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wildmage
Sneak
123 Posts
    
 | | 03/28/2006 10:48 PM |
| As I've stated in other threads I'm a fairly new DM. I've had the 3.5 books for the past 2 years and played in a campaign over the past year. I started my current campaign as DM in January. I have 5 players whom are all friends outside of gaming.
Right now our sessions are typically once every 2 weeks or so. We play for about 3, sometimes 4 hours each session. Everyone in my group is really busy (we're all graduate students or post-docs) so we get together when we can as opposed to having a weekly gaming night. In any case, for each session I usually have 3 or so combat encounters and maybe 2 non-combat encounters prepared ahead of time. Usually we're lucky to get through 1 non-combat and 1 combat encounter each session. We've probably had 5 sessions so far and the group of 4th level characters are about 2/3 or 3/4 of the way to 5th level.
This seems kind of slow to me. I know our combat encounters are pretty slow and we've gradually been taking measures to speed things up while still allowing for roleplaying. What is a good target for the future? How much "stuff" do you typically get through in a 3-4 hour playing session? How much time do you as DM (or your DM) spend preparing for each session?
Thanks for your comments and insights. | |
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Corim Danex
Warlord
6561 Posts
West Valley City, Utah
| | 03/28/2006 11:01 PM |
| | I'm surprised the group is over halfway to level 5 in five sessions. My group is level six, but there have been 2-3 sessions a month since about October. Last session, there was one encounter and before and after adventuring (like travelling there and searching and looting the place after the fight). It was just a complicated fight where there were actually four encounters that all blended together into one since there was so much noise made that the ones in the other room heard and came to join in. It was from Red Hand of Doom (the one where Shoe as DM had virtually a total party kill as there were fewer characters in his group (all a level lower than my group). | |
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scruffydude7
Underboss
1196 Posts
Rock Hill, SC
| | 03/28/2006 11:27 PM |
| I'm in a similar situation. Everyone in my gaming group are all at different schools, so we rarely have a chance to get everyone together. We've never had a party get past level 5, much less complete a campaign. Not because all the PCs die or anything, just because situation made us discontinue. I hope to change that with my current campaign.
My campaign sessions usually run between 4 and 6 hours, and we usually get about 1 or 2 non-combat encounters(roleplaying, elaborate traps or puzzles) and depending on the size of the combat, we'll have around one smaller and a larger combat encounter, or maybe two or three smaller ones. Only one combat encounter is not a rare occurance though.
We don't usually get through everything that I have prepared, but thats kind of a good thing. I like to stay one step ahead, in case life prevents me from getting something ready between sessions. Also, I like to have multiple options prepared in case they throw me a curve ball, so I don't have to improvise so much.
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zenthrus
Commander
4592 Posts
SLC, UT
| | 03/28/2006 11:37 PM |
| 3 hours of gaming is either a lot or absolutely nothing [:D]
One decent combat-oriented encounter and one or two role-playing-oriented encounters sound about right for 3 hours of play (especially with a new DM and 5 players).
My current group consists of primarily graduate students so I feel your pain of not having a regular gaming night. Scheduling is a nightmare sometimes.
5 levels in 3 months (Jan-Mar) is relatively rapid progression to some gaming groups and abysmaly slow progression to others. I prefer to see something along the lines of approx. 20 levels in 2 years (about one level a month) but lately it's more like half a level a session (since we can game maybe once per month). I've played with a DM that had us level every session (kind of fun for a session or two then it gets really tiresome to level that fast-no character development/interparty relations/etc.).
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Daunte
Sergeant
518 Posts
| | 03/29/2006 12:04 AM |
| Just from experience and trying to keep things moving along during a session, i try to get one encounter done per hour, whether its combat or not. In a 3-4 hour session i would aim for 3-4 encounters.
There are always exceptions, like the big dramatic climax to a dungeon or quest or something. | |
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Teflon Jeff
Warlord
6234 Posts
Idaho. Yes, we have Gamers in Idaho.
| | 03/29/2006 12:43 AM |
| Depends on size encounters, but except for climactic, long encounters, i shoot for an 80% encounetr to hour ratio. (4 encounters in 5 hours)
I also generally have new players still working out rules/learning. | |
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Thenameless
Warlord
8476 Posts
The Fortress of Solitude
| | 03/29/2006 2:42 AM |
| | Every group moves at its own pace. I've been part of play groups that are always go-go-go (not my taste), and part of play groups that are very laid back. Our longest-running DM tried to have one or two small encounters, and one larger encounter in this same time frame. As far as levels go, we moved very slowly. After three years of weekly sessions (with maybe a month break each year), we progressed around 6 levels. | |
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jacksonm
Warlord
5560 Posts
River City
| | 03/29/2006 8:08 AM |
| I think the important thing to remember is you're all there to have fun. As long as you're enjoying the time together as a group that's what counts.
That being said if you think encounters are taking too long ask yourself why that is? Are people too easily distracted by side conversations and stuff outside the game? Is it unfamiliarity of the rules due to not playing as often as you'd like? Once you identify the problem it shouldn't be too hard to take steps to correct.
Let us know what you think is specificaly preventing you from maximizing yor time and maybe we might have a suggestion or two. | | | |
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glumag
Warlord
5968 Posts
| | 03/29/2006 8:35 AM |
| My group moves at a different pace everytime and it is hard to predict. Sometimes there is a lot of dialogue and roleplay and sometimes just hack n slash. I haven't, in many years, been able to predict what will happen, we can go from just one fighting encounter that lasts over 2 hrs to doing 8. There is really no way to know, depends on the rolls, tactics and the size of the encounter of course.
The main thing is to know if they are satisfied with the session, if they think battle is taking to long then lower the number of units and substitute with less units but equally challenging as the one thing I've noticed is that less speeds up as they are able to concentrate more on one or two enemies.
Everyone should have their plan of attack as well, while some else is going they should sart planning their next move so there is no..."uh, hmmm" kinda thinking when their turn is up. Speeds things up greatly.
Our sessions are once a week and we play about 3 to 4 hours as well. | |
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Shoe
Sergeant
804 Posts
| | 03/29/2006 12:45 PM |
| It does depend on the group. The larger the group, I've found, the slower a combat - even if it is over in fewer rounds, it still takes longer to get around the table.
My Wednesday group (running through Red Hand of Doom) tends to take a while to get focused - we spend time making dinner, chatting about the week, etc. We'll get at least 2 combat encounters in a night, though sometimes up to four if the encounters are slightly easier or if the party gets lucky or smart... Sometimes only one encounter, if it's a major challenge like a "boss fight".
My other group runs through an average of just under one encounter per hour. Typical sessions are 1pm to 10pm, and we'll get 7-8 reasonable encounters in a normal day.
In general, a party should level after somewhere between 10 and 15 encounters, depending on the EL of those encounters and the number of PCs. If the EL of the encounter is always the same as the party level, then 13 encounters should level a party of 4 (or at least be very close). If ELs are consistently higher, then fewer encounters are needed. | |
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Dordledum
Commander
3099 Posts
Netherlands
| | 03/29/2006 12:55 PM |
| My sessions are generally between 4 and 4.5 hours each. Last monday was the seventeenth session since august 2005 (we try twice a month). They started as first level charachters and are now almost (next session probably) seventh level. I use or adapt some pre-fabcricated adventures, alternating with my own devisions. I am working towards my players killing of Quinix the Glabrezu (FR: Forest of Amtar), afterwards I will plunge them into the City of the Spider Queen Adventure, all being part of a greater plot between 3 evil deities to corrupt the realms.
I always try to incorporate at least one combat-encounter and some roleplaying-time in each session. This can vary a lot, in towns there is generally (not always) a lot more rp-ing than combat, and in a dungeon vice-versa. I have had combat encounters taking all evening, but those are rare and should be special!
I try to prepare a lot, when it concerns combat. The roleplaying I prefer to do as it comes. With combat I always tend to focus my preperations on several aspects:
1. the battlefield, any interesting use of tactics possible?
2. special abilities of the enemies (feats, spells, etc.)
3. combat rules which might be appropriate to look up beforehand (Etherealness?)
I quite often use the RPG-side of DDM-cards as reference during encounters, especially for masses of creatures.
a friend of mine started posting the session journals, which I write after each session, on the internet. If anyone is interested(my apologies for the grammar):
http://john.van-dam.net/index.php?id=40
The main thing on whether you are sufficiently prepared, is whether you are consistent between sessions (NPCs should have the same name etc.), you feel comfortable around the gaming table, you can answer questions from your players without much ado, and the storyline and combat situations go fluently.
oh yeah, and everybody should have fun (including the DM). I noticed that when I am underprepaired, the gamein suffers, and we all have less fun.
D. | |
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Sir Bozak The Damned
Commander
2854 Posts
Québec
| | 03/29/2006 1:03 PM |
| I prefer smaller groups, so we each gain more XP per fight, otherwise it takes forver to level after level 2-3, although I will give up progression if we can have a Cleric or
Healer with us.
As a DM, my Oriental / plane shifting campaign is on hold, but they used to level up almost every night ( 6:30-7:00 PM to 12:30-3:00 AM ) and I also have about an encounter
per hour encounter ration, unless they are facing a very high CL or combined ECL. | |
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proudft
Sneak
109 Posts
| | 03/29/2006 4:14 PM |
| Pace varies a lot, it depends on the players, the DM, the campaign style, how often you get to play, and the particular adventure.
Personally I like things to move very quickly, whether DMing or playing.
From starting several 3.5 campaigns, usual session length about 6 hours, we usually hit the levels thusly:
level 2: halfway through 1st session
level 3: 50% end of 1st session, 50% in 2nd session
levels 4-6ish: 1 level per session
level 7-9: every other session
level 10+: about every three sessions
This seems roughly about the same, or perhaps even a bit slower than you've been doing, and I generally go through a good dozen or more combats per session, so you're trucking right along. My advancement rate is a bit fast for my own tastes, I'm going to cut XP down in a future campaign to keep the levels a bit lower for a while (I think the designers' XP plans expected slower play).
My prep time for homemade adventures is basically a ratio of the play time. Up to level 5 it's about 50-75% of the session time, then it increases up to 100% until about level 12 or so, then it steadily increases as things get more complicated to about 200% at level 20. I do a lot of prep, though, I like to have all monster stat blocks printed out and so forth.
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wildmage
Sneak
123 Posts
| | 03/29/2006 11:22 PM |
| | Thank you all for your input. To be clear, we started this campaign with 5 4th level characters. Five sessions later they are each around 3/4 of the way to 5th level. So that does seem rather slow to me, but each of our sessions is about 3 hours long, so thats a little short compared to some of you. | |
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(There's just so much roleplaying to be done with a large skeletal snake!) | |
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Bert the Troll
Commander
3754 Posts
Adelaide
| | 03/29/2006 11:58 PM |
| To add on the comments I feel you must also consider tempo and varying it game to game.
Sometimes you will want to create a sense of pace by lots of little encounters, other times a more laid back feel by extending the role playing and descriptions.
But I couldnt put it better than jacksonm:
quote:
I think the important thing to remember is you're all there to have fun. As long as you're enjoying the time together as a group that's what counts.
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thedip
Sergeant
737 Posts
| | 03/30/2006 5:01 AM |
| I prefer a number of short encounters as it adds to the tension when playing. My campaign is very dark in nature and is cross between traditional fantasy and horror.
Large battles tend to reduce the tension and because of the setting the players have to learn when to stand and fight and when to run. I give experience for encounters rather than monsters killed and so my players often prefer to thwart the villains without resorting to combat.
I have noticed that the players talk less about the "real world" when playing my adventurs and concentrate on the game.
Cheers
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Mrfurious
Warrior
344 Posts
| | 03/31/2006 2:51 PM |
| Hmm, given that my players are usually dead by the end of hour one, I cannot comment on how much we would get done in 3-4 hours. :-)
On a serious note I've been playing Living Greyhawk for a while now and in general it goes at about 3 combat encounters and 1 or 2 significant non-combat encounters in a 4 hour period. | |
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