character who is an evil necromancer hunter, it doesn't matter what adventure you create. Someone will be upset.

So TELL THEM UP FRONT what to expect! And if they hate it, work it out amongst yourselves like equals.

Number Two

Thinking "I'm the DM, so I'm always right and what I want to do is the most important."

No, you're not. You're just the guy at the table with the power to make everyone else obey. If you abuse that power, expect that your friends will make you regret it once you take off your DM hat and you're all equals again. With the great power of being a DM comes the great responsibility not to be a jerk about it. That's not just the responsibility to make good rulings as a DM, its the responsibility to do so in a way that doesn't make you a jerk.

 

[roguerouge]

Getting burnt out. Buy some modules and use them sometimes. You're not cheating yourself and you're not cheating the players. You're refocusing your energies on things like character interactions, romantic entanglements, plot hooks, and RP instead of dungeon design and encounter creation.

 

[Doug McCrae]

This should be revised to, "Not knowing when to say yes and when to say no."

One really tough thing a GM sometimes has to do is say no to something he has previously said yes to, such as a previously used ability he has decided is detrimental to the game.

I allowed a player to get an AC bonus from mage armor with the Abjurant Champion PC. At the time I thought it didn't matter as I was planning to end the campaign in a session or two. However the players wanted to continue so the campaign went on for many more sessions. I felt the Abjurant Champion's AC was getting out of hand so I nerfed the ability, which really p---ed the player off.

People really hate it when you're inconsistent because it means they don't know where they stand, but sometimes you have to be.

 

[Pbartender]

If one player creates a character who is a pirate, and another creates a character who is an evil necromancer hunter, it doesn't matter what adventure you create. Someone will be upset.

Unless they are trying to track down and recover some stolen buried treasure from a a Voodoo Witchdoctor on an island full of his horde of Zombi minions.

Island of the Damned, a free adventure from Green Ronin for Skull & Bones D20 setting.



But your point is correct... You need make certain that both you and your players are on the same page about what kind of game you are playing -- genre, style, tone and such.

 

[Roger_the_jolly]

Getting burnt out. Buy some modules and use them sometimes. You're not cheating yourself and you're not cheating the players. You're refocusing your energies on things like character interactions, romantic entanglements, plot hooks, and RP instead of dungeon design and encounter creation.

Yes, I'm just realizing this myself and how much more inspiration you can get from a well written and executed module or setting.
My next campaign will be set in Eberron.

 

[Ruslanchik]

Don't play favorites - In this same scenario, the DM's best friend wanted to put up a fight. While everyone else was knocked unconscious, this guy at least got a chance to fight back before being taken prisoner.

I second this. My example is much more egregious than yours, but I won't bore everyone with it. Let's just say that playing favorites can kill a gaming group.

 

[jeffh]

Some of the ones from the one game I ever quit entirely of my own free will have come up here (railroading, ignoring the rules in the service of same, failing to pay sufficient attention to what does and does not interest the players), but two big ones haven't. I think these problems are both common and serious, though I make no claims to having a comprehensive ranking of such things.

One is failing - or, worse, actively refusing - to tell the players things their characters would obviously know. Being unreasonably stingy with basic information results in nothing but frustration and resentment. If my character has been living in the city the game starts in his whole life, he shouldn't be caught by surprise by basic common-knowledge details of how the laws, government or major religions work simply because I failed to read the GM's mind. If a player asks - after going over a month without playing, mind you - why the PCs came to the town they're currently in (when this happened yesterday for the characters but over six weeks ago for the players), tell them rather than going on an insulting rant about them "not paying attention". In fact, you shouldn't even wait for them to ask - it's generally best to start each session with a recap of recent events in the campaign.

(In all fairness, I catch myself doing this a bit sometimes, but nowhere near as egregiously as the GM I'm referring to. However, I start most sessions with a recap, tend to get more liberal with information if the players are obviously confused, never refuse to answer direct questions about things that would be obvious to a character, and have a mechanic of memory checks in place for handling cases where this is not so obvious. If the players remember a thing, great. If they don't but their characters obviously would, I tell them. If they don't but their characters might , one or more of them gets a check.)

The other is "mysteries" with no, or only very ambiguous, clues. Many GMs think the number and type of clues actually found in a typical mystery novel is enough. That attitude betrays a complete failure to understand the differences between RPGs on the one hand, and novels, television etc on the other. In other genres, the writer is free to determine what the protagonist(s) will notice or find significant and how he/she/they will interpret it. There's no way to guarantee this in an RPG, and it's very vulnerable to degenerating into a metagame-level exercise in reading the GM's mind. Every credible source of advice on this subject recommends at least three times this minimal amount of clues. Note that this combines especially poorly with the problem mentioned above; giving ambiguous clues and then refusing to give basic information about the world that might be relevant to interpreting them guarantees frustrated players.

 

[OchreJelly]

One of the big ones I think most beginning DMs have is "Do not tell the players what their characters do not know".

I mean, yes, you've got your stuff planned. Yes, it is truly awesome. And did they just walk by and miss that really badass thing on their first trip to the dungeon? Or did you have to end the session just before some really cool stuff happened?

Do not tell them! Nothing. Do not give in. No hints. Nothing!

Sometimes I think a DM can be more buzzed about what might happen next than the players. But if you're going to keep the game fun, not ruin it for the other guys, you absolutely have to keep your mouth shut.

That's one of the most common mistakes I've experienced with new DMs.

I agree with this but would go one further. If your players bypass your neat encounter area you spent a bunch of time building, save it in your 'idea file'. You can always find a creative way to reuse something for a later date. Your time doesn't feel wasted and the players don't feel railroaded. Everybody wins.

 

[Soyokaze]

Most Common:
Don't let the player die if he didn't make a mistake. Noone likes to fail for no good reason.

In one situation, one stupid PC was bashing in doors in dungeon, ignoring stealth completely. He bursts into the obviously marked (the only fancy door with an obsidian skull decoration) bedroom of a sleeping (now woken) BBEG. The BBEG's first action is to fire a ray at the door, hitting both Smashy McAxeinhand and a PC who's been telling him how stupid he's being the whole time.

So, he rolls enough damage to kill them both in one shot. This wasn't intended to be a straight fight. However, I fudge the numbers so that neither die. Next round, he kills the PC who made the mistake. Everyone else survives.

 

[Graybeard]

As far as clues for a mystery game go, it depends on your players. Most of my players are highly intelligent and I quickly found out that the clues I was giving were too easy for them. In future situations, I started giving more difficult or even conflicting clues. The players were happier because it wasn't as easy to figure the clues out.

Also, don't let the rules get in the way of common sense. For example, the rules state that the PCs need the tracking feat to follow a trail (footprints, bread crumbs, etc.). I mostly ignore that rule. If it would be obvious to follow the trail, then I allow it with spot and/or search checks. If it would be too difficult for the average person to notice, then I use the tracking rules.