Venture-Lieutenant, Netherlands—Leiden
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Modules come in about three flavors:
- Game Day modules (the We Be Goblins series, Master of the Fallen Fortress, Risen From The Sands, Dawn of the Scarlet Sun). Those are written for a single slot.
- Emerald Spire and Thornkeep dungeon levels. I believe those are single-slot as well. Double at most.
- "Proper" modules tend to be 3+ slots long. You might be able to force some of them into 1-2 slots but you'll be rushing the entire way and it's really not going to make for a better adventure.
Venture-Captain, Netherlands
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You *could* fit one of the 1-2 modules, like crypt of the everflame or the godsmouth heresy in a double slot, but only if you have experienced players. They are both dungeon crawls, so as long as you can manage a good attention span, its doable. But fun would be otherwise.
I cant realistically see any other module fit, except the game day modules.
Venture-Agent, Minnesota
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I can usually do most modules in a double slot, with time for focused RP. As a GM though, you have to know the story and keep things moving. I have had good luck with double slots for both Murders Mark and Mask of the Living God. I also managed to do Doom Comes to Dustpawn in one double length slot with great opportunities for RP, but I had experienced players and I kept them moving.
With a bunch of first timers at a convention, anything can slow down though.
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We've found each part of Gallows of Madness (there are 3) to fit within a single slot, and there's some really nice stuff on the chronicles!
I have been playing those in Play by Post, and loving them. I have been wondering whether I could try running them in a single slot in Dreamers, because they do seem quick.
They are among my favorite Evergreens to date.
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Venture-Lieutenant, Netherlands—Leiden
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3-4 players is the recipe for extremely focused play. In the long run I think 3 is just a bit too focused; sometimes you want the discussion and complications that five people bring. But for getting a module done on time four is good.
Just make sure to check recommended levels. If it's a module where people are expected to level up before the final boss, try to steer people to not come with their minimum-level PCs...
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- Emerald Spire and Thornkeep dungeon levels. I believe those are single-slot as well. Double at most.
Having GMed all of these (some multiple times) I will say that you can do any of the Thornkeep moduels except Sanctum of a Lost Age in a single slot. (I did do that one once in a little over 5 hours but I had very experienced players and did some ruthless cutting of material).
Emerald Spire - you can do all of levels one through nine (maybe ten) in a single slot each EXCEPT level 5. Environmental factors make that one very long. From level 11 to 16 you could squeeze 12, 13, and 15 into one slot each but you are going to have to skip some of the best roleplaying opportunities in the Spire, which in turn means the players won't really get the full picture of why the Spire is what it is.
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- Emerald Spire and Thornkeep dungeon levels. I believe those are single-slot as well. Double at most.Having GMed all of these (some multiple times) I will say that you can do any of the Thornkeep moduels except Sanctum of a Lost Age in a single slot. (I did do that one once in a little over 5 hours but I had very experienced players and did some ruthless cutting of material).
Emerald Spire - you can do all of levels one through nine (maybe ten) in a single slot each EXCEPT level 5. Environmental factors make that one very long. From level 11 to 16 you could squeeze 12, 13, and 15 into one slot each but you are going to have to skip some of the best roleplaying opportunities in the Spire, which in turn means the players won't really get the full picture of why the Spire is what it is.
I have done both Spire floors 13 and 15 in a 4-5 hour slot. We had 4 players and were mostly focused with a GM that was experienced and knew the story for all of the Spire. I do not think we missed out on any RP, in fact the majority of the time was spent doing the RP.
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RPG Superstar 2015 Top 4, RPG Superstar 2014 Top 16
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"Proper" modules tend to be 3+ slots long. You might be able to force some of them into 1-2 slots but you'll be rushing the entire way and it's really not going to make for a better adventure.
One exception to that I've found is Feast of Ravenmoor. I've run and played this module in a double PFS slot (8 hours), and it's fit really neatly into the time on both occassions. The first half is mostly RP, so time it to around 4 hours, and the second half is mostly combat, which will fill right around 4 hours with reasonably experienced players. Each time we had a party of 4 PCs.
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Venture-Lieutenant, Netherlands—Leiden
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I think we did about 2x5 hours for Feast of Ravenmoor and weren't rushed, but we did have five or six players. Four players tends to play faster, even though it makes fighters harder. (Which, with experienced players, is good; the module was probably written for four players to begin with.)
But on a Con I'm not sure if you can assume experienced players. I wonder if advertising that it's a two-slot commitment attracts "more serious" people?
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Venture-Agent, Netherlands—Utrecht
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I GMed Feast of Ravenmoor for Lau. I'd agree with him. Moreover, Feast isn't really a difficult module. There are very few fights and even when I pooled several fights into one for the final encounter, it didn't seem that difficult. It probably helped that everyone was a level higher than the module assumed, but even then it isn't that difficult, as it's mostly 1 enemy versus an entire party. I botched some things during the adventure, but it's probably my favourite module I've ran/played.
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I had a table of 6 for Emerald Spire and none of the floors took more than a slot, though there was a pretty significant departure from the plot rails in floor 5 (they successfully bypassed multiple encounters and approached it at APL 5 instead of APL 4). My players were generally experienced and did have a rough time of some floors (lololol floor 11), but it was never anything that impacted the run time.
Each section of Wardens of the Reborn Forge took a full slot with 5 players, totaling 4 slots worth of content (3 if you skip the "unsanctioned except for Seeker Arc" section that has ALL OF THE STORY AND FLAVOR). Hilary mentioned Doom Comes to Dustpawn, which I think bordered on a 3rd slot in a single day just about when I played under her GMing skillz (that was an exhausting day!) and 5 or 6 players, all of which had some sort of companion.
I've played Daughters of Fury in 2 slots, though we had a major derailment of that plot train. I'm also in a group for Feast of Dust that has done 2 slots of time and has not finished part 2 of the sanctioned section.
Generally speaking, if it's a standalone module, I would expect 2 slots at lower levels (1-7, roughly) and 3 slots at any higher level.