What is Scenario Paintball?

Scenario paintball is a type of paintball game that adds a specific theme or story to the paintball game. Themes vary widely, including re-creations of historic battles, popular movie themes, holiday themes and more. The general rule for being a "scenario" is if players or teams are pretending to be something other than paintball players, the game is most likely a scenario.
Almost all scenario games are also "big game" style events, designed with hundreds or thousands of players involved. The games offer extended play times, anywhere from 6 to 48 hours. Players that are eliminated with a paintball hit may return to the game after a pre-set period of time, giving players a chance to be part of the action throughout the event.
Scenario games are almost always objective-driven in regards to scoring. Each team must complete a series of missions to score points. These may be simple "capture the flag at this location" missions to elaborate missions involving props, multiple locations, interactive non-player characters and more.
Large-scale scenario games like Oklahoma D-Day and Skirmish Invasion of Normandy attract huge crowds. These events may last days (As at the Skirmish game) or longer (a week-long event at Oklahoma D-Day). Most events are 1- to 2-day affairs, with 6-18 hours of actual game play.
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.
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 2-sided team play.
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.