Hobby games and the lack of time.

[Alaxk Knight of Galt]

When I was in college (back when dinosaurs roamed the Earth), I played DnD multiple nights a week (Friday, Saturday, and Mondays). Often, these sessions would run well past midnight. Additionally, I found time for MtG on Tuesday evenings and Saturdays at noon.

Now, with a wife and kid, I game bi-weekly on Sundays (2pm-8pm) and via Skype on Wed (9pm-Midnight) after the kiddo is asleep.

Gaming Time is wasted on the young

 

[adwyn]

Like everyone as I have grown older and collected responsibilites my gaming time has shifted - gone are three or four long games a week. My own weekly game has been on hiatus since Christmas and is just now sputtering back to life.

But I have found the solution. My son is just turning 12 and our games are starting to grow more serious, less like a kid's game and more like a normal rpg. The three or four games a week is coming back.

 

[Mallus]

Here's one way my playstyle has changed as I've gotten older and my gaming time has decreased.

My campaigns have gotten funnier. Sillier. Less hung up on maintaining verisimilitude, or uniform tone, or setting fidelity. They're more about being entertaining right now. In a way, they're more like Bollywood musicals. There's always some action, melodrama, or a wet-sari musical number (with ninjas) just around the corner... logic, common sense, and good storytelling/DM'ing techniques be damned.

I still like world-building --a lot-- and complex story-arcs, but frankly, we're all older, tired from the work week, with attention spans foreshortened by kids and other real life responsibilities. So our games focus on having an immediate lark. Sure, some things are lost in this process... so it goes.

 

[Deset Gled]

On of the huge side effects I feel from lack-of-time syndrome is a lack of ability to expand my gaming experience.

For example, I bought Arkham Horror. It looks great. It's a board game that I would love to sit down and play with my wife and a friend or two. I can even (occasionally) block off a 3-4 hour chunk of time to play it. But I have yet to find the time to sit down and learn how to play the darn thing. The rules book is long an complicated, and when I take a break to do some gaming or hang out with friends, I find that the last thing I want to do is break away and spend an hour reading a rule book and figuring out how to play it. So instead, we fall back to Risk or some other game that is simpler or well known. This has also an issue with some video games, such as Monster Hunter Freedom Unite (I gave up after getting through a hour of tutorials without getting to play at all).

This is one of the reasons I am interested in Encounters. If it presents the rules in a way that are learn-as-you-go instead of read-this-rulebook, it lowers the barrier to entry that is, sadly, the real thing keeping me from switching to 4e.

 

[JoeGKushner]

If I can get one day in a week to game I feel I've had a good week. And it's about a four hour game.

I used to be able to game much more.

Change in position at work as well as many more hours at work have cut way back on that.

This may change as I've moved back to Chicago proper as most of my gaming friends were Chicago bound and I was living in Mount Prospect where the gaming was good but my time, especially due to the drive back and forth to work, meant little time for actual gaming.

 

[Herobizkit]

I'm single, 34, no kids, no wife, no ex-wife, no s.o.... and I still only game once a month, maybe, but I haven't gamed since January when I wrapped up a years-long box set. Getting a group together is nigh impossible. My leisure time is "dedicated" to fast-play games on Facebook, staggered posts on PbP, and the occasional free MMORPG or console gaming.

Also, I tend to work evening and weekends.

 

[Ulrick]

I run a 3.5e campaign twice a month on Sunday afternoons/early evenings. It seems like the best time to run a game for everybody. The game wraps up sometime between 7-8pm giving people time to go home and relax before the week starts again.

Basically, my friend and mysefl have gotten older, we've valued having a set-schedule. Weekly games are out of the question, monthly games are too far apart. Every other week seems to work best. I

Years ago, I read "The Auld Alliance" in Dragon 216. Its chalk full of information to keep a gaming group going. But underlying it all is commitment. Its a damn good article, and I recommend every gamer read if they can find it.

I feel I'm actually more committed to gaming now, but I do not get to game as often. I treasure the experience more.

 

[Mallus]

Oops... apparently forgot I already posted to this thread. Senility is paying me an early visit...

 

[scourger]

The D&D Hangover the next day can be brutal.

I like the hangover description. The last time I ran D&D 3e (a few years ago), I had to be sure to: go to bed early the night before (all the prep time had to be days ahead; preferably over the weekend), eat a good meal beforehand, and drink water every 15 minutes (on a timer). It was even better if I could get a nap before the game.

Now, as a 40-year old married professional with 2 young children, I need a game that is basically plug & play. The last I ran & played was Savage Worlds, which fills the bill nicely. Very easy to prep and even easier to play.

I just started a new D&D game last week with 2 of my group. I'm using D&D minis with the simple advancement & magic items in the Minis Handbook plus the broad secondary skills table from 2e. It took me about 3 hours one night to separate my minis for the PCs, henchmen & each encounter area. I also got out a map of the campaign area and battle maps for the encounter areas. Although I have pondered this campaign for several months, that is the main work of prepping the game for me.

I just don't have the time or inclination to do much more right now. I can't run a 3e game with 1200 pages of core rules, paint the minis, and then do the very taxing work of running the game. And, 60% of the rest of my group is in the same boat. So, I'm down to 2 players instead of 5. But, we're still gaming!

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

I've gone from weekly sessions to 1 session every 2 weeks or so, depending on everyone's schedules...and since we play on Tuesday nights, the session is basically 8-12.