D&D General Time spent on D&D outside of actual play

[Blue]

Huh.

I spend more time reading ENworld and other forums then I do playing. So I guess I'm in "a lot - significantly more than actual play".

As a player, I spend a little bit of time, especially preparation for levelling, maybe making a nice character sheet, finding artwork, etc. So if we're just talking about specifically related to games, and when I'm not a DM, it's "a bit".

As a DM, I usually spend equal or more time prepping then running. So that puts it into "a lot". Except that doesn't stop my reading of forums (might actually increase my posting), so that brings it up to "a ton".

Yet durign the coronavirus we found ourselves with a lot more time on our hands and a lot less time spent commuting, so our play time shot way up without really changing any of those others.

Lots of true answers, all different.

 

[The Green Hermit]

I'm a DM whose learning as I'm going, so there is a lot of prep work for me. Fortunately, I like prep work. Also, my players are my kids, so if I tell them we need to take a month off, because the next part is going to take a fair amount of work, they don't complain too much.

 

[Bohandas]

Does the Temple of Elemental Evil computer game count as actual play? What about the Castle Ravenloft boardgame?

 

[Scott Christian]

Actual play: Rolling dice and such, whether in meat- or cyber-space.
Campaign Preparation: Includes campaign design, reading adventures, and other prep work for actual play.
Reading/Thinking/Making: Reading for fun, thinking up ideas; also includes world-building and adventure brainstorming that aren't for a specific campaign.
Discussion and Commerce: Hanging out on ENWorld (mostly) and other online habitats for gamers, as well as the occasional in-person conversation. I'd also include browsing stores for new books to buy.

Another I would add is game design, whether it be adding new classes, rules, spells for D&D or creating mini-games inside D&D, or writing your own RPG.

 

[akr71]

A lot, but then I mostly DM. Adventures don't create and prepare themselves.

 

[Voadam]

It has fluctuated with me. Recently over the last decade my face to face game was about five hours a week. I would do stuff outside of the game as well a lot, either prep stuff as a DM or a little bit of prep/research on character options as a player, and general D&D reading and various postings and getting RPG stuff I was interested in. Before that I did email and forum games and spent a lot of time on those, and before that was dry periods of infrequent gaming but lots of interest in gaming stuff with a lot of time spent checking things out, getting RPG stuff, and reading RPG materials. Prior to that in grade school through college was lots of gaming combined with lots of non-at-the table gaming stuff.

During the pandemic lockdown I went from suspending gaming get togethers, so no playing at all when my regular group decided video call gaming was not for them, to for the last month doing an online video chat D&D game as a player for three hours a week.