How often do you game?

[Farcaster]

Back in the days of high school, I'd game all weekend long and still be hungry for more. I'd have roleplayed every night had my parents let me get away with it. Even when I wasn't playing though, I was almost always working on writing up the next adventure in my spare time.

Now, at 30, life gets in the way. Not that I mind terribly, but sometimes I long for those days again. Between working full time, going back to college to do some degree work, wife, son, working on this website, and watching my favorite flicks on the TV, it seems I never have time enough for gaming stuff anymore. I'm lucky to get two games in a month.

So, I'm curious. How often do you game these days?

[AsmoTiC]

Twice a month for me as well. Though, i'm only counting Pen & Paper roleplaying.

Online games on the computer get played maybe twice a week for any length of time. Maybe an hour a day the rest of the time.

[Skunkape]

We used to, as in about 1 year ago, play every Saturday night, but recently, we've been restricted to 2 times a month. We're working to get back into the every Saturday night thing, but yeah that's what we do for PnP games.

Now online games, about 1 or 2 times a week.

[ronpyatt]

Actually, I game once a week on Thursdays and at some of the Meet Ups, which is about 5-6 times a month total.

[fmitchell]

Right now I'm playing in one campaign every other week. I'd like to run another, but job pressures make that difficult.

[TwoGunBob]

Back in school it was all weekend long game fests of never ending hacking and slashing. I quit playing my sophmore high school for all the usual reasons one manifests. I started playing again over the summer after graduation and continued to have Friday or Saturday sessions during everyone's first year of college/ last year of high school.

These days I manage about twice a month on Fridays and we usually wargame as there's simply less preparation involved and I find figure painting to be more relaxing for me these days.

Simply put my responsibilities to my wife and kids takes precedence over my hobby time.

[mathogre]

My response was Once per month.

Currently I'm in a D&D game that ostensibly meets twice a month. Since joining in June I've played 3 games, personally declining only 1 game because I was out of town. We're supposed to play this Friday evening, but it's yet to be scheduled. I fear it won't happen. v_v

Back in high school, D&D didn't exist. Yup, I'm an old geek. Picked up the game a year and a half ago. Got a kid, job, all of the baggage of being An Adult, but then I don't much fit anywhere. The stodgy ol' business card says, "Mathemagician". Yes I sling equations professionally for a living.

[Farcaster]

Currently I'm in a D&D game that ostensibly meets twice a month. Since joining in June I've played 3 games, personally declining only 1 game because I was out of town. We're supposed to play this Friday evening, but it's yet to be scheduled. I fear it won't happen. v_v.

I feel your pain. Personally, I'd love to play as much as once per week, but aside being busy with work and family, my group's varying schedules just can't bear out more than twice per month. For a while, we were in the same boat where we were just barely eeking out a game a month, but we all committed to doing our level best to meeting at least twice a month. As a DM, I just couldn't keep the momentum or even my own interest in the story-line with such sparse sessions.

[Skunkape]

As a DM, I just couldn't keep the momentum or even my own interest in the story-line with such sparse sessions.

I know that feeling. A couple of my players wish I'd run my campaign more than once a month, but if I run it much more frequently than that with my responsibilities of adulthood, I end up suffering from burn out, which ends up being worst than maintaining story momentum!

[tennyocelestia]

I get out of school early every day and don't have a job, so I have a lot of free time. As my current campaign is online and all the other players have tons of free time, too, I can play practically any time I want.

[mathogre]

Update: My fears from a couple of weeks ago are null and void. We played back then and we played again last night. With luck we're back to twice a month. :D

"Roll initiative." :eek: :cool:

[RAMBOWOLF]

man back in the day we played twice a week. Now I am lucky to get the team together for one game in a blue moon. i know as you get older sometimes things like gaming get harder for people to find time for. but it is hard to loose the ability to do a hobby you love because you can not find people who have the time to play.

[Skunkape]

You want to talk about back in the day...

When I had just graduated high school and had started college, I went to a community college full-time in my town. At the same time, I was working part-time, but that didn't stop me from gaming!

I would go to class around 1 pm, then finish up classes and be to work at roughly 5 pm. I'd be at work till around 9:30 pm then head over to a friend's house. By mid-night we had started playing and would play till around 7:30 in the morning! I'd get home by around 8 am and go to bed, waking up by 12 noon! Then repeat the same sequence for the whole week.

On the weekends, I usually worked either Saturday or Sunday for most of the day and did homework. This went on for about 8 months till my father and I were fighting quite often about my schedule. Needless to say, I didn't continue it much after that first 8 months, but those were some great games!

Don't think I'd change that part of my life if I could do it over, cept maybe study a little harder, but I would probably reduce how much I gamed and generally slacked off when I went away to college after getting my associates!

[ghostwalker]

Man, back in high school, we gamed three or four times a week, with 12 hour marathon sessions on the weekends. NOW, however, I am lucky to sit in on one game every couple of months. My group has been hard to get together lately. I used to DM pretty heavily but, like Farcaster, I have difficulty keeping my interest going if I have longer than a couple of weeks between sessions. Ideas that seem great when you first think them up tend to lose some of their luster before you actually get around to using them. Momentum loss always kills my enthusiasm. So, we tried running a lot of one-shots when we couldn't get everyone together, but that gets boring after a while. I just couldn't get very interested in what I considered to be disposable characters. Then my buddy offered to run a few modules, and I was more than happy to pass the reins. I've only played about three or four regular characters since I started playing D&D, and am pretty excited to get this campaign started. We are, however, waiting till after the holidays to get started, so we have a better chance of getting something rolling and playing more often. Wish us luck!!!

[RAMBOWOLF]

not having a lot of committed players can really kill our ability to run games on a regular basis.

[halfpintgamer1976]

I game at least once per week, but that's only rpg. I play board games at least 3-4 times per week and computer games quite often as well. Hopefully, I can recruit layers for a Shackled City game I'd like to run every other week!

[spotlight]

Well, I don't get to play much, just the occasional at the dallas meet-ups. However, that may be because of my choise of type. As I prefer some sort of four-color supers, instead of the more common fantacy. Just not that many folk available in this area,:( , for supers, that is. Even my play-by-post section seems to attract very little attention. It won't stop me from trying, though!!!

[PhishStyx]

I'm lucky if I get in 1 or 2 games per year, and for the last 3 years, one of those has been at a semi-local (about an hour away in Roanoke) convention.

[vic_kidd]

I was a twice a week gamer up until the middle of 2005 when I moved back east.....now getting a group going again, finding gamers here in the area has been a challenge.:rolleyes:

[SeattleMeetupOrg]

I run my home game every other Friday, so twice a month for me. I also run a one-shot at the Seattle Meetup almost every month, but I hardly count it. It's usually with strangers, rarely do we complete the adventure because of the time constraint, and it's usually something I dragged out of Dungeon magazine the night before. But it's a whole lotta fun :)

Good gaming!
Seattle Meetup Organizer

[Shadowfire757]

Let's see, how often do I play, well that all depends on the situation. Normally I can only get my players once a week. But sometimes they do show up more than once and I throw something together. But now I'm afraid that I won't even get that one break a week to escape since the weather has taken a turn for the worst here. Snow, snow, and more snow on top of snow.

[Farcaster]

But now I'm afraid that I won't even get that one break a week to escape since the weather has taken a turn for the worst here. Snow, snow, and more snow on top of snow.

My mother's side of the family lives in Michigan. Although the last time I have been there was when I was but a boy, I hardly have memories of there being anything but snow when I was there. You mean to say that you get other kinds of weather there? ;)

[gdmcbride]

Right now I am in three games:

Friday nights (Weekly) -- Shadizar
An experiment in improvisational and round robin roleplaying set in a Hyborian Age where Conan never lived. Eight players. Seven sessions old. I run this game.

Sunday 2:00 pm till 10:00 pm (Bi-weekly) -- Bow Street Runners
A Victoriana murder mystery campaign where free-wheeling investigators solve crimes, brush elbows with the supernational upon occassion and act terribly British. Seven players. Eight sessions old. I play in this game.

Sunday 2:00 pm till 8:00 pm (Bi-weekly) -- Midnight: Last Age
A desperate struggle against the desperation and darkness in an age of shadow and epic adventure. Seven players. Twenty three sessions old. I run this game.

Gary

[Farcaster]

Nice! That must be challenging planning for three games you run every two weeks. My creative meter would definitely get tapped.

[gdmcbride]

Nice! That must be challenging planning for three games you run every two weeks. My creative meter would definitely get tapped.

I actually run only two of them. In the Bow Street Runners campaign I am a player.

And thankfully I have lots of good source material to steal from... It also helps that the Midnight game I wrote (mostly) some years ago. The Shadizar game is almost entirely improv (by design), so there really is no planning per se.

Gary

[bigtony]

gaming every day, once a week, 2 times a month? boy i wish!!!!!!!
i haven't played i over a year. back in the day (with no wife or kids) we would play everyday for a month strait. or do all nighters from friday night to sunday night with small naps. now i will have to wait for retirment to do that again - 20 more years yeppie.

[Skunkape]

bigtony, I'm thinking you're looking at 25 more years before you can do that, unless you've figured out a way to retire at 60. If you have, share it, cuz then I'd be able to retire in 15 years instead of 20!;)

[QumullusTheNimblest]

My weekly gaming group (D&D every Sunday eve for, ohhh, 16 years i think?) recently added a Weds Boardgame night. Great fun. Nice diversion from the RPG night. However, a new DM has emerged and started an Eberron campaign. Now everyone is engrossed in both his AND my campaigns, we now sling dice BOTH Weds & Sun, alternating campaigns! haha. Glad we bought all those boardgames over the last year... ahh well.

[Digital Arcanist]

I manage to get in at least 3 sessions a week with the spontaneous pick-up session occasionally. Saturdays and Sundays are all-day marathon runs, sometimes reaching 12+ hours. I hate online games so I try to cram as much PnP time as I can into my week.

I just need to figure out how to make role-playing my job and I can game 40 hours a week. I would go for as much over-time as I could though.

[Ed Zachary]

The stodgy ol' business card says, "Mathemagician". Yes I sling equations professionally for a living.

As an engineer I can sympathize with you. I found differential equations and quantum physics easier to pick up than the new rules for grappling and attacks of opportunity.

[Revolt268]

I'm currently playing in one game run by one of my friends every friday. We haven't played for the past two fridays because he was moving to a new house and had drill, but tonight we all plan to play at his new place. I am also wanting to start a game every Saturday that I am going to run, so with any luck and a few players I'll be back to twice a week. I used to place almost everyday because my gf and roommate loved playing my games. But he had to move and its hard to play with just one person, heck it was hard with just two, but still fun.

[starfalconkd]

I try to play once a week, I have a regular game with a friend that we run one-on-one for lack of players. We can usually manage once a week but sometimes it's as little once a month.

[Digital Arcanist]

It makes me very sad Starfalconkd that you have to play with just one person....there has got to be some way for you to meet at least two more people to play with

[spotlight]

Right On!! Starfalconkd. The first gaming I ever did, (near 35 years ago) was with my best freind, later to be my best man. It was with a game we made up as we went along. My characters were of a made up 'superrace', and his were the Timelords. No, mine was not a superman race, just a highly evovled and high teck race. AHH, those were the days. And I still make up new rules for old games.

[Blue Devil]

Less then once a month for me.

For me I can't seem to get a steady game going. I am trying to get something more regular going so I can play more then I currently do.

[Blue Devil]

Man, back in high school, we gamed three or four times a week, with 12 hour marathon sessions on the weekends. NOW, however, I am lucky to sit in on one game every couple of months. My group has been hard to get together lately. I used to DM pretty heavily but, like Farcaster, I have difficulty keeping my interest going if I have longer than a couple of weeks between sessions. Ideas that seem great when you first think them up tend to lose some of their luster before you actually get around to using them. Momentum loss always kills my enthusiasm. So, we tried running a lot of one-shots when we couldn't get everyone together, but that gets boring after a while. I just couldn't get very interested in what I considered to be disposable characters. Then my buddy offered to run a few modules, and I was more than happy to pass the reins. I've only played about three or four regular characters since I started playing D&D, and am pretty excited to get this campaign started. We are, however, waiting till after the holidays to get started, so we have a better chance of getting something rolling and playing more often. Wish us luck!!!

Back in High School I gamed 5 times a week (every da at lunch) and sometimes on the weekend. While I can't beat you on the length of time the game ran I did get to play a great deal.

Now, not so much.

[starfalconkd]

Right On!! Starfalconkd. The first gaming I ever did, (near 35 years ago) was with my best freind, later to be my best man.

I allready was his best man. :D

[Ezrandi]

Hello all, Im new to the boards,
but definately not new to rpg.

I used to game at least 3-4 times a week, pen and paper, However now its more PBEM.

As Im 40 this year, Im a little skittish of in person games. Most gamers are in their teens.. <shrug> And well, I wouldn't let my teen go to a 40 year old woman's house to play games..

So thats my story.. lol,


As for the Poll I put down 2 or more times a week, but I was counting my PBEM's, If I had only to count my in person, it would like once or twice a year..

Sigh.

I also have a fully developed Game world that I designed (Or more importantly am designing); Including Mechanics and world design

Welp, Its mother's day I just got a cup of coffee, so Im goign to log off

It was nice to meet all of you

Ezrandi

[Farcaster]

As Im 40 this year, Im a little skittish of in person games. Most gamers are in their teens.. <shrug> And well, I wouldn't let my teen go to a 40 year old woman's house to play games..

You got me thinking about what our age distribution might look like. Now, ours is very slightly inflated because these forums do not permit users below the age of 13, but, here is a quick report I whipped up this morning that shows the breakdown of ages by category. Here, the largest grouping of members is in the 26 to 30 range, so take heart :)

[Ezrandi]

You got me thinking about what our age distribution might look like. Now, ours is very slightly inflated because these forums do not permit users below the age of 13, but, here is a quick report I whipped up this morning that shows the breakdown of ages by category. Here, the largest grouping of members is in the 26 to 30 range, so take heart :)

Thank you! :D
You don't know how much better that graph makes me feel. LOL

I still get jokes about having to troll the highschoolers for gaming friends.
:rolleyes: <shakes head>


Ezrandi

[gdmcbride]

Thank you! :D
You don't know how much better that graph makes me feel. LOL

I still get jokes about having to troll the highschoolers for gaming friends.
:rolleyes: <shakes head>

Ezrandi

I also can back up that graph. I currently play in three games with a total of nineteen different gamers between them. The youngest is in his late twenties. The oldest is in his forties. Most are in there thirties.

Older gamers are not rare, at least where I live.

Gary

[Ed Zachary]

Older gamers are not rare, at least where I live.

Perhaps in the next 20 to 30 years retirement communities will pop up, where the old people do nothing but play D&D and other games instead of shuffle board.

[Ezrandi]

Right On!! Starfalconkd. The first gaming I ever did, (near 35 years ago) was with my best freind, later to be my best man. It was with a game we made up as we went along. My characters were of a made up 'superrace', and his were the Timelords. No, mine was not a superman race, just a highly evovled and high teck race. AHH, those were the days. And I still make up new rules for old games.

Oh I did that for years with my best friend. There were only the two of us, so the rules were very flexible. It was a lot of fun.


Perhaps in the next 20 to 30 years retirement communities will pop up, where the old people do nothing but play D&D and other games instead of shuffle board.


sounds like a plan..

At the very least our mental capabilities will remain strong.. ;)

[Wikrin]

It makes me very sad Starfalconkd that you have to play with just one person....there has got to be some way for you to meet at least two more people to play with

*sigh* I would need at least four people to play with, yet I lack even one. :(

Hello all, Im new to the boards,
but definately not new to rpg.

As Im 40 this year, Im a little skittish of in person games. Most gamers are in their teens.. <shrug> And well, I wouldn't let my teen go to a 40 year old woman's house to play games..

So thats my story.. lol,

Ezrandi


Huh. Ya know, I don't think my parents would've said anything, but I imagine that's partially because I grew up in a small town. Now, if it were a teenage girl going to a middle-aged man's house... Well, yeah, people would say things.

[Ashtray]

:( There hasnt been anyone to play with:(

Wow, I feel pretty pathetic...lol

[Mike Taylor]

For a few months in 2006, I had a regular gaming group, but a job opportunity for me called me away from Southwest Georgia to Southwest Florida. We have a game shop here in Naples, but all anybody wants to play is D&D 3.5.

[Farcaster]

Resistance is futile... You will be assimilated.

j/k :D

[The Wandering Bard]

For me it was so hard to game because of my work schedule and family. But I would like to take this chance to thank Farcaster personally, and the rest of you (you know who you are). Because of this site I have been able to increase my gaming to at least 2 a week because of Play by Posts that were supported by this site.

I hope to Find or create a group within my area soon, but I would also love to see more PbP games for myself and others to play.

[shilar]

I wish there was a not nearly enough option. It's been never lately but I have been invited to a game thanks to this site. Now I just have to get my wife to let me go. Back when I was stationed in Germany with the army we used to play my WoD game every friday from 6pm till my brain hurt(usually somewhere between 1 and 3am). Then do one of the other 3 campaigns we were running on Saturday from noon till midnight.
Oh, by the way, I do mean my brain would hurt. 10 regular players in all campaigns and 4 more who played 2 of the 4. 12 in my game!!!!!!!! Very free form. Basically I had a book with 85 npcs ranging from generics(not even a name often cannon fodder) to majors(almost as much screen time as the pcs). Keeping track of all that was a major ordeal. Luckily never had to do much to keep everybody interested as they kept trying to kill each other without getting caught.

[Mike Taylor]

Resistance is futile... You will be assimilated.

j/k :D


Oh, I don't mind playing it. It's just that getting the gamers here to try something else can be a tad trying.

[PhishStyx]

Oh, I don't mind playing it. It's just that getting the gamers here to try something else can be a tad trying.


I dunno, I've never played much D20 stuff, 'cept for D&D (though I've read the Stargate RPG and some of the Mutants & Masterminds books), and I just don't like it anymore. I simply can't reconcile the rules with my style of playing.

[Mike Taylor]

I dunno, I've never played much D20 stuff, 'cept for D&D (though I've read the Stargate RPG and some of the Mutants & Masterminds books), and I just don't like it anymore. I simply can't reconcile the rules with my style of playing.

What I mean to say is, it's like when a parent wants to take the kids out for dinner and all they ever want is McDonald's food.

[logan9a]

Twice a week, every week.

[PhishStyx]

What I mean to say is, it's like when a parent wants to take the kids out for dinner and all they ever want is McDonald's food.



That's both much better and far, far worse than anything I came up with to say.

"Why would I want hamburger when I have filet mignon everyday!"
- Maryann Siembieda, talking on rpg.net about why she has never played any RPG but Palladium and why PB doesn't keep a reference library of other rpgs on-hand.

[MortonStromgal]

I try to game once per week, but sometimes that means twice some weeks and not at all on others. Right now my wife and I do not have any kids though and I suspect I shall be forced into MMORPGs for 6 months to 2 years if that ever happens. ;)

[PhishStyx]

You should preemptively introduce them to RPG's, real RPG's.

Remember, it's important to turn your kids into geeks early on, so they can be ostracized into coming up with some invention or creative project to make them rich later on!! :D