From Mark's Blog:
- Individual Scenario Variety. The more the scenarios in a product seem similar to each other, the more monotonous playing the scenarios of a product tends to be. Lack of scenario variety can show up in a number of ways. First, in scenario sizes. If most or all of the scenarios in a product are large, long and meaty, there may not be much appeal to a player who doesn’t have the time or preference for such scenarios. If there are small, medium, and large scenarios in a product, there may be more options to fit a player’s particular inclinations or circumstances. Similarly, if all scenarios are designed for advanced players, or all for beginners, that may be somewhat disappointing. In products with historical maps, a too-high concentration of scenarios set on certain map areas and reduce the fun of a historical map. And products can seem especially bland if their scenarios tend to have similar victory conditions, SSRs, setups and reinforcements, and so forth.
An excellent observation, Mark - and I can tell you this is quite challenging, especially when doing 'Themed' packs. For example, I am working on an Action Pack on the adventures of US First Cavalry Division in WWII and Korea. There are only three WWII PTO scenarios due to the fact that most of their activity on Leyte would be what we call 'bug hunts' (and thier work in Manila is covered in another product). This type of scenario is rather stale by now, and I don't want to exhaust the few tricks I have that can make these battles more interesting -as even the tricks look like each other after a while. So we move to Korea- in which a good chunk of the action takes place on hills!! And more often than not, the hills were the actual objectives. How many times can I do that without it seeming samey? What I CAN do is balance the action between US forces attacking and defending, and split it again between the opponent being the Chinese CVPA and North Korean NKPA. I want to limit the night actions, so those which are documented as taking place during daylight received priority. Some still looked too similar with T-34/85 and SU-76s being the only non-US AFVs. So I vary the size and scope a bit, and include two actions which the First Team fought side-by-side with Allies such as the ROK army and Greek Battalion. I made sure there is a DASL scenario and that ~25% are 'pop and play' -- no heavy SSRs or lengthy search for obscure overlays required -just grab your maps and some counters and get to it. And of course there will be some for the expert players that want more of a challenge or like to think about set up for a few days beforehand. So they might look similar from photos, but in reality will be a good mix. There is one that uses CVPA but yet is simple enough to serve as an 'introduction' to thier special rules, and one (possibly) that uses boats.
I also made myself a rule to not use any map more than two times throughout the product.
Luckily the topic chosen offers these opportunities, and I was able to find enough material for up to 16 scenarios without being too repetitive (IMO). And I have some excellent playtesters who would tell me if it were so. I think most of you will find good value in it, much like the ASLOk bocage pack recently published.
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