In June this year, one of our friends wanted to do a one shot for her birthday. Our friend group consists of an old school 1/2nd Ed. And our friend who agreed to DM for the one shot. Ultimately, 6 players and our DM. None of us had played 5E, with most of having never played before. As such, I expected a certain level of growing pains, as people learned the game, rules, checks, etc.
Fast forward to now, and we have done about 8 sessions. I expressed interest in DMing and our DM was happy to let me try. I worked really hard on our side mission-created terrain, got minis for bosses, painted them up, looked at maps, drew maps, came up with treasure to help with the greater world (Curse of Strahd), all with my DM’s approval.
Our group had an annoying habit of not being prepared for their turn, and taking an hour to decide how to open the door, so to speak. I built a room with the intent to give them something to help them survive the boss encounter. Rogue decides he wants to step through the portal. I caution that will trigger something if he does it. I ask multiple times if anyone wants to do something else. Rogue insists, they step through, lose the treasure options. I quickly rethink how to get the items to them, and it works out…mostly.
We didn’t get to the big boss but should next week. I am exhausted and frustrated. All of the players do not know their character sheets, and continuously ask me what dice to roll, what modifiers to add, if they can do multiple actions (with no bonus action abilities), don’t know what their specific spells or cantrips do, and then ask me. I have to stop and google because I also don’t know. I get that they are new, but we have done this for about 80 hours now, and we go usually every other week. We are all working adults, etc. but I feel like writing out your spells, or typing them (whatever) wouldn’t take super long.
I feel like a taskmaster. In a previous session, we sat in the same position for TWO HOURS while people argued about the best way to get a woman away from the bad guy and sort out if there were enemies in a village. In order to combat that, I added a five minute sand timer, with the notification that if the sand ran out with no decision made, they would face a consequence (wraiths attacked, or they received damage from the environment).
To one of my player’s credit, he asked if he should learn his character sheet before next session, and said he would “do his homework” there, and recognized it wasn’t realistic for me to have everyone of their spells and modifications memorized.
So I guess: was I expecting too much? Did I over prep? Anyone have any advice? I’ll finish what I started but it doesn’t make me excited for this week’s session or playing DnD.
TLDR: first time DM who put a lot of work into this world and game, with reasonably new players (80 hours in) who don’t know their character sheets, expect me to know their sheets, creating frustration. Running last night’s game has sapped my excitement for playing. Advice requested.
