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The most important thing you need to make a scenario is a scenario to make. But how do you come up with ideas? I, for one, am pretty bad at this part. However, there are a few strategies that you can use. First, most new designers will try to make a big epic scenario, with this big evil person trying to destroy everything. These almost never succeed. However, if you tried to make an epic, you may be able to salvage ideas, characters, and towns from it. My epic was called The Orb of Mandir. It didn’t work. However, I managed to salvage a bunch of towns about twenty characters from it. Mr. Floe, Rothidir, and Demindyl are three of the characters. I built my first serious scenario, The Other Side (which will be finished before the 5th design contest) around these three characters. I also used one of the towns from The Orb of Mandir. Beginner epics can be useful tools for getting ideas for new scenarios. If that doesn’t work for you, there are other ways to get ideas. Sometimes, an idea will just randomly pop into your head for no apparent reason, which is what happened with The Other Side. Maybe it’s not too good, but if you think it has possibilities, use it. The Other Side was originally a simple scenario called Thievery, with no plot at all, and nothing to do but steal stuff and kill random people. However, I eventally ditched the idea for something else, which didn’t work out. After the scenario failed, Thievery Popped into my head again, along with a few good plot ideas. As I proceeded with the planning of it, things changed gradually, including the name. However, you probably won’t want to just sit around until something randomly enters your mind. Sometimes, you’ll find ideas in odd dreams. I had a dream one night, which was a little too complicated to explain. However, there was a big moldy orange with legs in the dream. I decided to change the blueish mold on top to a laser, and I made it a robot of sorts, instead of a monster. The Other Side is partially built around the orange-bot, which I named the CitriBuster. Scenarios don’t have to be completely serious to be good. If you find that that idea doesn’t work, you could try looking around a little. Take a walk around the block and look at some things. Maybe something will seem interesting, and you’ll be able to get a basic scenario idea from it. I haven’t used this one yet, but I may eventually. If that doesn’t work either, then too bad for you. Find some other article to read, because I’m out of suggestions. |
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