How do you end a game session?

[shaylon]

We used to end by saying "You are the weakest link. Goodbye!"

Now we have a tribal council at around 10:15 then we all vote around the fire and the DM announces that the tribe has spoken.

Actually, we usually just end in the 10:30-11 range and our DM can usually recount exactly what we are doing at the start of the next session.

-Shay

 

[IronWolf]

Well, since I play in Crothian's and Shaylon's group you have already read the answer. We work to cut off in the 10:30pm range. None of us seem to have set deadlines to be home by though, so if it runs over by a little bit its not too big of an issue in most cases.

 

[ThirdWizard]

We don't have a set end time exactly. We don't play past 8pm, but we end early most of the time, say 30 minutes early, because we get to a good stopping place. I like to stop while the PCs have down time and can plan their next strategy. That leaves me able to better plan the next session based on what their plans are. If we stopped in the middle of a dungeon, they might not be able to plan their next strategy until they were out, leaving a less cohesive session next time with more wasted time. So, dungeons will usually be an entire session, for example. I've gotten good at planning sessions so that I always have a good stopping place.

 

[sniffles]

We usually end our Friday night games around 10, as a couple of the players just don't like to run later than that, and we have one player who has to work on Saturdays. Since most of the players can't get to the location until 6, we don't get to run as long as I think we would all prefer, but we just don't have any other time slot to put that game in.

Our Sunday afternoon games start at noon and tend to end around 5 or 6. One couple really like to get out of there on the dot of 6. I'm usually pretty tired by then (I'm the oldest player) so I don't mind, although I think the GM and other players would go longer.

I don't recall many times we've called it a day during a combat; we really try hard not to do that. If we do have to end the session in the middle of the action we just keep all the drawing on the mat, and the GM will usually make some notes as to the positions of the PCs and others.

I like the idea of running the game like an episode of a tv series, but it seems that it would be really difficult to do that if some of the players want to play out something instead of hand-wave it, or combat takes longer than expected.

 

[DungeonmasterCal]

Our game has to end at 7 p.m. because two of our players babysitters are only played until then.

Sorry... that just sorta jumped out at me as darn funny.

 

[Ravenknight]

We usually play our weekend sessions until someone start to doze off. Then we quit when a good moment comes along. Then a heathed discussion takes place about cleaning my apartment, (Where we always play) and then it´s off to sleep.

 

[el-remmen]

We play from noon to 6:30 every other Satruday.

We usually end right at 6:30.

A handful of times we have played an hour or two longer b/c one of our players got permission from his wife - but the honest truth I can't DM worth a damn past the six and half hour mark- I just get fuzzy.

Personally, I LIKE ending in the middle of a combat (we always finish the current round so it is easy to remember who starts off next time) that way next session we can jump right into it with less "warm up and catch up" time - as we know we are all in the thick of it.

 

[devilbat]

Our official quit time is 10:00 pm. The actual game end anywhere between 10:30 and 11:30. We never quit in the middle of combat. I always try to call it a night with a cliffhanger. There's nothing better then having the players say AWWWWWW, when I announce the end.

 

[Henry]

If we're in the middle of a combat, we'll finish the combat, even if it means running late, because we have to clean up our gaming area, and trying to reconstruct a combat both spatially and mentally is too much hassle for us.

However, sometimes we'll end with a whimper, and sometimes with a BANG! I've ended on cliffhangers before, just before a big combat, and sometimes I've ended with a denoument in town or other safe haven. But the only place we almost NEVER end is mid-combat.

 

[Majoru Oakheart]

We probably would just play until someone said "hey, let's stop". But we have a hard end time now of around 10:30 pm when one of our members has to head to work.

So, I watch the time and if I can see that a batle is about to happen when there is little time left, I just end it early. Although, the player has been late for work before due to misestimated battle times. I said he could go and someone could play his character for the rest of the session (with full XP in case you were wondering ) but he insisted on staying.