Game time in combat?

[rgoodbb]

It was suggested in another thread that combat took up 50-90% of game play. This has certainly not been my experience. I DM one group and play in another. I would suggest for both those two tables, combat was roughly 20-30% We may even go through one or two sessions without a combat, but then have another session that might be a bit of a slaughterfest. My preference is slightly less combat but not totally devoid of it. YMMV of course.

Am I in the minority here?

Genuinely interested. How much time of your sessions do you envisage is taken up with combat?

Ps I'm not savvy enough to do a poll. just wanted peoples thoughts really.

 

[Rossbert]

My current group sees between 30% and 50% depending heavily on what shenanigans we got up to in town, on the road, etc.

We are also on the small side with 4 players and our last session was slowed down with an experimental non-replacing random number generation method. We frequently had to consult a chart.

 

[BluejayJunior]

From our 2ish hour game last night. The one combat we had lasted about 30 minutes. (Hit some enemies with hypnotic pattern, killed the only one that saved, then we ducked through the door we were trying to get through and escaped)
I'd say at most combat for us has been 50% of the play time. We've had a couple combat heavy sessions when going through dungeons that maybe took 60% of the play time, but most of the time I'd say it's probably closer to 30% of play time spent in combat. We all like roleplaying and exploration and are more interested in the overall story than just killing stuff.

 

[Satyrn]

I consider my group to be combat heavy and I think it takes up about half of our playing time. I'd say 40-60%

Last session was an anamoly for us, with not a single round of combat in it.

 

[Warmaster Horus]

Combat is a big part of my game, so I'd say 40-50%. Right now exploration is taking up the other part since the party is in the ToA.

 

[toucanbuzz]

Before 5th edition (3rd, PF), probably 50-75% of a session because combats took so friggin long. In 5E, more like 33% of our time in actual combat simply because the system flows better.

 

[TheSword]

30-50% depending on how good the session tends to be. I think 50% is the sweet spot for me. More tends to get oppressive less can be frustrating.

 

[iserith]

It's so highly dependent on the campaign or one-shot that it's hard for me to say. It also depends on the players' choices, so it varies. My current campaign has a big exploration component so, in some cases, up to half the session is taken up with exploration while the rest splits between combat and social interaction. My one-shots can often be heavy on combat and lighter on exploration and social interaction.

I think on average maybe two out of four hours per session is spent on combat challenges, but that can spike upward. There's never a session without combat though. I'd consider a session without at least one solid fight to be a failure.

I'd personally be fine with 100% combat (to the extent that's even possible), both as a DM and player. It never gets old in my opinion.

 

[rgoodbb]

30-50% depending on how good the session tends to be. I think 50% is the sweet spot for me. More tends to get oppressive less can be frustrating.

It's an interesting point you make about how good the session is. If we are getting up to shenanigans or having a laugh with the roleplaying side, combat can slip down the wayside in its importance, but if the non combat stuff doesn't seem to be going anywhere a good skirmish is just the ticket.

I have found that having a tad less combat, makes combat sweeter when it comes around.

 

[MNblockhead]

Hard to say. In my recently-ended homebrew campaign, it varied widely. I had some 8-hour sessions that were mostly combate and other sessions that had almost no combat. I like to mix it up and focused on trying new things rather than meeting the DMG's encounters-per-day guidelines.

I'm running Curse of Strahd now, which in seems to have a higher emphasis on social interaction and exploration. But the campagin just begun and the lesser amount of combat may be do to combat avoidance in a sandboxy setting that punishes those who don't avoid and run away from danger. I would say that in CoS it has been about 25% combat--at most.

My next campaign will be Rappan Athuk, which I expect will be 80% combat and 20% rolling up new characters.