Episodic Scenario Game?

A little background first. I am a nerd with very few peers. I called myself the king of the nerds decades before the show existed. When confronted by a fellow nerd who stated that he did vote for me, I replied "you don't vote for king". Putting the question of my sovereignty aside for a moment, the reason I tell you that is so you aren't surprised when I tell you that I used to play a good deal of Dungeons & Dragons. I developed a disdain for scripted campaigns that persists to this day. Even though D&D is a role playing game, the player character has no real ability to effect the story. Of course this is true of PC and console RPGs as well. I went as far as to write an entirely new system that was focused on allowing the players to drive the story.

Where the heck is this going? Scenario games, as far as I can tell, suffer from the same problem. The players really only effect one variable; who wins. I have to admit that there isn't likely to be a more important variable in play. Wouldn't it be more fun though, if instead of just logging points, teams could effect the actually story and determine what game is played next by the outcome of the game they are playing? Like a paintball "Choose Your Own Adventure"!

I even went as far as to write all the branches of a game based on this concept. It was titled "Someone Set Us Up The Bomb". I got mixed reviews from people I discussed it with in person. They fell into one of two camps: "Awesome! Camp" and "Why Bother? Camp". I figure that people who play scenario games might find the idea more interesting.

So what camp are you in?

I've actually been talking with Viper about this. I want a Senario that plays out like a DnD game, with a dungeon master and players.

there would be say 8 legions controlled by 6-8 comanders as the players and they would play against the dungeon master who would control and design the rest of the map. it would have different missions and such. with the ending being storming a castle full of the dungeon master's goons.

Not exaclty the same but didn't Viper or someone a few years back try an RTS take on paintball? I remember reading about it, but can't remember how it worked.

well, with scenario games, you should have a start and an end. to a point, everything in the middle is up to the people playing. its more to the organizer that can see and take into account what people do and HOW it can effect the game, but i don't see scenario games as being totally scripted. i too play D&D, but that doesn't mean anything. i just see a scenario as a long constantly evolving cavalcade of people to shoot. does anyone ACTUALLY know the point of a a scenario game, or follow the story if there is one? sure, we all want whatever actions to mean something, but its still a game were you shoot little(relative) balls of paint at each other. leave it at that.

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Originally Posted by Nobody

well, with scenario games, you should have a start and an end. to a point, everything in the middle is up to the people playing. its more to the organizer that can see and take into account what people do and HOW it can effect the game, but i don't see scenario games as being totally scripted. i too play D&D, but that doesn't mean anything. i just see a scenario as a long constantly evolving cavalcade of people to shoot. does anyone ACTUALLY know the point of a a scenario game, or follow the story if there is one? sure, we all want whatever actions to mean something, but its still a game were you shoot little(relative) balls of paint at each other. leave it at that.

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This is a good example of the "Who Cares? Camp". Which I totally understand. The appeal to me is that with "Episodic" scenario, you could play the same 10 "episode" story a dozen times without repeating how it unfolds. If you set up the "branches" so that each game results in two possible outcomes (2 possible next episodes/games) there would be 512 possible final games. When I wrote mine I did it so that the branches tied back into each other so that there were only 24 possible outcomes (final games).

The other thing I liked about it was the two teams started each game with limited information about the other teams objective and whereabouts. Each episode would start with a mission briefing that was based on the "intel" that team had.

Yes, ultimately the answer to "what game are we playing?" is always some smart ass saying "paintball". lol. I just think it would be cool for people to have the chance to invest in the story beyond their kill count.

but also, i've played in games and with people who also don't care about "missions" and who don't even run missions. its a hard thing to do in keeping people's attention within a game and possibly a storyline. you have to balance out the course of the game within the event to make it fun and "captivating" enough for people to not give up and abandon the mission and possibly play it further. its hard if you have no experience in the organizing aspect of an event, there are a million things that you need to cover before even putting out an actual game.

i don't know of any scenario organizers in the northwest that you can go to to sign on as staff/liaison so you can learn, and if you do an epic 12 scenario event as your opus, it would be a downer that you get the first one off the ground, but the next 2 tank and the field pulls out. so if you want to go through with this, go for it and ask a field if you can put on a game. if they themselves have experience in scenario games that's even better. so put on a couple of games and realize that they are purely "fun" learning games that you can try things in order to get your storyline and play better before you get to the heavy storyline. can't run if you don't know how to walk.

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Originally Posted by Nobody

i don't know of any scenario organizers in the northwest that you can go to to sign on as staff/liaison so you can learn, and if you do an epic 12 scenario event as your opus, it would be a downer that you get the first one off the ground, but the next 2 tank and the field pulls out. so if you want to go through with this, go for it and ask a field if you can put on a game. if they themselves have experience in scenario games that's even better. so put on a couple of games and realize that they are purely "fun" learning games that you can try things in order to get your storyline and play better before you get to the heavy storyline. can't run if you don't know how to walk.

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All good advice. I had envisioned it as a series of shorter games (up to 15-20 mins each) over the course of a single day. So it would differ vastly from a scenario game (other than having a scenario). I also have no set plans on trying to do this. Just musing. I would love to see a short game scenario league. I would probably have to cattle drive some LARPers to a paintball field to make that happen though. :D

This is very similar to how Bear Claw paintball does it. There are "mini" games inside the "big" game, depending on witch side does what the game changes. One side captures a base or what not, they get intelligence and can choose to do one thing or another.

There was a scenario game I read about (forgive me I'm not sure where it was but it definitely wasn't near Michigan) that involved two feuding familys like the Hatfields and the McCoys plus a deteachment of Marshalls/Sheriff's and towns folk. There was an element of role playing in which you had to interact with the townsfolk and/or bribe the law. You couldn't just start shooting at people. For if you shot someone in the presence of the police it was considered murder and you were hauled of to jail. Sounded interesting. I, personally, would like a scenario game that is a different. I too have witnessed people not wanted to go along with missions and just wanting to shoot at people. Its a little frustrating. Also, it seems to me that organizers are more interesting in designing a game where more paint will be used and thus bring them more profits than actually designing something different (in all fairness, some are better than others). Let me know if you get this idea rolling. If it's not too far from Michigan I might want to try.

Fstop. That sounds like a cool idea. But a lot more planning and work on the fields part.

It wasn't my idea, it was a scenario game I read about online sometime last year but can't remember where it was held at.