Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Rocket your D&D 5E and Level Up: Advanced 5E games into space! Alpha Star Magazine Is Launching... Right Now!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lanefan" data-source="post: 4842995" data-attributes="member: 29398">Back to pacing...OK, right here we already have a huge disconnect: session length does not (and in my situation anyway, cannot) equal adventure length.  I can't remember if I've ever got through an entire adventure start to finish in one session, and that's including some monster-length sessions back in the day.All adventures, chapters, and stories have a beginning, middle, and end.  Sessions don't, really...not unless you're so organized and-or so tied to the railroad that you can plan exactly how long each element of the coming night's game will take (i.e. you know exactly how long your players will take to make each decision, absorb and discuss each bit of new info, etc.).  As with the other discussion, I have to ask here: what happens if the players go off script?  Say for example you've planned out a session where, because of where they left off last time, they're right set up for the final battle - one more room with a few relatively minor guards and then the boss battle.  But the party take extra long dealing with the guards - instead of quietly and efficiently killing them they manage to capture two and then spend a long time questioning each one individually and comparing their stories - and then spend three hours using this new info to re-plan their assault on the boss.  Are you suggesting the players can't do this, that you'd somehow force the boss battle to start around 10 p.m. real time because that's what's scheduled?Slow down, man! <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />If the adventure's going to take 10 sessions even though you'd prefer it take 4, let it take all 10.  There's nothing at all wrong with finding a logical break point (an overnight or "extended" rest is an obvious one) and stopping there, (remembering to note what hit points etc. the characters are at) to resume next week.Game design plays an ever-increasing part here too.  Older editions didn't really bother designing for campaign length.  3e specifically went for a 1-20 run taking about 2 years.  4e, if memory serves, wants to go 1-30 in about 18 months.  And hell, a good deep campaign is barely getting underway at 18 months!I'm starting to ramble as it's late and I haven't had dinner yet, but what I'm trying to say is that unless people are getting bored, let the pace set itself and don't force it...and assume that each adventure, and by extension the whole campaign, is going to go on exactly as long and take exactly as many sessions as it needs to. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />  And if your campaign lasts ten years, good on ya!Lanefan</blockquote>

Verification