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This is where you set the background of your scenario.

The title lays the ground work for this – avoid vague titles (“The Big Battle”, “Attack”, and other indistinct names are definitely bad titles). Give the reasons for the battle to take place. WHAT is the reason for the fight? WHEN does this battle take place (were Gondorians at the battle of un-numbered tears)? WHY are the forces clashing now? WHERE are they fighting (is it reasonable for a Balrog to fight Rohirrim at Weathertop)? WHO is fighting (are the requested heroes alive at this time in Middle Earth’s history)?

This is the place where good scenario ideas get destroyed most often! The idea of a family of fifteen cave trolls attacking 75 Riders of Rohan may be great – but who owns fifteen cave trolls. Most scenarios can be scaled down without losing too much in the way of story line (15 Riders of Rohan against 3 cave trolls is basically the same game, just more realistic in terms of what people own). Five thousand point battles may be fun to play (if you have a free week) but most gamers do not own that many models. Be warned though – sometimes you do need to keep your huge numbers involved to retain the feel of the game.

Be balanced in your force lists. 15 Riders of Rohan against 3 cave trolls may seem balanced on the point level, but realistically the Riders don’t even need to enter into combat to beat the trolls, they can just move 5” and fire their bows. When the basic scenario is finished play it as both Good and Evil and see how fun it was.

A minor point, but something that I try to do, is consider the blisters that these models come in. Rohan Royal Guard come in packs of three, so why not try to have your scenario involve multiples of three so people don’t think “oh great I have to buy 9 Royal Guard just so I can use 7 of them in this scenario”. A minor point but it shows that you are thinking of your fellow players.

Give the breakdown of weapons used by each troop type. Say how many have bows or throwing spears. It is small details like this that can totally throw off the balance of a scenario.

Points match

Suggest realistic points values and limits for your scenario – “both teams may take up to 90% of their forces with bows” may not make for a fun game. If you don’t think the scenario works well with a Points Match say so. If special rules are used make sure it is covered in points match rules.

Layout

This is the second place that people fail in making scenarios. They usually fail in one of the two following ways.

Unclear layout plans. “This is played on a big board with a river and ruin” is too vague. Give dimensions for your board – “this is played on a board that is 4’ by 4’ square”. Give locations of key features – “the river runs east to west through the middle of the board and is 4” wide with 2 crossing points”. They say a picture says a thousand words: it does so include maps whenever you can. A map (with distances marked on it) can make a layout so much easier to set up than just descriptions (no matter how clear).

Secondly avoid tough scenery. It would be fun to make a scenario where you have to fight to the top of a volcano with three interior tunnels to provide additional ways to the top. But who has one of them handy? There has to be flexibility in the scenario. A scenario should not be dependant on people owning 6 houses that are exactly 3” by 5” – any 6 houses should be usable. The use of modular scenery (single trees, a stretch of wall, ruins, piles of rubble, standing stones, etc) should be encouraged as they can be improvised.

Give clear directions of where everyone is to set up. If you need all of one force to set up within 3” of the standing stone, say it. Don’t expect others to be able to read your mind. On the map that you included for your layout, mark out deployment zones for all the forces.

If some forces do not start the game on the field of battle (I.E. reinforcements) then say where about they will join the battle or you could state that on a pecific turn you roll a dice and each number means a different spot on the field they enter at.

Objectives

Give clear objectives of how you can win the scenario. The scenarios that I am least likely to enjoy are the ones that say “the winner is the one who kills all the enemy models”. To me that is not a scenario, it is just a battle. “10 Uruk-Hai must make it over the river” or “All heroes must survive” are much better objectives. A limited number of turns to complete an objective will provide a more action packed scenario and also ensure that the scenario ends before you have to wake up to go to work or school. Give each force at least a 30%-40% chance of winning. If a force needs to roll straight sixes for ten turns to have a chance of winning you have failed. Life is not fair and neither do scenarios have to be fair, but they should be winnable some of the time.

Special rules This is one of the toughest and most important areas in the scenario. You MUST be specific in your Special Rules. Do not assume that people will understand what you mean, write it out in as clear a language as you can. Read through it the following day and be as critical as you can about it. I often rewrite this section 5 or 6 times before I am happy with it. Make the Special Rules reasonable. Having goblins self-combust if they roll a 1 in combat is not a good rule. Having Legolas lose a turn if he stops in front of a mirror (or Gimli stopping in front of a full beer mug), while believable may not be so great a rule, but can still make for fun games. and so there you have it an article on how to make good scenarios, usually scenarios would take some time to make a good one, remeber to write it down on a perice of paper or even the computer so that your opponent dosnt get fustrated and think your cheating if you just made it up in your head. ok then thats about it on scenarios for now thanks for reading.