The Scenario Designing Blues

Posted by Ranillon on 3. November 2008 22:58

As you probably know the FtW Group challenge this month is to create an original 40k scenario.  We here at 40K Origins Labs have been hard at work trying to come up with one that is fair, fun, and balanced.  Progress is slow, but we have come up with a few observations:

No Attacker vs. Defender Scenarios:  Maybe it’s just my own personal experience, but I’ve run into a lot of attacker vs. defender scenarios that just, well, stunk.  I remember a GT (Grand Tournament) from many years ago were one of the games (both 40K and fantasy) required the attacker to race across the field.  The defenders won if they just stopped the attackers from doing so.  After the game I went around and talked with other people about how they did.  I couldn’t find ANY attacker that won.  The problem is that the requirements of being an attacker usually dictate his options – that is, he can only try one obvious tactic to win.  As a result the defender can counter his opponent’s tactics pretty easily, thereby giving him an advantage.

Getting the Right Balance is Hard:  It’s easy to come up with a nifty idea for a scenario, but it’s hard to come up with one that will be reasonably balanced for most any army a player might field.  Sure, some scenarios will favor some types of armies, but this favoritism shouldn’t be so pronounced that one particular sort of army is all but guaranteed to win.

For example, take the idea from above that one side has to race across the board and exit on his opponent’s table edge.  His army is doing a blitzkrieg into the rear of the enemy in order to destroy a vital supply dump.  His opponent must stop him or risk losing the whole campaign.  Sounds good at first, but clearly the attacking force will be more successful if it happens to be one with lots of transports.  That’s okay – a scenario can favor one side somewhat.  However, what if the attackers were an Eldar Saim-Hann force or a Ravenwing?  Considering they could be across the board in two turns could any defender hope to win?  Should the two even bother playing?

A way to possibly fix this would be to have getting across the board be the objective for both forces – you’d have to balance defending your board edge while escaping out your opponent’s.  However, this brings up another point….

Coming up with a Scenario Even Somewhat Original:  The above idea is one taken directly from a tournament I was in years ago.  So are most of the ideas that have occurred to me over the last week.  Usually there are a few minor differences, but I suspect almost every idea for a 40K scenario has been done some place at some time.  Why do a scenario that has been done before?  Problem is that if you try doing something truly unique you’d potentially need so many special rules that game balance would go out the window.

Still, it is just a game and there is something to be said for a scenario that is cool even if it isn’t perfectly balanced.  So, it’s back to the laboratory….