D&D 5E How long is your average session?

[Werebat]

Back in the day, in college, our sessions might go from 7 pm to 5 am the following morning. Oh, those long nights...

Nowadays we play maybe once a week, typically from 6-7 pm to about midnight. The time between 6 and 7 is typically dedicated to food and catching up, not actual gaming. So, about five hours.

 

[iserith]

Between 4 and 5 hours. We start promptly at 7 pm with going over lifestyle expenses, downtime activities, and a discussion about the party's goals for that session. Then the party sets out for the dungeon at which point we resolve the traveling phase - weather, marching order, set pace, exploration tasks, check for random encounter.

Once at the dungeon, the party explores until about 11 to 11:30 pm at which point the Thrice-Damned Horn sounds, heralding the return of the dungeon to a parallel dimension known as The Shade. This means the characters have to book it out of the dungeon before they're sucked into that dread realm. Once out, they typically just head back to town, sometimes with a short rest beforehand if they're beat up. This kicks off the traveling phase again as above.

Once back in town, we do the end of session phase where we discuss how the relationships between the characters may have changed, count the PCs' blessings, talk about what they learned and overcame, and what epic things they did that people in town will talk about for days. That puts us at midnight or shortly before it and we're done!

This same schedule holds every week and ensures we get to the content we want, starting and ending on time. It also easily allows for a rotating cast of characters since every session begins and ends in town.

 

[Guest 6801718]

Our group meets every other weekend. So we tend to have longer sessions. Typically we go from around 2 in the afternoon to sometime around 10 or 11 at night. There is usually a dinner break in there and the usual bit of chit chat and socializing before hand. So probably around 7 hours of gaming a shot.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

Almost always about four hours, though it may take 30 - 60 minutes before that for everyone to arrive and get settled in. We play every other weekend, generally, starting at noon (allegedly). I've come to really hate starting games at night. People tend to get tired and unfocused by the end. Not to mention the drive home from wherever afterwards.

 

[Istbor]

I would say on average we will game for 5 hours. Depending on the date and how the session is going that can last longer or shorter.

During this time of year for instance, with all of the holidays, our sessions can become longer due to obvious scheduling conflicts. Sometimes as well, we seem to get into a serious 'thing' and play accidentally for 8 hours.

Sometimes, you have to just knuckle down and clear that dungeon.

 

[cmad1977]

2-4 hours.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[AntiStateQuixote]

Although I put 5 hours, we don't actually play that long due to constant sidetrack conversations, pee breaks, tea breaks, ect...Its like 1/2 playing and 1/2 hanging out.

Similar for us, but I'd say it's about 3/4 playing and 1/4 hanging out.

We have a scheduled start time of 6:30. We're usually well into "game time" no later than 7:00. We play until 11:00 or later (rarely as late as 1:00, but sometimes it happens).

 

[Mouseferatu]

We block out 4 hours, of which maybe 3 is actually playing.

What he said.

 

[zaratan]

4 hours, 3h30 of cheap talk and indecisions the rest of rolling dice, make math and take note.

 

[Tony Vargas]

The time I have available for the campaign I run is no more than 4 hrs per weekly session (and usually goes 2-3, last night went over 3, but it was two combats, with an over-analyzed puzzle in between and some dramatic wrap-up RP at the end).

The one I play in regularly in is 6+ hrs, but at most 2/month.

The cons I run at tend toward 4, 6 & 8 hrs slots. I usually go for either 4 (1st level introductory game) or 8 (anything else).

Back in the day I'd game for 8-12 hrs or more at a stretch.
In the 3e era 6-8 hrs.
4e & Encounters seemed like it shifted everything to shorter sessions, but it may well have been a trend I had been blissfully unaware of until then: 4e was designed so you could complete an encounter in an hour. Encounters sessions at the FLGS were ~2 hrs - an encounter with attendant exploration, interaction, story development & general RP, and got longer towards the end, IMHO because the venue (spun off from the original because games were getting so huge) started staying open longer.
5e & AL continues that trend, there's 4 hrs available, now, and sessions often go that long.