How Long Can You DM ?

[Whisper72]

My longest session was around 36 hours, although we did have (short) breaks for food, pee etc. It was a weekend long game, where I DM'ed without any prepared notes or scenario, just moving the story along by thinking faster than my players.

It was a lot of fun with weird stuff going on during the time of 1st edition. It was also during the time when our gaming style was a bit more juvenile. I remember something about giant (as in gargantuan) vampires whose teeth were effectively +5 swords, an island lost in time, where a gigantic 'time stop' had been in effect for many many thousands of years which was broken by the players resulting in all manner of dino hunting goodness and an assault on a citadel where a cabal of arch mages was ensconced. Needless to say, they were all soundly beaten... There was also the classic dungeon with the 'chess' room and humongous and aggressive chess pieces. It was an all round marathon of cliche's, but much enjoyment by all.

We kept leveling up during the session, and near the end, the PC's were in their 30's of levels. Little time was spent on roleplaying niceties, much time on killing things and taking their stuff...

Now, I barely have time to play. Recently a dad and a new job kinda threw a spike in that.

 

[DonTadow]

I've done a few eight hour sessions last year, nothing more than 6 this year. It is pretty grueling and with eight hours that makes eight hours of random things that can happen.

 

[Cabled]

5 or 6 hours is about good for me nowdays too for a game with any depth...I could probably DM "bash the door, take the loot" until I collaped, but my players would get bored of it before I would.

 

[Jack99]

Once a year, all 7 of us go off to a summerhouse and play from Friday till Sunday. When we went last November, we played from 10 am till 4 am (18 hours) during the Saturday, so I guess that is my longest, at least during the last 10 years or so. When we were younger, we did pull some longer sessions.

 

[Arnwyn]

So being experienced or new DMs, how long was the longest time you could ever DM for a group without rest?

In one sitting? I think the most I've done is about 16 hours, back in University.

For the same group?
15 years and counting.

 

[Rauol_Duke]

We regularly (about once every other month), have a weekend Marathon Session. We start with 3-4 hours on Friday night, 12-15 hours on Saturday, and then another 4-6 hours on Sunday. Been doing this for about 3 years now - played through Age of Worms and about half-way through Savage Tide with that group. Lots of fun, but I usually need some pretty significant recovery time after a session...

 

[PapersAndPaychecks]

Dunno, never felt myself hit a wall with it.

 

[Oryan77]

About 10 hours myself. I'm sure I could go way longer without breaking. I have a strange habit that once I start DMing I just go like a machine. Before I realize it, it's already night time. My wife also has to remind me to eat the food/snacks that we have on the table or else I won't and it all gets eaten up.

 

[Haffrung Helleyes]

that would have been 10 ft squares indoors and 10 yard square outside in the parking lot.


edit: longest was 25 hours.

I want to know if the searched for traps and secret doors. And who had the 10' pole?

Ken

 

[Shemeska]

I've been running for close to 5-6 years now I think. After the current campaign is over however, I'm going on vacation from running for some time, probably till I've at least finished one of two storyhours.

As for how long I can run a session, I started out initially running something like a 10hr session. Now it's more like 5hrs on average.