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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mercurius" data-source="post: 6207869" data-attributes="member: 59082">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?</blockquote>

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