There’s no definitive rule for how long a day should be. A lot of Storytellers, myself included, like to run days for a number of minutes two less than the number of alive players. An 8 player game has a starting day of about 6 minutes, for example. Nominations take extra time depending on how many players nominate, but if you find people are getting off-topic, you can start voting earlier.
I definitely run my days as 5 minute days and then as things happen and people die I make them shorter.
That is just the running around talking. I usually open nominations for about 2 minutes.
Seems to work out fine and I run between 12-20 players. Yes it's a little bit of a scramble but that helps keep things interesting.
I have always found Alive Player Count -2 works for most situations. I have 100% been in games where the days are so long Good just solves the game because they can talk to everyone and piece it together.
Part of the day phase is choosing who to talk with and for how long. It is a great Evil strategy to try to tie people up so they can't get all the information out. A Fortune Teller pings not spreading through the town now makes the FT look sus when they start calling out their demon pings. A Clockmaker number just randomly appearing mid game, after no-one hears about it...
I've found in games with a larger player count it's still best to keep the days short. More days means the players will eventually get around to everyone but you will keep players engaged and stop the game from blowing out in completion time.
There's no rule for how long days should be. For my first day I go for approximately 10 minutes, then decrease it by 2 minutes for every day after that. On the final day I give 2 minutes for private chats - because most people don't want them. (This all excludes the nominations period)
Honestly I think it’s too long. I usually run 5-6 minute day ones at 15 players. For 8-9 I would do 3 minutes. Having the days last so long is going to dramatically help the good team
Nah. 5 minutes before opening nominations, then keep things moving in nom phase. If there’s a bunch of waffling just end the day.
The only stuff I let drag a day out are:
- pizza showed up
- ST consult
- rules clarifications
When you round everyone up for nominations they should be wishing they got to talk to one more person for just a little longer. When you send everyone to sleep they should be stewing on unfinished business.
In other words, optimize for your dead players and players who don’t get much of a special power. Your savant could maybe use another 10 minutes to process their info, but *Everyone* gets info from executions and kills, so keep it moving. Like you did ;)
5 is totally fine. Most of my days are 4.30 or less.
Any rule that says something like "number of players / 2" is absolutely crazy to me, because bigger games need *shorter* days, not longer.
New players can be a weird one because a lot of their time isn't spent playing the game, but rather clarifying rules, reading abilities etc. So they can "need more time". But to be honest I'd still prefer to keep the days short and play a second game, rather than run the days long to compensate.
I don't time days, and instead just watch the players. Once everyone has had about three private chats I give a last call for 'one more chat or start wrapping things up'. And then wait about a minute for folks to start coming back to town. I like the cadence of letting people get their chats in, while not being able to talk to everybody. Means you have to pick and choose who you want to spend your time with.
Then I give about a minute for public discussions, and a few minutes for nominations (cut short if no one is nominating).
Ask your players how they felt. Five minutes seems fine to me.
There’s no definitive rule for how long a day should be. A lot of Storytellers, myself included, like to run days for a number of minutes two less than the number of alive players. An 8 player game has a starting day of about 6 minutes, for example. Nominations take extra time depending on how many players nominate, but if you find people are getting off-topic, you can start voting earlier.
does that include the nomination phase?
No, just until I call everyone back to town square
for 8-9 i'd start with about 6-7 minutes and call everyone back earlier for nominations if most are not talking privately
My general rule leans more towards 1/2 the number of living players, assuming that there aren't a significant number of new players.
If they felt like they almost had enough time to talk to everyone they wanted to, but not quite, then you gave them enough time
I definitely run my days as 5 minute days and then as things happen and people die I make them shorter. That is just the running around talking. I usually open nominations for about 2 minutes. Seems to work out fine and I run between 12-20 players. Yes it's a little bit of a scramble but that helps keep things interesting.
I have always found Alive Player Count -2 works for most situations. I have 100% been in games where the days are so long Good just solves the game because they can talk to everyone and piece it together. Part of the day phase is choosing who to talk with and for how long. It is a great Evil strategy to try to tie people up so they can't get all the information out. A Fortune Teller pings not spreading through the town now makes the FT look sus when they start calling out their demon pings. A Clockmaker number just randomly appearing mid game, after no-one hears about it...
I've found in games with a larger player count it's still best to keep the days short. More days means the players will eventually get around to everyone but you will keep players engaged and stop the game from blowing out in completion time.
There's no rule for how long days should be. For my first day I go for approximately 10 minutes, then decrease it by 2 minutes for every day after that. On the final day I give 2 minutes for private chats - because most people don't want them. (This all excludes the nominations period)
Honestly I think it’s too long. I usually run 5-6 minute day ones at 15 players. For 8-9 I would do 3 minutes. Having the days last so long is going to dramatically help the good team
Nah. 5 minutes before opening nominations, then keep things moving in nom phase. If there’s a bunch of waffling just end the day. The only stuff I let drag a day out are: - pizza showed up - ST consult - rules clarifications When you round everyone up for nominations they should be wishing they got to talk to one more person for just a little longer. When you send everyone to sleep they should be stewing on unfinished business. In other words, optimize for your dead players and players who don’t get much of a special power. Your savant could maybe use another 10 minutes to process their info, but *Everyone* gets info from executions and kills, so keep it moving. Like you did ;)
I generally do players minus 2 for the first day and reduce by 1 minute for each subsequent day. You want the players to feel rushed
I think there are a lot of different preferences. i know my group would gladly play 2 hour games every time if I just let them.
5 is totally fine. Most of my days are 4.30 or less. Any rule that says something like "number of players / 2" is absolutely crazy to me, because bigger games need *shorter* days, not longer. New players can be a weird one because a lot of their time isn't spent playing the game, but rather clarifying rules, reading abilities etc. So they can "need more time". But to be honest I'd still prefer to keep the days short and play a second game, rather than run the days long to compensate.
I don't time days, and instead just watch the players. Once everyone has had about three private chats I give a last call for 'one more chat or start wrapping things up'. And then wait about a minute for folks to start coming back to town. I like the cadence of letting people get their chats in, while not being able to talk to everybody. Means you have to pick and choose who you want to spend your time with. Then I give about a minute for public discussions, and a few minutes for nominations (cut short if no one is nominating).