simple questions. How long is an average session?

How do I keep the group focused. If one person is off task do I just ignore him till he goes back on task or what?

what is the average length (by session) of a adventure? (not a campaign)

Session & adventure length

From memory: when the developers say "session," they are assuming about 3 hours of solid gaming (so like a 4-hour slot of time), or about 3 "major scenes." (This is represented in part by the fact that they suggest round about 15-20 XP per session: they are assuming 3-4 hours, so 5 XP per hour of gaming, plus maybe some bonus XP for reaching a milestone or roleplaying exceptionally well) So if you're looking through and adventure, just count the number of major encounters and figure about an hour per (most encounters in this system won't run an hour long, but you've got minor scenes and encounters that are like filler for that hour). That is how I eyeball it.

Keeping the group focused

I can give a few pieces of advice:

1. Address it right before the game starts, with everyone sitting down at the table. "Hey guys, I'm here to adjudicate the rules, but you all are the ones that keep the action going." Then lay out some ground rules: "put your phones/tablets/computers away and on silent, put away the rulebooks, and we're gonna have some fun playing Star Wars." "We'll have regular breaks for snacks and potty time, but please try and refrain from just getting up in the middle of a scene to go and refill your nacho plate." Et caetera.

2. If there's a single problem player, try and make her your ally. Give her a specific job, like handling the initiative track (she writes it down, makes it visible to all, and calls out whose turn it is) or something that might make sense in-character (the pilot or captain might have oversight of the ship sheet; the astromech droid or the tactician might handle all the mission data, which you can have him note with a pen and paper; the spy might be tasked with drawing up plans for the big infiltration, which in real life is a piece of grid paper with some stuff drawn on it). Give out little pieces of "your job" to the player(s), and you will be engaging them by making them feel more important to the group, and not just the make believe story.

3. If everyone is a little distractible (I've had tables like that before), how about giving XP at the beginning of a session for whoever can recap the last session? That will ensure that some of them pay attention this time around

4. If it happens in game, and there is someone who is getting distracted, maybe talking about the latest Castle episode or whatever, just remind him that "we're playing Star Wars right now; there'll be time to shoot the breeze later, I promise." And then, of course, end the session in enough time to let them shoot the breeze

Simple questions? Son, you just asked "how high is up?"

How long is an average session?

Back in my youth, we would start super early on saturday, game our brains out until midnight (with only vague and intermittent breaks for basic sustenance) and then get together on Sunday to do it again (although not midnight, because you know - school). Every saturday, without fail.

In college, we would take from noon to We're Tired on saturdays. Usually this wound up most all day long.

These days, it's a good night when we get 4 or 5 hours in (plus an extensive dinner break) with occasional saturdays off because of work or errands or trips or f'ball matches.

what is the average length (by session) of a adventure? (not a campaign)

I think the average would be those convention window lengths 2-4 hours of game play. The key is to find what works for your group. When we were younger we would play for 12 hours with no problem sometimes longer. The idea of setting aside 12 hours for something other than work now would probably make me laugh and cry in equal measure.

As we have gotten older every couple of days moved to just the weekends and then to every other weekend. Now we play every other Saturday from around 5pm-10pm. I would love to have the ability to play more often or for longer but it just doesn't work out. You know your group and the limits they have, a bunch of single college age players can play more often than a bunch of middle aged players who are in relationships and have children. I would say you need at least the same amount of time you would spend watching a movie (around the 2 hour mark) to have a productive session but after that it just boils down to what your group can do.

As for the average number of sessions per adventure. I think that is much harder to nail down. It depends on how side tracked you get (both in and out of character). Some poor dice rolls can slow you down and some good luck with the dice can speed you up. I say you don't really worry about it and just let it flow. It looks like Beyond the Rim is going to take me 3-4 sessions to finish but if my characters decided to do something a little off the beaten path I will let them if it means the it takes 5-6 sessions instead so be it as long as we have fun.

oh man this is all great info. Thank you guys. I guess the questions were simple in concept but not in answer

My typical sessions are 4 to 5 hours at the table with a break halfway to 2/3 through for food. Generally someone will have to leave about an hour before we're done. Generally there will be 1 person up to a half hour late (whose late and who leaves early varies). We generally do one adventure per session, I may need to handwave the rest (mopping up minions) of one combat encounter for the sake of time.

24 hours was the record for us. Nowadays a few hours of gaming give or take.

What is this 'average', you speak of?

To give a simple answer that doesn't answer your question, "It lasts as long as it lasts." Way back in the day, we could start playing around noonish on Saturday, and wrap up by "I have to be at work/school in 10 minutes". Never underestimate the power of Mt. Dew and pizza delivery to keep gamers going... Now, though, I have to squeeze in games when I can. Im currently running a EotE/F&D game for a couple of players every other sunday evening. I have to do it every other weekend, due to travel times to get to the game shop. Im not in a hurry to rack up my zip code in gas money. The game sessions usually last 4 hours or so, and I've found that there are natural breaks in the action that serve very well as 'Okay, we'll call it a night, here' points.

Keeping a group focused is one of the tougher jobs for a GM. Usually, players will get a little conversation going between two or three of themselves that can ramble on for a while. Just let them go for a bit, and see if they come back on their own. If nothing else, roll some dice out of the blue...it usually snaps them back to the here and now wondering what they just missed, are we being attacked, who tripped what trap, what loot are we rolling for, etc. If players just seem to be wandering off on their own, checking phones, or what have you, call a short break. Just have everyone take five to stretch their legs, then bring everyone back and pick up where you left off. A useful phrase for a GM to have is "But getting back to the action...".

The average length of an adventure varies quite a bit....how much time per week/month/year can you spend on the game? How focused is everyone on the game itself? Adventures are just like sessions, they last as long as they last. I ran the module in the back of the EotE core book for my guys, and it took them about 3-4 sessions to wrap it up. A lot of that was everyone learning the new system, learning how their skills work, and some cheesy movie one-liners. As your players become more familiar with what they have, and what they can do, they'll start to accomplish more per sessions, and the modules will go by a bit quicker. But I wouldn't count on doing Jewel of Yavin in one sitting, or anything like that....

When I asked (during the Edge playtest), I was told 3 hours by someone on staff. They assumed an 18:30-21:30 game on a weeknight.

They also mentioned being astonished that we were playing 13:30-19:30 on sundays...

We start up around 2 PM. One player works so we wait for him to show up. We've gone as late at 10:30 when things are rolling and everyone is in the grove but we usually try to wind up by 8 or 9. Since one player bought Zombicide we've be wrapping up at 6 so we can play a game of that too. Soon we will need to switch to Sundays because my dialysis schedule is shifting so we will have to wrap up by 7 as my son plays and he is 14 so he needs to go to school in the morning. Not to mention work for the rest of us. While I might be able to locksmith on little sleep the guy who blows things up needs a good 8 hours of sleep to avoid spreading his parts over two counties.

So in short... we don't have a normal amount of time. We go until reality rears it's ugly head. Sometimes that means going through two phases in a night and other times that means stopping in the middle of a phase. It just depends.

Rambling thoughts to follow...

I think a lot of it has to do with the maturity and attention span of your players. My son runs a Force and Destiny campaign when ever they have a long weekend, I've found that three of us can go for the long haul, which is why those three (myself, my son and his best bud) are the ones playing with the big boys in my campaign. One of his friends can go at most 4 hours before he starts to break down and he gets easily distracted which starts to disrupt the game. So that's about how long we go, 3-4 hours. Then we stop and spend EXP and brag about how cool our characters were and how much cooler they will be with our new abilities and skills.

Bad players.... Two ideas. First off, The Speech. We are here to have fun. The best way to have that fun is if all of us cooperate and stay focused. If in order for you to have fun you have to ruin everyone else's fun then maybe this kind of gaming isn't for you. Second. Ask everyone if the group really needs that one player, does his/her contributions outweigh the butt pain they cause? If the answer is no, then politely, but firmly, dis-invite the player.

We usually play about 4-5 hours. Start Sunday at noon and wrap up around 4 or 5. Of course we have a decent break in the beginning for lunch.

Bringing this up again, how long is your longest adventure? is 5-8 sessions to long?

Our group that plays on Thursday nights usually tries to get started around 7pm, and wrap up around 10-10:30pm.

We’ve been going through a couple of FFG adventure books, and I think we’ve been averaging about three nights to complete one official episode. And that’s with me cutting out a lot of material because it just doesn’t make sense, or because the players never bothered to try to go any of the alternate routes, or whatever.

So, take that for whatever you think it’s worth.

Bringing this up again, how long is your longest adventure? is 5-8 sessions to long?

Nah. I mean they take however long they take.

Bringing this up again, how long is your longest adventure? is 5-8 sessions to long?

I ran the AoR Beginner Game + Operation: Shadowpoint in 7 sessions, and then again in like over a dozen sessions. It just really depends. I could envision doing Operation: Shadowpoint in 3 four-hour sessions or less. But it really just depends on a practically innumerable amount of factors, many of which are unforeseeable.

Why are you wanting to know?

Bringing this up again, how long is your longest adventure? is 5-8 sessions to long?

Depends on a couple of things. How long is your time together? If you're doing 15 hours in one go, then 8 sessions is War and Peace: The Role Playing Game.

Roger Ebert said "No good movie is too long and no bad movie is short enough." - the same thing applies here. Again, it comes down to the story you want to tell. There is no formula on how long something should be. We can't help you.

Bringing this up again, how long is your longest adventure? is 5-8 sessions to long?

sometimes when you're lucky the game never ends and continues for years depends on what you want, if you start out I would advise against a neverending sandbox campaign.

I think 5-8 sessions is a good start for a small campaign or a medium adventure, but it depends greatly on your gaming table. If you have a weekly game with very attentive players 8 session is epic and great. If you have players that lead stressful lives away from the table and manage to play once or twice a month 8 sessions is way to long.

Back in the early days, we used to have power sessions lasting 12-24 hours. Now, being grown ups, I am lucky to get 4-5 hours out of the old bastards lol

6h here. 19 o`clock until 1 o`clock every second friday.

starting at 7.30 pm until 3 to 6 am on two or three fridays per month... losing 1-2hours for welcoming at the beginning, eating (mostly after the first hour) and wrapping up at the end.
So we have an average playtime of 6-9 hours... (wow I just realised how lucky I am that my wife has no problem with that...)

(gaining 25-40 Exp an Evening)

Most adventuers tak 2-3 of this Evenings, some quickshoots are also done in one session (most likely the "Hitching across the galaxy until they find a planet the sells that nasty little stuff they are looking for")

but that depends on the players, I let them make theire own descions: so even if they should fly to let´s say Onderon to get rid of an bounty but they decide to go to Correlia... well it´s theire decision to make... with all the problems that come along the way...

Okay. These are all good. We are kinda hit and miss. Generally about 3-5 hours.