Game sessions - time, frequency, etc (and a poll about combat time)

[Mercurius]

In the Leveling Up Sweet Spot thread I was talking about how by necessity of time prep (or lack thereof), I tend to run a much more combat-focused game than I would prefer, which got me thinking about combat frequency as well as session length and other such details. Which gave me the idea for this two-part thread: One, I'm providing a template below about your session frequency, duration, time, etc. Two, I'm curious about the amount of time you spend on combat in an average game session. I know that each session is different, but what's the average? Try to quantify it by percent of the total game session.

Try to follow the format below with any additional commentary underneath it; I'll use myself as an example:

D&D Edition: 4E
Game Frequency: Every other week.
Session Time: Arrival time is by 8pm, with starting time around 8:30pm and ending between between midnight and 1am, usually around 12:30am.
Session Length: Ranges from3-5 hours, averaging around 4 to 4 hrs, 15 min.
Combats per session: An average of 2.
Combat length: Usually between 45 min and 1 hr, 30min; occasionally a 2+ hr combat for a major villain.
Percent of Session Devoted to Combat: In our average 4 hr, 15 min session, 2-3 hrs is devoted to combat, 2 hr, 30 min probably being the average, which is about 60%.

 

[Crothian]

D&D Edition: Pathfinder
Game Frequency: Weekly
Session Time: Start at 6pm about
Session Length: 4-5 hours
Combat length: Not too long, I don't time it. Last session i9t was really long but that was an aberation as it was the climatic combat to the first part of the campaign.
Percent of Session Devoted to Combat: Not much, we go through combat pretty well.

The biggest factor of it is we are running Kingmaker. There are not dungeons or places to explore that have lots of combat.

 

[Thasmodious]

D&D Edition: 4E
Game Frequency: Every other week.
Session Time: Arrival time is between 6-7p, with starting time around 7:30pm and ending between 11p and midnight.
Session Length: Ranges from 3.5-4.5 hours, averaging around 4 hours
Combats per session: An average of 1.5
Combat length: Usually 45 minutes to an hour, hour and a half for long fights
Percent of Session Devoted to Combat: 33.33%

 

[Umbran]

I'm not running D&D of any flavor right now. But, for sake of perspective...

Game: Classic Deadlands
Game Frequency: Every other week.
Session Time: "After Work" - so folks are usually arriving 6 PM to 6:30 PM
Session Length: 3 to 4 hours (not counting dinner)
Combat length: 1 to 2 hours
Percent of Session Devoted to Combat: 0% or 60%-75% - the game seems to naturally fall into a session of talky-investigation, followed by a session of shootin' bad guys and monsters.

 

[spinmd]

D&D Edition: 4E
Game Frequency: Every other Saturday, though sometimes due to scheduling it is every 3rd Saturday
Session Time: Arrival time is now 3:30 pm as one of the players is away at school and is 3 hrs ahead, end time around 11 pm.
Session Length: Ranges from 6-8 hours, depends on how long it takes to get started.
Combat length: Easy: 15 - 30 mins, Standard: 30 min - 1 hr, Hard: up to 2 hrs
Percent of Session Devoted to Combat: Around 70%

 

[Jacob Marley]

D&D Edition: 3.5 Edition
Game Frequency: Every other week.
Session Time: 6:00 PM to 11:00 PM.
Session Length: Approximately five hours.
Combats per session: Varies. Low levels (1-5): average 8. Middle levels (6-10): average 4. High levels (11-15): average 2.
Combat length: Varies. Low levels (1-5): average 20 minutes per encounter. Middle levels (6-10): average 45 minutes per encounter. High levels (11-15): average 90 minutes per encounter.
Percent of Session Devoted to Combat: +/- 60%.

 

[karlindel]

This is for my home campaign:

D&D Edition: 4E
Game Frequency: Every other week.
Session Time: starts shortly after noon, we eat lunch together and then game
Session Length: Usually 5-9 hours, with a break for dinner together if we run past 6.
Combats per session: Usually 2-4, though there have been a couple of shorter sessions with no combats.
Combat length: Usually about an hour and a half to two hours, sometimes longer for major or complicated combats.
Percent of Session Devoted to Combat: I would say a fairly steady 50%, but lower during planning and aftermath sessions and higher when in a dungeon.

 

[Lanefan]

This is for each party I run; I'm currently running two, so two sessions per week total in a normal week.

D&D Edition: "Victoria Rules" (1e homebrew variant)
Game Frequency: Every week.
Session Time: Theory is gather at 7:30 and start then; end around 11:30. Practice is gather at 7:30 to sail at about 8; ending around midnight, with lots of variance.
Session Length: 4 hours, give or take.
Combats per session: Highly variable. Extremely rare to get to 5 in one night, some sessions have none at all, so the average is somewhere between.
Combat length: Also highly variable, from a low of 10 minutes to a high of several hours; most are done within the half hour.
Percent of Session Devoted to Combat: Some sessions it's close to 100%, some there's none. I'd guess about 40% on average.

Lanefan

 

[Ahnehnois]

D&D Edition: 3.X
Game Frequency: Weekly
Session Time: 7:00-11:30 p.m.
Session Length: ~4 hours.
Combats per session: 1-2
Combat length: 45 mins - 1 hour (or more)
Percent of Session Devoted to Combat: ~40%

I typically run one or two battles per session. The challenge level is much greater than D&D's basic assumptions, so they take time. If I run one tough battle, I'll tend to throw in a "fluff" battle to use up some older monster stats or something. Thus, I'd say a third to half the session is spent fighting.

I used to spend more time on combat, this pace progresses the story very rapidly but still sends the players home satisfied they won at something.

 

[Herremann the Wise]

Have effectively two campaigns at the moment so:

Me as Player:
D&D Edition: 4E
Game Frequency: About every 3 weeks on average depending.
Session Time: 12:00pm to 6:00pm
Session Length: About 6 hours takeaway time for food [sorry couldn't resist the pun]
Combats per session: About 3 to 4 depending
Combat length: Usually between 45 min and 1 hr, almost like it is hard-coded into the game... wait...
Percent of Session Devoted to Combat: About 60 to 80%

Me as DM:
D&D Edition: 3.X/Pathfinder
Game Frequency: About every 3 weeks on average depending [we'll flip back to this in a few months time when the 4e game has reached its next stopping point]
Session Time: 10:00am to 11:00pm [Monster session]
Session Length: About 13 hours take away a couple of times for food
Combats per session: About 1 to 2 depending [It has 6 players with average character level 18th at the moment]
Combat length: Usually between 1 hour and 4 hours
Percent of Session Devoted to Combat: About 40 to 50% but it can be radically more or less depending. The PCs are able to choose when they have combat and when they do not.

Best Regards
Herremann the Wise