Scenario

From ASLWiki

Advanced Squad Leader is an open-ended format game system in which each contest is formatted into what is known as a "scenario". Following the system created by PanzerBlitz, individual scenarios are printed on card stock, each containing enough information (as described in detail below) for one game. Scenarios generally depict 10 to 20 minutes of combat between roughly company-sized forces, though in the literally thousands of published scenarios there has been a wide variety of scenario lenghths and sizes, and some designs have even been segmented into multiple "parts", with forces from one part carrying over into a second part.

There are over 3600 published scenarios for ASL. The majority are published by third party producers, and around 500 or so are considered to be official - ie those produced by Multi-Man Publishing or Avalon Hill.

Each scenario card contains a number of key elements:

1. Title
2. Number
3. Publisher's Logo (optional)
4. Image (optional)
5. Historical prelude
6. Victory Conditions
7. Balance provisions (optional)
8. Board configuration/overlay configuration
9. Turn chart
10. Order of Battle
11. Aftermath
12. Scenario Special Rules

While the example at right omits it, most scenario cards also have the name of the scenario designer.

A database of scenarios can be found on the ASL Scenario Archive

Scenario Design Literature

• "ASL Clinic" in Volume 20, Number 6 of The General provided a two page article by Jon Mishcon on scenario design, and two sample scenarios were provided in the issue as an illustration
• Scenario Designers Guide was published in 2006
• ASL Journal 8 will contain an article by Pete Shelling on scenario design