Taking 20 Podcast - Ep 211 - Long vs Short Gaming Sessions

Episode Date: February 11, 2024

Gaming sessions can vary widely in length but running very short gaming sessions (less than 2 hours or so) and very long gaming sessions (ones stretching 6 hours or more) require different mindsets from the DM.  In this episode, I discuss the challenges and tips of each duration.   #dmtips #gmtips #dnd #pf2e #5e #gamingsessions    

This week on the Taking20 Podcast. Type up lore information as much as you can ahead of time and give them to the players to read between sessions. But Jeremy, roleplaying things like backstory moments is what my group enjoys most. Okay, don't move those. Move the other shit. Thank you for listening to the Taking20 Podcast, episode 211, discussing the difference between long and short gaming sessions. I want to thank this week's sponsor, Coffins. A buddy of mine has started a business that carries coffins to their final destination over the ocean.

They're using a sea hearse. Hey, we have a coffee! ko-fi.com slash taking20podcast This podcast survives thanks to donations from listeners like you. While we're here, I want to thank Robert Nores, who's been so generous in donating to the podcast multiple times. If you're listening to multiple episodes of the podcast and you haven't considered donating, please consider making a one-time gift, even if it's just $5. Every little bit helps to offset

the cost of keeping this podcast going. The previous episode and this one originated from a discussion at my friendly local game store. A few of us DMs and GMs started discussing length of a campaign, and that naturally flowed to length of gaming sessions. After all, if your campaign is 8 6-hour sessions or 12 4-hour sessions, it's 48 hours either way, right? Well, yes, Jeremy, that's how math works. And later on, when you get more advanced and hit derivatives, integrals, and matrix mathematics, things are really going to get weird for you. But thankfully, this podcast isn't about math. It's about combat and skills and social encounters that require math to resolve them. Wait, that's not what I mean.

Different groups have different levels of tolerance for duration of game sessions. I have friends that can game for 12 hours solid, once per week, every weekend. I wish I could do that, but it's just not feasible for me right now. I've got family, two jobs, a podcast, and a spoiled rotten dog have my priority. So my gaming sessions tend to be shorter, three to four hours at most, and usually at night,

with one that begins about 7.30 p.m. and another that begins on a different night about 8 p.m. There's a long-running joke that's definitely based in fact that the real boss monster of Dungeons & Dragons and other tabletop RPGs is scheduling conflicts. Back to those sessions. According to various information sources I could find, and my own experience, gaming sessions average about 3-5 hours per session. Some go longer. A local GM friend of mine has 7-8 hour sessions that start Saturday afternoon and run until midnight. And no, he doesn't have any openings right now. Believe me, I've tried.

However, I was part of a group that ran sessions twice per week during lunch at one of my company's conference rooms. We would find one of those rooms and schedule it for about an hour from 12 to 1 so we could get some gaming in while we ate. Those sessions had to be capped at one hour each. So which is better? The quick one-hour sessions, the eight-hour marathons, or something in between? The answer is whatever schedule means that you can get some gaming in. My advice? Find the time whenever you can if gaming is important to you. I will have a late bedtime most Friday and Saturday nights if it means I can sneak in a couple of gaming sessions a week. Let's start with shorter sessions.

That's hard to say. Let's start with shorter sessions. Those one to three hour gaming sessions. Now, why would I choose a short gaming session like this? Because I don't know about you, but these days I'm busy as hell and I don't have a lot of time for gaming. I always laugh when I hear people say, oh, if I were independently wealthy, I don't know what I, but these days I'm busy as hell and I don't have a lot of time for gaming. I always laugh when I hear people say,

Oh, if I were independently wealthy, I don't know what I would do with my time. I fucking do. I'm going to be running and playing games until armor class falls out of my ears. I would probably open a store with dedicated areas for gaming that could be rented. Of course, the whole thing is just an excuse to run games with Pathfinder and D&D and Star Wars and Shadowrun, Delta Green, Cthulhu, Blades in the Dark, Fiasco, anything and everything I could get on a schedule with players. Sorry, I've wandered a bit. Let me get back on topic. Shorter sessions are those quick-hitting game sessions that you squeeze into a busy life. Don't think I'm using the term squeeze to suggest they are lesser in any way. to a busy life. Don't think I'm using the term squeeze to suggest they are lesser in any way.

Some or all of you don't have time for the longer sessions, so game as much as you can when you can. Heck, having the flexibility to slot in an hour or two here and there is a huge advantage for running shorter sessions. You might be able to get one or two game sessions per week by taking a longer lunch at work or online after dinner or maybe a couple times a week. taking a longer lunch at work or online after dinner or maybe a couple times a week. With short sessions, there's less to prep. You're going to have one, maybe two encounters max with a little story sprinkled around. So as a DM, these short sessions are easier in that regard. However, short sessions do make it difficult to feel like you're making progress on the major plot of the campaign.

It's only one or two encounters and then you have to pack everything up. It legitimately could be four to five sessions before it feels like anything from the plot breaks loose and your group feels like they're disrupting the big bad's drug empire or getting clues to the location of the Baroness's child or whatever the main problem of the campaign happens to be. I've played in some lunch games where you get to the end of the session and the players are asking, what the hell did we even accomplish today? The DM smiles and nods, knowing something big is coming, but it might take a few sessions to get there. And if it's a role-play heavy game where players are speaking in their character's voice and the GM is regularly getting into character of Esmeralda the Widow or Shagger the Sablehand or Trunk Junk the Goblin. I apologize for the name Trunk Junk the Goblin. Ever had a moment where you struggled to come up

with a name off the cuff? Happened to me last gaming session I ran and Trunk Junk the Goblin was born. Unfortunately, my players evidently loved the name and said they're going to keep checking in on him when they return to town. Trunk Junk may have to have a, I don't know, some sort of buttock-related accident that the Big Bad set in motion, which makes the party hate the Big Bad even more. With short sessions, it's harder for players to get into the lore and the roleplay of the game world. There's not a lot of time for exposition when you only have 90 minutes.

Shorter sessions also make it hard for players to change any plans mid-session. There's not a lot of time for conversations and planning, schemes, and etc. whatever you're talking about mid-combat or throughout the entire campaign. And that brings me to my first tip for DMs and players when you're playing in a very short game session. Move everything you can to times when you're not in the middle of the session. And I do mean everything you can. Planning, discussions, schemes, shopping, negotiations, lore dump, history, backstory reveals, anything that you feel is tangential or maybe extraneous to the campaign. Type up lore information as much as you can ahead of time and give them to the

players to read between sessions. But Jeremy, roleplaying things like backstory moments is what my group enjoys most. Okay, don't move those. Move the other shit. If your player's gaming itch is scratched by having a 45-minute negotiation for trade goods, then go with the gods, my friends, and make sure that's front and center for the next session. Whatever your group doesn't enjoy can be handled out of the session, so move it there. Let's talk shopping, for example. Most game groups that I've seen and talked to don't role-play shopping much. There's not a lot of, well, hello there, young adventurers. I see you have your eye on that crossbow. Well, you do have

a good eye for bargains. My apprentice made that, and you can see the latch is a little fiddly, but I assure you it's in good working order. I can demonstrate its accuracy for you if you would like. While other crossbows may go for three gold, I could probably let this one go for, say, two. Negotiations start, and the next thing you know, it's been 30 minutes haggling about some damn crossbow with another 50 things the party needs to buy. DMs? Trim all that fat away that you can. If you're running a short session, now may not be the time for vignettes about everyday life here in Sandpoint or Waterdeep. Keep the story and the action focused on the party and reveal what's going on when they're not around by what the party can observe after the fact.

Don't play out robbing of the local bank. Have the PCs wander into town right after it happened and see all the town police gathered with the area cordoned off. For bonus points, hey, make the PCs suspects of that robbery. Speed up through the boring parts. If your group doesn't enjoy exploration activities or adventures where you travel from place to place, hand wave it. If you doesn't enjoy exploration activities or adventures where you travel from place to place, hand wave it. You made it to your destination via airship or camel or walking or bullet train or teleporting or whatever the travel mechanism is in your world.

They are in place A and they need to get to place B? Give one sentence. You board the shuttle and arrive at place B after a calm three-hour flight. Bang, bang, done. The adventure can keep going. If the adventure requires a hold-up or complication on the trip, sure, play that out. But if it's just a routine travel, especially through populated lands, they get where they need to go and waste very little game time on it. Every time I run a session that I know will be pressed for time, I will keep a list of bullet points behind the screen that anticipate the next steps in the adventure. If I'm running a pre-written adventure path or module, for example, I'll have the next steps in the adventure. If I'm running a pre-written adventure path or module, for example,

I'll have the next steps documented and ready. They're going to find the cave, fight the outside guards, and deal with the reinforcements if the guards can reach the signal horn. Maps are ready, potential complications are ready, outcomes are ready, and I can lay them out for the players when needed. Finally, for short sessions, DMs. Don't let the game wander too much. I'm not saying you deny player agency by saying they can't do what they just chose to do,

but do what you can to keep the story tight and loose ends to a minimum. Now let's go to the other extreme, very long game sessions. There are times when a longer game session may be more appropriate or that may be what your players enjoy. One example I have from my past is when I have people coming in from out of town and they want to play a tabletop RPG. I'm not going to schedule a two-hour game and be done. I'll talk to them. If they want a longer game, then I'm going to run them a longer game. I think I've told the story in other episodes about a friend of mine who for his birthday wanted nothing more than a 12-hour gaming session across multiple days of the weekend.

So, I prepped multiple 12-hour gaming sessions around a village being menaced by the undead. I made sure to wrap up the entire adventure in the length of time that he had allotted. The first thing you need to do if you decide you want to run a longer game session, check in with the players. Make sure that's something they would enjoy. There's nothing worse than feeling like you're being held hostage by trying to be polite and not leaving in the middle of a game. So make sure everyone's on board with that duration of game session and set those expectations even before the game is scheduled.

There are significant challenges to running longer game sessions, by the way. The first challenge is the amount of prep work that the DM is going to have to do. I've been doing this a long time, and I've discovered that if I want to prep, say, about a three-hour session, it's going to take me about 15-30 minutes of solid prep work. That doesn't count the time it takes to find maps and make sure I have the right tokens, configure the virtual tabletop, or any other operational parts of being a DM. Long marathon sessions of DMing require significantly more prep work. This is time that you as a DM have to set aside and dedicate to getting ready for this long game session.

I'll grant you I'm speaking in generalities because there's some people who can take a two-word phrase like centaur plague and improvise an entire 18-hour game session around it. Generally, though, most of us will require a little bit more prep work than that on long game sessions, so just be prepared for it. As you are preparing for the game session, you may struggle to fill a long time slot. It's just simply harder to keep player interest over a span of, say, six hours than it would be for three hours. I always advise variety whenever you can, and that's even more important over a longer game session. You don't want your session to be combat after combat and kobold after kobold.

Sprinkle variety in, different types of encounters, different creatures they can come across during this long game session. Naturally, during a long game session, player attention will wander sometimes. The longer the session goes, the more likely someone will be on their phone or have to answer a question from work or from family or friends. Build in that extra time and forgiveness for your players when their minds wander just a little bit. Part of that wandering mind may result in more out-of-game chatter and banter around the table.

Nothing wrong with that at all. It gives the brain time to refresh and think about something different for a minute. Players who have been neck-deep in combat tactics for an hour and a half may need those light-hearted jokes where they take a break and talk about things not necessarily related to the game. Speaking of which, your schedule should include regular breaks to allow people to get food, talk about other things, catch up, bullshit, have bio breaks, and generally do things that are not related to the game that night. Honestly, I schedule these breaks.

At least every hour and a half, if not every hour, give them a 10-minute break. Long game sessions that stretch out for eight hours or more have several short breaks scattered throughout the game session and one long break towards the middle where you may even eat a meal together, even if it's just having pizza delivered. GMs, when it comes to long gaming sessions, the first 30 minutes are so absolutely crucial. You have to grab the player's attention somehow and get them to buy into the story that hopefully will keep their attention for longer than normal. Start your session with a big combat or huge event. What's a big event like that? The storehouse burns down, the goblins attack the city, all the fish in Lake Silvermere die, and the outpost is at risk of starvation. Come up with something big that'll grab your player's attention and immediately give them problems to solve.

GMs, planning your campaign or one-shot will be a little different with short gaming sessions compared to longer ones. For short campaigns, keep the action light, move anything you can, especially the things the players don't enjoy, to out-of-session communication. For long sessions, build in regular breaks and maybe even a really big break in the middle for a meal. Grab their attention early in the session, and you'll have a better chance of keeping their attention for longer. But if you do see attention drifting, maybe call a break at a convenient spot and let everyone have a breather. Be considerate of your players and respectful of your time,

and I'd be willing to bet that you and your players would have fun doing it. Hey, we have a website where you can listen to all of our old episodes and leave comments and reviews, taking20podcast.com. Come on by, comment on an episode, and say hi. Be sure to tune in next week when I'm going to talk about how to make NPCs distinct from one another, even if you can't do an accent to save your life. But before I go, I want to thank this week's sponsor, Coffins.

Another friend of mine decided to go into business making coffins for a living. Tragically, he passed away just as he finished his first one. I guess the last thing he worked on was the final nail in the coffin. The jokes just get worse every single week. This has been episode 211, Long vs. Short Gaming Sessions. My name is Jeremy Shelley, and I hope that your next game is your best game. The Taking 20 Podcast is a Publishing Cube Media Production. Copyright 2024.

References to game system content are copyrighted by their respective publishers.