How much of your character's life do you actually play out in game?

[Deadguy]

For myself, it's really a function of the numbers of players in the campaign. The more people, the more that time not directly related to the adventure is glossed over. At one extreme, I run a solo game where I have plenty of time (it's basically run on a holiday). There the single PC details what he does with 100% of his time (okay actually a few percent less - we don't discuss potty breaks!). It obviously slows play down, but for this campaign it's as much about what the character feels and thinks as what he does, and the detailed activities record makes that far more effective.

More generally, in a larger group I will gloss over stuff - "you travel for 4 hours along the trail that Dannyn pointed out to you, when you discover that a ledge you need to follow has been washed out; what do you do now?"

I suppose a lot depends on what you mean by 'played out'. Described moment-by-moment? Only combat and actual conversations normally get that treatment. But settling what is actually happening with the time passing, e.g. travelling as above. Is that 'played out?' It's certainly more detailed than perhaps a 'downtime' period, where weeks can pass with a 'so you rest for two weeks in Subor, when your contact sends you a note...'

 

[Wombat]

Let's see...

Based on the question, and assuming you mean "current life", rather than all the background material or the "Where Are They Now?" times, I'd say we play out about 5-10%. I mean, we don't play out potty breaks, most sleeping, food preparation and the like, nor do we play out most crafting; we only really play out the highlights of a given time, don't we?

A session for us could cover a small part of a single day; it could cover multiple weeks or even months, depending on what the players are doing and the needs of the session.

No one is an adventurer 24/7

 

[Zhnov]

Time jump

Interesting question... glad you mentioned it.

I love this part of the game. Sometimes, I'll progress the game months or years during a session. Sometimes, players are shocked.

Ranger: "Okay, I've scouted the entire forest valley over the last few days, and think this flat area (pointing at the map) near the river if the best place to build my outpost. It is far enough away from neighboring rangers that I should not tread on their territory. We caught fish for today, what is the wife doing?"

DM: "She has started the fire. You pitch your tent while she cooks, and settle in for a hearty evening meal. In the morning you start the work of clearing the river flat of trees. By the end of the week you have enough trunks cut to begin construction of a cabin. By the end of the month, the place is done and has roof over it. You build the basic forge you planned in a nearby lean-to. By mid-summer you have scouted the valley enough that you know nearly all trails extremely well. At the end of summer, a mother bear with two cubs moves into a cave you discovered on the east ridge (marks the map). Elandril’s garden flourishes down near the river in the partial shade of a young copse of trees. Winter comes. She is pregnant. You have time to work those bars of steel into weapons of your choice during the snowy months. What do you make?”

This can sometimes be frustrating to players. In the situation above, the player (1-player game) had few commitments to ongoing story threads, causing him to miss very little by being advanced rapidly through a year of game time. Other characters have been plucked from intensely complicated storylines to be imprisoned in a dungeon or teleported away by manipulative wizards, only to return to old storylines after NPCs have completely overtaken the action. It offers a way for a DM to reset complicated story threads by removing the characters from action. When this happens, I'm certain to throw the character "a bone" by letting some issues be resolved in their favor.

~o.

 

[Queen_Dopplepopolis]

I'd say that 10% is a pretty good estimate of what is *actually* played... However, I do enjoy spending fairly large portions of my week, away from the game table, journaling for my character-- developing happenings and events for the between times in the game. It helps me to understand why my character is doing what she's doing... and, in the end, makes me a better role player.

Little off topic... but... yeah. Good thread.