How Long Can You DM ?

[Dave G]

I guess my longest would have been an ice storm that pretty much confined us to the house in a little town about 15 miles from where we all lived (one of the guy's girlfriend's house, she played too).

I don't know now how many hours in a row we went, but I believe we started at about 8 or 9 in the evening, and we all passed out at like 4 or 5 in the morning. Then we pretty much got up, had breakfast, and there was a team that hiked to the store a couple of blocks away. Once they got back we played until 2 a.m. By this time we'd had characters die, but they weren't the hard-core gamers, so they just went and read or played videos or slept. The next morning we all woke up, ate biscuits and gravy, took one look at each other and went our separate ways. We'd had enough. Of each other, of rolling dice, of simply sharing air with so many people for such an extended period of time....

We played Castle Greyhawk. Awesome.

 

[howandwhy99]

At our recent lokicon we got blitzed pretty badly. I don't know how long we played, but the quarterback came home on a stretcher.

 

[Ruined]

Last year our weekly group got together on a Saturday and I ran one of the Age of Worms modules in its entirety. I think it was thirteen hours in all, and I was an absolute zombie by the end of it.

Oh, for the days of my youth when many weekends were non-stop gaming...

 

[Captain Howdy]

My old campaign was about 4 hours per session, because that was at my parents house. Since we are playing at the apartment now, they are usually 10 hours. I start to get kind of loopy at around 7-8 hours, but we have gone as long as 12.

They are blowing through Shackled City at one chapter every two sessions on average. We started it last month, and I am betting that it will probably only take until June to do the whole campaign. Last time a ran it, it took over a year to finish.

 

[Fallen Seraph]

I can usually last a while depending on the players if they are into it and don't start slacking off on their end I can keep going all night.

As for how many weeks/months, I think probably couple months DMing but I like some player time in between that.

 

[Silver Moon]

My first gaming group would start at 7:00 PM on Saturday night wand would sometimes go until 1:00 or 2:00 AM, so 6-7 hours. For the group's five-year anniversary we did a 12 hour marathon game. But that was when we were all back in college.

 

[Arbiter of Wyrms]

I don't know what the longest session I've ever run was, maybe 8 hours.

When I was a player and in college (JC), I went to my DM's house while he was at work, and his wife and I updated our characters, plotted our next moves and awaited his return from work. He got home exhausted after a long day and found us there insisting that he run a game for us - impromptu. I remember something about a cave up the side of a mountain alongside a road. We deliberated for a bit about how to proceed when the DM, Levi, put his head down on the table. His wife, Lisa, finally announced, "Okay, here's what we're going to do. . ."

"Levi. Levi! Wake up."

"Meximelt taquito" was his response.

"What? I said we're going in to the cave. Ray's character's going first with the torch."

"Uhn. Nacho taco."

"Levi!"

"What?! Here: there're kobolds inside, I don't know - 4 or 5, AC 7, they all have 6 hit points."

"Fine. We kill them."

"Hmnph. . ."

We ran the rest of the encounter ourselves, and got fed up with Levi for falling asleep and called it quits.

We still refer to this event, and to the practice of going long past one's endurance, as "meximelt taquito."

 

[haakon1]

I think 4-6 hours usually is good, if the players have kids, jobs, etc. that's about all you can get anyhow.

Also, there's a time of day consideration. I lose it as a DM after about 10 pm. As a player, I'm OK until about midnight.

There's an interesting phenomenon after the game too. Even if I'm too tired to play anymore, I still can't sleep. For hours. Until like 3 am. Too tired to game, to amped to sleep. This isn't just the caffeine (sometimes there is beer instead of Coke, after all), but it's psychology. Introverts get tired out by performances. Extroverts (me) get wired by them. For me, it's the same thing being a DM or being a musician -- anxious before, can't sleep afterwards. My guess is, this is why lots of rock musicians drink etc. after the show -- trying to turn off the hyped up mental state.

Of course, it's an interesting question as to whether most DMs are introverts (due to being nerdy) or extroverts (due to being the center of attention, a nerdy performing artist). I'm guessing extroverts.

 

[Angel Tarragon]

There was a 3 Day weekend back in '98 where I GMd my best friend and his 6 characters. The only breaks we took were bathroom and sleep breaks.

 

[Hrothgar Rannúlfr]

You're doing it right now, reading up on DMimg tips while your players take a week-long bathroom break.

Cheers, -- N

I think you're right. DM-ing isn't something you do. It's who you are.