Call for Scraps Maps

[BiggaBullfrog]

Hello creators!

Over here in Utah we're planning on running a Scraps tournament in March! The thing is, though, that there aren't a ton of Scraps maps out there, and we used most of them in a Scraps tournament last year. We don't have anything against them, but we thought this would be a cool opportunity to give our excellent map-makers to get some cool new creations to use.

That's where you come in! First off, if you aren't familiar with the Scraps format, here are the basics:

• It's a format for quick play featuring small armies and maps
• To keep the maps small, you are limited to using half of a master set and one terrain expansion per map
• It uses a placement system similar to Heat of Battle, so you don't need start zones on the map
• To help, you can check out these links to brush up:
  Scraps - An explanation of the format and map restrictions
  Dignan's Scraps - @Dignan created the format, and this thread has his creations that you can look at for examples
  Sir Heroscape's Maps - @Sir Heroscape is the other creator with Scraps maps that you can check out for examples (you'll need to scroll to close to the bottom)

So what we're looking for from you, creator, are new maps to try out and play on! Due to the nature of the format and the relative low-competitiveness of our Utah scene, we don't need maps that have been incredibly and rigorously play tested. I do have some guidelines/suggestions to follow, though.

• Still avoid ridiculous height. High ground can be easier to balance in this format, but crazy height (or towers) are still just going to favor whoever gets to put something up there first too much. So you have more freedom than you may if making a usual map, but still use moderation.
• Keep an eye on congestion and accessibility. Again, placing all over the map at the beginning of the game helps a lot, but if there are too many choke points or if some areas are too hard to get to, it will still make for bad gameplay experiences. Try to keep a good amount of flow to the map.
• Glyphs are friends. Since Scraps don't always have enough room to balance out height without glyphs, they make a nice and simple way to draw focus to lower portions of the battlefield (see Dignan and Sir H's maps for some good references on this).
• Have fun! These maps are a great opportunity to experiment and mess around with concepts you can't always get away with in usual map design, so have your way with it!

This isn't meant to be a contest, though if we get a lot of interest we may have to parse maps down to what we can use in one tournament. If that's the case, we'll pick ones that make a good map pool and keep the others ready for when we do Scraps again! We'd love to have a nice repository for future events (and for any other scenes that want to run a Scraps tourney in the future)!


Maps that have been posted for quick navigation:

Spoiler Alert!

Originally Posted by Sir Heroscape

Here's a couple I threw together in the last couple days. It's also worth noting that these 2 Scraps are designed to be used from the same BftU set. The set isn't really symmetrical, so each of these maps uses roughly half of the terrain in 1 of the same master set.

Dungeon Pool
Sets: 1/2 BftU, RttFF


Treasure Dungeon
1/2 BftU, FotA

Originally Posted by Flash_19

Here are two! Maybe I'll get around to another one in a week or so.

Skyborn:
Requires 1x RotV, 1x TT


Kaesh:
Requires 1x BftU, 1x VW


I'm not sure that all the glyph locations are the absolute best, so if you have any suggestions, fire away.

Originally Posted by Ulysses

Submitted for the approval of the Midnight Society, I call this map:
Encumbered



No apologies for the 'Are You Afraid of the Dark' reference...

Originally Posted by Flash_19

Here's another one:

Siron:
Requires 1x RotV, 1x RttFF

Originally Posted by BiggaBullfrog

Map images from Discord:

@Leaf_It 's Maps (the two maps in the first image are combined in the second one):




@superfrog 's Map:

(This uses two terrain expansions, which is against the original guidelines, but we talked about it and are okay with it. It's like a normal map using 3+ expansions, not bad in and of itself as long as it's not getting too big, but you won't fit as many in a standard map pool.)

Originally Posted by Ulysses

Just finished tweaking this one I'm calling Talus. I'm hoping to make a SotM + TT map to use the other half of the Swarm terrain if I can find the time.

Talus

Originally Posted by Flash_19

Here's another one Bigga.

Rust and Ruin:
Requires 1x SotM, 1x FoA

[Sir Heroscape]

Cool cool. I'll make sure to throw a couple together for ya'll

[Flash_19]

I'm on it too.

[Ulysses]

Challenge accepted! I love the format and even included it in our Oregon event in October.

[Ulysses]

So I'd love to stand on the shoulders of giants here. I've played most of Dignan's Scraps maps and several of Sir Heroscape's. What are your top favorites to draw inspiration from?

[BodaciousBlood]

Originally Posted by Ulysses

So I'd love to stand on the shoulders of giants here. I've played most of Dignan's Scraps maps and several of Sir Heroscape's. What are your top favorites to draw inspiration from?

My personal favorite Scraps map is Highway, By Sir Heroscape.
My favorite by Dignan is Breeze.

Both have very fun themes with high playability.

I would love to see a Volcarren Wasteland Scraps map. However, I could see that being quite difficult with the format of the game.

[Sir Heroscape]

Here's a couple I threw together in the last couple days. It's also worth noting that these 2 Scraps are designed to be used from the same BftU set. The set isn't really symmetrical, so each of these maps uses roughly half of the terrain in 1 of the same master set.

Dungeon Pool
Sets: 1/2 BftU, RttFF


Treasure Dungeon
1/2 BftU, FotA

[BodaciousBlood]

Those both look great, Sir H!

[Flash_19]

@BiggaBullfrog
A few questions for you that I wanted to clarify.
1) Is the idea behind the BftU set that you would use it in combination with either RotV or SotM and use only half the terrain in BftU?
2) What if I wanted to do a BftU set with a terrain expansion? Half of BftU as a master set gives you extremely little to work with....
3) If I decide to feel rebellious and use all of BftU paired with say, Volcarren Wasteland, would you reject it on the principle that it's not a scraps map as defined by Dignan?
4) Can I throw a random Ruin piece onto said rebellious project mentioned in the third question just for a little extra LOS blockage? You know how I like my LOS blockers....

[BiggaBullfrog]

I'm glad to see so much interest already!

Originally Posted by Ulysses

So I'd love to stand on the shoulders of giants here. I've played most of Dignan's Scraps maps and several of Sir Heroscape's. What are your top favorites to draw inspiration from?

I in general like ones that have smooth yet important movement options, so a couple examples of my favorites are Dignan's Breeze and Sir H's Lush Dark. (Contrarily to BodaciousBlood, I'm not the biggest fan of Sir H's Highway, though that is more due to not liking the symmetry -- Scraps maps are awesome for asymmetry!! )

Originally Posted by Sir Heroscape

Here's a couple I threw together in the last couple days. It's also worth noting that these 2 Scraps are designed to be used from the same BftU set. The set isn't really symmetrical, so each of these maps uses roughly half of the terrain in 1 of the same master set.

Nice! Awesome to see a pair designed to be built with each other!

Originally Posted by Flash_19

@BiggaBullfrog
A few questions for you that I wanted to clarify.
1) Is the idea behind the BftU set that you would use it in combination with either RotV or SotM and use only half the terrain in BftU?
2) What if I wanted to do a BftU set with a terrain expansion? Half of BftU as a master set gives you extremely little to work with....
3) If I decide to feel rebellious and use all of BftU paired with say, Volcarren Wasteland, would you reject it on the principle that it's not a scraps map as defined by Dignan?
4) Can I throw a random Ruin piece onto said rebellious project mentioned in the third question just for a little extra LOS blockage? You know how I like my LOS blockers....

1) I just looked over Dignan's original rules, and yes, that appears to be what he had set up.
2&3) I don't think I'd reject it. For one, since this isn't a contest with hard-and-fast submission rules, I don't mind going a bit out of the "norm" there. For two, there isn't that much of a "norm" to start with anyway, and I think this would be a fine way to expand the format in a good way.
4) To be perfectly honest and true to my own perspective, that would actually really bug me. I don't know if that would really "disqualify" a map, or make it bad by any means, but I'm kind of a purist when it comes to sticking to using what the sets give you. It ruffles my feathers a little bit more when I'm trying to consider options for a map pool as that can mess with available terrain (use too many ruins on one map and that can ruin (haha) another for the pool since you'll be missing pieces). (Sir H has some extra ruins thrown in on sets both with and without RotV, and it kind of bugs me when I see it.)
That said, I recognize the desire to use it, and I recognize that we have people with extra ruins around in the area. So I'll kick it around with the other organizers to be sure, but I'd imagine that we could consider using maps with extra ruins (or other pieces, like the Hive (which "technically" shouldn't be used on swamp maps, as per the original guidelines)), but that we would give pretty strong preference to those that don't have extra pieces to make it easier on those building/bringing maps and we don't have a "This has a ruin? I thought it was a swamp map" moment.

[Leaf_It]

I said this in our private chat, but I will judge a map on its own merits. That said, I would be a little disappointed in any map that borrowed from sets it wasn't using. Its part of the creative challenge in my opinion, to make the best map you can with just the sets you are using. Then again, I'm the guy who tries making maps with just the Underdark set and nothing else.

[Flash_19]

Originally Posted by BiggaBullfrog

1) I just looked over Dignan's original rules, and yes, that appears to be what he had set up.
2&3) I don't think I'd reject it. For one, since this isn't a contest with hard-and-fast submission rules, I don't mind going a bit out of the "norm" there. For two, there isn't that much of a "norm" to start with anyway, and I think this would be a fine way to expand the format in a good way.
4) To be perfectly honest and true to my own perspective, that would actually really bug me. I don't know if that would really "disqualify" a map, or make it bad by any means, but I'm kind of a purist when it comes to sticking to using what the sets give you. It ruffles my feathers a little bit more when I'm trying to consider options for a map pool as that can mess with available terrain (use too many ruins on one map and that can ruin (haha) another for the pool since you'll be missing pieces). (Sir H has some extra ruins thrown in on sets both with and without RotV, and it kind of bugs me when I see it.)
That said, I recognize the desire to use it, and I recognize that we have people with extra ruins around in the area. So I'll kick it around with the other organizers to be sure, but I'd imagine that we could consider using maps with extra ruins (or other pieces, like the Hive (which "technically" shouldn't be used on swamp maps, as per the original guidelines)), but that we would give pretty strong preference to those that don't have extra pieces to make it easier on those building/bringing maps and we don't have a "This has a ruin? I thought it was a swamp map" moment.

Thanks for your answers to those questions! And I'll just go ahead and leave the ruins off to make your life easier and preserve your sanity, Bigga.

Originally Posted by Leaf_It

I said this in our private chat, but I will judge a map on its own merits. That said, I would be a little disappointed in any map that borrowed from sets it wasn't using. Its part of the creative challenge in my opinion, to make the best map you can with just the sets you are using. Then again, I'm the guy who tries making maps with just the Underdark set and nothing else.

Lol - you do a good job with it Leaf_It.