Paintball

[AMG_Fan]

Want realism, throw "supply lines" into it. Make where people get pods/paint and where players respawn in two different points. If a player needs more paint, he must be on the field and active. Make it possible for the other team to capture the other teams "supply lines" and have people who's job it is to deliver paint.

Managing supplies is one aspect of war paintball never seems to cover but has been a determining factor in many, many wars. Most notably napoleons invasion of Russia or the crusades. A general must be able to keep his players supplied with paint and air. He may have to pull troops back for air, have "pod boys" delivering paint. The volumes of paper work are what makes a woodsball game into a true scenario.

The general must think "I need to attack an objective, who has enough paint? Are our supply lines secured? Where should I send paint(since there is a limited number of pod boys. and have a couple trucks driving around as mobile fill stations which can be shot out like any tank. Now you need to use troops and tanks to protect the air truck as well.
Make the trucks and pod boys' cargo captureable, the same as you can capture enemy supplies. If a pod boy gets hit then he must hand over his pods to the other team. So, now the general must decide if he wants to use troops and how many to protect them.

We've got the technology to keep in touch: walkie talkies, cell phones etc.

To divy it up, either have everyone pay X amount and just use all of the paint among players(like charge $150, $50 per player goes towards a case of paint and the field keeps the $100. If people don't have to buy paint I doubt they will mind the higher price), when a team runs out of paint the game is over. You have to enforce players to maximize their use of paint, or you can have every player/squad have a tally of how many pods they paid for and mark them off on each order.

If it sounds overly complex it is, it's supposed to be. The players in the field now must rely on the general to supply them, and a general should be able to delegate these various jobs. it's no longer just a massive woodsball game. A generals job is no longer to tell the team the next scheduled objective. He now must keep real-time records of each squads location, their amount of supplies, where the pod boys are, ammo reserves, where the truck is. It doesn't have to be one person, have like 10-20 guys to be the "generals staff" which they have in real wars. Let the positions of generals staff, pod boys be non-paying(don't have to pay to play), I'm sure you'll get a bunch of guys who want to play but don't want to front the $100+ dollars plus paint to play. Generals staff be invite of VIPs. You'll need to designate officers, which control batallions, platoons, companies, who are adults with experience. Have them come to a class the day before to learn all the rules and how the system will work in detail, then give the "enlisted" only a brief description.

A woodsball game is team A vs team B. I want to see a scenario that isn't just a big woodsball game. Where real-world factors come into play. Generals must rally confused troops, provide supplies, hold positions as well as assets on an ever changing battlefield.


If I was going to run a game I would do this:
I would find two guys who are at least 30-40, mature, successful, and good at paintball and get them to sign on. A month in advance tell them what they have to do and give them $500, and an air truck. With that he will need to buy walkie talkies, pods, pod packs, a white board, paper, anything he will need out there.
Maybe if he is on a scenario team or has some friends they can come and help out as his staff(he will need this)(of course, staff won't need to pay admissions since they are volunteering time)
He will tell me how many pod boys he wants and I will put up a sign on the field requesting sign ups. Possibly award pod boys with a free entry onto the field during normal hours.
It would be my job to pick a good general, he will be the lynch pin of the entire game, a failed general means a bad day of play. Which is the big risk to it all.

[Rickfactor2]

Getting groups of paintball players to follow even simple ideas is like herding cats.

[AMG_Fan]

The implications of a "gloves off" approach to leadership allows generals to do whatever they want. Hell, they can find one of the other generals staff and pay him $100 to text every order that the other general gives.
The general should be free of the rules of the field owner, able to conduct the battle in his own way. The field owner only gives real life rules.
-How many pods each pod boy can carry
-boundaries, refs, safety rules
-respawn time

The only objective is to capture a single point. Probably a flag on the enemies side all the way at the back. Of course, this could go on for some time because the enemy can attack your supply base and seize it, now you have to either push with very limited supplies or fall back and retake your supply point.

[russc]

The tough part with that idea would be how it would affect the business model of scenario games, namely players pay entry and then buy their paint. I could only see this format working if players paid a flat paint fee, then were assigned a relatively small amount of paint at the beginning of the game, to be resupplied as the game progressed.

I really like the idea, through.

[heinous]

it's a good idea, but nobody pays entrance fee to haul paint.

and everyone knows the gate to a field so the opposing team can just wait there to hijack supplies.

[AMG_Fan]

Originally Posted by Rickfactor2

Getting groups of paintball players to follow even simple ideas is like herding cats.

That's why they make a chain of command. To tell 90 people exactly what to do is going to be quite difficult. Take 3 men and put him each in charge of 29 men and under them 6 men each in charge of 13/14 then take those and put 4 men in charge of 5ish men. Now, you tell 3 men what you want done, each of them can have a different command. Then those 3 men will decide how to use their two groups to accomplish their objective. Then those two people in charge of those groups will only have to tell the two men under them what to do. then the two people can lead 4-6 people and you can accomplish very complex tasks which would be impossible if it was one person trying to lead a mob of 90 people.

To use your cat analogy, it is almost impossible to herd cats. But if you take a rope and tie all of the cats together you can move all of the cats where you want them to go.

[Fig]

Sounds pretty restricting to the player. War isn't fun, so why try to replicate it so closely?

[AMG_Fan]

Originally Posted by russc

The tough part with that idea would be how it would affect the business model of scenario games, namely players pay entry and then buy their paint. I could only see this format working if players paid a flat paint fee, then were assigned a relatively small amount of paint at the beginning of the game, to be resupplied as the game progressed.

I really like the idea, through.

Basically there would be a giant stock pile that was added onto what you were expecting each player. Lets say you need $100 per player to pull this off, you then tack on the cost of 1.5 cases of paint to each entry fee. Each team has a stockpile of paint. (100 people show up, you've got 75 boxes of paint for each team)
Then, to keep paint use down on those who like to fire 11ty billion rounds of paint limit the number of pods each player can carry. When you only have 2 pods and are unsure when it will get replaced you aren't going to blaze through them in 20 minutes.
Also note, you can only be resupplied while still in the game, so no kamakazi when you're running out of paint to go back to the respawn to resupply.

Originally Posted by heinous

it's a good idea, but nobody pays entrance fee to haul paint.

pod boys would be players who can't afford the event but want to go. Pod boys wouldn't have to pay to be pod boys and you can reward them with a free day of play during normal business hours.

and everyone knows the gate to a field so the opposing team can just wait there to hijack supplies.

The spawn point will probably be a trailer or something out in the field that the staff take a couple cases out to when they start running low. Yes, the other team can capture that point(but you can't keep the paint you capture, the other team paid for that paint) so now the other team can't resupply. so, the general must delegate some of his force to guarding the resupply base.
Since the objective is getting a single flag at the end of the field spawn points, air trucks, pod boys, and resupply bases become objectives to capture.
No part of this game is scripted, it is written to be capable to plunge into chaos at any point. It is the job of the officers on the ground to control the men and the general and his staff to keep his force organized.

[AMG_Fan]

Originally Posted by Fig

Sounds pretty restricting to the player. War isn't fun, so why try to replicate it so closely?

It should be different from a woodsball game. Yes, it is restricting, you must have the entire team working as a unit. Doing their part, and their part doesn't always include a bum rush to the flag. Now if they abandon their posts the supply point can get captured. though if you're guarding a supply post, pod boy or air truck you'll see plenty of action. but those will be able to instantly resupply you.
So, a general says to one of the officers "capture this post"
The people on the ground must figure out how to capture a supply base guarded by a limited amount of troops with an unlimited supply of paint with a larger force but with a limited supply of paint.

[Fig]

Sounds like one idiot general could ruin the whole day for a lot of people haha