So my group meets once a week and the sessions usually run about 2.5-3 hours each time, we play in a style of one huge campaign with one 'mission' taking up multiple sessions, and at the moment we don't do anything with duty/morality/obligation (something I'm not thrilled about and want to change shortly). As I'm reading more and more posts on the forums I'm seeing everyone talking about rolling for obligation at the start of each sessions and then making it so that they attempt to meet them each time and I'm thinking to myself how much stuff do these people get done in a session?

I think last time we spent 3 hours just talking about how we were going to carry out a raid on a crime lord stronghold, barely anything else, and then taking said strong hold will likely take up 2-3 sessions. I'm just curious how many 'plot points' or encounters do you guys typically make it through in a session? Am I just dragging things out too long in a effort to address insignificant minutia?

I run things episodic, so whatever the main point is, like your raid, are the point of the session. That may also be someone's Obligation having previously triggered as well. I don't divest what the campaign/session idea is from PCs Obligations, the two should work together imo.

I wouldn't allow 3 hours of game table deliberation though for one raid without consequences during the session for delaying.

I think last time we spent 3 hours just talking about how we were going to carry out a raid on a crime lord stronghold,...

This is the kind of thing best left for emails between sessions IMHO. Gives the players plenty of time to think, and doesn't waste precious gaming time on debates. If you get to play often (say, once a week), then sometimes it can be fun to change it up and just have a planning session, but for our group it's 3 or 4 weeks between sessions, so I like to have them ready to go.

3 hours is exaggerating it a bit. But half the session is probably a good estimate. I had to have an NPC step in a suggest a course of action that the players were basically just skirting around the whole time. It was fun don't get me wrong, but maybe you see the context for my initial question.

It's best to just say the matter is time critical during table time and begin to impose consequence. Most people will step it up when they understand there is a need to be more decisive and concise in their planning at the table.

It's best to just say the matter is time critical during table time and begin to impose consequence. Most people will step it up when they understand there is a need to be more decisive and concise in their planning at the table.

I've definitely done that few times and it works nicely. Unfortunately where we are at the moment the players have a bit of a respite and can afford to take it slow. They just came out of 3 near player killing situations in a row, with 2 PCs also being killed in the last month. I let them try and plan this one out with a bit more certainty for success. Or so they think

I have a similar issue with my sessions. However, we stretch from Sweden to Arizona so we're using Roll20 and that contributes to it a bit. We're also good friends and they tend to banter a bit. Personally I don't mind it too much. They're having fun so that's what matters. I'd like to see less out of character stuff, but we're just happy to get together.

As GM I'm still working on getting Obligation into more of my sessions, but I'm also working on other ways to make it a mechanic that fits our style. One thing I plan on trying is running a few solo sessions to give their Obligation more of a story element that I can then build on in other group sessions.

We spend often a whole session with just preparation, modding new starships, gathering resources or gear, preparing stuff in advance, etc

Meanwhile we blitz true 1 or 2 episodes of official adventures in one 3 hour session too.

When our group feels prepared we can strike very swift, decisive and with overwhelming odds based on preparations of prior sessions, but the second we feel not in control of the situation things do start to get slow, because all the minor details of preparation combined with very pedantic ways to stay elusive.

My group spends atleast six hours a session playing and that is usually enough to get everything done that I want to get done.

My group spends atleast six hours a session playing and that is usually enough to get everything done that I want to get done.

Well what I'm really asking is how much do you get done? Are we talking about 2 combat encounters, a long negotiation with an acquaintance and then set up for next session (which would be typical of my group) or do you guys do more/less

In our most recent Roll20 session, we spent three or four hours doing nothing but planning and preparing for our next big activity.

Hopefully we will get some actual “action” in the next session.

My group spends atleast six hours a session playing and that is usually enough to get everything done that I want to get done.

Well what I'm really asking is how much do you get done? Are we talking about 2 combat encounters, a long negotiation with an acquaintance and then set up for next session (which would be typical of my group) or do you guys do more/less

We can usually get through quite a few encounters if there's no combat involved. Combat always takes a long time, not the least of which because we use roll20 and everyone except me has to use the conversion grid for their dice. But yeah typically in a night of six hours we get through on average 3-4 conversations and maybe 1-2 fights.

I wouldn't allow 3 hours of game table deliberation though for one raid without consequences during the session for delaying.

Counterpoint - I've had sessions where we never touched the dice once and spent the whole evening hashing out battle plans (or whatever). It's not the norm, sure - but if everyone is having fun, no reason not to.

I see this often and in fact fall prey to it with my group. It seems that there's a fine balance between option paralysis and GM guidance to move the story forward. On the one hand, there's player agency, but on the other hand, there's sitting there overanalyzing everything. My favorite way to break this cycle is to make something happen to move the story forward, even just a minor event to break the reverie.

I've also found that rolling for Obligation/Duty at the END of a session allows a GM to better prepare for it for the next session, and can be turned into a nice cliffhanger to keep players thinking about the story after they leave the table.

The usual answer probably applies. If people are having fun, then you're not doing it wrong.

Are you bored? Is someone else bored? Do as suggested. A comm call alerts them to some time sensitive danger. The door's kicked in. An Imperial frigate enters orbit and now they know they only have so much time until an Imperial presence makes things much harder.

However, an ex-Shadowrun group, we loved planning. Sometimes it would take a long time, 4-5 hours. I just sat back and answered questions and let them work through their Analysis Paralysis.

Now that we are playing Star Wars, there's a lot less of that kind of thing because they are normally under some kind of time crunch. But now and then it's fun to let things fall back into the planning session, for old time's sake.

"Heist" sessions are fun... you have a mostly scripted first act where they get the mission and or get told who they need to talk to to get the information they need to plan, this may involve a double cross combat encounter. Then there is act 2 where they do surveillance and/or plan and execute the plan to take out/circumvent the defenses protecting their primary target, then there is act 3 where they plan/execute the plan to accomplish their primary objective, and then there may be a epilogue where they turn over the thing they stole to the person who gave them the job to collect their reward and they may get double crossed or get caught in the crossfire of another double cross. Easily a third of those sessions are planning with another sixth for scripted intro. And only have of the session is for executing the plan or taking other action. Sessions are 5 hours, an players will eat while working out the plan for the heist. Heist sessions are pretty easy to prep, just choose defenses and script the intro, and players (mine anyway) love them, but I don't do them every session. I've had 13 sessions of my current campaign and 2 of the 13 were heist sessions. I don't actually roll for obligations but try to work plan in AT LEAST two of my players sidestories/obligations every session

The AngryGM discusses this in a recent article: http://theangrygm.com/whos-driving-this-adventure-anyway/ for a heist type adventure the players are firmly in the driving seat as they do reconnaissance and make their plans. The GM just runs the world as normal and reacts to any opportunity the players might produce. For other kinds of adventures the GM is more firmly in the driving seat and can push the story forward.

We usually get in about 3 hours once or twice a month. There usually isn't enough time to do more than one, main combat scene and still do all of those things that players enjoy (planning, plotting, equipment buying, role-playing, etc...). I also sometimes dole out partial XP in the middle of the session because getting 20 or 25pts at the end of a session and waiting two weeks isn't as fun as 10xp to add something and then 15xp at the end. We also try to make it one-big-thing per evening. One main plot carried out. I've noticed that whenever we stop mid-plot to resume next time, that most of the time game goes flat and the players don't come in excited to play.

....we use roll20 and everyone except me has to use the conversion grid for their dice.

You guys don't use the SW dice API in Roll 20? Its awesome! Strongly recommend it. Does all the calculations for you. The players can roll their skills, attacks, etc right off their player sheet - weapons base damage and crit will be shown with the roll results.

But... I Roll20 does tend to be only about 2/3 as fast as face to face session I think. Sometimes get bogged down in tech glitches and players have a higher tendency to have stray thoughts - sometimes more so than tabletop with smartphones - when they are sitting in front of a computer with the internet just one tab over on their screen...

We get about 4-to-4.5 hours of play in every other Saturday. We finished Mask of the Pirate Queen and, unfortunately, that session only lasted two hours. The developers didn't weigh Part III with enough encounters so we wrapped early.

When my players create a new character, I'm directly involved. We send a lot of emails back and forth until the character concept is something that we're both happy with.

I run the game, on average, once a month, with the session usually lasting around 8 hours which I 'officially' split into two 4 hour sessions in regard to skills and the like and for a break midway. My PCs are usually really good and get quite a bit done over both sessions, but last weekend when we had the latest get together the second session pretty much grinded to a halt as they decided they wanted to go shopping and spent the entire 4 hours getting a shopping list together and then going out to buy it all before returning back so the R2 player could mod all the attachments they got. If I hadn't got the Bounty Hunters after the Wookiee to attack them while in one of the shops then they would have done nothing else.

We get about 4-to-4.5 hours of play in every other Saturday. We finished Mask of the Pirate Queen and, unfortunately, that session only lasted two hours. The developers didn't weigh Part III with enough encounters so we wrapped early.

When my players create a new character, I'm directly involved. We send a lot of emails back and forth until the character concept is something that we're both happy with.

My group are actually running through Mask themselves, they were supposed to go down to the lair on Ord Mantell last session but, well, shopping trip. Good to know about part 3, I'll plan appropriately.

I'm a Player in our group of 8 PC's (yep you read that right) and we play every other week (mostly).

Our sessions are 3.5 - 4 hours long (with tons of [frustrating for me] non-game distractions).

I think its also safe to say that we're new and still climbing the "learning curve," which causes a couple of delays. Hopefully that will streamline as everyone gets more comfortable with this new rule set.

On average, we're involved with two major "encounters" (some even violent), but we're pretty set on talking our way through most trouble. Additionally we'll have about 4 minor plot advancing social encounters.

Our group is a mix of misfits with two force users. The GM primarily uses obligation for all of us (even the force sensitives) and tracks morality only for the two force users. The GM uses obligation organically. We're not "rolling" for obligation, the GM just finds ways to inject obligation or center a plot point around it.

Our GM also doesn't use the canned modules. He's got a ton of experience as a GM and is doing an awesome job formulating major and minor plot points for us to pursue or ignore.

This campaign is a nice big sandbox and we've bounced between 5 worlds in almost as many sessions. (Yep just double checked the campaign logs. We have 6 sessions under our belt and just jumped into our 5th system).

We currently use EotE, AoR, & F&D for their character carriers and vehicle sets.

I'm a Player in our group of 8 PC's (yep you read that right) and we play every other week (mostly).

Our sessions are 3.5 - 4 hours long (with tons of [frustrating for me] non-game distractions).

I think its also safe to say that we're new and still climbing the "learning curve," which causes a couple of delays. Hopefully that will streamline as everyone gets more comfortable with this new rule set.

On average, we're involved with two major "encounters" (some even violent), but we're pretty set on talking our way through most trouble. Additionally we'll have about 4 minor plot advancing social encounters.

Our group is a mix of misfits with two force users. The GM primarily uses obligation for all of us (even the force sensitives) and tracks morality only for the two force users. The GM uses obligation organically. We're not "rolling" for obligation, the GM just finds ways to inject obligation or center a plot point around it.

Our GM also doesn't use the canned modules. He's got a ton of experience as a GM and is doing an awesome job formulating major and minor plot points for us to pursue or ignore.

This campaign is a nice big sandbox and we've bounced between 5 worlds in almost as many sessions. (Yep just double checked the campaign logs. We have 6 sessions under our belt and just jumped into our 5th system).

We currently use EotE, AoR, & F&D for their character carriers and vehicle sets.

I aim to complete an "adventure" during a session and play however long it takes to complete said adventure. If too much metagaming is going on and derailing game time it's time to encourage the players to come to a decision and move on. Luckily, combat in this game is relatively short and streamlined so it doesn't have to take up the majority of game time like it would in D&D. It's easy to accomplish quite a bit during a session in this game when compared to some other systems.

An adventure is a sequence of encounters with a beginning and an end. It's impossible to know ahead of time what direction your players will take you in so its a good idea to not get too caught up in the middle or fall in love with a specific ending as your players will inevitably do something different. Plan it out, but you can never make the players feel you are railroading them in any direction. That's not to say that you can't but you've got to be smart about it so they have the illusion of control.

Just be sure that your game doesn't get bogged down in any encounter for too long. Things should move along at a relatively steady pace. If you need a decent example of how long an adventure should be just check out some of the published ones. Note that ones like chronicles of the gatekeeper are designed to be played over a number of sessions and are broken up into chapters.

This is just my personal taste but however much you accomplish is really up to your group. Don't rush through things but don't get bogged down, and be open to wherever the players take you because that's really when role playing becomes fun.

My group plays using Roll20 in 3 hour sessions, up they are very flakey and some show up half and hour after we were supposed to begin. This means it takes forever for us to get started and we are crawling through our campaign at a Hutts-pace. We still have fun, though I wish they were more dedicated.