Is that time length a restriction set by the school? If so I would find another site. 90 minutes is enough time to BS with friends and just get started. I would personally have second thoughts about gaming for anything under 4 hours on a regular basis, as I prefer about 6.
Depends on what you're trying to do. If you stay disciplined and cut down on the table talk, you can get some work done in 90-ish minutes. Doing PFS-style modules might be a bit easier to fit within your schedule because those usually take about 3-4 hours total (play time) and could probably be (relatively easily) broken down into a couple of parts.
It might be difficult to find easy stopping points in longer running APs and even homebrew (unless the GM plans things quite well). Plus, the higher you get in level the more difficulty you'll have. You can have a single major battle last 60-90 minutes (and longer) when you get up in level.
If weekend meetings are an option from time to time, you might need to schedule accordingly if the GM predicts you'll be running into some longer encounters when they crop up.
My group meets up for 6 hours 2x/month. Most of the time is spent gaming with about the first 20-30 minutes doing some set-up stuff and BSing. I always feel between 4-6 hours to game is ideal. It gives time to BS and time to actually get some stuff accomplished in the game you are playing in.
My group meets up for 6 hours 2x/month. Most of the time is spent gaming with about the first 20-30 minutes doing some set-up stuff and BSing. I always feel between 4-6 hours to game is ideal. It gives time to BS and time to actually get some stuff accomplished in the game you are playing in.
My group does pretty much the exact same. We start at 7 pm and usually go till 11 or midnight, and do so once every other week.
Stupid adulthood and schedules.
6 hours about right here as well. usually a 4-10 where sometimes folks will stay late to bs afterwards...
@ OP: you're in school; grade school or HS perhaps? If so I can say w/experience yes; you'll still need to build in BS time. Even if you've seen each other at every class and even chatted about the game, there'll still be a transition between everyone arriving and the actual playing of the game.
I'd say you'd basically get about an hour to an hour 20 out of your game time every week. Based loosely on the time it takes MY group to play, this means you might be able to set up, say, 3 - 4 encounters or perhaps 1-2 social/roleplay scenes.
Another way to think about it is board gaming. You'd get, say, one round of a fast game like Dungeon! out of that time. If you play that level of game with little roleplaying, this time-frame works fine. If you want immersion, you'll need more.
I agree with the other posters so far: 3-6 hours of dedicated time is ideal for this hobby. At 3 hours you can at least get started on an adventure and perhaps even achieve your primary objective, while at the other extreme 6 hours should be enough time to begin, end and epilogue an adventure to resolve it entirely.
I would also strongly encourage, in time crunches like yours, that you utilize email, phones or other means of communication outside game time to resolve things like character downtime, resupplying, and even the setup to the next adventure. That way when you hit the table you're essentially right at the meat of the story.
I ran a game at school when I was about your age, and it was during one of the classes, so we had about 40 minute sessions once a week. It worked out all right, although it was mostly hacknslash and the game was a lot simpler back then.
I'd second the advice to do as much as you can over email, in prep for the actual session. Ideally, the DM would send an email to remind everyone what was going on, and let everyone know what to expect. If there's going to be rp involved, the players should have some idea of who they're going to be talking to and why. Set up a mailing list on yahoo or google or something, and the players can plan there, too. (Sometimes our groups have to spend half an hour just trying to figure out what we're supposed to be doing to advance the story -- with limited time, an out-of-character hint via email would probably lead to more fun than it ruined, in my opinion.)
Unless you're running for less than three people, resist the urge to allow more than one PC per person.
we usually go for 6 hours a go with a fairly large party ( 8) so it takes that long to accomplish much. but several are new parents of a baby who doesnt sleep for long, others are chefs or other long shift workers so sleep deprivation effects make us a little punch drunk by the last hour or so.
great adventures with a fun bunch but some beg off early and by midnight there is half the party flipping through second and third characters on behalf of those who start work in 5 hours etc...
we are only able to gather once every three weeks at best so that is how we roll.
at school we have tidy little 90 minute encounters and then i just email the story version out to keep the momentum going, but that is once a week. only four players for that one and they need lots of new person figuring it out time.
Our "weekly" session meets for four hours, our "monthly" session tries to manage eight hour sessions.
I like the four hour sessions, eight hours is a long time for old family guys like me.