No - as usual I am not here to ask for engine changes. This is all about how to build a good scenario. I mean one that folks will play OVER AND OVER again! You will be THE MAN (in Spanish - !QUE HOMBRE!) with the club you belong to. No, women will not ooh and ahh over you. But your peers will say you are beyond compeer.
Some of you guys out there probably are good scenario designers and are just needing to dive in to get into the regular habit of putting a REALLY good scenario together for the community. This thread will be for anyone really that wants to know how I approach a scenario and how I go about finishing it up.
1. First, go out to the pool and swim for 20 minutes. Loosens you up nicely.
2. Then go to some restaurant like Claim Jumpers or Texas Roadhouse and get the biggest plate they have. Do not wolf down the food. Savor each wonderful morsel.
3. After you eat RUN home from the restaurant!
4. By the time you get home you will have no desire at all to build a scenario.
(you might be dead in which case no one will ever be able to criticize your scenario)5. Repeat the process as often as you need to!
6. Now on some given week stop the process. (if you are still alive)
7. Sit down in front of the computer. Open up Windows Internet Backgammon. Yes. The old game that no one plays too often (exepct probably me).
8. Look over the game. It is "balanced" in part. Each side has the same amount of pieces. You must get by your opponents dastardly pieces hoping he doesn't BOP you one while you do so. The only thing that will make the game "unbalanced" is the die rolls. Backgammon can drive you nuts. But that is the key ....
9. Now - think carefully - there is no such thing as a balanced game! Even if you were to build an order of battle file where both sides have the same weapons, strength, morale, leadership there are still things out of your control which will tip the scales to the other side apart from your skill of course. Here is a list of some of these things:
- your cat chews through the mouse and keyboard cords after you have just pulled off the charge of your life. Now at that point do not shoot the cat. Shoot your wife for ever getting the cat in the first place.
next ...
- your kid will get on the PC and change the ratings of your units when you are not looking. That Old Guard battalion is now Morale F. HAHA - do not shoot the kid. Shoot your wife. She had the kid.
next ....
- your daughter needs the PC for her term paper and wipes out the hard drive. Do not shoot your daughter nor your wife. Shoot your mother in law. She had your wife who had your daughter.
next .....
- an electrical storm comes up right in the middle of a brilliant charge. Do not shoot the power company - just blow up the local dam. They were the ones that supplied the electricity to your company and all of that water helped to put more moisture into the air which fueled that storm.
next ........
well you get the idea ... nothing is going to work perfectly. With each incident you will get a better appreciation for this truth and the house will become quieter so that you can do your games turns in peace.
10. Research - ah, the most important part you would think. But so many people disagree. "Ah, you cannot trust so and so ... one day we will give you the perfect account of Leipzig." Or what I call the Historians creed. You read through piles of order of battle info, through tons of books. You email with friends and professional people. Somewhere along the way you get the OB put together. Yes, you have it - history is never balanced. You look at the strengths in Dominik's great editor and note that one side has a 17,000 man advantage. The French total is 4,000 and the Allies have 21,000. Yes, not very balanced.
11. So what do you do? Well of course you MUST simply balance the game so all French 12lb guns are now worth 2,000,000 fire points per gun. There now, that fixed that. And hey, all of the artillery should be horse guns too. That way they scoot all over the battlefield. And yes, the cavalry should all be heavy, have lances and be morale A+++(9). All of the French leaders should have a rating of A A for leadership and command. And the infantry should have firearms with an 8 hex range. Yes, that helps but lets top it off with the fact that they all can skirmish. Not that that will help much as the Allies will evaporate by the time they get to 2 hex range.
12. Ok - so you solved the balance problem. What about the map? Well you may not have the map editor so you use the next best thing - one of the maps from the games. And there are over 400 of them now so there are plenty to choose from. Hmm, lets see. French outnumbered. Lets put the Allies on one of those islands of the Danube on the large Vienna map. There now that takes care of the deployment problem. The Allies will be a bit cramped on the island but we can put some loudspeakers on the far shore and play Austrian march music to keep them hopping.
13. Now that you have deployed the troops do not forget the ammunition. Simple - give the Allies 100 rounds. There - that solved the fact that the Allies have something like 300 guns but the French only have 48. Give the French 4000 rounds. For supply wagons - for the French each should worth 2000 supply points and the Allies worth 40. 1 wagon for the Allies and 100 for the French. Yes, it might get a little cluttered so why not just leave 40 of them in Vienna. Ha! That solved the ammo problem mismatch.
14. Now on to the objectives. Make the Allies the FIRST player, put a large 4000 point objective on the French shore and have the following victory levels:
Major Defeat - 1000
Minor Defeat - 2000
Minor Victory - 3000
Major Victory - 4000
All the Allies have to figure out is how to get off the island and they probably could get the victory.
15. Next you always have to have some reinforcements. This is key. It is the hope for one side. "The cavalry is coming!" No scenario is complete without them. So for the French have Napoleon appear on turn 5 with 10 batteries worth 200 guns each. Of course they are 12lbers. Allies - hey, give em a supply wagon. Turn 10. This will give the French high elan! Something that they normally lack but we will not go into that ...
16. Now to top it all off add in a bridge. Not ONE hex but several hexes that reach from the island to the shore. Set the strengths for the one nearest the Allies at 10,000. Ah, that is nice. Plenty of strength to absorb the cannon fire from the French. The second one would be worth 10,000. So far so good. Add in as many as you need using the same value but when you get to the last one use a value of 49 points. Then make sure to remove all Austrian pioneer units from the map. Add in those Austrian pioneers as reinforcements. They will arrive on the island on the second to last turn of the game.
17. Save the file. This is so important I cannot say it enough. Save the file. Save the file. Now if for some reason something drastic should happen and the file not get saved and you lose your data then invoke rule #9 above. I call that one the "postal it" rule ... sort like a post-it and Charles Bronson wrapped into one. REMEMBER TO INVOKE RULE #9 IF YOUR PRECIOUS WORK IS LOST!
18. The Playtester rule. Now try out the file in a game. Get one of your club buddies to try it out with you. Remember to play the French side always as the designer. It is so important to remember this. No Playtester should ever be felt to believe that he is a better gamer than the designer. Never offer to play a mirror match with them. That would not be good for yourself. As the designer you must remind them that they are only helping to decide the fate of the side they play. Now if you want two playtesters to play each other do the following: have them play the Allies in both games and do not tell them that you are playing the French. Tell them to send you the files and that you will relay them to the other player. Works for me all the time.
19. Once the Playtest Phase is done you are now on to the Publishing Phase. Ah, you have made it. Your baby is ready to be delivered to your fans. They are dying to get it and unwrap it and play it and .... what! A new game has come out and no one wants to play the game that would use your scenario????
20. This takes me to the second Postal-It phase. Invoke rule #9.
There - now you are a Scenario Designer and can stand proud of your achievements!
Ok - I know .. the accolades and questions are going to pour in. "You have helped with five games now, Bill. How in the world did you do it?"
And my answer ....
Well it took me five dead wives, six dead mother in laws and five power dams!
This is how I put together scenarios. Maybe you have a similar style that you would like to share with us ... ?
