How many sessions do you give a new game?

[Treebore]

I've been wondering this for a while.

How many 4+ hour sessions do you try out a new game for? Before your write it off.


I give it 3.

I give three 4+ hour sessions because I found, because someone else forced me to, that it takes at least 3 sessions for the mechanics of the game to really start to come together for you. Until that happens you really don't know how good, or bad, the game is. If it wasn't for my doing 3 sessions, as a rule, for new games, I wouldn't be fan of Shadowrun, L5R, RIFTS, Traveller, Paladium Fantasy, Chivalry and Sorcery, etc... Basically, the only other game system I have fallen in love with in one session is Paranoia. Otherwise I would probably still be playing 1E AD&D.

So how many game sessions do you try a system for before you write it off?

Why?

 

[Lorgrom]

Most systems I give any where from 4-6 sessions. Preferably with at least 2 DMs. I have found that some DMs can run certian kind of systems well, while another DM can not.

Of course there have been a few systems I only played once (LARP World of Darkness is the first to come to mind). When that happens, it is usualy due to the basic fundimentals of the system I do not understand or agree with. So I give them a shot, preferably with a DM who has had several successful campaigns.

I have had some only last as long as 10 minutes (just past making the character) and I was done. My playing style and the rules style simple didn't match.

 

[C.W.Richeson]

It's not about finding all the flaws in the system, for me, but having a good time and getting to experience something new. One session is fairly standard, as I tend to be playing more small press RPGs these days and they're often built to be played in a single session with no problems.

 

[+5 Keyboard!]

Same as you, Treebore. First session you're just meeting people, observing, and trying to get involved while you learn their house rules, the variants, and other elements they use. Second game you start to get a better feel for what's going on. Third game, you either know now whether you like it or not, if you can get along with the group, and if the game is keeping you interested.

I happen to have just quit a game last week that wasn't to my liking after I gave it my 3 sessions rule.

However, I have been known to walk from a game in less time than that. I tried a game that was so conveniently near my home (a half mile from me) that I just knew there had to be something broke. Turns out it was a storyteller GM that focused more on - you guessed it - telling his story, than encouraging character development and allowing the players to have some options of what adventures they wanted to go on and the freedom to pursue other in-game interests. Actually, he did kind of allow for that stuff, but pretty much all roads led to the same place: exactly where the story was supposed to go on that particular night. And I don't mean some careful GM maneuvering to keep a group on course for, say, a published adventure he was running. No. I mean some serious railroading, jamming square pegs in round holes, etc. After 2 sessions I had had enough.

 

[Treebore]

I guess I should put the qualifier that your playing with a group you like when you try out the new game/system.

I rarely, in fact I don't remember ever, try a new game with a new group. If its a new group it has to be a system I am familiar with.

Even when I first tried D&D, I wasn't familiar with D&D, but I liked the people inviting me to play. So I have to be familiar with the group of people, or the system, in order to try it, is how I should put it.

 

[Agemegos]

It depends why I think it is not working.

If the players seem not to understand the rules, I cut some slack to give them time to get familiar.

If the players don't know one another, I give them time to settle in.

But if we can't get out of character creation without the rules blowing up in our faces, we don't.

 

[BlueBlackRed]

I generally give it long enough for the DM to show his good and bad.
For good or bad sometimes you find out in 10 minutes, other times you finally realize it on the 4th session.

 

[was]

I usually give a new system 2 sessions

 

[MINI]

I'd say give it two to three sessions. If your really miserable at two why go on?

 

[Wild Gazebo]

I can honestly say out of the MANY systems I've tried...no system has been so bad that it cuts into my enjoyment. I tend to play D&D simply because of the accessability and proliferance. Perhaps I'm a bit strange?