I was just wondering what is a good length for a gaming session to last?
Most of our sessions last 6 -7 hours. That's because we play an adventure from beginning to end. I hate breaking up an adventure into different sessions because most of the time there is three to four months in between sessions and the PCs tend to forget what happened last time.
I enjoy 4-5 hour sessions the most, and I too prefer "episodic" style where an episode goes from beginning to end in a single night. My campaign includes several players that can only make occasional sessions, and keeping the stories distinct is a boon.
But I've enjoyed 1-hour sessions and 2-hour sessions and 7-hour sessions and 10-hour sessions and a couple of 72-hour marathons ...
I usually shoot from 3-5 hours. It's standard to break an adventure into two parts for me: the plot/character bits & build-up, the the big action sequence bit the next go.
During the week we have a three-hour session at our gaming club, then on some weekends we sometimes play from about 7 PM to 10 AM the next morning, then I throw everyone out the house 'cause I'm tired/drunk/people falling about.
I'm fortunate enough at the moment to have two groups on the go (although one group is resting for a few weeks as one of the players is working odd shifts ). Both of these groups meet once a week, usually for two to three hours on a weekday evening. We like Mondays, as it gives everyone something to look forward to when they trudge in to work Monday morning.The second group usually meets Wednesday night, again for two to three hours. Both groups are playing Star Trek campaigns, one TOS and one TNG.
We also sometimes meet at weekends if we want to run a miniatures game or something like that which will take up a bit more time. We've just got our hands on some Red Alert starters and boosters, so no doubt we'll be giving that a go as soon as possible.