The one hour game session

[w00hoo]

As mentioned, TV does this and one wonders whether man is slowly (or maybe not so slowly) evolving into a being that requires short sharp jolts of instant gratification.

Like it or not life is moving this way though.

Last year at a 'tag even I was playing a Colonial Marine type which left me guarding somewhere for over an hour with nothing else happening. While it was stunninly dull (and not something I'd care to put in my 'please let me do this again in a game' request) I did realise that I couldn't remember the last time I'd done what was basically nothing for much more than a 5 minute stretch. I'm sure I used to be in those situations, but now I'll re-read through notes on my phone, or play solitaire on one of the multiple number of devices I carry that happens to have it on, or surf on the iPad, or _something_.

Cue lots of 'when I were a lad', 'jumpers for goal posts' (OK, maybe not from lifetime gamers) comments.

I really need to read the article, then my comments can be properly on topic...

[zackspacks]

For goodness sake, I hope the Furnace Commitee don't read this - or we'll end up with one hour slots, and four hour breaks in between

Joking aside, not for me at all. Going online for an hour of mindless violence with something like Resident Evil, yeah, but for roleplaying, hmm, seems a bit short to me.

There again, if it was over Skype, then that's a different ballgame, as you cannot really socialise with a group, as only one person can talk at any one time. I would actually say that online RPG is probably the future that could embrace this. Forex the Fantasy Grounds engine is all set around D&D, with other systems such as CoC and Savage being additional add-ons. It also saves your 'battlemap' , status' and handouts when you log off

cheers
Paul

[apn]

It'd need very low prep time, combat would need to be speeded up and maybe the mechanics all geared to rolling a single kind of die, like d6s, d10s or a d20 instead of D4s and the like. Trim the fat off in other words. The first hour of any gaming session our lot used to spend was sorting the food and drinks out, arguing, throwing stuff around, moaning about something, then steadily getting louder until no one could hear anything useful. After that, all was calm, with the clatter of dice on a table providing the soundtrack.

When we played Rolemaster it took us hours to make characters, flipping between various books.

I think you'd be able to play a 1 hour session with Tunnels and Trolls or BECMI, not sure about newer versions of D&D or other types of games like Supers.

[Baz King]

It's not about whether or not you can play a full game in an hour, it's about how much game you should hope to play in an hour.

This conversation isn't happening in isolation. Remember the idea of their being three pillars I talked about a while back? They were combat, exploration and interaction. Currently, in 4e, you'd struggle to get all those done to any level of satisfaction in one hour. You absolutely could in OS games, and millions of other systems. But they usually trim the combats back to a state that doesn't satisfy me.

Let's break it down. How about the idea that each pillar (in an idealised theoretical world) eats up 20 mins. That seems like a nice combat length for me.

So if I play a three hour session, which is usual for me, I can hope for D&D Next to give me full support for three fights, an hour of exploration and an hour of talky stuff. That looks about right to me.

[mr toad]

Hey,

there are a lot (oh crap I'm cringing before I even say this) of RPG poems out there that run in 15minutes or there about's.
And granted the majority of them are a painful ohdearmewhattheheckamIplaying experience. Some of them, Danse, are great fun and very fulfilling.

However as people have pointed out the 4 hour slot isn't just game. There are many things beside like the general chit-chat, the chance to catch up with friends, the food, etc.

Also through the 4 hour slot the tempo of the game is steady and you have highlights, flashes and bangs that increases the tempo before calming once again. Robin D. Laws (Hamlet's Hit Points) calls these 'Beats'. In these short games the tempo or beat must be fast. Bang, bang, bang. So playing these poems you have to be super focussed and 'in the game' for the full 15 mins.

This is why maybe they can't be considered a 'proper game' but they are good fun and get people focussed for the 'main event' if you run a standard game following a poem.

Cheers

Toad

[Evilgaz]

Robin D. Laws (Hamlet's Hit Points) calls these 'Beats'. In these short games the tempo or beat must be fast. Bang, bang, bang. So playing these poems you have to be super focussed and 'in the game' for the full 15 mins.

In regular games I'd be happy if I could get chunks of super-focused play for 15 mins at a time, but often people seem to need to make a pop culture reference or otherwise break the mood if more then 30 seconds has passed without a dice roll. Lets start small and build up to it.

[mr toad]

Robin D. Laws (Hamlet's Hit Points) calls these 'Beats'. In these short games the tempo or beat must be fast. Bang, bang, bang. So playing these poems you have to be super focussed and 'in the game' for the full 15 mins.

In regular games I'd be happy if I could get chunks of super-focused play for 15 mins at a time, but often people seem to need to make a pop culture reference or otherwise break the mood if more then 30 seconds has passed without a dice roll. Lets start small and build up to it.

LOL! OMFG...you like totally posted this at the same time I mentioned Python quotes on t'other thread.

You're a very naughty boy!

Brian

[Neil Gow]

Let's break it down. How about the idea that each pillar (in an idealised theoretical world) eats up 20 mins. That seems like a nice combat length for me.

So if I play a three hour session, which is usual for me, I can hope for D&D Next to give me full support for three fights, an hour of exploration and an hour of talky stuff. That looks about right to me.

This sounds quite sweet to me. No different to how I would do things anyway, but sweet nonetheless.

Neil

[First Age]

For goodness sake, I hope the Furnace Commitee don't read this - or we'll end up with one hour slots, and four hour breaks in between

No, 21 gaming sessions with no breaks! YES! We'll get on it.

[catty_big]

One hour provides no time to do char gen, get into the setting and play the game, even without taking into account faff and cig breaks etc. However, it might be worth con organisers considering a series of one hour slots dotted about the programme for GMs/authors to give lightning demos of their games.

The conventional slot is 3-4 hours, which I think is about right. Granted, the current crop of hippy indy games like Fiasco etc. usually take 2-2.5 hrs to play through, but even within a 3h slot there's not much leeway should a game expand beyond the GM's intended window. Plus, other folks have mentioned that a game finishing an hour earlier than planned gives all concerned more time to relax, socialise and get food etc. between slots. Cf the discussion over on the Furnace forum re the idea of having two hours between slots, and the positive reaction to Conpulsion's having done that.

That being said, there's absolutely no reason at all why slot lengths can't evolve from their traditional format to take account of the changing nature of games and needs of gamers, adjusting to which will be an ongoing process.

It also depends on the length of the con, with Conpulsion and Furnace being ripe for a change to shorter slots and longer breaks because otherwise there's barely any time for socialising, whereas at Naish, with four days (IndieCon) and five days (Conception) you can schedule chunks of downtime for yourself so 4 hour slots probably worker better there.

[Baz King]

I hadn't intended for this topic to concern con games at all. Just so you know.

[catty_big]

I hadn't intended for this topic to concern con games at all. Just so you know.

No I realise that, I was just thinking out loud really. I consider short demo games to be long overdue.