The Gaming Ideal

[Odhanan]

1.) What is the best number of players at the table, whether as a DM or player yourself?
I'd say from 3 to 6, maybe. The only number of players that really makes me more cautious is the one on one. 1 PC, 1 DM. That puts the pressure on me, and I try my best to not let it show. It usually works better than I'd believe. I guess that's just anticipation.

2.) How often should you be able to game in an ideal world?
One or twice a week, and then from time to time have an entire week-end of gaming (every three months or so). That certainly would allow me to run all the campaigns I want and have the time to develop them like I want to before moving on to another. But remember we said "ideal". I wouldn't want to do that if it means I have no other entertainments or "life" besides RPGs.

3.) How long should those sessions be?
Around 7-10 hours. Starting in the late afternoon until late into the night. I'd be flexible, with a minimum of 7 hours.

4.) The poll handled percentage of Crunch to Flavor, but what are some of the specifics behind your vote?
I voted 50/50 because that really depends on the game. Overall, I guess it'd be a bit of everything, well blended (with a spoon, no shaker).

I don't think "fluff" and "crunch" can always be really clearly differenciated, nor would it be welcome. I think both support each other, or rather, both support ideally the same thing: the actual gameplay, i.e. what you do with the game and the type of entertainment you get from it.

5.) If you could choose the single best next book to become available to you, what would it be, what form would it be in (hardback, softback, PDF), and how much would that book cost (please be reasonable)?
One word: Ptolus.

 

[Mark]

Has it been two years since we have had any new information from newer DMs on this thread? Well, let's have it!

 

[RFisher]

1.) What is the best number of players at the table, whether as a DM or player yourself?

While solitaire (one player, no DM) and solo (one DM and one player) can be lots of fun, two or three players plus one DM is usually better. Once you get past about six people in the room, though, I start enjoying it less.

2.) How often should you be able to game in an ideal world?

Hmm. Daily? Well, I do have a couple of other interests. I guess I’ll go with more than once a week.

3.) How long should those sessions be?

Hmm. Ideally the shortest session would be about three hours, I guess. I guess eight or nine hours would be my max. (^_^)

4.) The poll handled percentage of Crunch to Flavor, but what are some of the specifics behind your vote?

I’m a big picture kind of person, and I have a horrible memory. I like to have some broad strokes laid out for me and then improvise the details. Whether it’s the crunchy or the creamy, I want it short and to-the-point. Broad, and easy to re-read quickly and refresh myself.

I also think I’m developing late-onset ADD. (^_^)

5.) If you could choose the single best next book to become available to you, what would it be, what form would it be in (hardback, softback, PDF), and how much would that book cost (please be reasonable)?

I really like digest or letter sized saddle-stitched RPG books. Ideally I’d have both printed and digital copies. I like digital copies to be a format that’s easy to index and process with Perl (etc.) scripts.

What would it be? Hmm. I dunno. Have to think about it.

 

[Jhaelen]

1.) What is the best number of players at the table, whether as a DM or player yourself?

2.) How often should you be able to game in an ideal world?

3.) How long should those sessions be?

4.) The poll handled percentage of Crunch to Flavor, but what are some of the specifics behind your vote?

5.) If you could choose the single best next book to become available to you, what would it be, what form would it be in (hardback, softback, PDF), and how much would that book cost (please be reasonable)?

1) Five players.
2) bi-weekly.
3) 10 hours including initial greetings and a lunch break.
4) I'm not sure if I understand the question correctly. I don't think a single number will suffice. It really depends on the kind of supplement. I voted 30% flavour which is about right for material that is mainly about mechanical aspects of the game. It should be more for background material, like settings or ecologies.
5) hardback. price doesn't matter much; I'd probably be willing to pay about half as much as hardcovers (from the U.S.) currently cost. I'm not really willing to pay much if anything for pdfs. If I already have the hardcover version, I'd prefer to get a pdf version for free. If it's pdf-only, I'm typically not interested at all.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

In the past couple of days I've asked some questions about the past and current situation for your games. Now I would like to take the time to listen to your goals and desires. The following questions should help any publisher who reads the responses direct some of their production closer toward "The Gaming Ideal"

1.) What is the best number of players at the table, whether as a DM or player yourself?

4-5 players.

2.) How often should you be able to game in an ideal world?

Once a week is quite sufficient, and I can work with once every other week, too.

In a really ideal world, it should probably be every time I want to, though.

3.) How long should those sessions be?

7-9 hours.

4.) The poll handled percentage of Crunch to Flavor, but what are some of the specifics behind your vote?

I like crunch whose flavor I can change, if I desire to do so. But I like to have lots of flavor that I can use for inspiration - even I don't use it exactly as presented.

5.) If you could choose the single best next book to become available to you, what would it be, what form would it be in (hardback, softback, PDF), and how much would that book cost (please be reasonable)?

I don't know exactly, but I think it should be core rulebook that allows me to play in a science fiction universe containing lots of the common tropes, with a certain sense of "realistic" science, without being overly complicated and without getting in the way of the story or playability of the game, and with tons of options for creating characters without breaking the system.

It would probably be available as hardbook and as PDF and cost around 30-40 €. (I would probably buy it even if a little more expensive, but this price would be ideal without totally unrealistic.)

 

[Ginnel]

1.) What is the best number of players at the table, whether as a DM or player yourself?

4 players and the DM is ideal, current game we're playing has 6 and its fine, (actually you get different experiences with different sized groups so I would actually say there isn't an ideal size)

2.) How often should you be able to game in an ideal world?

Each campaign should be ran once a week, maybe two ongoing campaigns at a time, although I'd be happy with 3 campaigns consisting of 1 weekly and the other 2 swapping over alternately on the same day

3.) How long should those sessions be?

4 hours from 19:00-23:30 with a 30min food and faff time at the start, at the mo we seem to manage 20:00-23:30 for 3-3.5 hours of play time.

4.) The poll handled percentage of Crunch to Flavor, but what are some of the specifics behind your vote?

Meh, I like both but I think I would settle for 30-40% crunch minimum, rules lite games are an interesting concept to me but the lack of structure seems to bug me.

5.) If you could choose the single best next book to become available to you, what would it be, what form would it be in (hardback, softback, PDF), and how much would that book cost (please be reasonable)?

Just one, awww. Hmmm A D20 Cthulu Boxed set of Hardbacks done with 4th edition flavour. Also 4th edition Planescape (which I predict will be released and set mainly in the Astral plane and merged with spelljammer)

I would be willing to pay $80-120 for either of these as boxed sets 3 hardback books in each, with printed maps, lots of good art and a starter set of minis/dice and a USB memory stick with the PDF versions on.

*drools* I wants.