Frequent short sessions vs infrequent long sessions

[Sunseeker]

I agree and believe 2 hr weekly sessions are way better than irregular whole days etc. Less to prep, punchy, and bec it's every week stuff is fresh in your mind. roll20 etc are a new golden age of rpg I think

How....do you get anything done in 2 hours?

The kind of people you want in your group are "broken glass" people, people who will play D&D consistently, every week, even if they have to walk on their bare feet over broken glass to do it. I have such a group, including one man who has had to fight his girlfriend over the issue, because she REALLY doesn't want him to play.

I really don't understand S/O's like that.

 

[S'mon]

The kind of people you want in your group are "broken glass" people, people who will play D&D consistently, every week, even if they have to walk on their bare feet over broken glass to do it. I have such a group, including one man who has had to fight his girlfriend over the issue, because she REALLY doesn't want him to play.

All else being equal, yes they are the ones to prioritise over the casual/irregular flakey players. Of course if your best friend or fiance is the Lord Flasheart turns-up-every-six-sessions guy, you may need to do it differently...

 

[Psikerlord#]

How....do you get anything done in 2 hours?

If you use a fast combat system, you can get plenty done in two hours.

 

[Glomb175]

We do 4 hours fortnightly,

I would prefer to do weekly but my party would prefer to do monthly so we compromised. They say that playing takes a lot out of them. I personally think that DMing is more taxing than playing yet I'm always ready to keep going (I'm the DM).

Sent from my HTC 10 using EN World mobile app

 

[Sunseeker]

If you use a fast combat system, you can get plenty done in two hours.

I don't really mean even combat, I meant we usually spend at least an hour BSing, and sometimes after 2 hours of play we haven't even gotten to a fight, it's just been RP, we just don't get far in 2 hours.

 

[redrick]

The kind of people you want in your group are "broken glass" people, people who will play D&D consistently, every week, even if they have to walk on their bare feet over broken glass to do it. I have such a group, including one man who has had to fight his girlfriend over the issue, because she REALLY doesn't want him to play.

Broken glass people are all well and good, but if a number of people in your group are marching over broken glass every week just to play D&D, well...

 

[Calithorne]

Broken glass people are all well and good, but if a number of people in your group are marching over broken glass every week just to play D&D, well...

Well...what?

 

[redrick]

Well...what?

Well maybe you should think about restructuring your gaming schedule?

A group needs at least a couple players who are going to prioritize showing up, because that's what holds the group together, but you should still work to accommodate their schedules. We're mostly pretty dedicated and only cancel for work or family commitments that we can't get out of, but playing past midnight one worknight every week and not getting home until 1 (or later — god bless the New York MTA), takes a major toll after a while. Especially when you have a New York City job that expects the same level of commitment.

I probably wouldn't have married my wife if she had a blanket objection to a harmless hobby that brought me a lot of joy, but I wouldn't leave her for D&D. I'd cut my gaming time down to make sure I was still doing what I needed to do for my family.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

In my experience, players need to be a lot more attentive and on-point the shorter the game is; shorter play sessions are a lot more demanding on a player. Start time has to really be start time, and when you’re turn comes up, you really need to know what you’re going to do, or how you’re going to react/interact with a situation or NPC.

I think you also need to be mindful of when it’s not your time to be in the spotlight.

As for the DM, keeping things on-track and being considerate of your players’ time is even more important than usual. But all that being said, we’re all there to have fun and laugh. One can never lose sight of that.

I don't really mean even combat, I meant we usually spend at least an hour BSing, and sometimes after 2 hours of play we haven't even gotten to a fight, it's just been RP, we just don't get far in 2 hours.

 

[Salthorae]

Been with my gaming group for over a decade now. We started doing weekly 8+ hour sessions on the weekend and now do weekly 3-4 hours sessions on a weeknight. Our issues were that weekend time with family, etc was too precious to sacrifice a whole weekend day to gaming.

On the flip side, it takes a long time to accomplish many things in game these days as we have much less time (with the dinner/show up/casual conversation, etc.). If you don't meet regularly, then you might go 2-3 weeks if people have to bail, and weekends are prime "bail" time for other commitments. It'll only get harder to get regular attendance once kids come on scene as it has with our group. So I would stick with mid-week weekly if you at all can... skip the occasional week for DM planning sessions or whatever, but the more regular you make it, the more committed players will be. My 2cp