What Should You Be Able to Accomplish in Four Hours?

[Reynard]

One thing that concerns me is that I have found that a four hour session doesn't seem provide as much play as it used to. I currently run Pathfinder, but have played 4E and used to play 3.x and in all three of these, it seems like less gets done than it did "back in the day". This has been a problem since 3.0 appeared, of course, but for me has grown more acute because of real life stuff with members of my group, so we're down to a 4 hour session every other week.

The question is: what should I be accomplishing in an average four hour session? It obviously varies depending on what's going on in the session, but I think, at the very least, in four hours I should be able to engage in four combats or other kinds of encounters, plus an equal amount of time in explration and/or role-playing.

Now, it isn't all combat that eats up time. I have found that flipping through rules eats a bunch of time, as does the process of rejiggering spell lists.

What do you expect to be able to accomplish? How have you managed to increase your "game efficiency"?

 

[Dungeoneer]

System familiarity will help. My current table needs an hour-and-change to get through a standard 4e encounter. But they're new to it and spend a lot of time figuring out their powers. I expect it will speed up as they get more experienced. I don't find that other rules questions crop up that much personally, since 4e is pretty systematic and even when I don't have the answer to a rules question memorized I can usually guess the answer pretty accurately. A good idea is just to make a ruling, move on with the game, and check it later.

TBH though there is a certain minimum threshold for complex systems. 4e and 3.x D&D both feature extensive and intricate rulesets. Even with extensive system mastery there's probably a limit to how much you can speed up your game using them.

If you really prefer a faster, less rules-intensive game experience you should seriously look at alternative game systems. There are definitely more lightweight ones out there.

 

[wedgeski]

Four hours is our designated 4E session length on sunday afternoons. After 3+ years of doing it weekly, I think I can at least speak with authority on what *I* expect to get out of it..

The earliest I can expect people to turn up is 15 minutes early. More likely, they will turn up either exactly on time or a few minutes late. Since we're only just squeezing in the 1pm-5pm slot without annoying several significant-others, I don't have much hope of changing this, so I just roll with it. There follows ten minutes of settling in and chat which I think is important to get everyone relaxed and sat down and with hot/cold/whatever beverages in front of them, and 5-minutes of recap. This leaves 3.75 hours of my 4 hours.

Cutting to the chase, at that point I would expect each session to fall into one of three profiles: all RP, RP and *one* combat encounter, or all *one* combat encounter.

Pure roleplaying sessions, or sessions with skill use/skill challenges, happen pleasingly often but I do have players who get fidgety if they go whole afternoons "without hitting something". I don't have a problem with this, it's how they like their D&D and they're quite happy to sit in support of the roleplayers and skill-monkeys at the table if the situation calls for it. I try to avoid two sessions in a row without a combat, or without some kind of tactical challenge involving the application of an edged weapon in some form.

Sessions which only have one combat encounter, which may or may not eat the entire afternoon, may sound painful to those out there who like to make fast progress through the game, but it's something we've got used to.

We have five PC's, two with companions, all operating at Paragon level. These guys aren't optimisers and can quickly find themselves in trouble if they're not careful... which means they're careful most of the time. So a serious encounter which might take five or six rounds or more to come to a conclusion can easily take 90+ minutes, and that's with a keen eye towards avoiding the tell-tale grind at the end of the fight. The result is that I've modified the way I design encounters so that, given they're going to last a while, there's always something interesting going on.

When I extrapolate that principle into big, campaign-critical encounters or denouements, a single combat can easily eat the entire session. But, no-one seems to mind based on the feedback I've got, and I certainly don't mind running long fights as long as there's enough to keep me interested as well as the players.

This post is already too long but in terms of getting the best of our time during the game, I have several crib-sheets with often-referenced rules, well-prepared encounter notes with Initiatives already rolled, and where possible, pre-prepared battle-mats (something I should do more of though). We absolutely subscribe to the "make a ruling, move on, someone other than me look it up" school of thought.

To reference the OP, for four combat encounters that are anything more than "You encounter two orcs and kill them" would be a pipe-dream, but I don't think it would make the game any better anyway.

 

[Jeff Wilder]

All I know is that if it last for fours hours, consult your doctor.

 

[Ahnehnois]

I always looked at a four-hour session as being the equivalent of an episode of a fairly dense, serialized dramatic television series.

in four hours I should be able to engage in four combats or other kinds of encounters

Everyone's style is different. I can't remember the last time I got four combat encounters in in a session. I go into sessions without that many prepared. I place a lot of meaning on each battle and generally do challenging fights that take time regardless of the game system. I expect to fight 1-2 battles a session (maybe 3 if I throw in a filler battle), level up once every other session or so, get get in an epic LotR scale plot in twenty or thirty sessions.

I find having a smallish (2-3 PCs lately) group helps get things done, as well as having mastery of the game system.

 

[nerfherder]

All I know is that if it last for fours hours, consult your doctor.

Why? Is she hot?

(this site needs a "rimshot" smilie)

 

[Tamlyn]

Our game is really just an excuse to get together. I've been gaming with these guys for 7 years and the group has (mostly) been together for about 10.

At least one of the players won't show up till 20-30 minutes late. After which we eat, enjoy beverages, and talk about work, spouses, kids, sports, etc... Then we recap and get going. After repeatedly breaking down and spending time talking about more RL things and making fun of each other we usually get through at least one skill-based or role playing encounter, lots of investigation (my players pay great attention to detail), one combat they run away from, and one combat they engage with.

Obviously, sometimes combats take longer (I think our longest is 3 four-hour sessions, but it was still exciting!) or investigation/RP takes longer.

So, in our 4 hours, we spend 2 hours playing and 2 hours hanging out. It works for us. We're in no hurry.

 

[kitsune9]

What do you expect to be able to accomplish? How have you managed to increase your "game efficiency"?

Technology is the only factor for me. Aside from that, not much else. I play Pathfinder and accept the system with its inherent designs on combat length and its huge array of rules. My players and myself are fairly knowledgeable about the game and with my laptop, if I have to look up a spell, rule, etc. I have all the books on PDF so it's easy to do rule lookup.

However, I know that with 500 pages of a core rulebook, not including a bestiary, a game that size is going to sacrifice speed and efficiency for the wide array of options. For some this is a headache and definitely there's value in investing in a more rules-light retroclone or simply play an older edition. But for those of us who like this, then sacrifice of speed for more available options is an acceptable tradeoff.

 

[Umbran]

How much you can accomplish depends on what you're trying to accomplish, and who is trying to accomplish it.

You can accomplish a whole lot of character and plot development in a four-hour talky session. But, in most game systems, you can only make it through a couple of serious combats in that same time.

If your players aren't focused on accomplishing, they won't accomplish much, no matter how much time you have.

 

[nedjer]

While players' choices can see a full 4 hours go on a series of related or 'knock-on' combat encounters; players are likely to have explored half of a decent-sized space station/ 'dungeon' during that time.

The idea of spending a full 4 hours on basic arithmetic to fight a single opponent just seems so very, very far away from either 'the good old days' or the 'great new days'. I've played whole games of Panzergroup Guderain in less than four hours, which is an indication of just how rule-drenched many RPGs have become.

Fortunately, gathering by the info from The Weem's post that nobody paid any attention to, the Mearls chap and his loyal cohorts recognise this and plan on doing something about it.