TheRPGSite

Context of the poll
I'm planning to publish a campaign, but selling it thru a monthly subscription via a website. Now, I intend to sell it as the equivalent of a "classical prewritten scenario" once a month.

But, I do have a problem. Based on my prevision, in the initial, starting phase of the project, there will be around 60 to 80 hours of play already written. Which, by the way, seems a good amount of content to start, in my opinion. But how long will I last before the pressure takes over ? Because, once it is released, if I don't produce enough material, people will unsubscrire from the website.

Speaking for myself
It seems I'm getting older ... With the work, a wife and child, I use to play around once a month. More frequent than that, it is difficult more me (and for my players too).
So, I've been playtesting this campaign with my group and we have done around 15 sessions (4/5 hours a session). My guess is that it will take around 20 sessions to finish the part already written.
If I was one of my customer, this would leave me more than a year and a half to continue the writing of the material, which seems fine with me.
But, if we were playing once a week, my initial material would only last six months ...

Last comments
- Since I'm selling my product thru a monthly subscription, I guess my customers will tend to be "older". Do I seem right on this assumption ?
- Based on that, I believe those customers will tend to play around once a month, which also explain the price I'm asking for ... Well, I believe I'll have a better idea with this thread ...
- I'm taking into account that some groups might be playing on a more frequent basic, but change games/campaigns from week to week ...
- This site seems a good place to start a poll

Our sessions are weekly.  I have two weekly games and somehow even with wives and children the guys can still make it.

Weekly.

If it's not at least weekly, it might as well be a one shot.  Everyone will lose interest in the interrim and either move on or want to play something else when game time comes around.

I run my campaign every other week at maybe 3 to 5 hours a stretch.

I play 3-5 hour sessions weekly.  We're all in college, some of us in grad school, some of us are married, and so on.  We play once a week.

Are you sure the initial adventures are 60-80 hours of gameplay?  I find that most modules go very quickly with my group.  What's the quickest one of your mods can be run?

I have two weekly sessions and three sessions that are every other week.

RPGPundit

I run a biweekly (that is every two weeks) face to face game. (Average actually, sometimes we do it every week for a month then take a break due to college conflicts of one friend).

I also run an online game roughly every week of H&S, MSH, I was playtesting my card driven mecha game but do to one player's new job that is on hiatus. I'm about to start a Uresia game (weekly)

Weekly, or once every two weeks.

I'm "older" (33) and we play weekly, usually about 6 to 10 hours a night.

I try to maintain campaigns weekly.

And I suspect a large majority of gamers play this setup. I'd say from the people I know, at least 75% favor a weekly session.

Well I'm a college student but the guys I game regularly with (one a week) are all 29-35 all are married, and one has kids. They all play in a second game a week, and a couple are also in a third biweekly game that I'm playing in too.

Most of the gamers I know are in two to three games a week. Either as a player or GM.

Your best bet is to work out several sessions ahead of time, and catchup on the slack as you parcel out old adventures.

Weekly (thursdays!). I also take part in an irregular "sister" campaign across town on a "once every two or three weeks" basis, and the every-once-in-a-while RPGA game just to keep my LG and XE characters maintained in between convention games.

Oh yah, age. 38, married with kids. The guys in the other campaigns range from much younger to contemporary (30s). Most are 20-sumthin students. My 8 year old son has taken part in the sister campaign twice and my home game once (as a fill-in) so I guess he was the youngest.

GURPS every Friday Night for the last 18yrs. Otherwise every other week.

Cheers

QM

It varies. Sometimes we'll play every week, usually we play every other week, and sometimes we'll have month-long breaks where no one can show for one reason or another.

Biweekly for me.  My group is acquaintances for gaming, not friends, and most of them insist that only Friday night will work for them.  On top of it, one other guy also wants to run a game, so we have to trade off every other week (though many in the group, like myself, only play in one of the two games).

1.5 sessions per week.

First, thanks for your answer, this really helps me ...
Well, for one thing, you do play more often than I do !!! I do realise one thing : I know some people who also play once a month, but there are less "hardcore" gamers (if you allow me the use of the term), and, for one thing, they do not come to rpgs forum. Well, maybe they are more fitting the profile I'm looking for, but since I'm a web based project, it won't be easy to reach them, at least at first. So, I need to keep them in mind, but I should be more concern about people like you ...

The estimated time of play

QuoteAre you sure the initial adventures are 60-80 hours of gameplay? I find that most modules go very quickly with my group. What's the quickest one of your mods can be run?

Now, that's a tricky question. There is no modules in what I do. For the purpose of this thread, I don't wish to discuss any design issue, but for more info, see this thread (http://www.therpgsite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3747).

Okay, there is no module, because my campaign is no chapters based, but calendar based. In a typical module, I think it is quite easy to approximate the time it will take, since the PCs usually follow a predefined path. Which is not the case of my campaign. So far, I'm almost done writing the first 6 months of this one year campaign. With my own group, we are 4 months and a half into the plots. In some sessions, we did 3 days, in others 16. So, the "amount" of time you consumed in a given session greatly varies from session to session. It mostly depens on what the PCs do. But ...

I'm writing from a "high level" perspective, which allows a lot flexibility and I don't tell the DM how to play it. Also, what I provide is "the big picture", the overall plots, the highest stakes for the given region and time. All the details are left for the DM. As the time of session mostly depends of those details ...
Given that, the time is very difficult to estimate. For instance, it is very easy to "add" (or "build upon") some instances of "smaller" scenarios into the given campaign. For example, with my group, the 16 days session could have been slower : I knew they would go thru a forest, so I could have had easily a short story (of mine, not given for the campaign) about a werewolf tribe living into this forest. Another example : in the teaser (http://www.cycles-rpg.com/teaser/AvalancheTeaser_EN.pdf), a DM might want to add a dungeon in the crest of the world. Doing this dungeon might take, let's say 2 weeks of a calendar, but, let's say, three sessions to complete.
So, those elements are essential to approximate the time ... elements upon which I don't have any control.

So, I guess it could take between 20 and 120 hours to do the first six months. That's a big range, I know !!!!

Changing a little bit the poll
If you're still eager to help me, here's some questions :
- let's say you play on a weekly basis, given the initial content of my product, you estimate the time to do it at, let's say, 80 hours. But, I guess most DMs have some "little" adventures they might want to throw in, this would double the time to take, knowing that the design of the campaign explicitly allows that. Would you be interested in that kind of stuff ? Or would you be refrain because of the initial amount of content ?
- Would you be eager to play this particular campaign on the basis of a "two weeks" session, knowing the initial amount of content ? Or would it refrain you from the start ?
- Should I conclude that I don't have enough initial material ?