Some questions about scenario design

[Zeviz]

I am thinking of trying to make a scenario for the peal contest and I have some questions about scenario design:

 

1. How long does usually take to design a town with a lot of dialogue and a few minor quests?

 

2. How long should a scenario be if it's important for the player to develop a connection to some characters in the story? (I want to try something stronger than just saying "you've been best friends for several months and you feel terrible about his death".)

 

3. When making a scenario, should I start by writing out dialogue, or by completing town design and coding? Should I work first on story or on quests?

 

4. Is it worthwile to make half a dozen possible endings for a very short scenario, or will it be just a waste of effort, since players are unlikely to play through more than 1 or 2 times?

[Lilith]

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Originally written by Zeviz:
1. How long does usually take to design a town with a lot of dialogue and a few minor quests?

Depends on how efficiently you work and how detailed you make it, but expect it to take at least a solid weekend.

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2. How long should a scenario be if it's important for the player to develop a connection to some characters in the story? (I want to try something stronger than just saying "you've been best friends for several months and you feel terrible about his death".)

15-20 towns seems like a reasonable length, but it depends on how much you put into each of them.

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3. When making a scenario, should I start by writing out dialogue, or by completing town design and coding? Should I work first on story or on quests?

This is a matter of preference. I like to have the entire plot planned out on paper before I touch the editor, but once I'm actually in the editor I do terrain before coding and dialogue.

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4. Is it worthwile to make half a dozen possible endings for a very short scenario, or will it be just a waste of effort, since players are unlikely to play through more than 1 or 2 times?

Depends on how much work it'll take you. If it's just a couple of different choices the player makes that affect the ending, it won't be much effort for you, so go for it. If the scenario takes an entirely different path based on decisions the player makes early on, it's probably a bit much.

[Zeviz]

Thanks for your answers.

 

A weekend per town?! Is that over 20 hours of work? And, putting that together with your suggestion of 15-20 towns, would it mean that I'll have to spend 3-5 months to make a good scenario?

[Kelandon]

BoE towns are small — I'd think that if you knew what you were doing, you could pull together a town in less than five hours, perhaps less than two if the town were simple.

 

But you also can't do very much with an individual BoE town, so 15-20 isn't as many as you'd think. TM's been known to pull together such scenarios in a couple of weeks, but he's a madman.

 

Depending on how detailed your towns and descriptions are, you may be able to make a connection with the characters in less than 15 towns, but your writing has to be pretty darn good.

[Lilith]

Quote:

Originally written by Zeviz:
Thanks for your answers.

A weekend per town?! Is that over 20 hours of work? And, putting that together with your suggestion of 15-20 towns, would it mean that I'll have to spend 3-5 months to make a good scenario?

Well, the one-weekend figure I quoted was for a town with dialogue and quests. In my "15-20 towns" figure, on the other hand, I included dungeons and other areas that won't necessarily be so involved.

But yeah, on the whole it's a long process. Roots took me 3 months to make, and it's only 10 towns. It's not as if I was working on it every day, and Roots crams about as much into every one of those towns as BoE's limitations allow, but still, scenario design is hard work.

Also keep in mind that as with any creative work, you have to factor in the amount of time you can expect to spend thinking about working while not actually working.

[Ash Lael]

Quote:

Originally written by Zeviz:
I am thinking of trying to make a scenario for the peal contest and I have some questions about scenario design:

1. How long does usually take to design a town with a lot of dialogue and a few minor quests?

There's no usually, really. Depends on who you are and how quick you are how much you put into it, and all kinds of things.

The important thing (I think) is to spend the bulk of your time on the things that are most important to your scenario. If you have good characters and the scenario is mostly about them, spend the time on their dialogue. If it takes you a couple of afternoons, so be it. But if you just want to make a town to go and buy/sell stuff with one character you get missions from, that's quick and easy and should only take about an hour.

In response to your question to Thuryl about taking 3-5 months on a scenario, bear in mind that most towns/dungeons don't have lots of dialogue. It sounds like this town is your centrepiece. For a short scenario, I don't see any point in making more than one actual town, anyway.

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2. How long should a scenario be if it's important for the player to develop a connection to some characters in the story? (I want to try something stronger than just saying "you've been best friends for several months and you feel terrible about his death".)

Length is unimportant. If you talk to Bland NPC #342 seventy times, he's still a bland NPC. I say make sure you have a good character, and then demonstrate that character to the player. People will always feel drawn to interesting characters.

The important thing here is to SHOW, not TELL. Don't say "Your buddy is a reckless troublemaker, but also as loyal a friend as you could ask for." Have him egg you on into doing something that could get you in trouble, but when you get caught he takes the blame.

Think of Pirates of the Carribean. Jack Sparrow enters the movie sailing towards the harbour standing proud and triumphant high in the rigging... of a dinky little boat. Then it starts to fill with water. So he starts bailing - but just enough to get it up to the pier, where he casually steps off the boat as it disappears into the water like he's done it a million times before. By the time he's walked twenty steps he will have both bribed and robbed the quartermaster.

There you have a character that the audience has developed a connection to in two minutes flat. Length is irrelevant - it's what you do with it.

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3. When making a scenario, should I start by writing out dialogue, or by completing town design and coding? Should I work first on story or on quests?

Depends on the scenario and your own preference. I like to have the story all worked out beforehand, and then design and test each "building block" (see article) individually, and do the bits that stick them together last.

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4. Is it worthwile to make half a dozen possible endings for a very short scenario, or will it be just a waste of effort, since players are unlikely to play through more than 1 or 2 times?

Depends what your intention is with those half-dozen endings. You could be building them not so much so that everyone will play all of them, but so that each player will get the ending that suits him best. Or something.

Anyway, I played Election three times to get all the endings, for what it's worth.

[Zeviz]

Thank you very much to everybody for your advice.

 

I am thinking of making something on the scale of (and in the style of) Roots or Emulations, although it will probably be less technologically advanced.

 

Creator, your example of Jack Sparrow is exactly the level of effectiveness I am trying to achieve. Can I e-mail you my ideas for scenario for your feedback?

[Ash Lael]

Sure thing. aussie (at) onewayfm (dot) com (dot) au.