Figurine of the Ivory Champion
As far as I understand a PFS scenario usually takes around 4 hours to be completed but I wonder how much time (average) in hours an AP modulne (adventure) usually take?
My group usually crunches through a combat oriented AP module in about 4 five hour sessions. About an hour of that is spent on character upkeep usually, and another hour in and out of character banter. So 12 hours of productive time to get through one.
This time can vary greatly if there is more RP elements, as my party tends to not be the strongest role-players, and only one person ever bothers to take face skills. The means they often have to come with alternative ways to overcome challenges. This can add or subtract time from the module.
I would say that 10-12 hours is a good estimate, combat heavy modules can bog things down quite a bit depending on how quickly your party can wrap up combats. Social oriented modules tend to be shorter if you party takes my group's approach towards overcoming social challenges (talking is a shortcut, if its not roll initiative). But if your party is more thespian oriented the more social modules can have nearly infinite RP time taken up. Which is fine tbh, some people like to take things slow and enjoy the scenery, other like to complete and move on.
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I'm with notabot, assuming similar players. My non-role-playing groups can usually get through a module in 10-14 hours of actual play.
That being said, if they do focus a lot on character development, plot exposition, etc., it can take a *lot* longer. A group I used to DM took 18 months of weekly 8 hour sessions to get through one AP.
That was long! LOL
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We've played 25 sessions of Jade Regent -- about 125 hours of actual play -- and we've completed two sessions of JR3.
We averaged almost exactly six months each for JR1 and JR2, playing (almost) every two weeks (five-hour sessions).
That said, mine is not a particularly focused group (although I tend to keep things from getting too out of hand, and I'm organized in my prep), is a fairly RP-heavy group, and I enjoy occasionally going off-book if I think I can improve the AP's story with additional elements.
I think with a focused group and a GM who stays on-book, the time spent could easily be halved (say to about 25 hours per AP). I will say that I have never played in or GMed a group that could match the 12 to 14 hours per AP folks mention above. That boggles my mind.
Its per module, no per AP. 6x12 = 70 hours in game play, considering it took 6 months to get through LoF, 3hours X 4sessions a month X 6 months = 72 hours.
That being said when I played in Skull and Shackles, module 1 took exactly one 5 hours session, module 2 took two 4 hour sessions, module 3 took forever (at least 8 session) and we didn't even get done with it before the group broke up.
The group I GM for is a generally adept group of Murder Hobos and crushed Tomb of the Iron Medusa with their post LoF characters in two 4 hour sessions. They then proceeded to murder Moonscar in about the same amount of time. If it weren't for player fatigue (they had been playing the same characters for 16 levels with only 1 perma death) they probably would have done the same with the Witchwar. I probably will run their Shattered Star characters through that one, but thats going to be awhile beacuse they are only on module 2 (though they are already farther than I expected for only 1 session of module 2, 1/4 the way through even though I used the web enhancements, probably will be done with it in 2 sessions).
This really depends on play style and how much extra material you throw in. My Rise of the Runelords group has played 64 3-hour sessions so far, and we just finished Hook Mountain Massacre last session. Session 1 was in May 2011.