What is the ideal session length

[sckeener]

Average game time per month?

I've seen a few posts about declining game time as one ages and was wondering what everyone's average table top group gaming time spent per month is?

I use to game the entire weekend as a kid/teenager or for entire weeks in college, but now that I'm 32 I find that I game with a group about 8 hours a month. Sometimes it is even less.

Of course I think about gaming for most of the month and talk about gaming with others in the group in between games, but actually playing is about 8 hours of my time.

Of course if I threw in computer or console RPGs, my average would be 99 hours per month

 

[AegisEversoaring]

My gaming group is a 30-something crowd, most of us are married with children. We selected Tuesday nights, and we get in 4-5 hours every other week.

 

[Dimwhit]

I largely depends on how often the group games. My group games every week for about 4 hours, which is good. If we only gamed once per month, I'd rather do 10 hours or so.

 

[dren]

For me, as the DM, around six hours. That's with at least one lunch break, and hopefully a minimum of goofing around time.

But there are times I'll end it after four or five hours...if they may end at an awkward time in the sequence. Or, if I have nothing else planned in real life, we will sometimes extend to eight or more hours. But that's usually my call, most of them will extend almost every time.

 

[Wombat]

My current group comes in at roughly 6 hours a session, a bit more or a bit less, depending on mood and how the session is going. That and we only game every other week, due to non-gaming commitments.

Not bad for a bunch of Old Fogeys

 

[Ibram]

My games tend to run 4-5 hrs every Saturday. We usualy start at after 4 then play till 9, sometimes going longer if everyone is REALY into the adventure.

Once I did run an adventure from around 6:30pm till 4:00am.

 

[Darth K'Trava]

6+ hr sessions here. That way, it's more time for people to get there, eat, relax, chat and then game. With a dinner break in around 6-7PM.... Most of us are off weekends (unfortunately, I'm not in that group--I wish I was. And three others are also in that working weekends alot group as well. Half are off weekends. Noone has kids so no worry there!)

Friday sessions run less than that. The longer times are for Saturday games.

 

[Buttercup]

We usually start at noon on Sunday with a potluck. We spend 20 minutes filling our plates and chit-chatting, then we get down to business. Once the game starts, it runs for about 4 hours, and we are pretty focused. We don't engage in much OOC discussion or joking, and only the occaisonal rules clarification. After we finish the session, we spend about 30 minutes chatting about how it went, scheduling the next one and generally enjoying each other's company. Then we all go off to do our laundry and other life-maintenance activities.

As DM, that's about my maximum. I put a lot of energy into the game, and after 4 hours, I'm wiped out and hoarse. As a player, I could go a bit longer, but I really hate games that last all day because people are goofing around, wandering off, talking on the phone and what-have-you. Sit down and play, and save the extraneous stuff for some other time, darn it!

 

[Desdichado]

That's a somewhat poorly worded poll. If I pick, say at least 4 hours (which I did) does that imply "but less than five hours", which is the next step up? Or am I only demarcating the minimum session length? I think less than 3 hours is a complete waste of time, and more than six hours is unreasonably long to expect me to pay attention to one thing at a time. Four to five hours is my ideal session length, with a plus or minus one hour margin of leeway.

 

[Cannibal_Kender]

On sessions take place on Friday nights. They usually last about 5 hours.

Two weeks ago though we started at 5, and ended at 2:30 (thank god for caffeine).