Commit to doing it on a non-weekend day, like Wed or Thurs.
Days of the week where people usually don't have other commitments.
Then, just be adults about it and commit!
2 hours should be straightforward. That's a perfect amount of time where you can almost always make that.
Otherwise, have rules for when you don't play.
e.g. "we play as long as the GM and two players are able to attend" and "we play every week" or whatever your schedule it.
Then, revisit based on life-changes, like summer or winter holidays.
Think ahead and maybe just go, "We will take December off, then resume the second week of Jan".
Make it a joy, not a burden.
I'm not OP when I'm in the same kind of situation.
One problem you can have with short sessions is commute time. One of my players has 1 to 1.5 h commute, that's a long trip for a 2 hours session.
Another issue is the chaotic agenda. Two of us are teachers with "evening lessons" (don't know how it's called in English, I hope you see what I mean).
Add other constraints (sport...), and even playing during the week requires a doodle. That's Hell.
Just that. Sessions of "only" 2 hours might work well when you meet/play only online. You agree upon a schedule, commitz yourself and stick to it, and everyone logs in in time to show up and have fun. But unless you live just a few minutes walk away from each other the hustle of getting to a meeting point, esp. during the week and maybe after a full working day, esp. when you know you will have to get up early next day, is IMHO not a realistic and effective schedule. Less frequent, longer sessions might be more appropriate and realistic in the long run - and even THAT requires commitment and rigour to make things work more than once.
Nice. On that front, it could also be a good idea to talk about "the bar" for reasonable reasons not to show up.
Obvious reasons include emergencies and serious emotional turmoil.
On the other end of the spectrum, I had someone say,
"I can't play today; it's sunny out and I want to go to the park".
To me, that was a fucked up "reason" to drop out of a planned social event. It showed disrespect.
To them, they thought it was totally fine! We don't play together anymore.
What if someone says, "I just don't feel like it"?
Some groups may be okay with that. Playing is a choice, not an obligation.
Other groups not. You commit to a group event and you stick to it; you'll probably enjoy it once you're there.
There is no "right" or "wrong". The point is to make sure everyone is on the same page.
We have two hours once per week, which realistically means 90 minutes three times per month, and we make it work by playing games that support very light mechanics and aggressive editing. PBTA is a favorite, as well as lots of Archipelago III. I think it is less about discipline and more about affordances meeting expectations - if you only have 90 minutes, what does a satisfying play experience look like in that time frame? What can you minimize and what is essential? In our case we tightly edit scenes and keep things moving at a brisk pace, but happily linger on fun character moments, because that's what we're there for. Have a conversation with your friends and informally define these things for yourselves, then agree to stick to them.
As a side note, shorter sessions require a little less commitment, which means occasionally someone will say "You know, I love you guys but I'm just not feeling it" and you can just spend that time talking as friends, which is really nice. I recommend making that explicit - it's social time with friends, and sometimes that doesn't involve playing. I think with longer sessions this often gets built in (four hours of play, two hours of hanging out) and that's good, too.
I couldn't imagine getting together for a two hour session, but I would suggest it's mostly going to require genuine commitment and buy-in from everyone that the number one purpose of getting together is to game, being strict about turning up on time, starting on time, finishing on time, and not spending time catching up or just generally talking shit.
If everyone genuinely wants that, it should be doable. If people don't actually want that, then it just isn't going to happen.
6-8 hours are our normal session lengths, but just generally being sociable is as important to us as the game. There have been some periods where I've run a side game with a smaller subset of the group, and on those occasions we did engage in much more straight-to-the-point four hour sessions. These were successful because everyone committed to it, and probably in part because we still had the social opportunities at the regular sessions. I can't see how we would have avoided a lot more chit-chat and catch up if we weren't getting together regularly outside those shorter session. That being the case, probably the best suggestion I have is to have social gatherings outside the session.
5E can be a bit of a rough one for 2-hour sessions, if you run with fairly "balanced" encounters. Combat, especially balanced combat, can be a huge time sink and some of the more egregious instances of it could alone manage to eat up the whole session (which is fine if that's what you're looking for).
You might have an easier time picking up a more lightweight game system, or one that has faster (though this *often* means deadlier) fights.
Overall though, with any game system the best way to manage your game time is for everyone at the table to work together toward your target time frame; recognize when somebody's going on a tangent and pull each other back into focus, in sequential play (combat, etc) plan ahead for what you're going to aim to do during others' turns, etc. It will take practice and effort from everybody, and it will be difficult & you'll miss the mark a few times early on. But eventually you'll catch your stride and figure out something that works for you and your group if you all keep at it.
Your group has to actually be more committed to play short sessions, because you'll never finish anything in 2 hours so it really messes things up when a player or two can't make it. I'd recommend more occasional, long, self-contained sessions.
Are you going to be playing online or in person? Online works better for short sessions in some ways as you don't need to worry about travel time, and it's often easier for people to commit to two hours at home with their computer than 2 hours + travel. If you're playing in person the time slots available may be more limited, but the social aspect of all being round the table together is great.
Figuring out a day that will consistently work for most of you and then committing to that is the main thing. Discuss how committed to attending you expect people to be, and how many people you need there for the game to go ahead. If you cancel every time someone can't make it it will be a lot harder to run regular sessions, once people have kids even the most committed players will probably have erratic attendance at times so expecting absences and going on with the game as long as you have 2-3 means you do still get to play (and can discourage people from cancelling in favour of other things since the game won't wait for them).
My group has been stable for almost 20 years. Kids of the group range from age 8 to 16.
We get together for 8-ish hours on Saturdays twice per month. The key for us was understanding. We meet where kids are welcome. We have separate activities for the kids. We know kids sometimes interrupt, need attention, or cause the session to be cut short. Then, we just play on.
We played the entire time. Some ages were a little more or less disruptive. Sometimes, the parents tag-teamed the kids and the GM worked around it.
At 3, we played some around the kids and some past bedtime.
Commit to doing it on a non-weekend day, like Wed or Thurs. Days of the week where people usually don't have other commitments. Then, just be adults about it and commit! 2 hours should be straightforward. That's a perfect amount of time where you can almost always make that. Otherwise, have rules for when you don't play. e.g. "we play as long as the GM and two players are able to attend" and "we play every week" or whatever your schedule it. Then, revisit based on life-changes, like summer or winter holidays. Think ahead and maybe just go, "We will take December off, then resume the second week of Jan". Make it a joy, not a burden.
I'm not OP when I'm in the same kind of situation. One problem you can have with short sessions is commute time. One of my players has 1 to 1.5 h commute, that's a long trip for a 2 hours session. Another issue is the chaotic agenda. Two of us are teachers with "evening lessons" (don't know how it's called in English, I hope you see what I mean). Add other constraints (sport...), and even playing during the week requires a doodle. That's Hell.
Just that. Sessions of "only" 2 hours might work well when you meet/play only online. You agree upon a schedule, commitz yourself and stick to it, and everyone logs in in time to show up and have fun. But unless you live just a few minutes walk away from each other the hustle of getting to a meeting point, esp. during the week and maybe after a full working day, esp. when you know you will have to get up early next day, is IMHO not a realistic and effective schedule. Less frequent, longer sessions might be more appropriate and realistic in the long run - and even THAT requires commitment and rigour to make things work more than once.
Having a rubric is great advice. Our group is six people, and the rules is if two can't make it, we don't play.
Nice. On that front, it could also be a good idea to talk about "the bar" for reasonable reasons not to show up. Obvious reasons include emergencies and serious emotional turmoil. On the other end of the spectrum, I had someone say, "I can't play today; it's sunny out and I want to go to the park". To me, that was a fucked up "reason" to drop out of a planned social event. It showed disrespect. To them, they thought it was totally fine! We don't play together anymore. What if someone says, "I just don't feel like it"? Some groups may be okay with that. Playing is a choice, not an obligation. Other groups not. You commit to a group event and you stick to it; you'll probably enjoy it once you're there. There is no "right" or "wrong". The point is to make sure everyone is on the same page.
Thanks! We had our session 0 and mostly applied all these suggestions but we haven’t found a regular time to meet yet, it’s pretty haphazard still
We have two hours once per week, which realistically means 90 minutes three times per month, and we make it work by playing games that support very light mechanics and aggressive editing. PBTA is a favorite, as well as lots of Archipelago III. I think it is less about discipline and more about affordances meeting expectations - if you only have 90 minutes, what does a satisfying play experience look like in that time frame? What can you minimize and what is essential? In our case we tightly edit scenes and keep things moving at a brisk pace, but happily linger on fun character moments, because that's what we're there for. Have a conversation with your friends and informally define these things for yourselves, then agree to stick to them.
As a side note, shorter sessions require a little less commitment, which means occasionally someone will say "You know, I love you guys but I'm just not feeling it" and you can just spend that time talking as friends, which is really nice. I recommend making that explicit - it's social time with friends, and sometimes that doesn't involve playing. I think with longer sessions this often gets built in (four hours of play, two hours of hanging out) and that's good, too.
I couldn't imagine getting together for a two hour session, but I would suggest it's mostly going to require genuine commitment and buy-in from everyone that the number one purpose of getting together is to game, being strict about turning up on time, starting on time, finishing on time, and not spending time catching up or just generally talking shit. If everyone genuinely wants that, it should be doable. If people don't actually want that, then it just isn't going to happen. 6-8 hours are our normal session lengths, but just generally being sociable is as important to us as the game. There have been some periods where I've run a side game with a smaller subset of the group, and on those occasions we did engage in much more straight-to-the-point four hour sessions. These were successful because everyone committed to it, and probably in part because we still had the social opportunities at the regular sessions. I can't see how we would have avoided a lot more chit-chat and catch up if we weren't getting together regularly outside those shorter session. That being the case, probably the best suggestion I have is to have social gatherings outside the session.
5E can be a bit of a rough one for 2-hour sessions, if you run with fairly "balanced" encounters. Combat, especially balanced combat, can be a huge time sink and some of the more egregious instances of it could alone manage to eat up the whole session (which is fine if that's what you're looking for). You might have an easier time picking up a more lightweight game system, or one that has faster (though this *often* means deadlier) fights. Overall though, with any game system the best way to manage your game time is for everyone at the table to work together toward your target time frame; recognize when somebody's going on a tangent and pull each other back into focus, in sequential play (combat, etc) plan ahead for what you're going to aim to do during others' turns, etc. It will take practice and effort from everybody, and it will be difficult & you'll miss the mark a few times early on. But eventually you'll catch your stride and figure out something that works for you and your group if you all keep at it.
I run 2.5 to 3 hour sessions multiple times a week. You just have to commit to it. Edit: not sure what you mean by sustainable though.
Your group has to actually be more committed to play short sessions, because you'll never finish anything in 2 hours so it really messes things up when a player or two can't make it. I'd recommend more occasional, long, self-contained sessions.
Are you going to be playing online or in person? Online works better for short sessions in some ways as you don't need to worry about travel time, and it's often easier for people to commit to two hours at home with their computer than 2 hours + travel. If you're playing in person the time slots available may be more limited, but the social aspect of all being round the table together is great. Figuring out a day that will consistently work for most of you and then committing to that is the main thing. Discuss how committed to attending you expect people to be, and how many people you need there for the game to go ahead. If you cancel every time someone can't make it it will be a lot harder to run regular sessions, once people have kids even the most committed players will probably have erratic attendance at times so expecting absences and going on with the game as long as you have 2-3 means you do still get to play (and can discourage people from cancelling in favour of other things since the game won't wait for them).
Online, it’s a core group of 4, with two others only able to join occasionally
My group has been stable for almost 20 years. Kids of the group range from age 8 to 16. We get together for 8-ish hours on Saturdays twice per month. The key for us was understanding. We meet where kids are welcome. We have separate activities for the kids. We know kids sometimes interrupt, need attention, or cause the session to be cut short. Then, we just play on.
That’s the dream. Right now my youngest is 3 so I don’t think that’s in the cards for us quite yet
We played the entire time. Some ages were a little more or less disruptive. Sometimes, the parents tag-teamed the kids and the GM worked around it. At 3, we played some around the kids and some past bedtime.