Typical Lengths of RPG game sessions

[Sean Michael Kelly]

Hey, fellow grognards! I was a'sittin' with one of the grand ones last week and we were discussing the time set aside for a typical game session. Back in the early 80's when we played.... 4 hours was a short session! (there were some Summers in that hot Phoenix suburb that we played for 10-12 hours just to stay in the AC)

Roll ahead a good 30 years or so and we have several games and gamers that play irregularly here in PA, but not regularly enough. Been doing a lot of "PDCA"* in order to get something moving more regularly for OSR games here in Central PA. We've been scheduling them for 3.5 to 4 hours. The 3 hour session or two I tried at the beginning had folks saying it was too short, but now, especially after talking to Rick, I wonder if games are being stifled, and/or newbies being afrightened by the prospect of 3-4 hours!

Last Sunday we played 2.5 hours of 3LBB's in a grocery store cafe and had a blast. Perhaps, that's the "sweet spot" of RPG gaming time?

Your thoughts? How long do you plan? How long would you plan to attract newbies to the hobby? Please enter in to the discussion!!


*That's "Plan Do Check Adjust"

[mgtremaine]

We play 11-4 so 5 hours is normal these days. In the old days I think 7pm - 2/3am in the morning was more normal but those days are over.

-Mike

[zeraser]

We usually schedule 4-7pm. I'd like to go longer, but my group is pretty cazh - plus DMing is tiring! Being "on" and taking responsibility for entertaining five or six people for more than three hours really taxes me.

[kent]

We tend to game from 12am to 10pm with a generous break for dinner, no food at the table.

As teens we used to game from lunchtime through to between 4am and 6am.

[Sean Michael Kelly]

Ok, let me ask this again in a different way... If you were going to schedule and promote a demo game, or to invite new players, or to advertise games at local stores, how long would you schedule then for?

I've been told by one reliable source that even back in the beginning, the games he was a part of, were typically no longer than 2-3 hours. (but on-going campaigns, sometimes multiple times a week)

[kent]

In all my years I don't think I DMed a session that was less than six hours. I prepare a lot of material, I don't like to see it wasted and I feel that sessions only warm up after about two hours. People take time to reassume their roles and to see properly in their mind's eye the environment they are exploring. I don't care about attracting new people to the hobby unless they are friends of mine.

If I had to DM at a convention for strangers I imagine I would want more time than usual in order initially to eradicate poor playing habits and low expectations.

[zeraser]

I'd shoot for no more than two hours for a demo game: rip and run, leave 'em wanting more, etc., etc. People who aren't used to lengthy sessions may not have the endurance to play for much longer than that, and I imagine you won't want to alienate prospects by confronting them with that kind of challenge (i.e., one that has nothing to do with what happens in the game and everything to do with individual tolerances for sitting in one place for a long time).

"Eradicat[ing] poor player habits," I'd say, shouldn't be on your to-do list for a demo game.

[Koren n'Rhys]

For a demo game, I'd shoot for 2-3 hours I think. Enough to get a feel for the game without burnout.

I run for a group of middle-schoolers, so we've been going 7-9Pm while school was in session. Now that it's summer, we'll be going until 10.

[kesher]

We've been doing four hours a session for the past few years. This seems to work pretty well. I always assume, with four hours scheduled, that an hour or so will be spent on chatting, creating or tweaking characters, recapping, whatever. I've never been really able to just jump into running a game (I'm usually looking at this from the DMing side of things.)

[Ghul]

I think the sweet spot is 4.5 hours with two 5-minute breaks and one longish break to grab a snack and chill out for 10-20 minutes. It seems to work out well.

[geoffrey]

Jun 26, 2012 4:59:44 GMT -6 Sean Michael Kelly said:

If you were going to schedule and promote a demo game, or to invite new players, or to advertise games at local stores, how long would you schedule then for?

2 hours. No more.

As a D&Der of 32 years, even I do not want to play D&D for more than about 4 hours at a time. There comes a point when I've had enough. Now imagine someone who has only a foggy notion about D&D, or who is kind of iffy about it: Is he going to want to schedule half his day merely to play a game that he thinks he might end up hating?

I'd say "No" in a heartbeat if someone were to ask me to try some new game form for 4+ hours. I don't care what it was. "Too much time investment, and I doubt it would be worth it," would be my response.

It's OK for us D&D hobbyists to play for hours on end, but for most people, D&D will never be a hobby. It will be merely one more game to play occasionally for an hour or two. And that is perfectly all right.

So I'd go for 2 hours if I were you.

[thorswulf]

My old group used to play from 6-midnight on monday nights, when I was in community college. Later I'd game about 4 hours fairly regularly. I think 4 hours is about right, but these days I have different concerns. My oldest is 6 can read, and do simple subtraction and addition, and wants to play games and paint figures with dad! I think small sessions of no more than 2 hours are probably the best I could hope for.

[derv]

two hours and build from there. especially if you'll be having a mixed group of different ages. it's not only what a new player could be expected to invest time wise, they may just not gel with the other players. If the group comes back next week and things went well, see if they want a longer session (maybe 3-4 hrs.)

[waysoftheearth]

Jun 26, 2012 4:59:44 GMT -6 Sean Michael Kelly said:

Ok, let me ask this again in a different way... If you were going to schedule and promote a demo game, or to invite new players, or to advertise games at local stores, how long would you schedule then for?

This scenario sounds a lot like the various "show case" games run at conventions.

I've run some of these at conventions myself. You typically have at most three hours (sometimes two) to explain to a bunch of players a) what this game is all about, and b) demonstrate it in action.

In my experience it really helps to...

a) BE PREPARED. Know what you are going to do with your time.

b) Focus completely on the "guts of it". Get right into it. Don't delay or dawdle. Don't waste time with "start up" stuff.

c) Have something simple to give each player for keeps. A map or a pre-rolled character sheet is perfect for this.

And most importantly... make it fun!

Good luck

[talysman]

My sessions in the past were usually about four hours, occasionally longer. On two occasions, we went marathon (10-12 hours.) I tend to aim for 3-4 hours these days.

For a demo, I would suggest two hours. Other games in a store should probably be limited to three hours, maybe four in special circumstances. If, for some reason, you are paying for the space, you can go as long as you want, of course, but to introduce someone to a game, you don't want to set too long of a minimum time investment.

Jun 26, 2012 3:46:35 GMT -6 kent said:

We tend to game from 12am to 10pm with a generous break for dinner, no food at the table.

Holy crap! TWENTY-TWO HOURS?!?

I can't imagine doing that.

[aher]

On FreeRPG day for the past few years, my FLGS always runs a bunch of roleplaying game sessions to attract new players/customers. Typically, they run a batch of 4 to 6 simultaneous sessions, and they host two such batches of sessions during the day. Sessions last about 3 hours. The first batch of sessions runs from 12-3pm, and the second batch runs from 4-7pm. Sometimes the sessions run a little under (or a little over) the planned 3 hours; that leaves an hour of padding between sessions, and an hour of padding after the second session before the store closes promptly at 8pm on Saturdays. These events have been quite successful.

The same FLGS also runs weekly Labyrinth Lord and D&D 4E games from 6pm to 9pm on weekdays. Since the store closes at 9pm sharp on weekdays, and since most players can't get to the store from work much before 6pm, 3-hour game sessions are a hard-and-fast rule.

[kent]

I would have to see someone try it to be sure but I don't believe it is possible to give someone unfamiliar with D&D an idea of what the game is like in two hours. I concede that it would be possible for those who DM D&D as a boardgame or DM for children.

Jun 26, 2012 18:54:36 GMT -6 talysman said:

Jun 26, 2012 3:46:35 GMT -6 kent said:

We tend to game from 12am to 10pm with a generous break for dinner, no food at the table.

Holy crap! TWENTY-TWO HOURS?!?

I can't imagine doing that.

No dude, noon, 10 hours with a break for at least an hour and a half.

[DungeonDevil]

I think the important issue is how long the sittings are between breaks to stretch the legs, powder nose, get edibles/potables, etc. I've always been a restless chap and sitting for 45m - 1h is about the max for me. With a ten minute break per hour I guess I could endure a longer session.

[ralph]

Heh.. Back in the day we ran a 30 hour session in our local church hall for charity.
Levelled up after each adventure and managed to get to 5th level.
Tough going in the small hours, and I wouldn't dream of doing it again, but great fun.

Usually just manage 7pm to 11pm nowadays unless we get together for a weekend game when we go from 4pm to 12ish. That gets a bit much to be honest now that we're all of a certain age!

[Deleted]

Jun 26, 2012 18:05:59 GMT -6 waysoftheearth said:

Jun 26, 2012 4:59:44 GMT -6 Sean Michael Kelly said:

Ok, let me ask this again in a different way... If you were going to schedule and promote a demo game, or to invite new players, or to advertise games at local stores, how long would you schedule then for?

This scenario sounds a lot like the various "show case" games run at conventions.

I've run some of these at conventions myself. You typically have at most three hours (sometimes two) to explain to a bunch of players a) what this game is all about, and b) demonstrate it in action.

In my experience it really helps to...

a) BE PREPARED. Know what you are going to do with your time.

b) Focus completely on the "guts of it". Get right into it. Don't delay or dawdle. Don't waste time with "start up" stuff.

c) Have something simple to give each player for keeps. A map or a pre-rolled character sheet is perfect for this.

And most importantly... make it fun!

Good luck

For a demo or entry game I agree with this - with one caveat. I currently only have time to run one game a month. If I had time I would love to throw in one or two short demo games every month, but since I only have time for one game a month I schedule it from 4:30PM to 11PM at a local Donatos party room. We generally get their and get our food, start playing at 5PM and play till about 10-10:30PM and then wrap it up.

While I think newbies might be more attracted to the 2-3 hour game, most of my players over the last 3 years have been newbies or people who haven't played for quite a while. But I also have no way of knowing how many people don't come because of the length of the game. I try to offset that by telling people they can come watch for an hour or two to see if it interests them and I also let my players know that I understand schedules so if someone comes in an hour or two late because that is when they can get there, I have no problem with working them in at that time and if someone has to leave at, say 8pm, I can work around that too.

Bitd we played as long as we could stay awake, now I schedule the longest time frame that works for the majority of my players.

I would add one more thing to the above quote, I keep a stack of character sheets with the numbers already rolled out. With experienced or new players, I just hand them a sheet, give a quick thumbnail of info, if needed, and we start playing. They can play anything they want. I have one player who is playing a dragon and I tweak that every game (more about that in another thread in a couple of months). Be flexible and make it fun.

One more thing, I limit it to the 3lbbs and keep it simple.

[Sean Michael Kelly]

I'll just say that since I started advertising games for 2-3 hours instead of 4, the interest has noticeably increased. Once I have a "core" or somewhat regular players, yes, I intend to play a 4-5 hour session. But understand, we also include kids, all of which I'm sure, are somewhere on the spectrum of ADHD. (as am I)

[albert]

We play for 6-8 hours each Sunday.