How do you end a game session?

[eris404]

We don't have a set time to start or end, as it depends on everyone's schedule. Personally, I don't like to go too late because I'm not a night owl and I tend to get cranky past 11:00 pm. Also, we're adult folks with relationships, jobs and other committments, plus some of us live a good hour or more away, so playing later isn't a great option for most of us anyway. We keep an eye on the time and decide at the session how long we want to go. So, if it's 8:30 - 9:00 pm and it looks like we might be starting something that will take a long time to finish, we'd rather end early than carry on later. Conversely, if it's 10:00 pm and we're very close to finishing something, such as a combat, we may go later.

 

[amazingshafeman]

We started off with the intent to quit at 1am (we don't start til very late due to work schedules), but for a long while ran well past to 2 or 4am... Unfortunately, my wife's attention span/stamina wall is 1:30am consistently. As the games got later, she got less interested in playing. So, now I call the game between 12:30 and 1, even if it means only getting in 2.5 hours of game time.

See, we've rescheduled "game night" thrice now to accomodate the schedule of two of the players. In one instance, it was a temporary fix to accomodate a player's other social responsibilities (ie, his girlfriend wanted his attention on game night). Regardless, those of us with steady to pseudo-steady schedules are just about fed up with the expectation that we work game night around the other players, even if it might mean cutting our own sleep short. That's why the solution at present is the occasional 2.5 hour game. It keeps some people from slowly sliding under the table in a comatose state, at the game table and at work....

 

[Chaldfont]

We play on Thursday nights, and some folks have to drive 30 minutes to get home. So we play from 7-11pm sharp.

I watch the clock pretty closely to make sure we end on time--even if we have to stop 30 minutes early to avoid getting into a prolonged battle. I always try to end with a cliffhanger--it keeps the players excited and anxious to come back next week.

We never stop in the middle of a battle--its too hard to set it back up a week (or more) later.

 

[Wombat]

We run our games alternate Saturdays from 2pm to 9pm, though sometimes this stretched to 10pm.

I arrange most adventures to run one session, though some of them run two. This does not mean that there are not trailing bits to carry over, but the main thrust of the adventure itself ends pretty much on time. This also probably explains why our sessions, in terms of game-time, might be covering part of one day or a couple of months at a go.

 

[Roadkill101]

My group doesn't have a quitting time, though we're supposed to start at 9:00 we usually end up starting a half hour to an hour later.
Quitting normally involves someone in the group announcing a need or desire to end the session "pretty soon." At which point we finish any combat/tactical situations and the party sets up (or returns) camp (or other designated "safe" local) and posts a watch. Then we divvy up any treasure while the GM hands out XP and generally review the session.
Thus we are setup to for the next session, where if a player can't/doesn't show up, the GM can handwave in an excuse for the character's absence.

 

[the black knight]

We never finish until somebody's dead.

 

[Arc]

We play with an episodic format, so almost every session ends with either a cliffhanger, or a resolution of the episode. We haven't had to stop in the middle of combat in a long time, and if we need to, our mapping program (Gametable) keeps track of all the character locations and the map layout. It's pretty sweet.

 

[rgard]

This was mentioned in the "punishing players" thread and I thought I would start another thread about it.

When the time comes that you have to call then end of the gaming session, how do you usually wrap things up?

For example, in our group when 6 o'clock comes the game comes to an end (give or take a few minutes). If we are in the middle of a dungeon then that is where we start the next session. Even if we are in the middle of a combat, if we know it is going to take another hour then we either leave the miniatures and stuff on the battlemat, or write notes so we can replace them at the next session. If possible, we will try to cut the session short by a few minutes to avoid ending it in the middle of a battle, but that isn't always an option.

I have played with a few groups that insist on continuing on until the combat ends or we get to a good stopping point. Unfortunately, that doesn't work when the wife is calling every 10 minutes to see when I am leaving and why it is taking so long So, now I try to avoid those groups.

What are other board member's opinions on the issue? Do you drop the session at the specified time? Do you keep playing until you have a good ending point, no matter how much longer it takes?

We end ours when the last PC dies.

Seriously, if I'm DMing, I have a pretty good idea when the next combat will occur and I won't start that if we are approaching the time we agreed to finish.

Thanks,
Rich

 

[S'mon]

We always end the combat, award XP and wind down a bit. I aim to end ca 6pm but in actuality can be anything from 5pm to 7pm.