The Scenario Design Center (SDC) is a site set up to support all of the games designed by John Tiller. It can be found at http://www.hist-sdc.com It was originally created to promote the Battleground series, but as John has continued his efforts and many more new games have come out, things are gradually transition to a focus on the HPS titles. All 9 Battleground titles are supported as well as the 21 other titles from HPS Simulations.
Including the new stuff I'll be posting in the next few days, there is a total of 393 downloads. The breakdown is this: 132 for the Early American Wars series (1776 & 1812), 85 for the American Civil War, 96 for the Napoleonic Wars, 41 for World War II, 30 for Modern Warfare and 9 for the Naval Warfare section. These downloads range from custom scenarios using existing stock files that shipped with the games, to custom graphics files and in some cases complete new games using the underlying engine.
There is also a Game Spotlight section which features new games that have come out from HPS. This section goes into a bit more detail than the product pages posted on the company site so that people familiar with the current games can see the changes and enhancements that have been added.
As the name of the site implies, this is not only a depot to distribute scenarios once they have been made. There are also several articles posted on different aspects of design. For example, details on creating a custom pdt file for the Naval Series, or a interview with John Tiller describing his position and how he approaches game design. There are also many articles (in the Library) on how to play the games better. Once a designer fully understands all aspects of the game, his final product will also be better. For my War of 1812 game I created a detailed page, which provides several import details that will help in creating new scenarios with the game. They are: Sub-map creation, Unit and 3D image mapping data, Leader mapping and weapon types.
Several utilities have also been posted at the site. There's a GUI OOB editor with plug-ins for most of the current games. Also the utility PZC Stab is posted which allows you to graphically view an OOB from a current on-going game in the Panzer Campaigns Series.
Some other items that are part of the site are a message forum to discuss various game related topics, a playtester database which can be increased as needed to get testers for current projects, a sizeable link center covering multiple aspects of our hobby, and a mailing list to keep you posted on whats new on the site.
I'm always looking for new content for the site, so if you have anything you would like to contribute please see the Submit a Scenario page for instructions on how to go about doing it. Additionally, we always can use more playtesters for all the different games, so if you are interested in doing that please write me directly at:
rahamy@hist-sdc.com