D&D 5E How Much D&D is To Much?

[AaronOfBarbaria]

I could honestly handle a few hours of gaming (3 or 4) every night of the week if I had players that were available that often, and so long as I was able to split those nights between different campaigns and/or systems I would never suffer burn out (well, that's more of a "I haven't yet in the decades I've already done that in, so if I do get burned out it is after some as of yet unmeasured amount of time" than a real "never").

That works out because I am basically a male housewife with no children, so I have the stress-free time to think up wonderful gaming ideas, and no hobbies hold my attention for long unless they happen to benefit my gaming (painting minis, writing campaign setting material, creating hand outs and game aids, reading rule books, etc.), and all of my players (spouse included) place the appropriate priority on gaming - which is to say that if there is a choice to make between showing up for a session or nearly anything else besides sitting home doing nothing, they choose anything else (going to a concert, visiting the local fair, going on a date, spending time with a less frequently seen friend, or even just taking time to play videogames, and so on).

Of course, that means that my gaming schedule has waned from the 5 nights a week that it was last year to 1 session on the schedule for Fridays (used for alternating sessions of D&D and Shadowrun), 1 session that switches between Wednesdays and Thursdays as needed for player availability, and 1 session that happens only in weeks when my wife, one friend of ours, and I who watch various TV shows together have found enough time throughout the week to watch all the shows and still have 3-4 hours to play.

Such "low gaming" times, as they have come to be considered by means of comparison to my most commonly held schedule, have only one downside: I have 3 more D&D campaigns and 1 campaign each of Exalted, Dark Ages Vampire, New World of Darkness, and Savage Worlds Super Heroes that are sitting ready to run and constantly growing more and more notes of what would be cool to have come up in them.

 

[Mistwell]

I think it's awesome the amount of gaming you get in. As a side effect, I pay more attention to trends you see in the game than some others, purely because you're a font of experience.

 

[Galendril]

Just don't start LARP'ing DnD in steam tunnels and you'll be fine

 

[Gillywonka]

As long as the other aspects of your life aren't suffering, play on playa. Besides that, that sounds like some good ol' fun. I miss my days of being able to power game. Now for me, that is way too much DnD. My group also plays Runequest, Call of Cthulhu, GURPS, T&T and war games... so we like to mix it up. But, like i said, play on playa!

 

[Zardnaar]

I think it's awesome the amount of gaming you get in. As a side effect, I pay more attention to trends you see in the game than some others, purely because you're a font of experience.

We also have our lows though. SOmetimes we might go for a month or more with no D&D often Dec/Jan for obvious reasons or other factors. When we ar playing we try for a weekly game at the very least of at least 4 hours. I thik I semi ad hoced the other days session. I had a rough plan on what to do or what to offer and let the PCs run with it. I thought the Paladin would pick up on the holy avenger plot hook I dangled in there but he was not that interested.

 

[MostlyDm]

If you're having fun, it's not too much.

I'm in approximately 6 games... probably averaging 15 hours per week. I'd like it if some of my groups could meet more frequently. Not all are D&D technically, just RPGs in general.

If it's a pastime you enjoy... What's the issue?

 

[Bleys Icefalcon]

This is an interesting topic to me, as I have often struggled with this.

Before I joined the Navy we would play almost every night, as I worked in a Drive In Theater. We would play during the show, and well into the wee hours after the park was closed - this was quite common for our group. I'd guess we'd go for 35-40 hours a week. Sometimes more. When I joined the Navy, during all of my training I gravitated rather quickly to my fellow gamers and we'd play, usually starting just after work on Friday and do a massive marathon that usually ran right up until 30 minutes or so before breakfast... Monday Morning. We would take turns Dming, with people dropping on one of the couches for naps throughout.

Ahem, that was too much DnD.

Anyway, once at sea things HAD to slow down, as there simply wasn't enough time to sit down and make time for a game... was there? Well, turns out there was. In one of our auxiliary spaces, we set up a game room. 24 hours a day, 7 days a week the members of our crew, enlisted and commissioned would come and hang, taking turns at playing and DMing - a seemingly endless game that went on for months.

Ahem, more too, too much DnD

When we would hit liberty ports, on top of the regular things that sailor's would do, a group of us would pool our money and get a conference room, or two adjoining rooms at a hotel, usually on the beach - and yet again a game would occur, usually running the entire time we were in port.

Gah

Finally upon reaching my first shore duty, that didn't have me as a traineee - I got my first apartment of my own and that first taste of a social life outside my gaming. To this day I am amazed that the lady I fell for had nothing to do with gaming. Some 26 years later she still shakes her head at my giddy excitement, and walks away muttering "you and your stupid game" in a baffled, joking way.

With the duties of fatherhood (two adult offspring now) and my seeming endless mountain of honey-does, I found that by gaming every weekend, I was falling farther and farther behind in my chores - and learning a new and terrible term: Wife Aggro. So, since mid 2004 - until present, we game every other Saturday. The least I have gamed since my 16th birthday...

 

[GMforPowergamers]

back in Highschool we would play after school. Sr year we played through x-mas vacation almost every day. Now adays I run every Tuesday night (except 5th Tuesday of the month when we have a different game, or first Tuesday after a comic book movie comes out when we go to $5 movie night) and every saterday we role play (not d&d) we have 2 campaigns going right now and we do 2 weeks of one game then 2 weeks of the other...

so I have 4 games going but never more then twice a week

 

[Cody C. Lewis]

Tutu thought two nights was too much to play.

But Tutotu thought two nights wasn't too much to game.

 

[jgsugden]

The correct answer is: When it gets in the way of more important things.

I've played over 10,000 hours of RPGs in my life - about 6 to 8 hours a week on average for over 30 years. I've also spent another 4000 or more hours planning for games as a DM/GM.

When I was in high school, I had a summer where I played in 4 different games and was playing about 60 hours a week. I had one week where I played over 100 hours.

When I was in law school, I played once every 6 to 8 weeks for about 4 to 6 hours. I went nearly 6 months at one point without touching dice.

Now I sneak in a few hours around my family and job, but it averages out to about 3 to 4 hours once a week.

I've adjusted the amount of gaming around the time I had for it - and it has never been a problem. You don't want to miss out on the good parts of life because you were gaming, but gaming is a good part of life. There is nothing wrong with making it an entertainment priority.