What "Noobs" Can Learn From My Faults as a DM

Whether you are new to the game of Dungeons and Dragons and role-playing games themselves, or you are a veteran...I expect there are some things you can learn from my faults as a Dungeon Master.

1st Edition AD&D DM screen thanks to a co-worker/player

•  Allowing personal play style to interfere.  Do not do this!  I am something of a 'slayer' player type (perhaps the subject of a future post).  When I am a player character I enjoy fights because I get to feel cool slaying all the monsters and nefarious humanoids we deal with.  I am also something of a fan of tactics and decisions that affect combat.  It takes all my effort not to design my adventures around elaborate combat encounters, and I still wind up allowing my own preferences to steer me sometimes!

• I am not organized or detail oriented, per se.  Organized?  Nope.  Another challenge that I constantly face while planning, but what can one do?  Get a binder, a folder or two, etc.  I was never fully sure what people meant when they said "detail oriented".  Here is my problem when running an adventure:  I forget details.  Surprisingly, this even happens with adventures I write myself.  I get so caught up in the action and listening to the players talking that I will forget to give them a key clue, loot, or an important description.

This recently happened in my group's campaign, when the party of PCs came upon the scouts they had been hunting down. There was a confrontation along a ridge-line that I referenced in the splitting the party? post.  The description I gave for the scouts was similar to a monster in a one-off adventure I had run for a couple of the players.  One said, "Oh just like those ones from the boxes?"  I said, "Yes," just happy that she had remembered.  The fight continued, the cleric cast turn undead, and all ended well for the party. Except not for me.  The baddies were supposed to come off as undead versions of the hunted scouts, but actually be possessed living versions of said scouts.  I lost this subtle detail in the excitement of the sneaking up, fighting, and busting out a cleric special ability!

• Improvisation.  This is hard.  It can't just be me.  I was even all up in the theater program in my high school, including the improvisational variety.  In a vain effort to remember to include all the fun parts and details of my adventures, I often miss equally fun opportunities for unforeseen adventure paths and story lines. I think this just takes practice and experience.

So, how do you make sure to get all your clues in?  What are some organizational methods you use?  

Hope this helps!

-DM Josh