That old WotC survey of gaming habits...

[MerricB]

G'day!

As many of you would be aware, WotC did a survey after they took over TSR and before they released 3E, looking at how gamers played games. Which games did they play, how often, and with how many other players.

The results of that survey were important in the design of 3E, from what I understand. In particular:

* An average D&D campaign lasts about 1 year.
* An average D&D campaign has 1 DM and 4 Players.

I have two questions:

* Were you one of the players surveyed?
* Do the above conclusions match your experiences of D&D?

In my case:

* No, I wasn't surveyed.
* Yes, those conclusions seem pretty accurate to me.

Cheers!

 

[DragonLancer]

G'day!

As many of you would be aware, WotC did a survey after they took over TSR and before they released 3E, looking at how gamers played games. Which games did they play, how often, and with how many other players.

The results of that survey were important in the design of 3E, from what I understand. In particular:

* Most D&D campaigns last no more than 1 year.
* Most D&D campaigns have 1 DM and 4 Players.

I have two questions:

* Were you one of the players surveyed?
* Do the above conclusions match your experiences of D&D?

No and sort of.

My campaigns tend to last about 18 months of weekly playing. I have 5 players. So I'm slightly out.

 

[jmucchiello]

No and not even close. Only once in my life (for about 6 months) have I played in a group with fewer that 6 players plus DM and most campaigns last several years. We never play one-shots. We've always played weekly for around 4 hours a session.

 

[Creamsteak]

Campaigns for me last about 9 months. Player count is 6 or more...

 

[T. Foster]

No and no. My 5 'major' campaigns (not counting many one-offs where we'd play a game for 2-3 sessions only) had an average lifespan of ~2.6 years and an average of ~4.5 regular players. Worth noting, I suppose, that only 3 of these were actually D&D campaigns (2 OAD&D and 1 2E). The others were Mythus and RQ, respectively.

 

[Emiricol]

No and no. My last campaign ended prematurely when I realized I'd painted myself into a corner in terms of ways to go with it.

THANKFULLY - that's about when The 13 Kingdoms went live, so I just switched over.

The current campaign (usually played weekly) is about 8 months old and I expect it to last another year, year and a half maybe.

We have an average of 5 players, I imagine.

 

[Thorin Stoutfoot]

G'day!
* Most D&D campaigns have 1 DM and 4 Players.
Cheers!

That's a misquote. What it said was the the average player count was 4. Actually it was slightly more than 4, but they figured it's easier for a DM to throw in more creatures if he had more players than it is to scale down threats, so they went with the smaller number.

 

[MerricB]

That's a misquote. What it said was the the average player count was 4. Actually it was slightly more than 4, but they figured it's easier for a DM to throw in more creatures if he had more players than it is to scale down threats, so they went with the smaller number.

Correction noted.

Cheers!

 

[Gothmog]

Nope and nope. Not even close. My shortest campaign has been 2 years, the longest (which is still going) is 13 years. I don't really see the point of a campaign of one year or less, assuming weekly gaming- its just not enough time to thoroughly explore the character and options with them. The caveat to this would be a very focused campaign with a planned # of sessions, but it would need to be very character driven IMO. The average number of players has been from 3 to 6, with an average of 5, plus the DM.

 

[Blue_Kryptonite]

Ditto Gothmog. I don't remember, honestly, if I got surveyed or not. My group is anywhere from 4-8 players depending, and our main game is approaching its 20th anniversary.