World building is a necessary time investment for DMs, so that's just part of gaming.

What I was really getting at; is that it seems that many RPG fans spend a lot more time thinking, reading, and talking about RPGs, than actually playing the games.  It's akin to being obsessed with fishing, but not spending much time with a hook in the water.

This year, yes.  Work has reduced my opportunity to play tremendously.

Ordinarily, no.  I like reading role playing game books and forums, but prefer to Referee games.

I'm not sure, see, it's hard to separate the "read and discuss" internet time from the "move the play by post game along" internet time.

Even back when I first started, before I had any inclination that an internet existed (which started before D&D was published...) I probably spent as much time reading magazines and modules at home as playing games face to face.

Model Railroaders call this kind of thing "armchair model railroading"... I'm a real good armchair model railroader...

I GM - I'm always reading.

I'm a reader - I'm always reading.

I can't avoid it.

As a followup this question, how many games do you play in weekly?  Figure if you play in 1 campaign but it meets 3 days a week, that is 3 games a week.  Just with my work and fatherhood schedule, i'm lucky to get free time every other weekend at best.  And then, trying to coordinate that weekend with the other guys in the group?  Madness.

Quote from: Imaginos;1063696As a followup this question, how many games do you play in weekly?  Figure if you play in 1 campaign but it meets 3 days a week, that is 3 games a week.  Just with my work and fatherhood schedule, i'm lucky to get free time every other weekend at best.  And then, trying to coordinate that weekend with the other guys in the group?  Madness.

Weekly. Minimum of 8hrs.

I *easily* read more than that.

I have a group that meets every Friday, but lately, outside of a once-a-month 5e game when everyone can make it to the table, most Fridays have boiled down to just me and two others who mostly do board-games, though I'm trying to convert that into something like Gloomhaven so I can get some pseudo-rpg stuff going on. I have a different group that does every-other Saturday night, and that's a fairly consistent low-fantasy hack of 3.5 right now. But weekdays I spend a lot of time between stuff at work browsing sites like this or going over other gaming stuff, so I probably net more time reading than actually gaming

Yeah, at this point I have a bi-weekly game and a irregular boardgame/RPG weekly game night - but that's definitely less that the time spent in discussion here.

Sadly yes, I seem to live in a relative gaming desert so my gaming is measured in sessions per year. We have a game store in town, but it seems to be entirely focused on trading card games and has so far proven to be void of any tabletop gamers. I'd be thrilled if I found a regular group that played once a month.

Currently designing and not playing. I took a break, which is helping me recharge my creative juices.

Once I form a group, I will expect to play weekly. I'm looking for like-minded enthusiasts this time around.

Quote from: Imaginos;1063696As a followup this question, how many games do you play in weekly?  Figure if you play in 1 campaign but it meets 3 days a week, that is 3 games a week.  Just with my work and fatherhood schedule, i'm lucky to get free time every other weekend at best.  And then, trying to coordinate that weekend with the other guys in the group?  Madness.

I have a weekly online Saturday morning game and typically run one tabletop game a week, so two games. This week coming up Monday-Sunday I'm due to run 4 games & play 1, but that's unusual - this current week I have just the online game. All 5e D&D.

I'm actually in a relative burnout phase right now (& the long dark of winter contributes to low mood), but my Stonehell Dungeon campaign is really easy to keep going on momentum.

How do people sleep, or even function, without reading?

I read history, novels, and rpgs almost constantly.

RPGs are games for readers.

Quote from: Imaginos;1063696As a followup this question, how many games do you play in weekly?  Figure if you play in 1 campaign but it meets 3 days a week, that is 3 games a week.  Just with my work and fatherhood schedule, i'm lucky to get free time every other weekend at best.  And then, trying to coordinate that weekend with the other guys in the group?  Madness.

Roll20/Hangouts scheduled once a week (but miss sessions due to missing players) alternating weeks between me GMing RuneQuest and playing The Fantasy Trip
I play in 4 play by post campaigns
I run 4 play by post campaigns

Quote from: Razor 007;1063594I am beginning to wonder if that is "Strange"?

Playing/reading RPGs is about the same. 50/50.

I play only one RPG though. But read about all the other RPGs I come across.

Quote from: Razor 007;1063594I am beginning to wonder if that is "Strange"?

For example: I spend just as much time actually playing billiards; as I do reading, watching videos, etc.  And I'd rather actually play, too.  Actual play IS the goal.

At the moment I spend way more time designing and implementing 5E as a CRPG than running or playing it, and I count online discussion of 5E adventures/monsters and especially "builds"/spells as part of that design time. It simply isn't a very interesting TTRPG and I'm not very motivated to play it (let alone run it) but it has a lot to recommend it as an XCOM-style CRPG, and discussing 5E is a way of motivating myself to work on getting the game into a playable state so I can play it.

If life were less busy I'd make more time to play some games like DramaSystem or Shadowrun or Microscrope/Unity or AD&D 2nd edition, which ARE good TTRPGs and tend to be thought-provoking and at least a little life-changing. (Hmmmm, maybe I should look for a good Seattle-area once- or twice-a-month RPG Meetup group.)

Quote from: Razor 007;1063677World building is a necessary time investment for DMs, so that's just part of gaming.

What I was really getting at; is that it seems that many RPG fans spend a lot more time thinking, reading, and talking about RPGs, than actually playing the games.  It's akin to being obsessed with fishing, but not spending much time with a hook in the water.

It's not that weird for DMs, since a big part of DMing is designing adventures, which entails pre-planning. It's not like playing chess where you just show up with a chessboard and start playing--and yet even chess players spend time outside the game studying their openings and reading about classic games.

Maybe some DMs can plan an adventure on the 20-minute drive home on game day, but I find that successful DMing requires prep work. Giving players a good 4-6 hour experience typically requires, I dunno, 4-8 hours of thinking/writing beforehand. Though to be fair, it requires very little Internet browsing, and only a few Internet lookups of material previously read.