What is your preferred session length?

[Tinkerer]

This is something which started coming up this year for me. Normally I've been involved in big 6-16 hour gaming sessions as the normal for my play style, both as a GM and as a player. As of late however time has been at a premium so we have been forced to move to a 3-4 hour gaming session and I have to say... as a GM I've been loving it. The shorter session length encourages people not to waste too much time and having it sliced up into smaller bits allows me to prepare so much easier. Fortunately we had just switched to a faster paced system as well so combat is rarely more than half an hour and usually more like fifteen minutes of nail biting tension (it's a quite lethal system).

I haven't gotten a chance to try to play regularly in a session around that length but the players seem to be enjoying it. The only downside is that any late players really throw things off. This lead to the establishment of my firm starting ritual as well as my increase in the amount of bonus XP that punctual players receive (for anyone who read the Experience Point thread I had up earlier I didn't always base 1/4 of the session experience around being on time, it used to be about 5%).

Now I know that a lot of it is based on the system and the GM, however in general what is your preferred session length?

And please please pretty please no "It's not the length, it's the girth" jokes.

[Kallimakus]

I currently run a weekly 3-4 hour long session game (over skype). I prefer that time per week . Fun fact, due to silly time zone constraints, the game used to be twice-weekly 1-2 hours in evenings until our group saw some turnover and we managed to find a 4 hour slot. I play pathfinder and a good combat generally takes better part of two hours, and generally I don't like running sessions that are only combat. I've only ever taken part in a single longer session (a PvP qualifier round for a different game that ran maybe 10 hours. I started my own with the other ones that didn't make it in).

[hymer]

Four to five hours. After that I need a GM break. Most of our sessions begin at six PM, and end in tiem for people to get home and to bed well before midnight.
Many of our weekend sessions start at ten AM and end between four and six. It's a little easier to stay alert earlier in the day, and there's usually a break or two during the day.

[Scripten]

I much prefer three-four hours per session, though my players often want to go longer than I do.

[Potatomade]

As a GM, 3-4 hours, like everybody else. As a player, until I am literally unable to think. And whenever I'm the DM for my group, I like to let my players ramble and tangent whenever I need time to think. Considering our sessions are weekly 8-12 hour events, sometimes 2 days in a row, that downtime is very needed.

[Geddy2112]

I like the 3-4 hour session block. My group normally plays ~4 hours, give or take 30 minutes to an hour, once a week. It is enough time to get a good combat or two in, some roleplaying, and get to a good stopping point for next week.

Anything below 3 seems like a waste of even having a session, and anything over six and my eyes glaze over. We would probably play closer to 5 or even 6 hour sessions, but we all work and play on a weeknight were we all have work bright and early, so we have to be reasonable.

[Friv]

Three to four hours, not counting breaks, is my preferred length of time. Any more than that and I find that people start checking out. From a GM perspective, it gives me more ability to roll with things and improvise if I'm not going to have to sustain the improvisation for six hours.

The absolute best has often been two-hour chunks with a snack or meal break in the middle; the break gives me a chance to recalibrate and lets people discuss what just happened and socialize.

[PhoenixPhyre]

I prefer 3-4 hours. As a DM, I tend to burn out after that amount of time due to reacting to player shenanigans :smallsmile:.

With a few groups I'm restricted to weekly 1 hr sessions (due to being an after-school club). That's pretty painful. Too much overhead getting started and wrapping up.

[Tinkerer]

With a few groups I'm restricted to weekly 1 hr sessions (due to being an after-school club). That's pretty painful. Too much overhead getting started and wrapping up.

Ouch... and at the same time I might have to try that. Coming from a background with as much extra time as we had I am still slightly struggling with time management in my games. Some rapid fire sessions might be just what the doctor ordered.

These results are interesting. If you had asked me before what the average session length was I would have guessed around 6 hours, especially considering in my other thread some people were saying that it's not unusual to have to wait 2 hours for the stragglers to show up. I knew 12+ hours was fairly rare but I wouldn't have guessed the 3-4 hour mark. Well I guess I'm enjoying it for a reason then. It seems to be a nice mix of being able to accomplish things, keeping everyone fresh, and giving the GM enough time to prepare.

[FreddyNoNose]

Preferred length is 12 - 14 hours then go out for breakfast at 2am.

[Potatomade]

Is that when you're GMing, though? Because 12 hours is rough for a GM unless you are really good at improv. After 4 hours my group's already burned through whatever the DM's actually been able to plan for, and from there on out it's all off the cuff.

Actually, I think that's the thing: if the group mostly wants to stick to whatever the GM's got planned, then it probably needs to be short. There's only so much you can anticipate happening. But if the group has more of a rambling, sandboxy style, you could probably go a lot longer.

[Tinkerer]

Is that when you're GMing, though? Because 12 hours is rough for a GM unless you are really good at improv. After 4 hours my group's already burned through whatever the DM's actually been able to plan for, and from there on out it's all off the cuff.

Actually, I think that's the thing: if the group mostly wants to stick to whatever the GM's got planned, then it probably needs to be short. There's only so much you can anticipate happening. But if the group has more of a rambling, sandboxy style, you could probably go a lot longer.

To hell with the GM's plans, 12 to 14 hours is rough on a GM's voice.

I actually find it to be quite the opposite though, I can keep going on improv plans all day (and night and the next morning) but most games are a combination of plans and sandbox. If the players are going to go to another town which they haven't been in before I already know all of the important plot stuff for that town but it's the sandbox aspects which I may not have determined yet.

[comicshorse]

Most night I go for 4-5 hours
If I have no reason to be up early I'm game for the occasional 6-8 hour session

[FreddyNoNose]

Is that when you're GMing, though? Because 12 hours is rough for a GM unless you are really good at improv. After 4 hours my group's already burned through whatever the DM's actually been able to plan for, and from there on out it's all off the cuff.

Actually, I think that's the thing: if the group mostly wants to stick to whatever the GM's got planned, then it probably needs to be short. There's only so much you can anticipate happening. But if the group has more of a rambling, sandboxy style, you could probably go a lot longer.

Sorry, I assumed this was about DMing not just playing. Playing, I still want to go out to eat afterwards.

[Potatomade]

To hell with the GM's plans, 12 to 14 hours is rough on a GM's voice.

It helps when you let your players squawk about this or that while you angrily stare at the notes for plot points they're never getting to. It's relaxing.



Sorry, I assumed this was about DMing not just playing. Playing, I still want to go out to eat afterwards.

You mean you prefer 12 hour sessions as a GM? Good gravy, man, teach me your ways!

[PhoenixPhyre]

Sorry, I assumed this was about DMing not just playing. Playing, I still want to go out to eat afterwards.

Wow. I guess part of it is that I'm no longer as young or resilient as I was (and neither are my adult players)--that group is on hiatus right now since one of the members just had a baby two weeks ago. We play on Sundays and actually have to get to work the next day. All-nighters are real rough for me now that I'm on the downward slope of the three-score and ten years allotted to mankind. Oh, and one player has a wife who doesn't mind him playing, but would get irritated if he was gone for 12 hours. And I have to work with her, so...

[FreddyNoNose]

Wow. I guess part of it is that I'm no longer as young or resilient as I was (and neither are my adult players)--that group is on hiatus right now since one of the members just had a baby two weeks ago. We play on Sundays and actually have to get to work the next day. All-nighters are real rough for me now that I'm on the downward slope of the three-score and ten years allotted to mankind. Oh, and one player has a wife who doesn't mind him playing, but would get irritated if he was gone for 12 hours. And I have to work with her, so...

Grats on the baby.

I am shutdown on running until next year. I am going under the knife next week and will be in the hospital then going through PT afterwards. So I had to stop.

[ImNotTrevor]

I like a solid 4 hour session but my group gets excited and sometimes we go for 5 or 6. We actually do our gaming on Saturday mornings, allowing for us to be done around lunchtime and have time for other activities in the evening. For my online games, that means my friends across the pond can join, too!

[Tanarii]

Depends on how often I'm running games.

Multiple weekday sessions? 2 hours each.
One weekend session a week? 4 hours.

5 hours is my absolutely cut-off point. After that I run out of creature juices, and players run out of attention span. And that's on a weekend. On a weekday, everyone is fried after 3 hours. I budget one hour less than that, and allow that extra hour for overage.

I used to do 6-8 hour sessions on the daily when I was in my twenties, in college, and all weekend days just after college. We were young and dumb enough the players wanted to keep going, and I'd let them press the issue. None of recognized we were doing ourselves more harm than good, as trying to keep on playing with the game just sucking the life out of us. Later on we'd take that lack of awareness to playing WoW until we were dried out husks.

[Drakevarg]

3-4 hours like everyone else. My sessions run late at night because of work schedules, and most of us have trouble keeping focus past 1 AM. I pretty much never have my party run through all my material in a single session unless they completely blindside me, so energy really is the main limiter.

[Slipperychicken]

My ideal: As long as possible, 6-12 hours, with a short break every 40-60 minutes. Breaks are essential to maintaining momentum and keeping energy levels high.

Typical session: 6 hours, with one break in the middle for dinner.

[FreddyNoNose]

My ideal: As long as possible, 6-12 hours, with a short break every 40-60 minutes. Breaks are essential to maintaining momentum and keeping energy levels high.

Typical session: 6 hours, with one break in the middle for dinner.

Dinner breaks are needed for me too.

[Mr Beer]

We play about 4 to 6 hours with a break. I'd probably like 6 with a break half way if playing and 4 if GM-ing.

[Esprit15]

Six to ten hours is my preference for a normal game, depending on how exciting the session is. I've been to two twenty-four hour games, which were fun but also exhausting.

[dps]

As a player, the ideal session length would depend on the DM--it would last for however long they could keep it interesting. In theory, if you have a really good DM, and everyone in the game is independently wealthy and has no other life, you'd alternate 16-hour gaming sessions (including meal breaks) with 8-hour sleep periods, 7 days a week. :smallbiggrin:

Given that few of us are independently wealthy, that some of us have lives outside of gaming, and that probably no one is actually that good as a DM, 3-4 hours a couple of times a week is probably the best you can hope for.

[Darth Ultron]

5-6 hours, with a half hour meal break in the middle is normal for a night of gaming.

Though my best is The Day of the Game. So this is where everyone comes over to (mostly) 'game' from 6 am to 6 pm or so. The 6am game is a lot of prep and ''session 0'' type stuff. A break at 9am. Start game play at about 10AM, until about 3pm, then a bit longer break, and a wrap up from 5-6pm(or midnight).

For the all day game, people do bring over their whole families. But I'm super strict hard core that the ''non-gamers'' must stay in a roped off area and not interfere with the game. This is normally not much of a problem as I only invite Good People. The ''non gamers'' do their own thing and we both respect each other and each group does not bother each other.

[Tinkerer]

Funny enough when we do the super long 10-16 hour sessions dinner is one of the times that we don't break. Dinner is either ordered or 90% prepped in advance so we tend to game solidly through dinner as either planning or as a pure role-playing portion of the session simulating sitting around the camp fire. Then after dinner we take a 15-20 minute break or so while the smokers smoke and the tokers toke and the jokers joke. Then back into the breech we go.

[Frozen_Feet]

4 hour slot is what I'm usually given at conventions, so that's what I've gotten used to. I've noticed I can run a pretty good game in 1 or 2 hours too, but it tends to feel a bit rushed as a GM.

I've done some ~8 hour sessions and they worked out fine, my GMing style tends to be expansive so I rarely run out of material.

[Knaight]

Is that when you're GMing, though? Because 12 hours is rough for a GM unless you are really good at improv. After 4 hours my group's already burned through whatever the DM's actually been able to plan for, and from there on out it's all off the cuff.

I'm really good at improv - it's easily my single best GMing skill - and I can confirm that 12 hours is really rough even (or especially) under those conditions. There's a point where my creativity is just drained, and it's before the 12 hour mark.

As for preferred length, 2.5-3.5 hours works best for me. That doesn't include the socializing bracketing the game, which brings the total up to more like 7 hours.

[JeenLeen]

Usually 4 hours due to practical time I can get away. I think we'd do about 6 hours otherwise.


5-6 hours, with a half hour meal break in the middle is normal for a night of gaming.

Though my best is The Day of the Game. So this is where everyone comes over to (mostly) 'game' from 6 am to 6 pm or so. The 6am game is a lot of prep and ''session 0'' type stuff. A break at 9am. Start game play at about 10AM, until about 3pm, then a bit longer break, and a wrap up from 5-6pm(or midnight).

For the all day game, people do bring over their whole families. But I'm super strict hard core that the ''non-gamers'' must stay in a roped off area and not interfere with the game. This is normally not much of a problem as I only invite Good People. The ''non gamers'' do their own thing and we both respect each other and each group does not bother each other.

When my kids are older (when early bedtime and mid-day naps aren't a big issue), I think I'd like to try that. Sounds pretty awesome. I think this would be cool for starting a new campaign. The enthusiasm for the new stuff would help coast through a long gameday.

[LordCdrMilitant]

6 hours.

3 is just too short. Any more than 6 and people are tired by the end of it.

[Kiero]

3-4 hours, with everyone focused on playing, not chatting or other digressions. That's what my group does, we have a short break in the middle.

[Quertus]

Haven't read the thread yet, but I'd say my preference is probably in the 6-8 hour range. I'd prefer longer like up to 16 being great if my mind and body could consistently handle it like it used to. I remember the all-day gaming marathons, sleep, repeat. Those were the days.

On a bad day, after work, when I haven't eaten well, 3-4 is probably optimal. Or, in at least one case, where I was just too out of it to roleplay, "no game" really would have been better than "bad game".

[overlordseamus]

3-4 hours when i DM. 6-7 when i play. Go figure.

[jonahtherogue]

it all depends on the campaign and your particular players. light hearted and jovial i can play for more than 8 hours. serious and intrigue heavy then it needs to be broken up with breaks. but if your players are fiddle-farters, a longer session ensures more messing about and distraction.

[Velaryon]

I prefer the longer sessions, 8-12 hours depending on everyone's energy level. I don't have the opportunity to play every week, so when I can get a session in, I like it to be a long and memorable one. Also as a DM, I hate planning, so having fewer but longer sessions allows me to put it off a bit longer.

[mephnick]

We go for like 6 hours, but there's lots of chat and a lunch break. So I bet we get 4 hours of actual gaming in. We're all friends and we like to catch up so it's kind of hard to stop the talking.

If I was playing with strangers or acquaintances, I think a focused 3-4 hours would be perfect.

[Tinkerer]

I prefer the longer sessions, 8-12 hours depending on everyone's energy level. I don't have the opportunity to play every week, so when I can get a session in, I like it to be a long and memorable one. Also as a DM, I hate planning, so having fewer but longer sessions allows me to put it off a bit longer.

Ah, I think I've found my antithesis. I switched to the shorter sessions because if I had to wait for a day where we could all be together for 12 hours it would most likely be about 3-4 months between play sessions. And as a GM (while I don't necessarily dislike planning) I've found that shorter sessions allows me to spend less time planning since I always have my players announce their intent for next session at the end of the previous one.

[Quertus]

I always have my players announce their intent for next session at the end of the previous one.

Best GM life hack ever. I heartily approve.

Now, that having been said, I personally prefer having a group of players who can really dig in to even a single objective, explore the world, and turn it into a lengthy session. So spending two consecutive 16 hour sessions negotiating with the giants, or investigating rumors of a ghost ship, for example, are not unheard of.

[RazorChain]

And as a GM (while I don't necessarily dislike planning) I've found that shorter sessions allows me to spend less time planning since I always have my players announce their intent for next session at the end of the previous one.

I have a group that's very invested in the world and they sidetrack a lot. That means I usually have an abundance of things ready. They and I enjoy the sidetracking so getting through some adventures takes time.

We usually play 6 hours and sometimes 8 hour sessions. biweekly. I dont have any trouble keeping up. When I was younger I would run marathon sessions, starting friday afternoons until sunday evenings with sleep breaks.

But I usually ask the players what they're going to do next when they finish an adventure as there are lots of things to choose from and they know they can't be everywhere

[Velaryon]

Ah, I think I've found my antithesis. I switched to the shorter sessions because if I had to wait for a day where we could all be together for 12 hours it would most likely be about 3-4 months between play sessions. And as a GM (while I don't necessarily dislike planning) I've found that shorter sessions allows me to spend less time planning since I always have my players announce their intent for next session at the end of the previous one.

The way my life has been going, meeting only rarely is kind of how it is anyway. And I also talk to my players between sessions and try to get an idea what they have in mind for next time, but I also like to throw them curve balls now and then. I try really hard to make sure that the world is alive around them, so that while their deeds definitely make an impact, there are also more things going on that happen whether or not they get involved. And sometimes those things trample across what they're planning to do in a way they don't always see coming. It's delightfully chaotic sometimes.

A lot of the planning time comes down to encounter planning, which I find necessary but really tedious. I have a somewhat nonstandard party that's very good at what they do while missing things that most adventuring parties have (like a dedicated healer or skillmonkey), so that creates some unique complications when planning encounters.

But most of all, I'm a horrible procrastinator and so when I finally do manage to sit down and get ready for a game, I like to let it run as long as possible.

[SirBellias]

When I was younger/over the summer we usually went for about 5 or 6 hours, which was nice.

Seeing as how that has become unfeasible do to a variety of factors (most of them being college related) the games I've been in recently/seen around have been more like 2-4 hours, on a schedule. Generally 3.

It still works, and is entirely necessary, so I see no issue with it. I like games, and I'll get them where I can. Barring all other variables, I think 4 hours of relatively concentrated gaming is pretty good.

[Professor Chimp]

As a GM, I prefer 3-4 hours. As do many GMs, it seems.

I can pull longer sessions, but after about 6-7 hours of continuous play my concentration starts to wane. Whenever our fellow GM or I do a marathon session, it's really more like a couple of 3-4 hour sessions spaced apart by 1-2 hour breaks (usually dinner/go for a drink).

Come to think of it, I prefer the same thing as a player.

[Guizonde]

i prefer 7+, both as dm and player. for years i played 12h sessions, broken up by a meal in between. now, it's "however long we can all stay together". sometimes it's 7, other times it't 17 hours. my personal record as player was 49 hours, with meal breaks and a 4 hour "night". my record as dm was 21 hours straight after being up for the past 3 days. insomnia has its perks but i crashed hard after that marathon session.