Arma Reforger Scenarios and Scenario IDs

What a scenario is

A scenario is a mission definition: the world, the game mode, and the rules the server runs. Arma Reforger ships several base-game scenarios such as Conflict and Game Master across the official worlds, and Workshop mods can add their own. Exactly one scenario is loaded per server session, and it is chosen by game.scenarioId. If a scenario comes from a mod, that mod also has to be present in the server mod list before the ID will resolve.

The scenarioId format

A scenario ID is not a plain name. It is a resource reference made of two parts:

{ECC61978EDCC2B5A}Missions/23_Campaign.conf
 └──────┬───────┘ └──────────┬──────────┘
   owning resource      resource path
   (16-hex GUID)        to the .conf file

Braced GUID

A 16-character hexadecimal identifier in curly braces that names the resource the scenario belongs to. It is either the base game or a specific Workshop mod.

Resource path

The path to the scenario's .conf file inside that resource, usually under Missions/. It is case sensitive and must match exactly.

The braces, the GUID, and the path are all required. A missing brace or a wrong path is the most common reason a server refuses to load a scenario. The authoritative list of base-game scenario IDs is maintained on the official Bohemia Interactive server config documentation.

Base-game and modded scenarios

Base-game scenarios use a GUID owned by the game itself, so they work with an empty mod list. Modded scenarios use the GUID of the mod that ships them, which changes what your config needs.

• For a base-game scenario, set game.scenarioId and leave game.mods empty if you are not running other mods.
• For a modded scenario, add the scenario's mod to game.mods first, then set game.scenarioId to that mod's {GUID}Missions/....conf value.
• If the mod that owns the scenario is missing from the mod list, the server cannot resolve the ID and startup fails.

The adding mods guide covers writing the game.mods array, and the mod dependencies guide covers pulling in anything the scenario mod itself requires.

Discover scenario IDs exposed by mods

On ReforgerMods.net, a mod that declares scenarios lists them on its detail page, including the scenario name and its identifier where the Workshop exposes that data. Open the mod browser, find the scenario mod, and read its scenarios section rather than guessing the path. Developers can request the same data as JSON from the V2 API:

curl https://api.reforgermods.net/v2/mods/{mod_id}/scenarios

This scenario metadata is normalized from Arma Reforger Workshop data and is one area where a mod page shows more than a plain Workshop listing.

Discover scenario IDs from the server

The dedicated server can print every scenario it can currently load, including Workshop scenarios from installed mods, with the -listScenarios startup parameter:

./ArmaReforgerServer -listScenarios

The server writes the available scenario .conf paths to its log. Workshop scenarios are only listed when no scenario is being loaded, so if you already have a scenarioId set through a config, temporarily launch without that config to see the full list. The parameter is documented on the official startup parameters page, and the scenario system itself is covered by the official scenario framework documentation.

Set the scenario in config.json

The scenario ID goes in the game object. This example runs a modded scenario, so the owning mod is listed first:

{
  "game": {
    "name": "My Reforger Server",
    "scenarioId": "{ABCDEF0123456789}Missions/MyScenario.conf",
    "maxPlayers": 32,
    "mods": [
      { "modId": "ABCDEF0123456789", "name": "Scenario Mod" }
    ]
  }
}

The config.json guide explains the rest of the game object, and the server config example shows a complete file.

Common mistakes

• Using the scenario's display name instead of its {GUID}Missions/....conf resource path.
• Dropping or mismatching the curly braces around the GUID.
• Setting a modded scenarioId without adding the owning mod to game.mods.
• Changing the mod version so the scenario path no longer resolves.
• Trailing spaces or wrong capitalization in the resource path.