game time (poll)

[Foxx!]

Heroes!

How long do you game sessions usually last?

Cheers

[Lord Mhoram]

About 2 1/2 hours... We start at about 3:30 and end at about 6 (pm in both cases)

[Derek Hiemforth]

Theoretically, about four hours (7:30pm-11:30pm). In reality, after settling in and BSing, more like 3-3.5 hours. :)

[Fitz]

Yeah, what Derek said :)

I've been fighting a losing battle to get everyone to turn up at 7:30pm instead of 8:00, but they all just ignore me. The bastards. But I'll fix them, oh yes.....

[lemming]

Originally posted by Fitz
Yeah, what Derek said :)

I've been fighting a losing battle to get everyone to turn up at 7:30pm instead of 8:00, but they all just ignore me. The bastards. But I'll fix them, oh yes.....
One thing we did in college was run pre-game stuff, be it a silly battle, or some actual plot development. As a result, most people started showing up earlier.

[BlackSword]

We have been playing 6-10p. However like other groups that does not translate into 4 hours of gaming.

[Foxx!]

Originally posted by lemming
One thing we did in college was run pre-game stuff, be it a silly battle, or some actual plot development. As a result, most people started showing up earlier.
Lemming:

Good idea. :) We'll have to try it.

Like Derek and Black Sword said, our sessions usually use the first hour waiting for everyone to show up. People who are on time socialise, spend CPs on their characters, play 6 Nimmt or Hanafuda, etc. Our sessions are 4 hours.

Cheers

[BlackSword]

Originally posted by Foxx!
Lemming:

Good idea. :) We'll have to try it.

Like Derek and Black Sword said, our sessions usually use the first hour waiting for everyone to show up. People who are on time socialise, spend CPs on their characters, play 6 Nimmt or Hanafuda, etc. Our sessions are 4 hours.

Cheers
To be fair, our current group is very punctual, everyone shows up within a few minutes of the appointed start time (unless traffic or work is exceptionally bad). Actually, its a bit of a mix, some of us show up early and go out to grab something to eat, but everyone tends to gather around 6. We just tend to spend some time chatting during game.

[concord]

We usually game every other Saturday... so I guess we make up for not meeting every week by having slightly longer sessions...

Start time is generally around 1:00 PM and we usually wrap up around 7:00 PM...

With a bit of socializing at the start of the session and a short break for getting up and moving around a bit about halfway through the session...

We usually get together for lunch before the session and sometimes go to dinner together after the session...

[TheEmerged]

Varies. We've gone for longer than 8 hours at least twice that I know of.

Usually however a 4-hour session once a month is the best we can manage.

[Solomon]

Our sessions are scheduled to start at 9:30 PM, but make that 10:00 'cause of late players, settling in, recapping for players who missed last session, ect. We usually play till 1:30 to 2:00 AM, sometimes longer.

[Chaosliege]

We usually dont get started till about 8 or 9 and play till 1. If we got an earlier start we'd play longer.

[Victor]

We usually do two sessions between noon and midnight, with a dinner break, although lately we've been trying 11 to 11.

Tardiness isn't nearly the obstacle for us that general off-topic stuff is... once an engine leaves the track, the rest of the train feels obligated to derail too. On a good day, we're closer to 6 hours of play per session, on a bad day we're lucky to average 4.

Someday, someone's going to break out the cattle prod...

[Herosaurus Rex]

I run a couple of different games. One of them is severely time constrained so it only lasts 5-6 hours. The other game tends to be marathon in nature since we play it when everyone is available. Those games tend to last in the 12-15 hour range.

As for people getting there on time? I solved that problem in the first two weeks with only one relapse. I set the time at 6. People didn't show up until 6:30 so instead of gaming we all went to Shari's and discussed the game. Same thing happened the second week only this time we discussed characters specifics. The players asked if we were ever going to actually play and I said we would play when people showed up on time.

Harsh? Maybe but a couple of the players have severe time restrictions so I want them to get all the game play they can. It actually worked well and people knew I was serious when on the 4th week half the players were late again. The rest of us were already at Shari's at the big table. We didn't even discuss game that night but nobody has been late since. :D

[RDU Neil]

We game weekly, and most of us have to work the next morning... but we still go on too long.

I say "7:00" which gets everyone there by 7:30. These guys are usually prompt.

We BS a lot, but really that is half the fun of the game. We are old guys with jobs and families and stuff, (except for Joe) and this is a social thang! If everyone is gone by midnight, that is an early night... mostly they are outta my house by 1:00.

Last night, we talked until 2:00... though personally I think metagame/character/plot discussions are part of gaming. Done well, it keeps the actual character and action stuff moving along much better.

[Edsel]

Our group is only able to get together every other Saturday night to game. We usually go from about 6:00 PM to near midnight, so that makes it 6 hours.

Of course not all of that is game time, when you get together only twice a month there is a lot to talk about. We game for 6 hours and get about 3 or 4 hours worth of play in. But gaming is really just a social function so I'm pretty happy with it.

[zornwil]

Generally 4 hours although frequently longer. Hmm, yeah, lots of 6 hours now that I think.

[Mark Taylor]

Err...

Wednesday night game session: 4 hours.
Sunday afternoon games session: 5 hours.
Sunday evening game session: 3 hours.

Four hours seems to be the average so I clicked it. :p

[Mark Taylor]

Originally posted by zornwil
Generally 4 hours although frequently longer. Hmm, yeah, lots of 6 hours now that I think.

Yeah, our Wednesday night sessions theoretically break up around midnight but it's not to uncommon to find us all still around the table at 1 or 2 am.

[Blue]

Assuming "Ha Ha Ha" is more than 8 hours, I'm in that category.

My game group only meets once every two weeks (if we're lucky and everyone's kids aren't sick, or there's a wedding, bachelor party, etc.) But when we do, it lasts from 12n to whenever the GM wants to wrap it up (Usually 11pm-1am).

We do take a dinner break in the middle.

[John Desmarais]

Originally posted by Foxx!
Heroes!

How long do you game sessions usually last?

Cheers

About three hours these days.

Back in my younger days we would start around noon on a Saturday, pause for supper, then continue on 'til around 9:00.

John D.

[tkdguy]

I'd have to start gaming again before I can answer the question. I used to be able to game all night. With my former group, we used to get together around 9 pm and stay until 3-4 am. However, we spent a lot of time not gaming. We also watched videos or had strange conversations before or during the game. To be fair, I had some of the strangest ideas there. With my current group, nobody seems to have the time to game right now.