How often do you play?

[Gilladian]

I voted "more than once a week" but "once a week" would have been just as valid. I play in a game (almost) every saturday night, and usually run a game every sunday afternoon (currently someone else is running a game for a few weeks to give me a breather).

We've ALWAYS tried to play once a week.

 

[jdrakeh]

Once a month. Via onine chat. You didn't have an option for online chat-based games, so I figured "once a month" was as close as I could get (just keep in mind that it's not a face to face game).

 

[Piratecat]

We play biweekly games, but there's three campaigns: two games one week, one the next.

 

[Hussar]

Virtual Tabletop play here, but, for the past several years, it's been once a week, and it has jumped up to twice a week in the past year or so. By and large, I've managed to play once a week for most of my gaming career.

 

[Aeolius]

Once a week, in a chat room online.

I haven't DMed IRL since 1994.

 

[Festivus]

Private play almost every weekend, either at my place or my friends (4E or Pathfinder)
Public play Wed night (D&D Encounters)
Public play Thurs nights (once a month LFR)
Public play first Sat of the month (meetup group, usually LFR)
Public play special events 3 times a year, (PHB3 event for example)

Public play is at our local game store (Game Empire Pasadena - A great place, meet people, hangout, play games, and make new friends.) and s very supportive of us, and we of them.

I have a very understanding wife!

 

[Stoat]

Our goal is to play once a week for 2-3 hours. Thanks to real life, we probably average somewhere between 2 and 3 times a month.

 

[Ahnehnois]

Ideally it would be weekly, but blizzards and personal schedules have limited it to maybe twice a month on average lately, and new work schedules are looming. It's amazingly hard to get a few people in the same room regularly.

 

[megamania]

What I find is true across the board is the older you become, the less often you play as free time becomes a struggle.

In college I was once a week

Young man- once a week

father of one- twice a month

father of two- once a month

then as pick up games

now I'm back to every 4-6 weeks with my kids as players.

 

[Steel_Wind]

Steel Wind said:

<<Most groups are stable and meet once a week.>>

That does seem to be the common claim here, but I wonder if it's true, as it hasn't been my experience since I was in college, far in the last millennium.

I GM once a month, with some extra sessions thrown in every three months or so. It works out to about 16 sessions per year for me. That's why I vastly prefer to GM. That way, when the game is over for me, it really isn't over Now I get to take the time to design and putter and futz with my campaign! Only playing once a month (while not being the GM) would surely suck, big time.

That's just me though. In the rest of my gaming circle, they otherwise play once a week, pretty much like clock work, every Saturday.

As a side question, do people find that the length of their sessions (if they game less frequently than once a week) increases a little?

Our group assembles on a Saturday between 3:00 and 4:30ish or so. That irregular assembly time as people arrive and trickle in is for socializing and chit-chat. We then begin gaming, ideally, at about 5:00 p.m. and play through to Midnight most sessions. (we break for pizza for 30 mins or so at 7:00-8:00 ish).

Some serious sessions go later if there's some climax in progress and we don't want to quit. Lateness becomes proportional to anticipated wife-aggro for a few of the players. (My wife is the only spouse who games in my group).

Back in high school and university days in the late 70s and 80s, games were frequently 3 or 4 times a week.

Ah, being an adult with your own family! Money to buy gaming stuff and build your own dedicated gaming room is very nice.

Having to go to work Mon-Fri to earn it and otherwise maintain a career? Not so much.