average game session

[Paradoxish]

I've been in a similiar situation. I play weekly with a group of 4-6 players (it varies depending on who can make it and at one point we had 4 regulars and a group of 3 others who rotated in and out) and one of them is always complaining with people start getting tired around 2 AM. Depending on how late we start our games can range anywhere from 4-6 hours to 6-12 hours and longer.

To be honest, I'm starting to despise those super long sessions. Based on what my players tell me it sounds like they're having fun when we play from 2 PM to 2 AM, but it's hard as hell on me as a DM. Anyway...

Average: About 6-7 hours per session

Longest time has been about 18 hours, I think. We play weekly - sometimes twice weekly.

P.S. - I have a player that drives 2 hours for our games each week and he doesn't seem to have any problems when we only play a 5 hour session.

 

[sellars]

We play every other week, for 6-7 hours, but I'd rather play every week for 4-6 hours

S

 

[Eben]

Originally posted by Eric Noah:
At my age I don't think I would be able to play in a weekly game

At your age?! What do you mean by that: you need recovery time or something?

Just kidding. Actually, I'm about your age and I play weekly on friday from about 9 pm until about 2 am. That's about five hours a week. It's just a matter of organization. (Of course, the group I game with has existed since somewhere in the late eighties and that's a pretty nice track record for this country.)

 

[Azure Trance]

Fortunately for winter break, once a week 12 hour sessions is the standard ... though this week is the last week :/ Must revert back to 6 hour weeklies.

 

[robaustin]

Keeping in mind we meet maybe twice a month - we try and do one Friday night - which is usually 9 Pm to 1AM or later if we can all stay up. That's about 5-6 hours.

We try and do one saturday - which is usually 12 PM to 12 AM or later, but often gets interrupted by ordering dinner in, putting kids to bed etc...I'd say we get in about 10 hours when all is said and done.

If we can't do a saturday, then we do two fridays.

Realistically, 4-5 hours is pretty darn good I'd say, and not a waste at all!

--*Rob

 

[KnowTheToe]

Highschool messes everything up, it seems its hard to do anything that is too organized, but to answer your question ours is about 4-5 hours that and recently We (being GnomeWorks, a couple of school people and me) were thinking of doing it everday, after school for about 30-60 minutes, which adds up to about that of a 5 hour game every week, or a 20 hour game a month, we are just thinking about it, though

You think Highschool messes with your schedule, just you wait, you will long for the freedom of Highschool

Edit: I forgot to add my info. 4-6 hours is perfect game time IMO. Four hours is a little short as sometimes there is only time for one or two encounters and can make a story progress too slowly. Five-Six hours being the optimal.

 

[Wee Jas]

There is an official equation I think.. something like this:

5 hours scheduled
- 1 hour waiting for late people to show up
- 1 hour LoTR references
- 1 hour talking about other campaings
- 1 hour arguing over rules
- 45 minutes talking about ENWorld
__________________________________

Total: 15 minutes

[edit] DAMN I forgot food breaks!!! [/edit]

 

[Zappo]

Usually around 4 hours.

 

[Queenie]

There is an official equation I think.. something like this:

5 hours scheduled
- 1 hour waiting for late people to show up
- 1 hour LoTR references
- 1 hour talking about other campaings
- 1 hour arguing over rules
- 45 minutes talking about ENWorld
__________________________________

Total: 15 minutes

[edit] DAMN I forgot food breaks!!! [/edit]

Umm... this sounds VERY familiar.. except it's about 30 minutes of LoTR references and 30 minutes of South Park references...

We play from 7:00 - 11:00 every week. Sometimes we try to play later, and it's alwasy fun, but with families and jobs it does not work out too often.

I wish we could play more often

Queenie

 

[Holy Bovine]

You think Highschool messes with your schedule, just you wait, you will long for the freedom of Highschool

Heh - that is exactly what I was thinking! In highschool we would play nearly every day!! We (there were 4 of us) would make sure we had the same 2 periods off giving use about 2 1/2 hours in which to play D&D and eat junk food. We took over an old classroom that was no longer being used, we even had the blessing of our teachers after a few of them observed us playing.

Boy do I miss those days

Now I play about once month and DM every 2 weeks both last anywhere from 4 to 10 hours (average is about 5). I'm trying to start DMing every week again and hopefully this will be happening (might even get one of my players to start DMing again too).

I certainly would call a 4 hour game session a 'waste of time', perhaps your probelm player has other reasons for wanting out of the game? I'd talk to him about it, perhaps he is just not enjoying playing anymore. Don't take it personally! I have gone through similar things. There was a 3 year stretch where I didn't play RPGs and it had nothing to do with the people I was playing with - I was just burned out on DMing. Fortunately D&D 3E came along and rejuvenated me!!


Oh yeah - my 800th post! Whoopeedo.