Write A Scenario

This is Steven Petrick posting.

We are always looking for new scenarios. And the game background provides many hints and clues to things that supposedly happened, but for which no scenario exists. Most of these are relatively small incidents involving a few ships, some are larger.

We have invited players to find these incidents and create scenarios, but the reaction has been for the incidents to be found, and then I am requested to create the scenario.

I do (regrettably) write a lot of scenarios (or at least I have), but it is not always possible to drop everything I am doing to develop a scenario someone wants from scratch. There are other jobs around the office here that I need to be working on.

Yes, when I scenario is submitted I still have to sit down and go through checking the background. And, yes, sometimes players have ideas that simply will not mesh with Star Fleet Universe background, and yes, sometimes a scenario can work in Federation Commander and not work at all in Star Fleet Battles (and vice versa), but both game systems need scenarios. Submit a scenario and if it is a good one, but the background does not work, I will probably try to adjust the background to make it work.

But sometimes there is just nothing that can be done, such as creating a scenario that absolutely requires that certain ships be present (we are not talking "named ships" but ship types), and one of the ships is simply not in service in that year (not even as a prototype) or was the only one of its type and was destroyed in an earlier year, or the two empires simply could not meet in that year (a Gorn cruiser encounters a Lyran cruiser on the border of Hydran space is just not workable, but it might be possible to twist the background to have them encounter each other on the edge of Tholian space by setting the scenario during Operation Nutcracker . . . but that would be a stretch since the Lyrans historically did not support that operation, and the set up was to have a Hydran ship intervene in the fight).

But check the ship descriptions for incidents for which there is no scenario, or if you are creative, check the general universe background and build something that would be an interesting fight. Do not ignore terrain as a means to make it interesting. Consider mixing terrain situations (nothing says an ion storm cannot be raging in an asteroid field).