D&D 5E Players Only Poll: How Do You Feel About the Number of Encounters Per Session

[payn]

For me its usually dialed in as the campaign, GM, and players settle in. So, it can be too few at times, or too many. Though, it always settles into the right place. Points in the campaign, character levels, etc... usually upset the balance and it has to be found again. So, its a process that will need adjustment several times. How long it takes to dial in is usually dependent on player experience, GM experience, and GM preparation. YMMV.

 

[R_J_K75]

Just enough. If its a fun gaming session it doesn't matter if there are zero encounters or twenty, a good adventure does not equate to the number of encounters for me. I think what constitutes as an encounter also needs to be defined.

 

[Maxperson]

I really can't answer this poll. How many encounters I prefer depends entirely on in-fiction circumstances. If we are slugging our way through Undermountain, I expect and want a lot of encounters. Other nights we are in intense roleplay to maneuver plots and such with NPCs and I really don't need or want any encounters. And everything in-between.

 

[Baldurs_Underdark]

I really can't answer this poll. How many encounters I prefer depends entirely on in-fiction circumstances. If we are slugging our way through Undermountain, I expect and want a lot of encounters. Other nights we are in intense roleplay to maneuver plots and such with NPCs and I really don't need or want any encounters. And everything in-between.

This.

Also depends on the DM. E.g. one DM I know is a great roleplayer and we can get really cool challenges in non-violent settings. The other one is a little awkward in roleplaying, prefers combat himself, and as a result we aren't motivated to roleplay in that campaign and our group considers violence as the preferred method for negotiations.

 

[Hussar]

I've been lucky enough to get into a game where I can be a player for the past month or two. Regular weekly game, about 2-3 hour session. I'm pretty content with the pace so far. It's early days yet, but, I'm pretty happy. I don't know if this is damning with faint praise, but, I'm engaged, I'm not bored and I'm paying attention, so, whatever the pace is, it seems to be fitting with me just nicely.

 

[DND_Reborn]

The group I am in as a player does a lot of goofing around, which is fine to a point, but I feel like it wastes a lot of game time, which is typically only 3-4 hours at best.

Last night we barely got in one combat, and ended just after it was over.

Now, we have other "encounters" but IMO those really aren't the same thing. Like talking to the tavern owner or a field hand to try to get information. Those sort of encounters are important of course, but tend to "drag" out the more goofy people get.

 

[Shiroiken]

My group has a variety of sessions. Some are combat heavy if we're working our way through a dungeon, and some might only have 1 (if any). This works out well, since overall we get a good overall balance.

 

[aco175]

I will admit that I like to have at least one fight per session even if we are in town and roleplaying. Maybe thugs hang out by the alley or a tavern brawl with temp HP.

 

[RoughCoronet0]

My group tends to enjoy several combats per session, though to be fair we also play 5-6 hour sessions so it’s much easier to accomplish this.

 

[Blue]

Caveat: I have seen some games, especially store ones possibly rotating attendance, have that the beginning of every session is considered after a long rest. I am not discussing those games here even though I've been part of them.

I wish there were more encounters. I don't want to spend more total time per session. Okay, really what I wish would be a less resource-attrition based model so we didn't need to have more encounters, but baring that redesign I want more encounters.

So what I would quite like, but not as much as that, would be the ability to zoom out a bit - not be as granular with resolution for every task, which just takes time, in a way that gives a good approximation of resources used for battles that aren't big dramatic ones. Basically, if mechanically a combat is unlikely to have a high-stakes outcome (character death, significant campaign setback, significant campaign success, etc) then I'd rather zoom out and do it quicker. This would also reduce the need for "every battle is on-level", a very gamist conceit, if lower-level battles didn't take very long to resolve but still tracked resource usage. And truly meaningful combat encounters would still do high granularity resolution of the current system.

But I don't expect that, either. So I'm kind of stuck with wanting to speed up battles so we get more in a session without sacrificing anything else.