Minimum time and/or number of players to game?

[kenobi65]

Just another voice chiming in for a minimum of 3 players, and 3-4 hours.

I've occasionally run solo or side adventures for one or two players, but I do see the dynamic changing once you get below 3 or so.

And, part of my resoning for the minimum time (like others who have already posted) is that getting my player groups together involves driving for most of the group in question. So, if people are going to be driving (in some cases, up to an hour) to make the game, we'd better be playing for a while.

 

[Desdichado]

3 is my minimum. On the other hand, I don't really like more than 5 too much either. I also don't like playing for less than 3 and a half to 4 hours, or I feel like it's difficult to make any progress.

 

[WayneLigon]

My minimum is two, with at least a four hour session. My preferred is 5 players, though I have handled up to 6. We normally manage a 4.5-5 hour session with some going as long as 6.5.

 

[IronWolf]

My minimums are 3 and 3, but I prefer the game time to be 4 hours or more and try to keep to that as much as possible.

 

[scourger]

The absent player problem is one of the reasons why I'm not running standard D&D right now. I solved the problem by allowing each player to play 2 characters. It's not ideal. I would prefer to have at least 4 players. Other games can work fine with fewer players. A window of about 3.5 hours is our weekly budget, but less time is usually spent on actual gaming.

 

[Galethorn]

Well, if character creation isn't involved (i.e. the characters are ready to play), and it's just by-the-seat-of-my-pants style GMing, then 2 hours would be my minimum. As for players...I'd say a minimum of 3 being there for the whole session.

 

[pogre]

4 players. 2 hours.

We play weekly for around 2.5 to 3 hours. I shut down chit-chat and start a lot of adventures in media res to get rolling. I would much rather play a weekly game for 2 to 3 hours than a bi-weekly game for 4-6 hours. It's a lot easier to sell my wife on too

 

[IronWolf]

I would much rather play a weekly game for 2 to 3 hours than a bi-weekly game for 4-6 hours. It's a lot easier to sell my wife on too

For me the every other week game is an easier sell to the wife!

 

[Buttercup]

Depends on the game. In the last campaign I ran, I had 7 players and we only managed to play once a month. Actually the campaign ended sooner than any of us would have liked because of the difficulty of getting that many people together regularly. Sessions were 4 to 6 hours long. (Combat with a large group takes forever.)

In my current campaign, I've got 4 players. We've made a committment to play at least once a month, but it usually comes out to three times in every two month period. If we can't all make it, we don't play. Our sessions usually last 4 hours.

I'm playing in two games. One of them meets every other week and has 9 players. We've played with as few as 2 players and the DM, with the absent PCs becoming NPCs.

The other game also has 9 players, one of whom lives 2 hours away. We play the second Sunday of every month at noon for about 5 hours. We play as long as 6 people can make it, but given the schedule we've set up, it's surprisingly easy to get everyone together. I wish I had thought of it when I was DMing for the large group. Then again, DMing for a party of 4 is *much* easier.