Advice for marathon adventure

[Sebastian1992]

Well, my gaming group and I are in school and we have next Friday off. We want to play Thursday night, Friday afternoon and night. Probably a good 13-15 hours of gaming.

I am looking for advice on running a marathon adventure. How do I keep them interested long enough to finish it and keep it fun? They are a group of level 3s, playing 4th Edition, if anyone has actual adventure advice. We are finishing up our current adventure this Friday, and I can throw in some clues or something as to the upcoming one.

 

[Jack99]

I have two pieces of advice. Diversify and prepare. I know some will disagree with the first one, but marathon sessions which amounted to "clear this mega dungeon" always seemed to be less successful than more varied adventures. Preparation is the other key. Know what you want, know what your players want, and unless you rock at whipping up encounters on the fly, be prepared. Have enough encounters (whether they are combat or social) to last the whole duration, but make them flexible enough so that you can lead your players towards a great finish, like a kickass final battle against the main protagonist of the adventure.

 

[Crothian]

Have options. If the group decides to go another direction make sure you have something prepared they can do. I like to have encounters that can be used almost anywhere. I'll alter the names and details on the fly if needed by the core work is already done. I do the same with NPCs. Versatility is important.

Don't be afraid to call for a break if you need a little time to deal with something.

 

[Jan van Leyden]

Make planned breaks.

You're playing 4e so an encounter may take roughly one hour, right? Either make a 15 minutes break after each encounter or 30 minutes after the first two encounters and 15 minutes after each of the following ones. It really helps for such long sessions.

 

[phloog]

Additional advice based on personal mishaps:

1) Any riddles, puzzles, etc. that are integrated into the adventure should consider WHEN they will be encountered...hitting them with a complex/difficult mental challenge in Hour 10+ is a bad idea.

2) Varied and well-spaced combats...nothing wakes you up like immediate PC danger

3) Typically I don't mind if one player is not particularly active in a single encounter, because I know that I'll have others where they shine. In a marathon I'd tend to make everyone active in all (probably not an issue in 4E, though)

4) Be mindful of the pacing of snacks and beverages. First, if you're eating/drinking at a brisk clip throughout, you're going to be sick the next day...but also understand that if you're hitting heavy caffeine early it may have an impact on what happens later.

 

[Ravellion]

Breaks? Moderation in snacks? The guy's 17! He's probably more resilient than all of us old farts together.

Prepare some random stuff, prepare a varied adventure with lots of locales. Know your players, adjust to their tastes. You'll have most fun if they are having fun. That's it.