Adventure length?

[Sundiver]

I'm about to start running the game for a couple of players as a break from the D20 stuff and am curious about the average length of adventures. How many episodes before the adventure grows too long? And how many hours long should each episode be? We're used to 5-6 hour long sessions, but that seems too much for a standard SW episode.

Any advice or anecdotes would be helpful in my determining how much to put into my adventures/episodes.

[Neo-Paladin]

I guess there are as many correct answers to this question as there are good games.

For a while I played an episodic game that ran a number of years. Each session was an episode with continuity between each arc. I ran a game like that too, but I later realized it didn’t fit my preferred style.

My favorite game that I ran had nine sessions I think. I plotted out the whole arc of events, then I broke it up into what I thought was reasonable based on timing and where made good dramatic breaking points. Of course adjustments are made to fit with the player’s effect on pace but that is the nature of the beast.
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[Sundiver]

I'm thinking of something similar, lasting about 12 sessions. It will involve Dolomar during Thrawn's campaign, but will actually have little to do with him. Rather, the PCs will be up against a Grand Moff who has plans to take the system into his burgeoning monarchy- or something like that.

[Tahlorn]

From my group, there are three types of missions (for all our systems), or episodes as many put; short, medium, and long. Hope I haven't lost you yet Our sessions last between 4 and 7 hours depending on when we start and how much ramen and coffee is available.

Short: Intro missions, be it independent to get back into the system after having not played in some time or getting a new player used to the system, or something to start a plot stirring for a later larger episode. These last 1-3 sessions.

Medium: Small episodes that are more than the "you go here and do this" variety, where there is a lot of initiative to be taken by players, be it they have to figure out what thier role is in all of this or make a role for themselves.Heavier on RP than 'Short', more of a plot, but still not heavy. No large changes for the realm come about from it, but will affect the players a good amount. 3-5 sessions.

Large: Episodes, campaigns. As you would expect, a large mission. Usually set up with a few 'Short' ones so things start to tie together. High risk, high option (no one-way to complete). Affects both player and realm alike. 7-12 sessions usually, have known to go longer or shorter dpending upon PCs and GM abilities.

[Sundiver]

Mmm, ramen.

Tahlorn, do you hand out CPs during the adventures or wait until the end, as suggested by the book. And if you do award during, how do you judge the allotments? I was thinking of doing fractions of the max total, but that seems too little.

[Robert]

We usually play for 6 to 8 hours. I don´t stop directing the session when the adventure/episode is down. I try to prepare in advance what could happen in the next session. The timing came thorugh experience, and as director, you also have the opportunity to lenghten/shorten the session by deciding whether you roleplay an event or let it pass with some dice rolls. I ty to give a sesion a good mix of both.

I hand out CP at the end of every session, as i don´t think in adventures. Every adventure played, even bought ones, leave some plot hook. The players learn about the world during the first loose adventures and either the director or themselves go back to some old plot lines. Although such a style of play takes much more preparing or improvised directin, the players usually forgive minor mistakes due to a living campaign.

In my club, we sometimes play one-shot adventures, lasting only one session, and being toatlly improvised around a main theme, mostly zombie attack (modern) or dungeon hack (fantasy). As you know your character has no "future" you are able to have much more fun with him and threaten his life/limbs/wealth for some heroic action. Such Games go for about 6 to 8 hours, just like campaign sessions.

A one-shot session should have a clear target to achieve - usually given by client, sometimes through the setting (escape alive). The plot sould not be too thick, maybe two to three episodes. I think of them as keys they have to get to pass a hindrance and go to the next level. The actions that can be taken should also be limited. Easy ways to achieve this are time limit, clients bids or having no money. Experience points are usually not given during one-shots, unless it happens the players decide to play on for the whole night.
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"We don't stop playing because we grow old...we grow old because we stop playing." G.B. Shaw

[Tahlorn]

Sundiver,

It depends on the length of the adventure and how things are going about. A 'short' gets the CP at the very end, a "Medium" gets the majority at the end but get some in the middle, to show that they have donewhat they have done, so the GM won't forget how well each player did, and so you can stack over the adventure. 'Long" will get experience intermitently usually as it is easier that way, though we have gotten large lump sums of XP after huge adventures. The only problem with the 'lump sum' is the fact that we can not stack CP (up a skill multiple times), even if we used it a whole lot during the adventure.

As for how many CP to give out, I mainly follow the rules in the book as for giving more or less, but we usually start with a base of 6 CP and adjust from there due to actions, RP, and general play (both good and bad). In a session that someone takes initiative and does what thier character would do while still worknig for the goal will get usually 8-9 CP for a longer session. For a quick and short one, the same quality will gain 6-7.

The fraction thing, though as it may sound like a good idea, makes it a bit more difficult to judge each player individually. I keep a little tally sheet with each character name on it with the base CP below it, and make little notes throughout the mission, be it adding or subtracting CP. Strong RP moment or heroic feat? I give a '+' with a little note so I know the scale. Went against character or used out of game knowledge (big no-no in our group, will cause GM to grudge the character)? I give a '-' with a little note.

~Tahlorn

[Sundiver]

Both Robert and Tahlorn seem to direct their games in a way similar to what I wish to do. But Robert, how many CPs do you hand out on a regular session?

And Tahlorn, the session record sheet is a good idea- one that can be used easily and be immensely helpful in deciding CP allotment.

[Boomer]

What I prefer is 4-6 hour sessions, and to have as many as needed to complete the overall story you want the players to experience.

Do what fits your campaign needs.
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[Robert]

I give ~ 4 CP base per session and from there i evaluate.

Adding are

heroism
initiative
cleverness
roleplaying
fun

Subtracting are

egoism
laziness
dumbness
lawyering
fun spoiling

I end up giving away 2 to 8 points individually assigned to each player.
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"We don't stop playing because we grow old...we grow old because we stop playing." G.B. Shaw