I DM for a group of my friends and they really love playing D&D but I'm not a very good DM. (we are playing out of the abyss)

In general I don't know how to make fight scenes exciting and they always seem to drag on. One of my players even dropped a hint that Im a bad DM (granted it was my brother but still...) 

Im in a separate party and I try to watch my DM but I still can't figure out how to make it as fun for my group.

If anyone has any tips, especially about battles it would really help me.

Thanks!

Well, I think that D&D is a game built and played from both sides, DM and players. So both sides are equally responsible for the fun at the table.

But here my advice: 1) Try to be descriptive, when you can. From some details, that may seem irrelevant at first, interesting developments can come out. 2) Both when players fail or succeed, try to make bizarre situation out of it. 3) Involve the players: ask them to be descriptive and to speak their minds.

The classic advice is to not just say, "the orc attacks you.  What's your AC?  Okay, that's a hit, so you take 5 damage," but rather to say, "the orc bellows in rage and swings his club at your head.  What's your AC?  He connects, but you manage to dodge well enough to reduce it to a glancing blow.  You take 5 damage." 

thanks! that's really good advice!

Often times playing in a module, at least in my own opinion, can feel a bit on rails. So reading ahead in the module and then setting up some notes for yourself where things are going to go off the rails a bit can be fun. 

I also like to read these forums and others to get ideas from other GM's, puzzles, riddles, traps, etc 

Something to be mindful of: You are not a bad DM either. Asking for help and stealing ideas from others is always the right thing to do. I've been doing it for decades. :)

Out of the Abyss has random encounters for the different areas right? Instead of using them as random encounters, use them as a means of interrupting the boring. Read through the list, pick the encounters that seem interesting, and then stat them out for a full combat encounter. Then give them one or two interesting tweaks. A better definition of why they are there, randomly, and what they want. Then when your players are bored, pull out a prepared random encounter. By doing the work in advance it'll run better. You will be more familiar with the info and ready to run.

If the actual combat is getting dull, do something random. Add a new dynamic. Maybe one of those random encounters happens along, drawn in by the noise. Maybe they pick a side and join the fight? Maybe they become a third side and fight everyone? Maybe they grab something or someone and then attempt to run off before they can be stopped? A surprise 'third party' in a combat can add some spice and fun. 

Another thing to keep in mind is "What's important in this encounter?" That moment, or the NPC, or the item, or whatever is the only thing that needs to be addressed for the encounter to go well. I haven't run OOTA but the moment your players handle whatever's the key to the encounter, have the rest of the encounter fade out. Enemies flee, surrender, etc. This is especially useful in long and grueling combats. "You slay the necromancer and his zombie minions begin to wander away at random." 

Any time people are bored, get to what matters and cut away the rest. It's an easy signal to advance the plot moment and keep the action going forward. 

Another good idea is to search for blogs, posts, etc. from other DMs who have run this adventure and left good notes. You can get a sense of what worked well, what was rough, and everything else they think about it. You will likely find a few DMs who have added more details, fleshed it all out, etc. for your gain. Extra info on motivations, encounter balancing, tricks, surprises, etc. It's a great way to enhance your adventure. Just say "Thanks" to them wherever they posted. 

Try to describe more.  Generally if my party hits an opponent with low HP really hard, or kill an opponent with one attack I'll describe it as a brutal scene, rather than just saying "you one shotted the bad guy" -- "the barbarian charges up to the orc from behind while the orc is engaged with the cleric.  In his rage, spit foaming at his mouth he lifts his axe and cleaves the orc's head off in one fell swoop while letting out an intimidating battle cry.  As the orc drops to his knees then falls forward to the ground, the head falls abruptly to the ground beside it.  The barbarian then pulls back his axe, licking the blood from the blade, glaring at his next target".

This not only makes the players more interested in what you're describing, it can motivate them to be more descriptive in the attacks and actions that they are taking.  Everyone will want to do something as epic as that.

Certain times I'll let the players decide "how they killed" an opponent as well, usually the last enemy standing in an important fight (either a "boss" or even a fight that just proved to be rather difficult or the opposite, extremely easy).  If you ever watched Critical Role, think of Matt Mercer's "How do you want to do this" (that's where I got my inspiration for doing this from).  

Also, don't forget that natural events occur too.  Fighting outdoors?  "As the fight progresses on, you start to feel a bit of rain hitting your armor.  The skies grow ever darker as battle wages on."  After a round or two -- "The light rain that began earlier has developed into a heavy downpour, making for very slippery conditions and just grasping your weapons is becoming more difficult".  (You don't have to actually have a mechanic for making these things harder, just describing it is fine.  However a mechanic is cool too, maybe it's so rainy that during a movement a character (both friendly and hostile) has to make a STR save to avoid slipping and falling prone, or if an attack is taken, it has disadvantage because of the conditions)

Good suggestions here. 

Be descriptive, and try to engage different senses. Don't just describe what is seen but also what is heard, smelled, and felt. Make sure the environment/terrain plays a role. Create unique situations. Make sure intelligent creatures act intelligently! Not every combat has to be a slog to the death - make it so there is another way for characters to succeed in the encounter. Build in surprises and unexpected consequences. Lastly, make it easier and more rewarding for characters to try things other than the usual hack n' slash. Encourage them to use the environment to their advantage, to try different manoeuvres, to be creative. 

Try watching DM Tips on youTube. 

There are a bunch of them and they aren't too long. They give you some basic advice from one of the best DMs ever.

one of the best ways to learn to be a storyteller as well as a DM is to understand what makes stories exciting.  We all are media consumers, from tweet readers to watching classic Hollywood movies to reading Aesop's fables or even Shakespeare.  What do they all have in common?  They apply and relieve tension in the characters lives.  Tension is the key to making exciting encounters and keep the PC party on the right track without railroading the campaign.

A good DM can manage the die rolling and actions for monsters in an encounter and challenge the party to work together, role play and strategize how to make the right choices to win an encounter.  That seems fairly boring and mechanical; always winning.  However, set the story up of the battle or war or campaign with lots of tension and the battles themselves play out like legendary stories.

Make the battles ratchet up the tension, force the characters to pace themselves and feel the pressure of not succumbing to the fear of losing, but respecting their adversaries.  As a DM, you cannot have a lucky or unlucky die roll be so exciting if you don't build tension.  Worst thing that can happen in a battle is someone succeeds on a low percentage die roll to slay the boss monster and no one really cares because it's a joyless hackathon that lasts 45 minutes.

Keep using the same model to manage the tension is shorter and shorter segments.  Beginning, middle then end.  All things in storytelling have 3 acts.  The second act is when the PC is confronted with the most tension and must act, perhaps out of their element.  A key way to create tension is to confuse or take away the PCs comfort zone in combat.  Make them take out their off weapon, make an elemental challenge such as "...smoke obscures your target Mage, what do you do?"  Remind them of the effects of battle such as experiencing the slaughter of the enemy "Your barbarian companion cleaves clean through an orc's skull sending brain goo flying into YOUR open mouth as you scream through your own strike!"

Make the scenery react - make things affect other things - a stray arrow hits something which knocks into something else and changes the situation in the middle of combat.  When a player makes a great die roll, play it up and always have NOTHING BE UNIVERSALLY GOOD OR UNIVERSALLY BAD!!  Secret there to help keep the dice from ruling the combat.  Also make players afraid to run into rooms with their pants down swinging at everything.  Make them think that once the weapons are drawn that instinct takes over. 

Really work up the idea of combat prestige - this means that players should be fighting out of routine in their own minds, but tell YOU how their tried and true combat antics look and sound and feel to them.  Incorporate it.  Most combat is a string of well heel and well practiced moves being put to the test.  The casting of a spell is a the culmination of much learning and preparation.  Players should have go-to strategies and you can weave them into the story. 

There should also be points awarded for being in tune with the DM's roleplaying style.  Feed off each other.  If you bring that tension and depth to combat storytelling, your players will join in the fun and take it places you could never know. 

Something important to note is that D&D should not be a "line 'em up and fight" affair. You don't want the monsters to just be mere obstacles in the way of the player's success. Plan each encounter as having a couple of notes to hit:

#1 - What makes this encounter special and significant?
If it's just a random Skeleton, give the Skeleton something that reflects the story you got. If the players are going after a Necromancer and that Necromancer has attacked a village, perhaps this Skeleton has some gear or trinket that shows that they're from this village. It's a gruesome reminder of what the players are fighting for that doesn't change anything about the mechanics of the fight, but does give it a new flavour. String these flavours together and a story emerges just from these details without you having to give any kind of exposition.

#2 - How does this encounter fit into the overall story?
This is a great chance for your room and environment to tell a story. It's not just a corridor, because there's bone, blood, and torn clothing on the ground, with a trail leading to a door behind the skeleton. Again, this doesn't change a SINGLE THING about the encounter from a mechanical point of view, but changes a lot about the story of this encounter.

If the players keep coming back don't worry to much. I have been trying to rekindle my own passion honestly. I've been trapped as DM for 5 years with a group who hardly touches the RP perspective. It's more of a brutal chess game for them. My group is composed of bloodthirsty inebriates so there is a general direction it tends to go. If things slow to a crawl I definitely find myself keeping it mathematically driven but they do enjoy a tasteful finisher when the numbers merit it. The DM guide discusses the various "genres" well. As a side note I have found far less pleasure in running modules than Homebrew. For me it is easier to create an environment of my own and let it organically grow from player interaction. You don't accidentally slip info that you've just spent 12 hours memorizing because you've made your mind a textbook, instead a world deeply connected to the players is born. The game is indeed a two way road. If I here a player mumble something I like, They might do well to remember what they were proposing.

It may not be what everyone else would do but being descriptive like a lot of the other DMs suggested is a very good idea and using interesting terrain, status effects, environment (weather), and some optional combat rules that we take in and out every now and then like the optional injuries in the DMG for a more grimdark Warhammer style game and using other optional rules every now and then like the cleave rule when fighting a bunch of low level enemies the party's probably going to beat anyway to make them feel like badasses when they otherwise would just roll until dead. Also use cover rules to spice ranged combat up a bit to establish a feel like gunfights in movies as people dart in and out of cover or get creative and use the bodies of fallen enemies or furniture as cover against ranged attacks.

I'm a fan of making the goal of combat something beyond just killing everything. Have another goal to complete while combat occurs, something like a time limit before a door closes or a ritual completes, having to protect an npc, or when a certain enemy dies the minions all surrender. You can split the battlefield too, so enemies use ranged attacks until the party can lower a bridge and cross a chasm to close the distance, or a giant tree falls to separate the healer and caster from the rest for a few turns. Simple things like that can mean the party has to think about the fight differently than the one before.

Lot of good advice here, I'll add my two coppers.

I agree with being descriptive, but you also want to keep things flowing.  Don't get so bogged down in one good description that it disrupts the flow, or makes one player's turn feel a LOT longer than anyone else's.  Above all, you don't want to finish up your amazing, beautiful, brutal, terrifyingly mesmerizing description of the carnage of the battlefield by saying "Uh. . . so, who's turn is it now?  What inish were we on?"

Related to that, and this is something that comes mainly with experience, if you can't find the exact rule to cover a specific situation, fudge it and move on.  Make up something on the fly that seems workable and balanced, and keep things going.  You don't want to stop a tense encounter or combat for ten minutes while six people flip through eight rulebooks looking for the Ninth Most Obscure Rule Ever Written.  Fortunately, the more you improvise with unexpected situations, the better you get at it (both narratively and in adjudicating rules).  After the session, you can comb the rulebooks or post on forums like this to figure out what the ruling SHOULD have been, and if it's substantially different from what you'd decreed, just explain that to your players next session.  "Okay, so last time Player A wanted to do X, and I decreed it should work like this, but it actually works like that, so going forward, if X happens again, it'll be handled that way, not this way."  Most groups will understand and be accepting of minor "retcons" like that, especially when it's your on-the-fly ruling to keep things moving versus the "official" Way To Do It.  And of course, if everyone likes your way better than the official way, adopt it as a house rule.

Also, try and keep one player from monopolizing the round.  I've seen a few games get this way, where one player just seems to take way longer to do things than others.  Sometimes they don't know the rules well enough, sometimes they try and get super creative and do things the rules don't really support, sometimes they're being super analytical and trying to work all the angles and what things are going to be like four, five, or ten rounds from now before they make a decision.  Rarely, I think, is this done actively or maliciously, but if someone is just taking too much time to decide where and when to move their character, which monster to attack with what weapon or spell, what other action or whatever they're going to do on their turn, try and gently hustle them along.  One DM I played under was fond of the phrase "fish or cut bait," (actually, the less-repeatable variation that means basically the same thing) when confronted with a dithering player, but by then we all knew each other well enough that it wasn't offensive, just a reminder that he wanted to keep things moving as quickly as possible.  Only you know your group well enough to know what the difference between "too gentle" and "not nearly gentle enough" is.

Make sure you're organized.  If you're running straight out of a book, use Post-It notes as bookmarks so you can find needful passages quickly.  Print up, or have available on your laptop/tablet/whatever if you use one of those as a gaming aid, necessary statblocks, and have them easy to shuffle to quickly.  Have your pencil, dice, scratch paper, etc. right next to you on the table so you can reach for them quickly.  You don't want to have to flip around for several seconds to find the statblock you need, then find the dice you need to roll, then find the scrap paper and pencil you're recording hit points and such on before an action can be resolved.  I've actually gone so far as to retype statblocks for various games in Word, using tables (Excel apparently works well for this, too) and have grids below for tracking hit points and other things.  Depending on how much a challenge the NPC in question is, I've been able to fit up to three on a single page, giving me a wide selection of NPCs all on one sheet of paper, all with twelve (could be more, twelve has been my preference in the past) different individuals represented by separate cells to track their HP.  So I can throw a whole horde at the players, and all I need to keep track of is one piece of paper.  And this paper can be reusable for a whole session, or multiple sessions.  Encounter with three orcs?  Just use the first three HP grids and ignore the rest.  That encounter ends, erase the damage, next one's with twelve orcs?  Use all twelve.  Erase the damage again at the end, and now up to twelve more orcs can crop up any time in the future.  Yeah, fighting the same orcs over and over is going to get dull, but you get the basic point.

Above all, in my experience, is to make sure the players are invested in their characters and the story.  Some people might be happy with just kicking in the front door of a dungeon, killing everything that moves and then hauling everything not nailed down and we brought crowbars just in case back to town to sell so they can buy better stuff to kick in the front door of the next dungeon, but those players are much in the minority in my experience.  Listen close to see if your players are dropping subtle, not-so-subtle, or even unintentional hints about what they'd like to see, what they'd like their characters to do.  Try and make the story interesting and compelling to the players, and their characters, on a personal level.  You don't have to murder their characters' families, but throw in some details that make them care about whether or not they stop the Evil Wizard Morden from resurrecting the demon god Cartagia and laying waste to the world.  All the lovingly described critical hits and gruesome one-hit kills in the world won't help if none of it means anything.

Here is my theory as to why describing the scene is so important to being a good DM. As DM, you are imagining a scene. Ideally, the scene in your head will be at least very similar to what your players are imagining. If you and your players aren’t imagining the same scene, you and your players will run into a lot of conflicts because they will be reacting in ways that you might say is not possible. Frustration ensues and your players may just quit trying to roleplay. Disagreements about what is possible and impossible will always occur and your best solution often is to adjust what you are thinking is possible rather than saying no, you can’t do that. Shutting down a good idea from a player is a good way to lose their interest. Sometimes the players ideas are going to conflict with the rules in a way that forces you to say no. Always try to find a way to say “no, but maybe you can ...”. For instance, the Mage Hand cantrip shouldn’t be allowed to trip someone, allowing that would be overpowered but maybe you could suggest to the player that it could be Readied to tip over a chair or a brazier. That would allow the character to do something creative but make it context dependent enough that you haven’t created something the player could use all the time.