How Many Battles Per Gaming Session?

[Mark Hope]

Typically 2-3 per session.

We're playing 3.5/Pathfinder and normally game for 5-6 hours a session. Games are RP focussed and tend to involve a few bigger climatic battles rather than many smaller encounters.

This.

(Specifically this, in fact, on account of us being in the same group ...)

When a combat-heavy session comes around, it rises to about 4 or 5, but those are rare and require some pretty break-neck pacing.

 

[exile]

I went with 2-3, but it's a little more difficult to pin down. In the 3.5 home game I play in sporadically, we usually have 1-2 combats and quite a few more beers over the course of a night.

The same, minus teh beer, held true for the 3.5 game I played in until I moved away from Toledo. Now that that group has started playing 4.0, I think they are getting in slightly more combats (2-3).

Thinking about LFR adventures I sometimes play in, I think there are usually 4 combats in 4 hours, with a touch of problem solving/role-playing thrown in.

I just finished writing proposals for two PFS modules. Each has five encounters to be played over four hours. The first has three definite combats, with the possibility that two role-playing encounters, for some groups, might also become combats. The second has three definite combat encounters, an encounter that can be bypassed alltogether, and a role-playing encounter that can become a combat encounter.

Chad

 

[megamania]

I bounced between 2-3 or 4-5 since we tended to be combat heavy within a 3-4 hour session.

Most of my players idea of role playing is whether to curse or not when hacking up whatever poor NPC clue barrier I placed in their way.

 

[Wombat]

When I ran D&D, we had 2-3 combats per session, which is probably 2 more than I would want on a regular basis.

However, having observed D&D sessions by other groups, not only did we have fewer combats, but our combats were much shorter. We tended to have 1 "serious" combat (say, about 15-20 minutes), while the other 1-2 tended to be 5 minutes or less. When we gamed at our FLGS we noted that most "serious" combats in other D&D games lasted 30-40 minutes ... far too long for our tastes! And a "short combat" lasted about the same as our "serious" combat.

In other words, it was the percentage of time we devouted to combat. In a six-hour session, we had roughly an hour of combat, or a bit less. The other D&D groups spend roughly 60-70% of their time in combat.

 

[Mark Hope]

When I ran D&D, we had 2-3 combats per session, which is probably 2 more than I would want on a regular basis.

However, having observed D&D sessions by other groups, not only did we have fewer combats, but our combats were much shorter. We tended to have 1 "serious" combat (say, about 15-20 minutes), while the other 1-2 tended to be 5 minutes or less. When we gamed at our FLGS we noted that most "serious" combats in other D&D games lasted 30-40 minutes ... far too long for our tastes! And a "short combat" lasted about the same as our "serious" combat.

In other words, it was the percentage of time we devouted to combat. In a six-hour session, we had roughly an hour of combat, or a bit less. The other D&D groups spend roughly 60-70% of their time in combat.

This is why I agree with the idea that a clock is one of the DM's most important tools. You need to know how much time you're spending on any one kind of scene. If you want to have session focussed on roleplaying but find that your combats are stretching out to 30-40 mins or more, you can address the problem and reign the combats back in. And vice versa.

A recent Pathfinder homebrew session set in a muddy dungeon (Torrents of Dread from Dungeon 114) featured 6 combats in rapid succession (plus three other encounters that could have gone that way). Keeping a solid pace was paramount (and Pathfinder's streamlined system was a big help in doing so.)

The number of PCs and opponents is also a big factor in how many you can fit in, as is preparation and play-aids. My new Dark Sun game gained a sixth player at the last minute. A large battle at the end of Tuesday's session verged on the unwieldy: 6 PCs and 5 sets of opponents (wizard, a pair of kreen, a trio of belgoi, two half-giants and about 20 warriors.) The battle (set in a blazing noble's estate) kept moving at a good pace, but largely due to pre-prepated monster stat cards, Paizo's Combat Pad and the players being on the ball and generally very skilled gamers. It struck me after the game that it was a fine balance that could have become very messy. Glad it didn't but I think it'll be a few sessions before I tax myself like that again, lol.

By comparison, I once ran a 2e game with 12 players. Bloody awful. No matter how fast you crack through the rounds, each player is going to sit idle for 5+ minutes between each go. Never again Two combats in one 6 hour session. Ouch.

 

[StreamOfTheSky]

I picked 2-3 because there's no 3-4 option. For a 6 hour game session, we consistently have 3-4 combats.

Yeah, I would have preferred that, or have 2, 3, and 4 all separate, since those are likely the most common number for people. I'd say we average 3 combats, and there might be some non-combat encounters as well. For a big "boss battle," it often consumes 1/2 to a full session just to resolve, but I don't consider that an "average" session.

 

[Agamon]

My game has started as combat-intensive as the PC's home is overrun by a goblin army, we've had about 4-5 encounters in 5 hour sessions. With that coming to a head, I expect that number to drop as opportunity for combat decreases.

One thing I've learned running and playing this game is not to over-analyze. I'm a tactician at heart, so having monsters take big risks is counter-intuitive to me, but it leads to more interesting and quicker fights.

 

[Serendipity]

I went with 2 - 3 as an average but that doesn't tell the full story. Our sessions tend to average 3-5 hours; how many fights a session has is greatly dependent on where we are in the game and what's happening. There's been one fight in the last three sessions (though admittedly that was a Balor) and another fight which the characters fled from, having grabbed the widget they were after.

 

[brehobit]

I picked 2-3 because there's no 3-4 option. For a 6 hour game session, we consistently have 3-4 combats.

Yeah, I was going to say we average about 1 per hour. Some combats are really short (5 minutes for one) some long. Very long. We had to stop at an hour into the most recent and I think we have 45 minutes left...

Mark

 

[Festivus]

Had zero combat encounters last night in my 4E online game, but we were just getting started so it was a lot of flavor building. More typically, online we get 1-2 in.

Saturday night 4E games... typically 3-4 combats per the RPGA LFR module standards.

Saturday night 3.5 games... typically 3 combats (we are at 18th level so it takes time)