A paintball ‘scenario’ refers to the style of gameplay that reflects how the players will play the game.
On top of choosing which paintball scenarios to play, you will also have to match the scenarios to a certain ruleset that decides how players get out and how the game is won.
Common Paintball Scenario Rulesets
Consider these 5 most common rulesets as you decide which scenarios you’d like to play them in:
- Capture the Flag – One team defends its flag while another team attempts to take it to their side to win.
- Elimination – A player who has been hit by an opponent cannot return fire until they have re-spawned, which takes about two minutes.
- Capture & Hold – One team defends its territory while another team attempts to take it over to win.
- Deathmatch – Free for all game mode, player with the most ‘kills’ or hits wins. A player who has been hit by an opponent cannot return fire until they have re-spawned, which takes about two minutes.
- Team deathmatch – Team-based deathmatch mode with 2+ teams, the team with the most total ‘kills’ or hits is the winner. A player who has been hit by an opponent cannot return fire until they have re-spawned, which takes about two minutes.
Continue reading below for the top 8 most popular paintball scenarios to play for both beginners and experts alike.
1. Tournaments
Tournaments are competitions based on skill. These are often 5 person teams competing in official paintball tournaments, taking place on speedball fields.
Other series of tournaments, such as the Ultimate Woodsball League, play paintball on large wooded fields. The types of tournaments and applicable skill divisions vary to suit the individual needs of competitors in every series.
Keep in mind that tournament style games will be very strict in their rules and requirements, so be sure to follow close instructions.
2. Speedball
Speedball is a game played on a flat, open field that resembles a soccer field and sometimes artificial turf is used on an indoor field.
Speedball fields used to be made up of mostly wooden obstacles that provide cover. Over time, they’ve been developed into several different urban-arena styles for more casual gameplay, as well as with softer materials.
These inflatable flexible obstacles are often called “Airballs” and can be used to increase player safety because there is less chance for collision or injury due to their bounciness. They are also easy to transport & rearrange, which is helpful in case you need to set up temporary fields.
3. Woodsball
Woodsball first gained prominence in the 1980s and has since evolved into a form of paintball that is played outdoors in a natural terrain setting which provides varying levels of concealment.
The term “backwoods paintball” is often used interchangeably with scenario-based play, but it technically refers to any type of paintball game that takes place in fields that consist primarily of natural terrain and cover, like trees and other obstacles.
Generally, deathmatch style game modes or ambush style game modes can be played on a large scale during woodsball.
4. Scenario or Big Games
These types of games are widely known as Big Games or Scenario Games.
“Big Games” refer to territory control based gameplay, while a “Paintball Scenario” refers to a game where tasks are given to each side at timed intervals.
Pioneered by Wayne Dollack, “Scenario Paintball” focuses a lot more on the immersion, storyline, and immersive possibilities that the LARP (live-action role-play) aspect of paintball offers.
These types of games vary from venue to venue, however these are some of the highest tier paintball scenarios available for serious paintballers.
These events draw in hundreds and even thousands of players at a time, and can run 6+ hours of uninterrupted play, most often averaging 12 hours of play over 2 days.
“True24” events even run for 24 hours straight, where players can take shifts and sleep during the actual game. Talk about commitment!
There are different formats which vary greatly, most of them being historical MilSim, movie, or pop culture themed.
5. Mil-Sim
MilSim (“Military Simulation”) paintball is a mode of play designed to create an experience closer to military reality, where the attainment of specific objectives is the most important aspect of the game.
Players are eliminated from the game when struck by paintballs, as in traditional elimination-based games of paintball.
Mag fed markers have opened up a whole new world for paintball players. Not only are they cheaper than they used to be, but their accuracy, range and possibility for MILSIM realism has also increased considerably.
With this rise in popularity in mag-fed paintball markers, there are replicas of many different gun models that fire paintballs through a magazine, which leads us to our next scenario.
6. MFOG (Mag-Fed Only Game)
The interest in mag-fed only games has been increasing as of late. In these types of games, players are limited to using magazines as their ammunition source and can’t use a hopper or a pod.
Devices that do not fall into this category, such as the ones mentioned above, are illegal for play.
While this sounds simple at first, depending on the style of paintball you’re used to, it might be a lot more difficult to some. No longer are you able to mass cover-fire with a huge hopper loaded with paintballs; you’ll need to think strategically and consider your magazine capacities and expenditure.
These are often Mil-Sim style games, and often played outdoors in a natural environment. However, you can also have many different indoor MFOG and Mil-Sim games.
Recommended paintball gun for this scenario: Tippmann TMC Magfed – Read Review
7. Time Trials
In a time trial, players must work their way through a set course and hit targets with paintballs. The quickest to finish wins, ranking them on the leaderboard.
The targets can be practice targets or even live targets that are in the same location for every player.
8. Zombie Hunt
Zombie hunt paintball is a style of paintball where players are split into two teams, humans and zombies. Humans have to try and survive while the zombies attempt to eat them. The humans can use any type of gun or melee weapon they want, while the zombies have to be unarmed.
Generally, the zombie team has a higher player count due to this disadvantage.
These are also commonly referred to as Halloween Haunts, Night Games, Alien Invasions, etc.
They even make specialty paintballs that are able to glow in the dark for your events.
Choose a Paintball Scenario to Play
Hopefully this article will help give you some additional insight on some new paintball scenarios to go play with friends and other paintball acquaintances.
Some of these game modes you may need a couple hundred friends for, so best get planning soon!
