Introduction

When writing a briefing for a mission you have two allies: brevity and consistency.

Brevity means conveying all the important information whilst requiring the CO and other players to read as little as possible.

Consistency means using the sections and sub-sections of the briefing file correctly, so the reader knows exactly where to go for each type of information.

Your biggest enemy, aside from poor grammar and spelling, is the urge to tell stories with long paragraphs of text. There is great value in a mission having an underlying narrative, but better ways to convey it.

This page (based heavily on a post in the Folk ARPS forum) is a guide to using the CO Briefing Template component, which was evolved from the five-paragraph order, a real military concept. Like its real-world counterpart, the sections of the template are designed to answer a sequence of simple questions:

What's going on?

What must we do?

How will we do it?

What else should we know?

The Notes Section

Situation

The question this tab answers is: What's going on?

An opening paragraph conveys the essence of the situation. Try using two sentences: the first for the broader context (e.g. theatre level), the second for the local situation.

At the height of the Takistani civil war, Zargabad is the focus of heavy fighting. The outpost at Yarum has recently fallen to pro-government forces.

Under the sub-heading ENEMY FORCES provide the CO with key information about the enemy: type, strength, armaments and position. You don't need to be exhaustive, or even wholly accurate; you can also use linked map markers.

ENEMY FORCES A platoon of TK Army regulars, supported by a single tank, is dug in at Yarum. Bands of enemy militia are patrolling the countryside to the south.

Under the sub-heading FRIENDLY FORCES provide the CO with a guide to any friendly, non-playable units in the AO (area of operations, where the mission takes place): type, strength, armaments and position. Again, linked markers are helpful here; you can also be more accurate and indicate their orders.

FRIENDLY FORCES The First Fighting Brigade of Takistan in the name of Fidel Castro is holding the airstrip with its T-34s, but is low on fuel and immobile.

Note: if no friendly forces are present, simply delete the sub-heading FRIENDLY FORCES and move on to the next tab.

Mission

The question this tab answers is: What must we do?

The words on this tab must convey the primary objective of the mission (and no more) in the most concise manner possible. For simple missions, aim for a single sentence:

Recapture the outpost at Yarum.

It's tempting to convey the whole briefing on this tab, but the more you add, the harder it becomes for the CO to see the core objective of the mission.

Execution

The question this tab answers is: How will we do it?

Note: When creating missions for some communities you can delete this tab completely, because the CO will formulate and communicate the plan. However, if you want to provide strong guidance on how to play the mission (perhaps it will be released to public servers), you can use the sub-sections as follows:

Under the sub-heading COMMANDER'S INTENT provide the players with an idea of how they should aim to complete the mission:

COMMANDER'S INTENT Suppress the enemy position with smoke and mortar fire, then assault across the narrowest gap between Zargabad and Yarum.

Under the sub-heading MOVEMENT PLAN outline any specific orders for moving the players around the map:

MOVEMENT PLAN All infantry squads move to point Glory and hold there until the enemy outpost has been suppressed, then assault the enemy positions directly.

Under the sub-heading FIRE SUPPORT PLAN identify any long range or artillery assets at the players' disposal (these could be player operated, or scripted):

FIRE SUPPORT PLAN Indirect fire support is provided by the mortar team attachment.

Under the sub-heading SPECIAL TASKS outline any specific actions the players must perform:

SPECIAL TASKS Destroy the enemy tank using the SPG-9 technical or RPG fire.

Administration

The question this tab answers is: What else should we know?

There are no pre-defined sub-headings for this tab, but commonly covered topics include vehicles and special equipment (or lack thereof). Here is an example:

VEHICLES Each squad begins pre-mounted in an open-topped civilian truck. CO, DC and attachments begin pre-mounted in their own pick-up trucks. SMOKE ROUNDS All SLs and FTLs have been issued with extra smoke rounds for their GP-25s.

Credits

The question this tab answers is: who can we blame when the server explodes?

This is where you might want to add your own nick, and acknowledge everyone who helped you make the mission.

Note: A credit for F2 is already in the file. You can choose to delete this.

Tips

Including a backstory

If you want to include this kind of material, there are two recommendations:

Create a new tab in the briefing, with a title like "Background" or "Campaign"

Ensure nothing vital to the mission is contained in this new tab (imagine it may not be read by the CO)

Polishing

It can take a while to write a good briefing; more accurately, it can take a while to finish editing a briefing to make it as concise as possible whilst retaining the key points. Never be afraid to spend a serious amount of time on this task - it's worth it.