D&D 5E How Long Is Your "Typical" Session?

[rgoodbb]

Wednesday is about 2-3 hours, Saturday can reach 8

 

[pogre]

I run for four hours. The game starts on time and ends on time. Socializing can be done before or after.

I ran a long (13 hours) game a few months ago that my sons talked me into. Man! How did we use to play like that?!

 

[delericho]

At the moment, 1 hour. Which isn't great, but it's all we can manage right now.

For an evening, we've tended to 3 hours (7-10). Getting together earlier than that is a problem, while playing beyond that is incompatible with going to work bright and early the next morning. The happiest I think I've ever been, RPG-wise was 6-hour sessions on a Saturday. But that gradually came to an end as it became impossible to get a viable group together (and these days I simply couldn't block that time off).

All of this is a long way of saying: short.

 

[Shiroiken]

We shoot for 4 hours, but fluctuate between 3-5 hours, depending on people's schedules. Beyond 5 hours is extraordinarily rare, but has happened in 5E.

 

[ccs]

Overall length has always been moderate.

As for how much play we actually accomplish.... generally in the short range.

 

[DND_Reborn]

You know, on Sundays when we do the moderate session, I barely feel like we get anything done and sometimes wonder "Why bother?" But when we play the Saturday session (11 AM - 10+ PM) it is awesome because we do SO much and I love it!

Reading these posts it seems almost pointless to meet for under 4 hours at all. Don't get me wrong, I am glad people get to play and I get it with work, families, etc. that more can be hard to find.

Again, thanks all for sharing!

 

[S'mon]

Short these days. 15 years ago, Moderate. 25 years ago, some Long. 30 years ago, very very short - was playing in school lunch break!

 

[DEFCON 1]

3 hours usually (7:30 to 10:30pm). That gives me a slight buffer of another hour to extend later if necessary. Usually I don't, but we'll head into 10:45 to 11:00pm territory if we are in the middle of an encounter, and on rare occasions get all the way to 11:30pm for like end-of-campaign stuff.

I actually never really want to DM longer sessions that that, as it gives the players an excuse to waste time (either with OOG conversation or repetitive and extended planning.) I also like being able to stop the session and then have a few days to prep other extended adventure out from where the group currently is.

 

[Burnside]

In person, 4 hours. Online, 2-3.

 

[TaranTheWanderer]

There was a time, in university that my roommates, and I played 8-12 hour sessions most nights of the week and then we'd rp on and off all day 'between sessions' while we were doing other things, like drinking beer and cooking supper or doing chores. We would take a break from D&D to do annoying things like socialize with people, go to classes and drink at the bars. It was probably better to ask, "How many hours a day did you not play D&D."

Now that I'm married and have kids, games are around 3 hours or, if there's a big plot-relevant fight, it could go as long as 5.(but that's rare). I chose 4-6 because games are rarely less than 3 hours.