Writing a good game scenario

Introduction

Some of the best scenarios consist of one page of quickly jotted ideas. Other scenarios are extensive, detailed – and lousy. No two scenarios I have written were built after the same pattern.

It is presumptuous to attempt to establish a set of guides to scenario writing. But then, the contents of this booklet are just that, guidelines. I use them (and discard them) myself all the time. Consider this book a checklist worth running through when you’re setting up the storyboard, and once again when you think you’ve thought about everything. Or read the book when you’re out of ideas, and let something here will give you a fresh idea for a new challenge to your players!

Getting into the habit of thinking about pitfalls and advantages will inspire you. You’ll get a feeling for what is required when you write for yourself or for others, what you need and don’t need, and it will help you add structure to your writings. It’s also a fun read.

What really matters is learning to think in the terms of a good story line that’s easy to keep track of and add on to. That’s what I’m trying to share with you. Good ideas come when they want to, not when you want them to, but that is no excuse to just do what the next guy did.

Recipe of a Scenario

Broken down piece by piece for quick reference.

Introduction	Summary of the story line. Purpose and mood of the scenario. Notes on the characters. Other notes that are immediately relevant.
Phase 1: Build-up	Introducing the characters to one another. Introducing the setting. Basic information made available.
Phase 2: Investigation	Traveling if any is required. Acquiring information needed to come up with at least one suggestion for a story line solution. Preparing for Phase 3 (questions, handouts, NPC activity). Quandary: What course of action to take now? Action: Incidents, interaction, minor encounters.
Phase 3: Action	Consequences of choices made during Phase 2. Pieces begin to fall into place. Quandary: What to do about the picture created? Action: Encounters, ‘final encounter’, quandaries, quick decision-making.
Phase 4: Wrapping it up	Consequences of choices made during Phases 2 and 3. Wrapping up previous encounters and handouts.
Epilogue	Action: Goodbyes, turning over NPCs to authorities or friends, uncovering final pieces of evidence, etc. Concluding the story line.
Required information	Maps. Setting-specific information. Time tables. Descriptions of unusual equipment and gear.
NPC roster	Who’s who, and where are they?
Optional events	Any number of subplots that may stretch the story line if it evolves faster than expected, and which serve to spice up the story development.
Curiosities	Notes on stuff that does not appear directly in the story line but which the master may be better off for knowing. Appendices on background information. Notes on the characters. Other notes that are immediately relevant.

Required Information

This section comprises the information and source material the master needs in order to run the scenario. To some, this is the most difficult section to write of them all. Guessing what others will need to know is not easy. It’s better to be too detailed than not detailed enough. Excess information can be discarded.

The master needs setting specific information. Where does this story take place? When? What makes that place special? If it’s not special, why did you pick it as the stage? What will the master need to know about it?

This section may be very brief if you are writing in a game system that comes with a published game world. The scenario is set in the Grand Duchy of Karameikos, in the city of Treshold, that and that year… You will need a note that the master will require access to that TSR accessory in order to run the story line.

You may want to include information as regards the culture depicted. More so if unusual aspects of the culture has relevance to the story line. The level of complexity of the information depends on the location. If you are doing a classic fantasy story line, a rip-off of Tolkien, you don’t need to write much. The same goes for a modern day story line. Anything home written or altered requires notes. Again, better to include too much information than too little.

Information that deals with the culture and setting can be very brief. Maybe you wish to name the place and time and general mood, and then let the masters have free hands to improvise over the theme. In that case you only need to specify information connected to specific events in the story line. Medieval Germany, 12th century, mood is epic, chivalrous fantasy.

Masters can go read up on the source material themselves. Be careful. Forcing masters to spend so much time at the local library or with their net browser that they might as well have written the scenario themselves will not make you popular.

Time tables

You want to include time tables to provide a quick overview. This can be very convenient when NPCs and events run their course independently of what the characters are doing at the time. Don’t expect the masters to be able to remember off-hand who’s who and where the action is, when it is. The masters already have their hands full keeping track of the characters themselves.

Time tables can be really simple. They just need to list the name of the event described elsewhere, and the time at which it occurs.

Time table may constitute the main story line so that the master gradually works his way from beginning to end when the story line is concluded. Either method has its advantages and disadvantages.

An overview table is easy to keep track off when all you need is the when and where.

At 19 p.m. Susie Jackson robs the liquor store at Central Station. Two casualties.

The robbery is described in more detail elsewhere in case that the characters happen to be there to see it. The master will have to flip back and forth from overview to event.

An actual time table is more detailed (and more confusing).

Day 2, November 16, 1995, 5 p.m., police station on Bourbon Street.
Police Captain Daniel Hampstead hears rumors of a group of people who met Estafan Sanchez as he came back into town, and issues an order to bring them in for questioning. This indicates that half the city’s cops are now (also) looking for the characters.

“Captain, look at this,” Officer Polaski says, handing Hampstead a file. The Police Captain makes room for it on his desk, elbowing other stuff away. “It’s a witness statement. This guy, Tryggveson, thinks he knows who may be hiding the Sanchez guy.”

Hampstead acknowledges the younger man’s effort with a growl, but before he can get a closer look at the sheet, Jean-Jean yanks it from his hand. “Mon dieu!” the French mayor proclaims. “Perfect! You must arrest them, Daniel!”

“Hold your horses, mayor,” Hampstead growls, yanking the paper back. “Let’s see what we’ve got here.” He reads for a moment, while Jean-Jean nervously wrings his hands. “Okay, this Turkey-wassname, who runs that Necropolis joint… Six guys… Heck, all these guys did was look funny.” He sighs with exasperation.

“Well, we could have Tryggveson make a statement,” Polaski offers helpfully. Hampstead nods. “No harm in that.”

“You have to arrest them!” Jean-Jean cries.

Hampstead rises to his full height, staring down at the small mayor. “OK. I’ll put out word to take them in for questioning. But that’ll just be to shut you up, Jean-Jean. Now mind your own damned business for a moment!”

“Daniel, you can’t talk like that to me. I’m your mayor.”

Hampstead calms himself. “Yeah, right. See to it, Polaski. But for heaven’s sake, no manhunt. At least not yet.”

“Right away, cap’n,” the younger man says brightly.

This is not easy to keep track of. It offers more than meets the eye, though. Not only does the master get to know what happens and is able to convincingly paraphrase the situation to any characters within hearing range. He also learns a fair deal about the NPCs Hampstead and Jean-Jean. This will make improvisation easier.
Maps
You may want to include maps. Simple maps may do the trick – city, city, river, mountain, and plain. More detailed maps may be required for buildings, dungeons, or space ships. Remember to write down distances, obstacles and secret passages. Never just write ‘secret door here’. Make a note on how to discover the door, open and close it, and where it leads to.

There is a lot of software available to draw maps. If done properly the good old-fashioned ink on checkered paper map is just as good – if not as visually pleasing.

Paraphernalia

You want to include information on any unusual pieces of equipment, gear, spells, etc., used by the characters or the NPCs or both. You want to sate the curiosity of the master, not to mention the character holding it.

The classic example of this shows the characters entering the town library in search of information on legends of old. The players look at the master expectantly and ask what titles are available. Then they exchange vicious smiles because they feel certain that this was just the question the master did not want to be asked. If you create a situation in which the characters have to go to the library, the least you can do is to provide a list of titles and topics.

The layout

Your layout should reflect what you are trying to sell. There is no reason to spend time and effort to create a complex design if what you’re writing will never travel beyond a close circle of friends. There are better ways to spend your time.

The front page needs to contain the title of the scenario. You may want to add a note as to what game system you wrote the story line in, too. However, most authors enjoy the chance to show off their creative talents and adorn this page with illustrations, graphics or other features, too.

Keep your reproduction method in mind. If you are going to distribute your scenario to other game masters – at a convention or in between buddies – make it photocopier-friendly. Shades of gray and color do not photocopy well. Black and white line art does. Unless you are trying to sell a revolutionizing new game accessory you do not need award-winning artwork.

Include your name and postal address, phone number, email address, website URL, etc. There is a good chance that someone is going to have trouble interpreting some detail or other of your story. Allow the poor fellow a chance to get in touch and ask questions. You also want all the feedback you can get, whether in order to revise the scenario for an upcoming 2nd edition or in order to learn more before you begin writing the sequel. You never stop learning how to be a writer.

Fonts and formats

Choosing fonts an format is a tightrope walk. You want your work to appeal to as large an audience as you can get. On the other hand – if you spend 40 hours creating your scenario total, it is wrong to spend 20 of them designing the lay-out. Even more so if the contents can’t keep what the layout promises. Most masters will prefer a genial scenario written on checkered paper to a full-color booklet of junk.

If you are contemplating having your scenario published, rest assured that your publisher will hire someone professional to worry about the lay-out. You may want to make your manuscript easily readable and suited for Optical Character Recognition. Use a fairly big typeface with no special characteristics. Optical scanners love simple fonts. Use double line space because optical scanners get confused if the lines appear jumbled or too close to each other. Keep it simple because the editor will not want to have to flip back and forth between pages in order to make last minute changes.

Recommended fonts for OCR are: Helvetica (Arial), Courier, Times, preferably at 12 points or larger.

Spelling and grammar

If you don’t need to use hyphenations, turn the feature off in your word processor. Word processors tend to come up with some really odd hyphenations or to space out the line when they aren’t sure where to put the hyphen. Linear margins may appear attractive and orderly, but they lose their appeal instantly when paragraphs become ‘flooded’ – i.e., when ‘rivers’ of white space run down the paragraph, forcing the eye to jump from word to word rather than read on continously. You will also need to check every hyphenation in the file just to be sure your computer got it right.

Never ever trust spelling and grammar control. Just think of home-made names, spell descriptions and slang. With a streak of bad luck you may end up spending more time teaching your computer new words than actually writing. Some word processors will even crash your computer or hang when you teach them too many new words. Use spellcheckers to make sure you don’t submit a file full of errors, but don’t dismiss the use of a good old-fashioned dictionary.

If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. Then quit. There’s no use being a damn fool about it. -W.C. Fields