Poll: How much time do you devot to a gaming session ?

[Hackenslash]

Hello All,

I am going to be starting a new campaign and we only get 3.5 to 4 hours per week to play, due to working schedules etc... I was wondering what all you ENWorlders think an "Appropriate" amount of gaming time per session would be, with particular consideration towards XP awards and how long it takes a PC to advance a Level. For instance if we are only playing for say 3 hours, does that mean that the Roleplaying/Monster/Quest XP should be less and thus take forever for the PC's to advance in Levels. OR. Would you Tweak the balance of XP accordingly and allow the PC's to advance as if they had playing a 6 hour session for example. I realise there are no definite rules here, just opinions and suggestions on interpreting what constitutes a standard gaming session.

Thanks to all in advance for any advice or suggestions.

 

[young_dwarf]

I think 3 hours gaming is enough but my group does play a 6 hour game session once a month. XP should be awarded for how much work they actually do. Hope your campaign goes well.

Dwarf

 

[doctorjeff98]

As a GM, I spend more time thinking/planning/preparing than actually playing. I wonder how much time the players spend thinking about 'what might happen next?' or 'what would have happened if I had.....?'

 

[Sir Whiskers]

Our sessions are 5-6 hours, once a week, but with kids, food, other distractions, we get in only about 3 hours of actual gameplay.

 

[spunky_mutters]

I think it also depends on your style of DMing. I play in a game where the DM lets us waste all kinds of time on things with little to no relevance to the story (e.g. we can spend a 1/2 hour checking out an abandoned farm when there is nothing there. I'm not complaining, because the way he handles the game, we never know when there is something, or there isn't. I'm a little more impatient, and I'll usually give players a bit of a lead, but if they're getting too focused on something completely useless, I will probably just hurry through it, as I would rather get more 'meat' in during a session. I will also start a countdown or describe events continuining on around the PCs if they're spending too much time discussing things. Our different styles mean that the pacing of the games is quite different.

 

[doctorjeff98]

If we're involved in a very 'story-oriented' session with a defined purpose and the players are exploring an empty farm---I just say 'there's nothing there...anywhere', but if we're improvising or just playing with no purpose in mind, I let them go into extruciating detail to open cabinets and pry up floor boards---because I never know when I might think, 'oh yeah, this would be a good time to introduce...'

 

[bwgwl]

actual game sessions, i tend to average between 4 to 6 hours.

i had one group where we'd meet for 12 hours every other week, but we'd only get about 3-4 hours of gaming in during that time....

actually, i misread your thread title at first and thought you were asking how long on average i take to prepare to DM a session. i thought, "3 hours is the minimum choice? geeze, i usually wing it after about 15 minutes prep time..."

 

[doctorjeff98]

A GM prep time poll might be interesting---also, what do you do to prepare? poll might be fun.

 

[MarauderX]

usually 5, as a player and a DM. any more, people start getting ancy and wanna take a long break to do something different. any less and we feel like we didn't get as much accomplished as we wanted to. I love the long sessions, don't get me wrong, but if you do them all the time, they burn me out.

 

[Gothmog]

Our typical session is actually a whole weekend long, so about 16-20 hours of total gaming. Of course, we only get to do this once a month or so since I live in Columbia, and my friends who we game with live in St Louis. None of us have kids, so that also allows for more time. For a 16-20 hour session, I spend about 1-2 hours statting out characters, 3-5 hours drawing maps, coming up with plots, events, etc, and about 4-6 hour painting minis.

My girlfriend and I also game every week or two for about 3-4 hours each time doing solo adventures. It usually takes us two sessions to finish an adventure because she...gets turned on by rolling dice! Yeah, I'm lucky!