Game Speed + a test

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Hey folks :slight_smile:
I would like to ask you about your game experiences with OSR games.

How “fast” are they?
I mean, how long do your sessions last? And how much stuff, how much progress, how “full” are they usually?
Do you always manage to cram a whole adventure/delve in a single session?
My question stems from this post…

I wrote a post-mortem of a recent playtest of #TPK, the gmLess #grognardpunk game of procedural adventuring.
The post starts with some comparative research I made about more traditional OSR games and considers the relative perception of play-speed, ending with a brief narrative summary of TPK test session.
Enjoy :slight_smile:

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I’d like to think I play and run my OSR games relatively fast, but sure this can vary from player to player, gm to gm.

I like my sessions to run for 3h, pushing into the 4 or 5h mark I start to get run down.

Last session I ran:

  • opened with party fleeing from a temple were they had unleashed something terrible
  • catching their breath and some discussion about course of action (back to temple, dangerous unban location, safe rural location, distant dungeon 1, more distant dungeon 2)
  • safe urban location, 2 day hex crawl, 1 avoided encounter
  • at rural location wait 5d for market festival
  • each player offered chance to do something during festival day (cleric performed wedding, dwarf shopped for helm & shield, thieves kept a watchful eye for enemies)
  • each player offered chance to carouse in evening (cleric kept low profile, dwarf had a spiritual blessing, thief 1 wine-men-and-song, theif 2 imprisoned in a mental prison by cranky warlock, cursing her in a most terrible way)
  • more discussion on next steps
  • hex crawl 2 days to distant dungeon, encounter / fight along the way
  • arrive at the new dungeon location
    …3h fin

The trap I am always trying to avoid is the fictional setup about the dungeon. In our game has overland travel, so there is some procedure from going from point a to point b, which is pretty snappy. Added benefit in this game is the players currently have 5 locations now from which to adventure in.

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Just posting to add, as an interesting reference, this Shadowdark actual play where, in about 1h of play, the group manages to (partly) explore 3 “dungeon” areas :slight_smile: