Frequent short sessions vs infrequent long sessions

[redrick]

After some lineup changes and some job changes, our gaming group is rethinking its scheduling. For the last two years or so, we have been a weekly weeknight group. Sessions generally last around 4 hours once the last person has showed up. (Roughly 8pm to midnight.) This includes time to order and eat dinner, and the obligatory "have you seen ... ?" catch-up conversations. So actual gaming is more like 3 to 3 and a half hours.

Now we're planning to move to weekends, and I have been thinking about suggesting that we consider going from playing once a week for 4 hours to playing less frequently, but really setting aside 6 or more hours for the whole thing. We are all adults, some of us married, some of us single, all of us with jobs, though some jobs less predictable than others. No kids (yet.)

What do you think? Am I crazy to give up the weekly game before I have to?

As I see it:

Pros to weekly:

• Keeps the game fresh in everybody's mind.
• If you miss one week, you'll probably get to play next week.
• Get to scratch that RPG itch frequently, which reduces the urge to suddenly start 2am Roll20 campaigns without consulting with your wife
• More sessions, more gaming!

Pros to irregularly:

• DM can prep for longer sessions, allowing deeper and more interesting game-play in one night.
• Easier to get everybody together?
• Less disruptive to life/sleep.

 

[Chris633]

As someone who has made this transition, here are my thoughts. Because of our schedules my group decided to move our game online using Fantasy Grounds. My group plays a weekly online game that last for 2hrs approximately. Once every month or two we get together for a 7hr-ish live game. I wouldn't give up the weekly game for anything. Even though it's only two hours and not even in person, we get a lot of enjoyment out of it. It keeps everything fresh. One of the other players GMs a second game that we play infrequently and it just isn't as fun as our weekly game. So I say keep it weekly, even if shorter, and get together when you can for a longer game.


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[Chris633]

Another thing I did that made it work was that I set up a private Facebook group for the campaign. So we are able to keep discussions going between game sessions. Resolve rule questions or any other issues or suggestions. We will even do the occasional play by post. I have on going now for our main game that I GM while the other GM is running his game. I can also post session summaries or post pictures of a villain or dramatic moment if we left off on a cliffhanger or big reveal. We also handle session scheduling on there.


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[Sunseeker]

Personally, I would prefer longer and less often to shorter and more often. The other advantage to longer and less often is that for those people who want more frequent RPG time, it opens it up for them to participate in or run another game, which can be a nice breather for everyone.

 

[S'mon]

I would recommend something of a compromise - a 5 hour weekend slot playing most weeks works well. You'll get a lot more done than in a 4 hour weekday evening slot, esp if you start earlier.

 

[Gilladian]

My group meets onSunday afternoons for 3 hours. I try to enforce a quick start, and we get a lot done. We do miss about 1 session a month due to Life, but I couldn't handle DMing for 6+ hours anymore. It is just too much!

 

[Hippy]

My group meets today, but I have found over the years it really depends on life timing. Half my group is married with kids (I have three myself), this tears into weekends big-time! School events, sports, etc. The result our bi-weekly game, more than not turns into a once a month game. You have to go with the flow, if your group wants to try the switch it may work great for you, as none of your group have kids yet. When they do, expect big gaps in when players can attend. You may want to take the other posters suggestion and add a onine component for those kid-locked at home in the future. Believe me it will happen it is just a matter of time; if your group stays together. We added Skype and a camera, I also use D20Pro aong with my normal home made terrain to duplicate the battleboard for those at home. A bit more work, but keeps the game alive. Good luck with whichever route you go!

Hippy

 

[Blue]

I've had games that have lost critical time density - they happened so infrequently that people forgot what was happening and didn't remember plot points to put things together. The longest gap I've found works (with multiple groups of people) is every other week for a weeknight (~3 hr) or once a month for longer (5-6+) game.

In my particular case I found weekends harder to schedule - someone always had some sort of family obligation or was on vacation. If you have a larger group and don't mind playing down a person or two that's not a problem.

 

[Jhaelen]

Being in the same situation for decades now, our group has long switched to monthly sessions of about 8-10 hours each.
It is a lot easier to schedule; having a weekly meeting would simply be impossible. Even so, there's two things I consider important for it to work at all:
1) Our group typically includes eight to ten players. When scheduling our next game it's 'first come, first served'. We rarely have more than six players playing in a particular session.
2) We use dropbox to share everything about the campaign and keep a session journal. The journal is crucial to recall what happened in the last session, especially for players who may not have participated.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

When it started out my group met once a month, gaming until we’re were done. The date would all depend on everyone’s schedules, and we started having months where gaming just wouldn’t happen. I then switched to more frequent sessions at twice a month, but limited to four-ish hours, and things got much better. Meanwhile, I’m a player in a weekly group that only games for 1.5 – 2 hours, and the attendance is impeccable.

I think there are a multitude of factors. Ultimately people either want to game and can commit to gaming, or they won’t/can’t. Life stuff will come up, but I’m not sure there’s any one magical sweet spot for gaming schedules. I spent years catering to everyone else’s schedules and it started to drive me batty, while only ensuring that we gamed less, not more. So, ultimately, I just go with what suits me. And I am a happier Ralif for it, on the whole.