Scenarios

Treating scenario is a difficult task.  "A guy with a big sword defeats the enemy of his people" and "A bunch of space marines go and kill the alien invaders" are not scenarios. Scenario is richer that this; scenario must take into account the ancient imperative of all fiction that "Character is plot".

Things happen because characters have a reason to make them happen.  "Return the jewel of Fn'zk'baar to its ancient resting place and calm the restless spirits of my ancestors" is also not a scenario.  It is an objective.  Why does this particular character want to do it?  Does he want to do it, or is he doing it against his will?  If he fails, will he or his loved ones die or suffer a fate worse than death?  In answering questions like these, mere objectives can become a game scenario.

Who took the jewel in the first place, and why? What are their needs and desires?  Fascinating foes do as much to make a game as interesting as fascinating friends.  Dealing with the Little Sisters in BioShock, or the bizarre Father Gegori in Half-Life 2, generates gameplay that is a lot more interesting than a simple point-and-shoot of Imperial Storm Troopers.

Another old rule of scenario writing is "Hurt your character."  This does not mean make his or her HP gauge move into the red; it means putting them into difficult moral situations where any choice they make is painful.  Games that force these kinds of choices upon the player will always have scenarios (and ratings) that make news -- and dollars.

A few simple rules for scenario development:

  • Characters in conflict with something generates interesting story.  It may be an old adage, but it's a good one.
  • Plot twists and turns are nice, but the characters that cause these to happen need to do so credibly.  That creates surprise and excitement, rather than annoyance and rolled eyes.
  • If you need to figure out why a character does something, go for the old favorites -- they are after power, sex, or money.  An awful lot of story and conflict boils down to these primordial choices.  Throwing in 'family' is often useful as well.