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A reasonable time for a PFS scenario to wrap up is under 6 hours. Usually closer to the four to four and half hour mark.
If I remember right, Season 0-2 were written to run in 4 hours time slots -- that included paper work, Season 3 started the trend to write them to run in a 5 hour time slot. Unfortunately for season 3+ scenarios many con coordinators still schedule them for 4 hours, which means that the GM has to make the tough choice of cutting the optional encounter or breaking into roleplay to cut that short to keep to the timeframes alloted.
If it's a home game, let it run all night lol.. that's the joy of a flexible homegame.
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I often use discussions such as these - the twin conundrums of (i) finishing scenarios on time at conventions and (ii) what will be sacrificed, combat or roleplaying? - to illustrate why building very effective characters is actually better for roleplayers than the puzzling tradition of "I'm a roleplayer, so therefore I make weak characters":
If you build characters which can quickly steamroll the combat encounters, you'll actually have more time for roleplaying.
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I often use discussions such as these - the twin conundrums of (i) finishing scenarios on time at conventions and (ii) what will be sacrificed, combat or roleplaying? - to illustrate why building very effective characters is actually better for roleplayers than the puzzling tradition of "I'm a roleplayer, so therefore I make weak characters":
If you build characters which can quickly steamroll the combat encounters, you'll actually have more time for roleplaying.
Ironic no?
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"I'm a roleplayer, so therefore I make weak characters"I'm not a roleplayer AND I make weak characters. What do you make of that? ;-)
Kyle Baird: Now with twice the fail! :)
Edit (to keep it on-topic): I schedule my gamedays with 4.5 hour slots, and a 30 minute break. I try to schedule my convention slots the same way. I think this is plenty generous, as I come from a background of 4-hour time slots to play.
As to someone walking out, I agree that the rules are perfectly clear how to handle it from a Chronicle perspective. Adjusting the tiering is somewhat murky. I think it comes down to a judgement call on the part of the GM: if losing the PC that walked out (for any reason) alters the balance of the party to the point where the scenario is not fun anymore, then I think you're within your rights to adjust accordingly, but make sure you're not giving rewards you shouldn't be as a result.
This gets really hairy at a 3-player table as it's no longer legal after one player walks away. In that case, I'd just call the game there and hand out Chronicles to everyone. At a 4-player table, I'd break out a pre-gen and roll on.
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It's one of the trickiest things for a GM to know when to step in and cut short things that players are having fun with. A couple of weeks ago we were playing Red Harvest (no spoilers) and the GM literally sat back, didn't say a word, and let us discuss what to do for a solid hour. If you've played it you know why. But we had a six hour block to work with.
Good prep work and predrawn maps (or flip mats) can provide a big time savings. I once had a convention slot crammed into a *three* hour slot. Last slot, hotel staff came in and said "we're clearing the room in half an hour" a full 2 hours before we expected and had to not only skip the optional but handwave one other fight. (Don't do this without extremely good reason. One player who had a high AC Crane Wing monk and the 3 baddies could only hit him on a natural 20 - then he could deflect one of them a round. He didn't do much damage, it had already gone 4 rounds, and it probably would have been at least an hour long fight. "OK," I said, "everyone else backs out and he clears the room eventually. Take an insignificant amount of damage, paladin heals, and let's move on.")
Back on topic, I think this thread could have ended with Kyle's first post, that's what to do.
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... This gets really hairy at a 3-player table as it's no longer legal after one player walks away. In that case, I'd just call the game there and hand out Chronicles to everyone. At a 4-player table, I'd break out a pre-gen and roll on.
If the 3rd player leaves before filling out the tracking sheet and before being given a chronicle sheet, yes.
But what if the 3rd player's character dies (permanently) in the first combat? The group is still down to 3 PCs (2 players and a pregen). This results in the same group as if the 3rd player had walked.
PS - I'd certainly consider letting the 3rd player use a pregen to finish the game if they weren't walking.
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... This gets really hairy at a 3-player table as it's no longer legal after one player walks away. In that case, I'd just call the game there and hand out Chronicles to everyone. At a 4-player table, I'd break out a pre-gen and roll on.If the 3rd player leaves before filling out the tracking sheet and before being given a chronicle sheet, yes.
But what if the 3rd player's character dies (permanently) in the first combat? The group is still down to 3 PCs (2 players and a pregen). This results in the same group as if the 3rd player had walked.
PS - I'd certainly consider letting the 3rd player use a pregen to finish the game if they weren't walking.
Had somethign close to this the other week running Black Waters. Four players, including a newbie. First combat. Newbie gets too close with a non-frontliner tot he enemy. Crit-squished.
What would you do?
Me, I decided that the player had a twin, who I allowed to come in a few rounds later, and finished playing the scenario with.
Then again, a few things in my mind on this:
New player to PFS
First encounter of the scenario
End result:
To promote PFS, and keep the new player, I broke the rules. I even gave him the chronicle for the twin, with full money, XP, PP, etc.
Overall, I think that means that I will still have him as a player next time we meet.