Scenario Design

This is Steven Petrick writing.

Many people assume that all you have to do to create a scenario is take some ships from opposing sides and you are done.

The problem is that that scenario has basically already been written (if you two ships opposing each other, you just play the generic "duel" scenario, if squadrons or a fleet, you just play the generic "fleet action" scenario). To really create a scenario you need to find something that makes it different.

Now, many of these might seem to have already been done (small ship versus big ship for example) by defining an objective that one side can accomplish if played well, or if the other side plays poorly. An example might be a light cruiser trying to rescue colonists from a planet and escape while a heavy cruiser tries to keep it from doing so. While the scenario exists (as a historical scenario), there are many variations of the small ship versus large ship that can be created if you use your imagination.

For example, there is a scenario written for a "civil war" (one of the Kzinti civil wars) in which the largest escort present suddenly attacks the other ships. Special scenario rules put restrictions on the activities of the other ships in the convoy to reflect the shock of an attack completely out of the blue, and an objective that the "traitor ship" player can accomplish.

Other options might be to combine some terrain effects to create a relatively unique combat environment. For example, there are a lot of engagements in Asteroid Fields, but there does not currently exist a battle in an asteroid field during an Ion Storm. Or perhaps having two forces confront each other in a nebula, and that part of the nebula is also an asteroid field (add the random movement caused by the nebula to the risk of running into a big rock . . .).

Terrain is not the only place to go. Special circumstances have shown up before (a failure of some system on one ship, that might be determined randomly in advance, or how about on both ships determined randomly before the battle begins), and can be used to make other fights interesting.

Even so, there is always the problem of balance. It is not enough to create a scenario in which one side will launch a 100 or so drones as the first step of the scenario, and this represents the first use of some new technology (no one will want to play that scenario as tracking that many drones and then the counter drones and other systems is just too tedious in and of itself). While the background may support such a scenario, it is just not going to be something that anyone will actually play.

It can be fun to create scenario mismatches (like having an advanced technology ship somehow get sent to the past and face off with a fleet of Early Years ships . . . this can be something like the old "Ogre" games. (You know, the ones where a Bolo Mark V controlled by one player as his only unit goes up against the other player with his two dozen or so tanks, GEVs, mobile infantry, and artillery units . . . grinding them under its treads and smothering them under its infinite repeaters and . . . well, you get the idea.) Such a thing need not be "historical", but could be stated as something that was done as an academy exercise, teaching a group of command candidates how to deal with a nightmare scenario.

While most monsters pretty much come under the rubric of "been there, done that", there are things that could be done with them [either operating under (SG9.0) A Very Special Ally", or as a third component of the fight, perhaps randomly firing on both sides].

So use your imagination, keep an eye on balance, and try to find something new to propose as a scenario idea. Sometimes an idea that proves unworkable for one race or group of races can be completely workable for another race or group of races. As an example, suggesting a "mutiny" on a Federation Starship is almost certain to be rejected out of hand, but given the internal political structure of the Kzintis and Lyrans . . . such a mutiny might occur for a variety of reasons. (Yes, the Klingons can have a mutiny too, but that is just too easy.) A mutiny on a Gorn, ISC, or Tholian ship is pretty unlikely given their racial backgrounds, and the general galactic background makes a mutiny on an Andromedan ship something no one would ever know about (if it was possible at all). But there are still quite a few races where if you needed to start your scenario background with a mutiny, you could have one.

Lots of ideas out there, just be consistent with what the game background allows, but within that stricture, try to think outside of the box of a simple one on one duel or a huge slug-fest.