What proportion of your D&D game is combat?

[paradox42]

My game's had the interesting trend of becoming less combat-focused as the PCs gain levels. My Epic game just started its first genuine combat in four weeks or so (real time), at the end of last session; we play weekly so you can do the math on session time. Most sessions recently have been about exploring new information about cosmic events and beings; the players jokingly referred to one extended series of Gates as "god-hopping" because they were literally visiting one god after another in their home planes by divine invitation.

Most of the combat lately has been in my second session, which has seen several sessions filled with "dungeon" exploration and massive fights involving PCs pitted against hundreds of undead and other nasties (the area-effect casters had a field day). But that game, too, has been less and less about fighting the enemy and more and more about information gathering and preparation for later activities as the PCs gained levels. Honestly, I think this may just be the nature of a story-intensive high-level game.

 

[Hussar]

I'm running the World's Largest Dungeon. 80% seems about right. In a standard campaign, I'd prolly scale that back to about 40-50%. Then again, my next camp will be Savage Tide, so, maybe the hack will edge up higher again. Will have to see.

 

[William drake]

Very little. There's a lot of build-up to combat, and when it comes, it's usually pretty harsh, with challenges of appropriate CR or above, and seldom lower.

This is how I do it too, its a build up...but when it comes, its rough and some people are losing their lives. There are little things along the way, minor foes...enviormently enemies, thirlls from landslides, fires and so; lots of plots, and discussions, detective work if the players plan to find the enemy before the enemy finds them. If they are hunting something, like a troll or pack of wolves, that takes up alot of time, and then, like real life, the encounter is decided quickly, and afterwards is when they count up the bodies: of the enemy, and their own if there are some.


To spend so much time as some do, around fifty percent, I think is foolish. WOuldn't you just rather play a "mortal combat game" let the players make their charcters, set them in a ring, and see what happens?

 

[Thanee]

We play the whole game in combat rounds, even when roleplaying*.

...ok, not really...

No idea, actually. 30%? Just a wild guess. It certainly varies widely.

Bye
Thanee

P.S. * Combat is roleplaying, too.

 

[el-remmen]

I guess the answer would most likely be 'overall', but I am not completely sure I understand what you are asking.

Well, for my group we can go two or three sessions w/o any combat - and then we can have have entire 6 hour session that is one nasty protracted fight. . . .

I guess I will put it at 35%.

 

[Roman]

To spend so much time as some do, around fifty percent, I think is foolish. WOuldn't you just rather play a "mortal combat game" let the players make their charcters, set them in a ring, and see what happens?

Well, D&D can be used in various ways, even as a tactical combat simulator and individual sessions or different campaigns vary widely. For example, when I run campaigns of my own design, they generally contain much less than 50% combat. However, I also ran the Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil and that was almost pure combat, dragging the average, when combined with other campaigns, right up to 50% overall.

As a player, I experienced a similar situation. Some campaigns were very combat heavy (perhaps up to 90% of the time was combat), while others were combat light. Both were fun in their own way.

 

[KB9JMQ]

I voted 70% but that is for the game I DM.
My group also has two other DMs and when they run the game combat is about 50% and 30% respectively.
Everyone likes the different styles which I believe is one reason we have a good strong group.

 

[Wombat]

I'd say that D&D gets the higher end of the combat-to-length-of-session time (though Champions beats it hands down! ).

A few of our sessions were almost all combat under D&D; thankfully, we also had several where there was no combat whatsoever!. For the most part, however, I'd say we would average about 30-35% of any given game session on combat.

 

[Nail]

I'm actually pretty surprised at the results. I always thought that I ran a pretty combat-heavy game, but I would estimate only about 1/3 of the session is actual combat.

This is a tough question: How many of us pay attention to how much of our time (1 hour out of 3?) is given over to combat? Most gamers I know *dramatically* underestimate the amount of time spent on combat.

For my games I've timed it. We have about 3 combats per 4 hour session and each combat takes about 45 minutes (1 DM, 6 players, people know the rules). That's 2 hours and 15 minutes in combat, or about 56%.

 

[buzz]

I voted 85%-95%. The two groups I'm in are pretty much non-stop combat; sessions often begin with "Okay, roll initiative."

Sometimes it bugs me, sometimes it doesn't. Mostly the latter, as I'm not really expecting much more from D&D.