Inactive vs. active play time - a hobby with a lop-sided ratio

[Mercurius]

In the "we're getting old" thread I began musing about the degree to which the enjoyment (or my enjoyment) of the hobby comes from activities that are outside of actual game sessions. Most serious--and all truly diehard--RPG gamers are DMs, it seems, and it is the "mostly DMs" that put the most time outside of sessions into the hobby, whether it is campaign design, reading online forums, shopping for and reading game books, or simply dreaming up ideas and contemplating the hobby.

It reminded me of something I realized some time ago: that the amount of time I spend thinking about/reading/designing for RPGs has been much greater, over my 30+ years in the hobby, than the actual time I've sat at a table and rolled dice with friends.

In some ways the game session is like the meal, the DM is the cook, and cooking is what we love to do, the meal enjoyable both in and of itself, but more so as the culmination of a much longer process. DMs love to cook. They might always have time for it, but its just as much part of their enjoyment as serving and eating the meal itself.

The analogy works in terms of time as well. In my family of four, my wife and I probably split cooking duties equally (although I make all of the desserts). Preparing the meal takes anywhere from 30 minutes (pasta and a salad) to a couple hours (Neopolitana-style pizza with home-made crust and sauce). All things tolled, though, the ratio is much larger with regards to gaming in that I spend far more time in non-play activities than actually playing. If I was to guess about my experience overall, that is over the course of 30ish years, I'm thinking it would be at least 20-to-1, maybe even 50-to-1 or greater...meaning, the number is so large as to make it virtually impossible to figure out.

Now when I'm actually playing, the ratio is smaller - maybe 5-to-1 or even less, depending upon to what degree I have the setting up and running. If I'm just prepping for the upcoming session, it might involve 1-3 hours for a 4-hour session, and then a few hours of online forums and such - so the ratio might be 2-to-1.

How is it with you? What is your overall ratio over the course of your "career?" And how much time do you spend prepping during an active phase of DMing?

 

[Gilladian]

IF I counted campaign-writing and forum-time as part of my prep, I would easily say I spend 20 or more hours of "prep" per hour of gaming. But I would also have to say that I don't consider that sort of thing "work". I do it because I love it, not because the game requires it.

I probably spend about 1-1 game time to prep time for actual game play. This is less than I used to spend, because I've built up a tremendous amount of resources over the years. I have tons of maps, tables, rule books, etc... to go refer to when I think up an idea. And years of experience have made me much less afraid of improv than I used to be.

 

[Mercurius]

IF I counted campaign-writing and forum-time as part of my prep, I would easily say I spend 20 or more hours of "prep" per hour of gaming. But I would also have to say that I don't consider that sort of thing "work". I do it because I love it, not because the game requires it.

Just to clarify, I am not necessarily talking about "work" or prep time specifically, but just the hobby as a whole and the relationship between "secondary" and "primary" activity, in terms of time spent.

I suppose if we wanted to be more specific, I would consider three tiers of gaming activity:

Primary gaming - the actual game session

Secondary gaming - session prep, character creation, campaign design, etc

Tertiary gaming - forum discussions and all forms of talking about the hobby; also, reading, shopping, etc

This also gives us a different way to quantify where one is on the "casual-to-serious-to-diehard" spectrum. The more time spent outside of "primary" activites, the further towards diehard one is. Here are some possible definitions:

Casual gamer - someone who spends no time in tertiary gaming, minimal time in secondary (e.g. character creation), and almost only dedicates time to primary gaming. Almost always players and not GMs. Actually, I'd say that one of the frustrations for serious-to-diehard GMs is trying to get casual gamers to dedicate time to secondary activities outside of the game session (e.g. leveling up, character background, etc).

Serious gamer - someone who spends more time in secondary gaming than primary, and will also spend a significant amount of time in tertiary activities. By definition, anyone regularly visiting ENWorld and other gaming sites is at least a serious gamer.

Diehard gamer - as with serious gamer, but "turned up to 11." Perhaps the main difference is that for the diehard gamer, RPGing is almost certainly their primary leisure activity, or at least equal to anything else and central to one's life, whereas for the serious gamer it might be one of a few leisure activities, and probably not central. Two other things come to mind: serious gamers can go years without playing, while for a diehard that would be agonizing. Also, a diehard gamer might have a dedicated game room.

There are other factors and characteristics - for instance, casual gamers usually only own one or two game books, serious gamers dozens to hundreds, and diehards hundreds to thousands, but there are no clear thresholds and you might even find serious gamers who own more game books than a diehard gamer if the serious gamer has the collector bug and the diehard gamer is more utilitarian.

That's a bit of a tangent, but, well, I enjoy tertiary gaming!

 

[Lwaxy]

I have games/campaigns taking as good as no prep, and others needing days including map creation.

 

[the Jester]

I am fortunate enough to have tons of awesome gaming in my life and pretty much always have. Currently we play an average of 2 days per 1.5 weeks (rough average); sometimes it's only one night of gaming, sometimes it's three. So tons of play time.

I'm running 4e, and one of its best virtues is super quick prep time. So when I do a flurry of 12 hours of prep it might last me 5-8 sessions, depending largely on how many combats the pcs engage in. So prep to game is probably significantly less than 1:1.

However, I do spend a lot lot lot of time reading or re-reading gaming material. (I just got through a complete collection of Wormy that I found online; my typical bathroom reading stuff might be an old Dragon mag or maybe Frostburn or a 1e Fiend FOlio.) I also do a fair amoung of non-specific-prep campaign construction. So if you add these two things in, I probably come out about 1:1.

BUT! Add in time on ENWorld (and other gaming or semi-gaming related sites, like CM), and suddenly it's probably about 3:1. I spend an awful lot of time here.

 

[Gilladian]

Yeah, there are definitely gamers who don't spend much time at it; my husband plays in all my campaigns, but he does nothing or next to nothing except a little character leveling outside the game. My other two main players are my mother; she doesn't even level up her characters; I or my husband do it; she plays at the "what die do I roll?" level all the time... and then my best friend, who is far more engaged than that; but still, she'll maybe read an article if I send her a link, or listen to me chat about a new region of the campaign world, and offer a bit of advice, but she won't join a forum or anything like that.

 

[TwoSix]

I do a lot of tertiary gaming, and a small amount of secondary gaming compared to primary gaming. Other than thinking about things that might happen in the next few sessions, I do virtually zero physical prep when I DM. I do some research when I make a character for PF or 4e.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

I do far more secondary and tertiary gaming than primary. One main reason for this is that if I come up with a PC concept I like, I will at least give it a bare-bones write up in some system.

As for my classification? I'm probably more to the diehard side...moreso than anyone else I game with, at least.

 

[Mercurius]

I do far more secondary and tertiary gaming than primary. One main reason for this is that if I come up with a PC concept I like, I will at least give it a bare-bones write up in some system.

As for my classification? I'm probably more to the diehard side...moreso than anyone else I game with, at least.

Danny, I'm guessing most of us here are more diehard than most of those we game with, simply by virtue of being here, which implies tertiary gaming.

I consider myself "Serious Plus." If its a 7-point Likert scale, with 1-2 being casual, 3-5 being serious, and 6-7 being diehard, I'm probably a 5 (actually, that gives me an idea for a poll...)

I love RPGs, from primary to tertiary, but I also go years sometimes without playing, and in lower activity phases where I don't read message boards or look at game books. But I have other avenues in which the same basic creative/imaginative impulse can be channeled, namely my ongoing work on my novels and the world they are set in.

 

[howandwhy99]

I have games/campaigns taking as good as no prep, and others needing days including map creation.

Me too. Game prep for a DM depends enormously upon the design of the game you are playing. Is it "blank slate" where absolutely everything is improvised? Or solve the maze where the maze must be constructed prior to play?