Sly Flourish's 2016 D&D Dungeon Master Survey Results

Mike Shea, otherwise known as Sly Flourish, held a survey over recent months to look at how Dungeons & Dragons DMs prepare and run their games. The results have now been released, and they make for some interesting reading. For example, most people play weekly for about four hours (as expected) with about an hour to two-hours preparation time. Over half play at home, about 10% in public, and about 20% play online. Over half use their own settings, 38% play in the Realms, and 5% in other D&D settings. Two thirds run their own adventures, with one third running published adventures. Check out Mike's full report (it's long!) for all the data!

Some key points:

• 6,600 respondents.
• Most people play weekly for about four hours (as expected) with about an hour to two-hours preparation time.
• Over half play at home, about 10% in public, and about 20% play online.
• Over half use their own settings, 38% play in the Realms, and 5% in other D&D settings.
• Two thirds run their own adventures, with one third running published adventures.
• The Kobold Fight Club online encounter builder is the most used tool. Ahead of dice, apparently!

If you want to analysis the data yourself, you can do so here (CSV file).

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[robus]

Impressive number of respondents !

 

[Kramodlog]

Over half use their own settings, 38% play in the Realms, and 5% in other D&D settings.

Why we won't see many campaign setting books and non-FR adventures.

Two thirds run their own adventures, with one third running published adventures.

Why we keep seeing more APs than a some slaptbook baffles me.

 

[Grimjack99]

Its splatbook, not slapbook, from the White Wolf tradition of putting out a ton of clan books for Vampire back in the day.

 

[Sacrosanct]

I bet there is a strong correlation between length of session and frequency of session. Our monthly game is about 8-10 hours long. Only doing a few hours of a session that is only monthly isn't really worth it.

 

[TwoSix]

I bet there is a strong correlation between length of session and frequency of session. Our monthly game is about 8-10 hours long. Only doing a few hours of a session that is only monthly isn't really worth it.

You'd be right.

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[SlyFlourish]

Oh man, you guys sharing images from the correlations makes me so happy.

 

[TwoSix]

Oh man, you guys sharing images from the correlations makes me so happy.

Phew, I didn't want to steal it without a link, but I couldn't figure out how to just link the image. It's a great correlation, since it sort of implies that there's almost a universal ratio of prep-to-play time, especially in conjunction with the game-length:game-frequency correlation.

 

[unnatural 20]

Why we won't see many campaign setting books and non-FR adventures.

Not why, but because.

Only reason I know about Eberron, is because I dug around a little. Most new players jump right into the Realms, unaware that other settings even exist.

 

[CapnZapp]

Why we keep seeing more APs

The APs ARE the splatbooks.

By combining adventure + campiagn material + realms they maximize the number of people that might purchase each module.

Remove adventure? Fewer potential buyers
Remove campaign? Fewer potential buyers
Replace realms? Fewer potential buyers