How often do you play?

[S'mon]

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).

I have my Sunday fortnightly Meetup sessions scheduled 12:30-5:30pm, I try to be there a little early to set up and chat with those who arrive on time, and there's around 15 minutes packing-time after the game (I'm usually in a hurry to get home though so not much socialising). Not everyone is punctual but I get pretty annoyed if they're not there by 1pm and playing by 1:15, latest. I couldn't stand it if people were filtering in over a two hour (or more!) period, that'd be half my game time gone! Off-topic, there seems a big difference in attitude to timetabling for social occasions like parties between the Americans (certainly the Texans) I know and the Brits. The Brits turn up maybe half an hour after the scheduled time, any more can be considered rude. The Americans turn up 2 1/2 hours or more after the scheduled time. Most of the American D&Ders I know are reasonably punctual though, maybe they don't count D&D games as parties.

Edit: Having 7 players currently is nice because I can start the game once 5 turn up, hopefully the latecomers arrive before anyone gets killed... >

 

[Garmorn]

We are suppose to play once a week but our host has missed 5 out of the last 6 weeks.

My wife wants me to play at least once a week to get me out of the house.

 

[Edgewood]

We play twice a month, sometimes a bit more. Being a husband and father of three has slowed my gaming habits from twice per week as a bachelor.

 

[Mark]

Since other commitments made me step away from my regular Wednesday group, my gaming has been combined to monthly events, though that means two or more games each of those monthly weekends (Feb = 2, Mar = 6, Apr = 4/5), so I voted twice a month as a compromise to the spirit of the poll.

 

[haakon1]

Voted more than once a week. Myself, I have a weekly game, and another campaign where I am a player, which we only play about once a month.

Note that it's a multiple choice poll, so you could have put each in separately, if you preferred.

 

[Crothian]

We play weekly. It is my perfered rate of play when possible.

 

[haakon1]

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.

Yes. I love DMing because I get to tinker -- and read new adventures, etc. -- whenever I want. That and ENWorld keep me going during the months between our sessions.

Plus, I run a PBEM campaign, which is great -- most of the fun of the real thing, but more room for detail and thought-through winging it for the DM. And no need to schedule people.

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?

That was true in our 20's. Our gaming group was living in two different states, plus I was living overseas. The 1-2 times a year we could get together were 2 days fests of gaming until we were too tired to play on (sadly, about 11 pm).

But now (I just turned 40, 3 of the players are in their 30s), my live group seems to be able to get together at most once every 2 months (I put 3 months, but it varies up to like 6 months), and then only for like 3 hours before someone has a kid-or-wife-related need to move along. So 10 am - 1 pm, then lunch, once every 3 months on average. Sigh.

I've also just started PLAYING in 4e campaign, after a 2 year hiatus of that group while the DM had moved away, until he moved back. As I said to my wife, playing 4e is like playing Uno when you're jonesing for poker, but at least we get to hang out together again . . . that group is also irregular, and likely will be once every month or two.

 

[haakon1]

Punctuality & Quorem

Off-topic, there seems a big difference in attitude to timetabling for social occasions like parties between the Americans (certainly the Texans) I know and the Brits. The Brits turn up maybe half an hour after the scheduled time, any more can be considered rude. The Americans turn up 2 1/2 hours or more after the scheduled time. Most of the American D&Ders I know are reasonably punctual though, maybe they don't count D&D games as parties.

Edit: Having 7 players currently is nice because I can start the game once 5 turn up, hopefully the latecomers arrive before anyone gets killed... >

S'mon brings up two topics I'd call related:
1) Punctuality. How long from official start time to everyone's actually there and ready to play?

2) Quorem. How many players need to be there to play?


- Live group I'm a player in (now just started doing 4e).

Punctuality:
Most people show up with 10 minutes of the scheduled arrival time. Usually someone is up to a half hour late. We usually start doing administrivia with 15 minutes of start, and roll for initiative about 30-45 minutes into it. (For what it's worth, all are Americans, 2 from the Northeast, 3 from the West Coast.)

Quorem:
4 out of 5 players. The DM has made that an official rule.

- Live group I DM (running 3.5e).

Punctuality:
One player is usually 10-15 minutes early. One is usually +/-5 minutes, and one is on-time to 30 minutes. The last is new, so no read yet. (3 are Americans -- one is an East Coaster, two from the Seattle area; one is a Korean citizen whose lived mostly in Seattle.)

Quorem:
3 out of 4, but that's unofficial.

 

[S'mon]

1. Punctuality - I think we're averaging T+30-45 minutes, like I said, over T+45 minutes I get really antsy. I'd prefer T+15, I think that's reasonable. Some allowance must be made for London public transport - it's plentiful but unreliable - and other factors. My group are generally very reliable about not missing sessions, though. I used to have a terribly unreliable player years ago, apparently his wife would keep him home until all his chores were done.

2. Quorum - I'll run with 4 or more players, but if I'm expecting 7 I'll typically wait until I have 5. If I was expecting 5-6 I'd run with 4. I typically won't start within T+30 unless I have 6/7, and proably won't start until about T+15 even if everyone's there, as it's good to have some settling-in time, introductory chat, get beers & order food from the bar etc. Some people may not value that and may want to aim to arrive just as the game is starting, I guess, which is sad if true.

 

[Keldryn]

With the 3e and 4e games that I've run, I've usually tried to aim for once every two weeks, although that would frequently become once every 3 or 4 weeks in practice, with a not-uncommon hiatus of a month or two.

I haven't played in regular weekly games since about 1993. I tried about 4 years ago, just as a player in a 3e game, but I just couldn't keep up with it as a weekly commitment.