[Split-Off] What's your game's ratio?

[Bendris Noulg]

In the thread The top 2 reasons why gaming groups break up, our fellow poster Emirikol (aka, the dude that wants to be The Dude) brought up a few points. While the primary focus of the thread is as the name says, there is a topic that I'd like to look at a little closer without side-tracking the other discussion.

To which, Emirikol posted these "actual figures":

95% of your gaming is spent adventuring
5% is spent in character creation or worrying about the majority of the campaign.

95% of DM's dollars are spent on Campaign Worlds
5% of DM's dollars are spent on adventures (ask the companies that produce them)

To which, I ask the two questions:

1. In your group, how much time is spent doing what sorts of activities? (If you have multiple groups that would give different answers, post them, but don't include one-night parties since the focus here is "campaign" game-play).

2. GMs, how would you describe your personal spending in regards to gaming?

-----My Own Answers----

1. Four games.

A. In one I am a solo PC in Oathbound. I'd say I spend about 50% of my time either exploring the setting or learning about the specific region I'm in, 30% of the time in social-RP situations (which includes administrating/moving my army), and 20% adventuring.

B. I run a solo game with a Channeler PC (read: Spontaneous Casting Wizard that is fatigued by using her more potent spells). This game is probably about 25% exploration/learning, 70% social-RP, and 5% adventuring.

C. I run a solo PBEM game with a High Level (read: 16th-20th) Fighter/Psychic. This game is probably about 70% exploration/learning, 10% social-RP, and 20% adventuring.

D. I run a 3-PC game of various levels (Character Levels 5, 12, and 36). Being military-based, the PCs are most often doing "there own thing", usually only being together during unit/army administrating or mass-combat scenarios, but otherwise having duties/responsibilities the keep each of them active and important to the story overall. In general, each probably spend about 25% of their time in exploration/travel, 50% social-RP, and 25% adventuring/missions.

2. For purchases, I tend to purchase about 50% setting specific (although most of these are because the company producing them made them setting-specific, ex: Relics & Rituals, rather than because I'm playing the setting, with "gazetteer"-type books being the rarity, such as Nyambe, Midnight, and Gothos, which I buy because I'm hoping the "world theme" will provide some choice nuggets), while 49% would be straight-up generic (ex: Alchemy & Herbalists, Primal Codex, Occult Lore, Eldritch Might, etc.). The 1% would be adventures, which I only purchase if there is a specific piece of crunch within it I'm after (and, obviously, these are extremely rare purchases, since the dollar-per-use ratio is often low). About 50% of these purchases over-all are strictly for monsters, with the next likely reason being the pursuit of different magic stylings to make a region of the world a little more exotic, followed by new Base Classes, Feats, and Spells; Magic Items are at the end of the list, and Prestige Classes don't even show up on radar.

 

[hong]

40% Doritos, 60% Barbecue Shapes for us.

 

[Emiricol]

Interesting question. For my D&D campaign, I'd say it's more like 60% adventure, 30% social RP and plot development, and 10% shopping, crafting, etc.

For my DM dollars, I would have to say that I do not purchase adventures at all. So 100% goes into rulebooks or, on rare occasions, settings (Midnight most recently and that was a long time ago now).

Disclaimer: I am not Emirikol.

 

[Mark]

Emirikol (aka, the dude that wants to be The Dude)

But Emirikol is the Dude...

1. In your group, how much time is spent doing what sorts of activities? (If you have multiple groups that would give different answers, post them, but don't include one-night parties since the focus here is "campaign" game-play).

Things usually strike a good balance between role and roll at about an even split.

2. GMs, how would you describe your personal spending in regards to gaming?

Mostly on miniatures and other "accessories" but I'm not likely a typical case.

 

[Tarlonniel]

I'm a player in four games, which consist of:

1. 5 9th level PCs who are employed by a thieves guild. 85% adventuring, 5% exploration/learning, 10% social-RP.

2. 5 8th level PCs saving the world. 60% adventuring, 20% exploration/learning, 20% social-RP.

3. 4 16th level PCs saving the world from something we unleashed. 70% adventuring, 15% exploration/learning, 15% social-RP.

4. 5 4th level PCs saving the Arcana Unearthed world. 50% adventuring, 25% exploration/learning, 25% social-RP.

 

[Melan]

1. In your group, how much time is spent doing what sorts of activities? (If you have multiple groups that would give different answers, post them, but don't include one-night parties since the focus here is "campaign" game-play).

Assuming 6 hour sessions (our average), one hour is spent waiting for other players and talking about miscellaneous topics (also, generating characters for those who bought the farm last time), the other five adventuring. If I had to divide adventuring time, about one half is spent on dealing with the party's village and various related problems (escaped slaves, banditry, a trade caravan, etc.) and one half with dungeon and wilderness adventures. This, of course, is unevenly distributed. Some sessions are pure dungeon affairs, others are about diplomacy and friendly backstabbing between neighbours.

2. GMs, how would you describe your personal spending in regards to gaming?

50% of my spending is on out of print stuff. I am currently interested in old 3rd party "compatible with most fantasy roleplaying games, and yes, we mean AD&D" products. 40% is modules by Necromancer Games and Troll Lord Games. 10% is "everything else". Everything else, however, doesn't include "crunch" books. I don't buy those. Two days ago, I even declined an offer to give some to me for free.

 

[Bendris Noulg]

Things usually strike a good balance between role and roll at about an even split.

Ehr... That's not really the question. For instance, while "exploring", one would be making Survival, Knowledge (Geography, Local, etc.), Gather Information, Diplomacy (getting directions), Climb (getting through Mountain Ranges and other obstacles) and so forth. During "social-RP", there is Diplomacy, Bluff, Sense Motive, Gather Information, and so forth. During "adventuring", you can have any of the above plus Attack rolls, damage, and so forth.

So it's a question of "activities", not dice-versus-roleplay (especially since the later tends to become a heated topic around these parts).

 

[Nifft]

Core: 3.5e Core books.

Setting-specific stuff: Midnight (though I'm a player there), FRCS (though I was just a player there), Magic of Faerun (not opened in over a year), Arcana Unearthed (never used), and Freeport (never used).

Campaign stuff: MM2, Fiend Folio, Book of Fiends, Manual of the Planes, Book of Vile Darkness, Unearthed Arcana, Expanded Psionics Handbook (yay!), Epic Level Handbook, Stronghold Builder's Guide, Shamanism (Green Ronin and Mongoose versions), and Quintessential Witch & Druid (didn't know any better).

Character Creation Stuff: Savage Species, splatbooks, and many of the books listed above.

Adventure Stuff: Book of Challenges, Book of Taverns, En Route -- I'd like to see more books of this sort, and far less of the "mega-module" type. In these mini-adventure books, I'd like to see more focus on the personalities involved than the stats of those people -- my house rules and homebrew setting interfere with using too much published stuff.

-----

I spend a lot of time working up unique monsters, including equipment and tactics, but I'll equally often just cut-n-paste from the SRD. Not all fights are that important. I spend far more time working out what's going on in the world around the PCs, so when they do whatever it is that they're going to do, I can describe what they see, who's there, and what effect they have on the world.

The way I do this behind-the-scenes is: Evil has a timeline, and the non-PC forces of Goodness are reacting to Evil's timeline. Good is at a disadvantage in being reactive. So, in the timeline I've scripted out, Good ends up losing. The PCs are expected to ruin Evil's plans, just as they should be expected to ruin any plan made by the DM.

(Oh, and there are several Evils out there, usually working at cross-purposes. Good still loses. Each Evil is quite strong.)

-- N

 

[Mark]

That's not really the question. For instance, while "exploring", one would...

During "social-RP", there is...

During "adventuring", you can have...

So it's a question of "activities", not dice-versus-roleplay...

In my experience the lines between those "areas" are far too blurred and any of the mechanics can possibly be used in any of those "areas" you suggest. I just try to allow the players to do what they please and apply the most appropriate mechanic to adjudicate situations when or where it is necessary.

The difficulty in answering the question, for me, lies in whether someone always applies the mechanics, which becomes a role vs. roll question, and the difficulty is further complicated by the fact that I don't have a hard and fast rule on when I apply the mechanics. It often falls to how comfortable the players are in roleplaying a given situation and how much they prefer to rely on the dice to determine the outcome. This can vary from moment to moment and session to session for any given player. It sometimes falls to how the pace of the game has developed and whether or not applying the mechanics overtly would be intrusive. There are many times when I apply mechanics to a game and the players are completely unaware that it is being done.

If I had to guess, and base it strictly on the parameters you wish to impose on the question, I'd still have to say it's a fairly even split but that the split changes from session to session depending on the immediate scenario. It's hard to quantify thirty years of gaming into those sort of percentages, I suppose. You'll have to, please, forgive me if my answer to your question seems inadequate.