Thousands of scenario players listen to the opening comments of the Skirmish USA's Invasion of Normandy before playing in a 24-hour scenario game
Scenario paintball is a colloquialism used to represent a diverse array of paintball events that encompass many themes that may include historical re-enactments, movies, current pop culture, futuristic or video game simulations, and more. Others have no theme at all. They frequently feature game mechanics such as "medics" and "snipers" and "helicopters" carried out through various simulations. The common denominator for this type of play is anywhere from 75 to 5000 players, with at least 6 hours of continuous play. These events average 12 hours of game play across a weekend in 2 major play periods. The longest and most challenging events run 24 hours straight with no breaks, with elite players covering ultra marathon distances. Instead of playing on a single field at a venue, all fields are combined into one continuous playable area. To further enhance the theme of a game, field locations may be named for important story locations, and props of various sorts are added to the game. These may be objects that players collect for points, or even vehicles that take part in the fighting, like paintball tanks. Players may don costumes specific to the theme, such as historic military uniforms or other costumes.
A Big Game is a type of scenario game that revolves around territory control with very few specific tasks given to players. They may or may not have a theme. These are designed for paintball first and foremost, but sometimes feature simulations. As player density at events increases, the tactics become increasingly Napoleonic, moving principal masses of players into perceived weak points to gain territory.
A Paintball Scenario is a type of scenario game that revolves around 2 large sides of players performing specific tasks. These tasks at their core are designed to entertain players and encourage paint consumption by placing 2 relatively balanced teams in the same place at the same time. The tasks can be very simple such as a "take and hold" of territory on field, or very complex involving many locations, role-playing, mini games, and more. Game tasks are distributed by giving the task to an assigned commander for the team, who chooses players to carry out the task. Sometimes these tasks are simply put on a poster for all to see.
A Scenario Paintball event is an immersive gaming experience that puts the theme, story line, role-playing, and simulation experiences above the paintball play. These events feature the most players in costumes, often with a bevy of melee weapons and unique experiences. These games may include escape rooms, large numbers of props, extensive simulations, and even open-world game play features.
A Real Time Tactical event is a mixture of Big Game play and video game Real Time Strategy game mechanics. Players use the event mobile app's Augmented Reality features to capture territory, build virtual structures, upgrade their forces, unlock special powers, and score points. Advanced game mechanics including capturing territory based on player GPS proximity, RGB light indicators on control points, image recognition, Heads Up Display compatibility, and AI content distribution.
A Battle Royale event plays the same as video game Battle Royales. Using the event's mobile app, players play over an increasingly shrinking playing field until only 1 person or team is left standing.
Scenario events are usually planned far in advance, both by the event "producers" or fields, and by the players themselves. Players may form large, lasting networks of players and teams that play together year after year in a specific scenario. These organizations help plan game strategy and direct their groups on the field and offer a level of organization beyond the basic two-sided team play.
Modern events may feature many different playing styles in a single weekend, featuring Battle Royale games, A Big Game, and a Paintball Scenario across 3 days.
Like all forms of paintball, scenario paintball has a very good per-capita safety record. Due to longer play times, heat-related injuries are one of the more common injuries in scenario paintball. Many players often carry 1- to 3-liter water bladders, allowing players to drink water without removing their safety masks, to combat heat and dehydration.
Gameplay
"German" team players stand ready to guard their base
Scenario paintball games allows paintball players (who may be divided into teams) to participate in a scenario, or story; which can include historical re-enactments, or fictional simulations. Because of the addition of a storyline to the game, and a larger contingent of players, scenario games tend to run over the course of hours or even days. Because of the potential size and length of matches, players tagged by paintballs, and hence eliminated, might be able to return to the playing field after a set time.[1] The scenario itself may be punctuated by smaller rounds, in which teams may need to complete a simple objective such as holding a location while another team attacks.[1]
Scenario design
A paintball scenario will have often have pre-planning by a director or producer and incorporate a theme - with popular simulations possibly drawn from action movies, military events, science fiction, historical events, or television shows.[2] Games are generally designed for either single day play, which are run over an eight- to twelve-hour timespan during the daylight hours, or 24-hour play, which last for much longer and are more intricate.[3] The entire game itself can be either one continuous match, or divided into smaller skirmishes and missions; with scoring for individual matches contributing to an overall score.
Player roles
Many scenario games add special roles to the paintball game. Some are strictly for the story line, describing the player as part of the group he or she is portraying. A player may be almost anything to fit the storyline, such as a rebel, an angry villager, a scientist or more. These roles have no effect on how the player plays.
Some roles have special game abilities that assist their team. For example, a player could be a demolitions expert, medic, pilot or spy. These roles offer the player a chance to perform additional tasks on top of shooting opposing players. For example, a medic player may be able to "heal" a certain number of teammates that have been hit by a paintball, returning them to the action that much faster.[1]
When a player starts the game he/she is in some games issued an identification card. Some cards also indicate the player's role in the scenario. Often, players enter scenario games purely for this role-playing aspect. Players are not required to play a role in the game, but those that accept a role may be provided with specific goals to accomplish in the game.
An important aspect of role-playing scenario games is that while missions win games, role-players develop information about those missions that gain more points.
This role-playing aspect extends off the field as well, and it is common for players to be "in character" both on and off the field for the duration of the game. Role-players often negotiate with other teams for props and information, and even attempt to get opposing players to defect. For role-players, the event may start before the game as they talk with other players on internet BBS/forums, perform character research, make phone calls between teams, and assemble costumes. These pre-game activities may start weeks or months before the first paintball is fired.
Fields
Fields are normally much bigger than standard paintball fields and can even have a combined total of many paintball fields. Fields can range from a small 3 vs 3 square, to a few acres, to over 100 acres (0.40km2). Fields are generally an entire venue with every field put into use simultaneously and an out-of-bounds tape strung around it. This includes speed ball fields, castles, wooded areas, urban environments, and more.
Props
In most scenarios, props are incorporated to enhance the fun and role-playing aspects of the game. Typically these props are small, simple in make and design, clearly identifiable, and serve a specific purpose. Conventional examples would be a small wooden box, labeled “EXPLOSIVES,” or fake money used as currency between different sides during the game.
Props almost always have specific rules written about them by the scenario producers. For example, rules pertaining to the aforementioned box of explosives may specify that only specific role-players (such as demolitions, engineers, etc.) of the game may handle or operate the prop, and that if taken to the enemy base the prop may be used to “blow up” their base thus eliminating any players inside.
Some props are randomly strewn about on fields for players to find, turn in to their base, and earn their side points. Often scenario producers will write missions for each side to retrieve or defend a particular prop from a specified spot on the field. For instance, at EMR’s Castle Conquest XXI big game, in which 200 defenders defended a three-story castle against upwards of 800 attackers, the removal of any four (out of ten) props from the castle resulted in victory for the attackers.[4]
Equipment
Not all, but many scenario players prefer military simulation, or "Mil-Sim" style gear, choosing equipment that emulates real military gear in form and function. It is not uncommon to see elaborate costumes, paintball rocket- and grenade-launchers, radios, electronic bugs, and other props built especially for the game.
Mil-Sim markers are not the only markers used. Standard paintball markers are often used, although some brightly colored models make it more difficult to remain hidden while using them.
Because players are on the field for many hours at a time, they generally pack more gear than they would in a regular woodsball game. Players may carry a large number of items, including maps, ID Cards, smoke and paint grenades, night vision systems, radios, and water. Vests emulating those worn by law enforcement and military personnel may be used. Because scenarios tend to be played in the woods or in a mix of woods and buildings, camouflage jerseys and pants are often worn.
Tanks
Paintball scenario games may include Armored Tanks the players have to interact with.
Motorized Tanks, (Heavy Armor), have specific rules which vary from field to field. A common rule is that players are not allowed within 10 feet (3.0m) of a moving tank. Tanks are always limited to a speed of 5mph (8.0km/h). Tanks can be constructed from golf carts, ATVs, 6x6s or even utility vehicles that have been converted into auto based tanks which are usually quite large. Some people have even fabricated scale tanks from scratch.
Teams
There are many scenario paintball teams that attend various events throughout the world. Teams may be informal, playing for the recreational value of the scenario game, or may be more competitive. Play styles and player types vary greatly, since the pace of scenario games offers opportunities for a wide variety of athletic levels to participate.
Software
Some teams use Force Tracking and communications mobile apps. These include BattleTac, BlueFox Tracker, and RKE Warlord.
Major events
ION Skirmish in Pennsylvania every July has 4000+ players. Starts with a massive storming the beach and play continues throughout the woods and makeshift towns. Game play continues into the dark, until 10 pm.
Oklahoma D-day in Wyandotte, Oklahoma, every June has 4000+ players. Famous for the wide variety of challenging terrain, dozens of tanks, and helicopter. June 2021 is currently scheduled as the Final D-Day.
Fulda Gap at Command Decisions Wargame Center in Taylorsville, North Carolina host a 1500+ player game on a 70-acre field filled with multiple firebases, trench lines, towns, and bridges. Features several tanks on both sides as well as props such as simulated airstrikes, artillery, and other bombardments via pyrotechnic effects.
Skirmish Paintball in the UK host games all year round at 27 venues across Britain.
DFW Adventure Park in Roanoke, Texas host four major games a year on 250 acres (1.0km2).
Operation: Market Garden being the largest in Texas with about 500 players a year.
Biggame Germany:[5] A large scenario game in Mahlwinkel, Germany, with 1500 players twice a year (June and September).
Firefly: After The Wave, Sherwood Forest, May 2019. World's first massively multiplayer server-connected scenario game.
Infinite War, Low Country Paintball, March 2020. World's first eSports Scenario Game.
Big Game vs Paintball Scenario vs Scenario Paintball
A Big Game focuses heavily on paintball play, typically carried out in a territory control format. A paintball scenario game focuses heavily on paintball play, typically carried out in a task-based format, with the tasks designed for 2 evenly matched forces to run into each other somewhere on the field. A scenario paintball game focuses heavily on the simulation and role-playing aspects, at the expense of the paintball play. These use a wide variety of tasks for players, territory control, and other game mechanics.
A live action role-playing game (LARP) is a form of role-playing game where the participants physically portray their characters. The players pursue goals within a fictional setting represented by real-world environments while interacting with each other in character. The outcome of player actions may be mediated by game rules or determined by consensus among players. Event arrangers called gamemasters decide the setting and rules to be used and facilitate play.
A role-playing game is a game in which players assume the roles of characters in a fictional setting. Players take responsibility for acting out these roles within a narrative, either through literal acting or through a process of structured decision-making regarding character development. Actions taken within many games succeed or fail according to a formal system of rules and guidelines.
Shooting sports is a group of competitive and recreational sporting activities involving proficiency tests of accuracy, precision and speed in shooting — the art of using ranged weapons, mainly small arms and bows/crossbows.
A wargame is a strategy game in which two or more players command opposing armed forces in a simulation of some military operation. Wargaming may be played for recreation, to train military officers in the art of strategic thinking, or to study the nature of potential conflicts. Many wargames re-create specific historic battles, and can cover either whole wars, or any campaigns, battles, or lower-level engagements within them. Many simulate land combat, but there are wargames for naval and air combat, as well.
Party games are games that are played at social gatherings to facilitate interaction and provide entertainment and recreation. Categories include (explicit) icebreaker, parlour (indoor), picnic (outdoor), and large group games. Other types include pairing off (partnered) games, and parlour races. Different games will generate different atmospheres so the party game may merely be intended as an icebreakers, or the sole purpose for or structure of the party. As such, party games aim to include players of various skill levels and player-elimination is rare. Party games are intended to be played socially, and are designed to be easy for new players to learn.
Paintball is a competitive team shooting sport in which players eliminate opponents from play by hitting them with spherical dye-filled gelatin capsules called paintballs that break upon impact. Paintballs are usually shot using low-energy air weapons called paintball markers that are powered by compressed air or carbon dioxide and were originally designed for remotely marking trees and cattle.
Murder mystery games are a genre of party games. One of the players secretly plays a murderer, whilst other players must determine who among them is the criminal. Murder mystery games often involve the actual 'murders' of guests throughout the game, or open with a 'death' and have the rest of the time devoted to investigation.
Dream Park is a 1981 sci-fi/murder mystery novel by American writers Larry Niven and Steven Barnes, set in a futuristic amusement park of the same name. It was nominated for the 1982 Locus Award and later expanded into a series of cyberpunk murder mysteries: The Barsoom Project (1989), The California Voodoo Game (1992), and The Moon Maze Game (2011). The books describe a futuristic form of live action role-playing games (LARPs), although the term was not in use when the original novel was published. The novels inspired many LARP groups, notably the International Fantasy Games Society, named after a fictional entity in the book.
A military exercise, training exercise, or war game is the employment of military resources in training for military operations. Military exercises are conducted to explore the effects of warfare or test tactics and strategies without actual combat. They also ensure the combat readiness of garrisoned or deployable forces prior to deployment from a home base.
Paintball is an equipment-intensive sport and in order to safely conduct a game, every player requires a marker with propellant to fire the paint, a mask to protect the eyes and face, paintballs, and a loader to hold them. To ensure safety off the playing field, a barrel sock or plug for the marker is also compulsory.
A paintball tank, also known as a paintball armoured vehicle (PAV) is a vehicle, or a portable structure that resembles a vehicle, sometimes used in the sport of paintball, usually with the intent of military simulation. The purpose of the tank is to provide a mobile shelter for one or several players, from which they may employ their markers against players on the opposing team. Small pneumatic guns, effectively low-powered potato cannons loaded with foam darts, are also often employed against other tanks.
Woodsball is a format of paintball gaming, in which players compete in a natural outdoors area or a recreation of a town called urban fields using paintball guns to mark opponents. The term woodsball is sometimes used to describe non-milsim airsoft games, which take place in a forest.
Paintball is played with a potentially limitless variety of rules and variations, all of which are specified before the game begins. The most basic of all game rules is that players must attempt to accomplish a goal without being tagged with paintballs. Generally paintball is divided into either its original incarnation woodsball, or the small arena-based and tournament de facto speedball. Amongst these paintball game types, variations of basic rules can be played.
Speedball is one of the three distinct game variants in the sport of paintball, along with woodsball and scenario paintball.
MilSim, an abbreviation of military simulation, refers to live-acted simulation of armed conflict scenarios conducted by civilians for entertainment, sporting, or nostalgic purposes. It has been described as both a form of "extreme sport" and as historical reenactment.
Military simulations, also known informally as war games, are simulations in which theories of warfare can be tested and refined without the need for actual hostilities. Military simulations are seen as a useful way to develop tactical, strategical and doctrinal solutions, but critics argue that the conclusions drawn from such models are inherently flawed, due to the approximate nature of the models used. Many professional analysts object to the term wargames as this is generally taken to be referring to the civilian hobby, thus the preference for the term simulation.
A grand strategy wargame or simply grand strategy game (GSG) is a wargame that places focus on grand strategy: military strategy at the level of movement and use of a nation state or empire's resources. The genre has considerable overlap with 4X games, but differs in being "asymmetrical", meaning that players are more bound to a specific setup and not among equally free factions in exploring and progressing the game and an open world.
Construction and management simulation (CMS), sometimes also called management sim or building sim, is a subgenre of simulation game in which players build, expand or manage fictional communities or projects with limited resources. Strategy video games sometimes incorporate CMS aspects into their game economy, as players must manage resources while expanding their project. Pure CMS games differ from strategy games, however, in that "the player's goal is not to defeat an enemy, but to build something within the context of an ongoing process." Games in this category are sometimes also called "management games".
Vehicle simulation games are a genre of video games which attempt to provide the player with a realistic interpretation of operating various kinds of vehicles. This includes automobiles, aircraft, watercraft, spacecraft, military vehicles, and a variety of other vehicles. The main challenge is to master driving and steering the vehicle from the perspective of the pilot or driver, with most games adding another challenge such as racing or fighting rival vehicles. Games are often divided based on realism, with some games including more realistic physics and challenges such as fuel management.
Role-playing or roleplaying is the changing of one's behaviour to assume a role, either unconsciously to fill a social role, or consciously to act out an adopted role. While the Oxford English Dictionary offers a definition of role-playing as "the changing of one's behaviour to fulfill a social role", in the field of psychology, the term is used more loosely in four senses:
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