Game Times

[Wraith]

OK, I need to know what time the community thinks is a good time to start play. All times are GMT-6, UTC-6, or CST however you want to say it. These are start times for a 5 hour game so starting at this time and ending 5 hours later.

[Griogre]

I'd be curious what other's experience is too. My 2 cents. During the week you should run no later than Midnight in any time zone you expect players from. On a Friday or Saturday night I think you can go to 1 AM. Obviously the more time zones you include the earlier you are going to have to start. I think you are pushing it to run 5 hours during the week.

My experience is that people that work want to come home, eat and relax a few minutes and then play. Thus 6 PM is a good start time for many during the week. If you target the whole continental US for players you would want to start at 6 PM on the west coast and end by at Midnight on the east coast. The problem with this is that is only a 3 hour run. That is too short a run for the players to accomplish much, IMHO. When I did surveys for my open game at FUM the vast majority of people said they wanted to play 4 hours.

If we accept that a 4 hour game is what you want then you are going to need to either think about starting earlier or ending later on either the east or west coast. It is my impression that the end time is more important to the start time for many during the week and vice versa on the weekends. Which time zones you would try to favor would depend on if you had any existing players. I would favor them. If I was starting something new I would favor the coast time zone closest to me.

In you specific case I would recommend a game from 8 PM - Midnight EST during the week as this would give you good start times in all US time zones but the west coast where you would be starting at 5 PM. Naturally these assumptions are all about trying to pick a time where the most players can play. There are people who don't work standard shifts whose schedule might happen to fit your game. If you really feel you need a 5 hour game then just pick which coast you are going to exclude and set the start time accordingly.

Weekends are more tricky than during the week. My impression is you don't want to straddle day and night times. IE peopel will want to do other stuff than game either during the day or during the night. Thus a Noon to 5 PM game or a 7 PM to Midnight game would work but a 4 PM to 9 PM game would be bad as well as a 2 PM to 7 PM game.

[beallzabill]

I would add that it also depends what kind of players (demographically speaking), you are trying to get. Case in point, I've been waiting for someone to post for a D&D game that plays on a weeknights from about 9pm-midnight or so, EST. Why? Well, I usually work well more than 40+ hours a week, and I have a little one. So, anything earlier during the week is simply not doable, and weekends are family time. Tough, I know, but that's why I've been looking for a game for awhile.

If you're looking for players to stay up to the wee hours or play during the day on a weekend, you're simply limiting yourself to younger players without familys and demanding jobs. Which is, in some ways, unfortunate. I may be wrong, but I believe it's the more mature crowd that tends to focus on roleplaying and less on hack-and-slash. A five hour game sounds like fun, but for me and others similiary situated, it's just nuts and not even remotely doable.

[Stuart]

Personally, I found running a midweek game was easier than weekends ... Saturday seemed to be about the worst. I ran sessions for 4-5 hrs with the vast majority hitting 4 hours. I think the speed of the game is such that less than 3 hrs leads to very little accomplishment (generally speaking of course) and games longer than 4 hrs can get a bit time consuming given the nature of rpg via FG.

It's been a while since I ran but as I recall my Thursday, Friday and Sunday sessions all ran from around 8 PM GMT to about midnight max. I had 20 odd (some very) players all were "mature" (I think) inasmuch as they were not students and many had families.

Sunday worked surprisingly well and but it was rare for us to hit midnight (starting at 8 PM) ... for some peculiar reason the bunch of players (who were, outstanding in all sorts of ways) I got stayed very regular and "loyal" (odd word but what the heck)for the best part of a year and a half until I had to drop out for a "sabbatical"

On a side note, it's a shame there is no scope to post "Good Players" as I'd recommend them all to any budding DM out there

[Kalan]

On a side note, it's a shame there is no scope to post "Good Players" as I'd recommend them all to any budding DM out there

He must mean his other players...cuz I surely wasn't that good

[scytale2]

Problem is that "good players" are subjective, as people simply like different things - some are "rules pedants", some are roleplayers, some dislike combat, others simply move from one combat situation to another.

I think you got what you wanted from this thread - basically we all live in different places and hence we all put different preferable times. Since there are more Americans, there is a slight bias towards later in the day, as we know that Americans usually turn up late for things

[jthm0138]

Problem is that "good players" are subjective, as people simply like different things - some are "rules pedants", some are roleplayers, some dislike combat, others simply move from one combat situation to another.

I think you got what you wanted from this thread - basically we all live in different places and hence we all put different preferable times. Since there are more Americans, there is a slight bias towards later in the day, as we know that Americans usually turn up late for things

As far as the times go even if we managed to get a million people to start voting as to when they would rather play, it would still end up being later in the day. This is because its a poll targeted at gamers, and we all tend to sleep in in.

As far as Americans usually being late... Who was late when we kicked your asses out of America? and for that matter Who saved you in WWI? and WWII? You should show a little respect to the only country in the world willing to send its young men off to die, to protect your freedoms without question or hesitation.

[DarkStar]

Who saved you in WWI? and WWII? You should show a little respect to the only country in the world willing to send its young men off to die, to protect your freedoms without question or hesitation.

Oh, please... :| Don't you get a joke? And WWII started in 1941, right? See, you were late.

[joshuha]

Can we please not let this thread go off on a tangent? Wraith's last thread lead to a whole bunch of posts on what constitutes British UTC or some such and I don't think we should de-rail another of his threads.

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As far a playing time is concerned, one of the main reasons I have to use a program like Fantasy Grounds is because of the kids. I tend not to be able to play until after they goto bed which is generally between 7:30 PM and 8 PM (they are both young).

So this generally means for me that on weeknight games I could do 8 PM - midnight or so and Fridays/Saturdays go as late as 1 or 2 AM. I imagine there are other parents out there that fall in the same situation.

[VenomousFiligree]

You should show a little respect to the only country in the world willing to send its young men off to die, to protect your freedoms without question or hesitation.

Sorry joshuha, but as a serving member of this countries armed forces that really pisses me off!


MB