How long is your sessions, and how do I extend my?

[Farfield]

Granted our session, on average, range from 1 to 4 hours tops...we play, and I kid you not, ever single night. The only time we don't play (and this just started 4 weeks ago), is on Tuesday's and Thursday's because myself and the DM do not get out of class until 9:30 at night, and my boyfriend has to work at 10:30. By the time we would get to my apartment and get set up, he'd have to leave for work.

On nights that my boyfriend is off, we usually play from 7pm when he gets up until roughly 2-4am because he's used to being up all night and we don't notice the time until late.

 

[Vrecknidj]

Our group has 2 main DMs (we used to have 3, long story).

Anyway, when I DM, we usually play from noon until 2am.

When the other DM runs the show, we usually play about an hour or two less, total, than when I DM.

We're all in our mid 30's, except for my 13 year old son who plays with us.

Fourteen hours man. Dig it.

Dave

 

[Glamdring]

A few years back I would DM for upwards of 10 hours. I had two campaigns, and my college campaign's Friday games would often last from 6PM 'til 4 AM (before I was 21, before I had a girlfriend, before I had a "life," etc.). My other campaign (back home) would meet about once a month, and those were Saturday gigs where we would start at 2 PM and go until about 11 PM.

Now, I have only one campaign, and we start every Sunday at about 1 PM. The first two hours is spent getting set up, and discussing any novel or game-based information. Depending on what I'm reading, I'll bring in an excerpt, or I'll read a passage straight from a recent novel, just to get everyone in the mood, and to share favorite passages of mine. Then we begin, and go until about 8:30. So about 5 hours of solid gaming.

I've found that after about 6 hours of DMing, my face begins to hurt, and my mind goes to mush, and I must throw in the towel. My players, of course, are ready to continue until the wee hours of the morn, but I must be firm! I used to be able to go for hours and hours, but no more. I never run out of things to game with, since I'm always writing, and I have material put away that I sometimes don't get to until months after I put it down on paper (which allows me to constantly revise due to released books and novels, and whatever inspiration hits me from movies, other books, TV, and life in general.). There you have it!

 

[Holy Bovine]

We usually run from 6pm to 10-11pm on Sundays. Course after all the out of game chatter dies down we usually don't acutally start until 7pm

Can't blame the players though (believe me I've tried ) as the Dm I should be the one getting everyone in line and starting on time. Its usally because I don't get to see many of my players during the week so we have a week's worth of small talk to catch up on.

Lately (as in the last 2-3 months) gaming has been practically non-exsistant as everyone seemed to be on summer break. The Star Wars DM was in Regina and two other players just sort of dropped out of sight for a while. We're all back together though and have had 2 session since the last week of August. I'm planning an 'epilogue' style adventure based on the end of the last D&D campaign since one of my players who moved away just as the campaign ended is going to be in town this Sunday.

 

[ranix65]

Long Sessions

Well we sometimes game for upward of 12 hours, sometimes we also run for up to 16 hours, these are rare though, as now 2 of my group are back in school for their last year of HS. These counts don't take into account that we don't actually go for that long just straight gaming, we also socialize during this time, and my girlfriend just started gaming with us recently, so sometimes I end up paying a bit more attention to her than the rest of the group, but they're nice guys, they don't fault me for that 1.

 

[seasong]

I tend to break things down into periods of individual character focus (no more than 2-3 minutes), sections of conflict (about 5 minute periods - a big combat would be 3-4 sections), roleplaying scenes (about 15 minutes, or 30 minutes for a long scene), cut scenes (usually about 1 paragraph, or 10-20 seconds), and puzzle work (about the same as roleplaying scenes).

Within those guidelines (and at a high intensity & immersion, which is what I prefer for my campaigns), an hour is a pretty darned long time. A minor and major conflict, three scenes (role playing or puzzle work), some spotlight time for everyone, and cut scenes sprinkled throughout. I could do a short-short, complete with twist, in an hour.

Of course, such an intense session doesn't allow much time for deliberation and can wear players (and me) out. So I loosen the reins for OOC chit chat and jokes. I make sure that there are slow periods when players mentally catch their breath. And I pad things out with extra (non-climactic) conflicts and side-quest roleplaying (shopping for new equipment, catching the goblin that's been shadowing the thief).

After all the padding, slow sections and chit chat, it comes out to about four hours.

Of course, that can be varied! When I was in high school, I used to run a "campaign party" 1-2 times a year, where we'd have a big sleepover. I'd run about 16-20 hours worth of campaign, spaced over two days, in 2-hour bursts of intense, compact roleplaying, stuffed to bursting with conflicts, roleplaying, and mayhem.

But I think I (and my players) get more out of the more subtle pace now.

 

[eldoen]

Well,
I can say my sessions are about 4 to 5 hours once per week. But at 35 working 2 jobs to pay bills a wife and Daughter and other
things to get done. That is about all I can swing.

10 to 15 years ago. we use to do several 24 and even 48 hour marathons. with rest in between. But that was a DM running two groups at the time in a fairly large world. (well at least as large as forgotten realms and as detailed. much less in the all powerful characters though)

Of course when we got old enough to start enjoying beer (yeah we were old enough those 24 hour sessions didn't last as long;(

And I still put in 16 to 18 hours a day at work. so the hours don't bother me.

El

 

[ranix65]

That's a good idea about the marathon gaming sessions w/ the sleepover, I gotta do that the week of Teacher's conventions(all kids off 4 1 week in early November. Only in NJ IIRC) have all my players over. WE tried a marathon gaming session one time last New Year's Eve but you mix in a nice comfy bed, lotsa booze, and a gf with a wicked cute gleam in her eyes, and you got the makings of "fine, kill my damn coalition officer. I'm goin' upstairs! WOOHOO!" So it didn't work out too well.