Making a good scenario

By Cherub bobT

I don’t know how many times I have sat in front of my computer and started playing with a game editor only to shut it down a few hours later with nothing accomplished. It has taken me a number of years and many countless hours of practice and planning to realize that any kind of adventure you create should always have a logical beginning, middle and end. So if I were asked how I plan out a good adventure I would have to say PLAN is the most important of all.

Let me try to set up for you my approach to good scenario planning. Each of the below points may get a bit lengthy but in the end, I think everything I may have the thought to spell out here, may help you as an adventure creator.

1) Right from the very beginning it is important that you have at least some sort of planning on paper. Zeus has a great adventure editor and with proper planning you can create a very playable and fun adventure without to much editing once you think your project is complete. So your first thought should be, what story do you want to tell? Will this story be based on pure Mythology or will it be a story of your own, that you wish to have unfold for your players? What kind of resources will I need in order for this adventure to work? Will Gods interact within the Adventure? Will there be monsters or military issues to deal with? Once you have all of these thoughts on PAPER you can begin the adventure creation.

2) Step two in the creation of a good scenario for me is to enter the world map. As I plot out my tale I have decided how many colonies I will be wanting, how many allies and rivals I want to interact with the parent city. I will have all of this listed on paper ahead of time. When entering the world map it is very important to follow these simple rules. Place your parent city first; follow that with any allies and vassals you may have planned. Then place your colonies and finally your rivals. The reason for the above is simple and is explained in the Zeus Adventure Editor manual as well. By placing your cities in this order it will be a lot easier for you to set up random gift events and requests as well as invasions if you keep the cities in order. If you have three colonies and two allies and one vassal for e.g. you will know while setting events that cities “0′ (parent) and cities 1-6 are all under your domain. Any cities on the map with a higher number than 6 would be your rivals based on the above. Knowing this you can now set up your events based on those numbers.

When setting up your scenario also remember that any city that you have on the map as a vassal will pay you tribute at the beginning of each year. Additionally, any city you have set as a Rival that you later conquer will also send tribute. If you have a large number of vassals and conquered cities early on in an adventure some players may become annoyed by the amount of gifts being received each year in popup.