NOWAR assassinations looking for help

[allchange]

Hello fellow burners!

I thought I'd start this post by telling you a story about what inspired me to start this project.

Back in 2007 on a crisp and dust free night I sat alone in centre camp. Being one of the most vibrant areas within the festival, that night it felt eerily quiet; held together only by the mix of sounds emanating from art cars traversing past. "Where is everybody?" I asked to a fellow burner sat beside me. We decided that perhaps being relatively new to the festival that this quietness was to be expected and to head back to our camps to see who was around. As I stood up, patted the dust off my trousers and lifted my head I saw them coming....in what seemed like hundreds. WTF!?? I suddenly felt very naked. Glancing around my mind scrabbled to find something I could use as protection. There was nothing. I resigned myself and darted backwards to duck behind a bench. The floor shuddered and their roars grew louder. I knew I was in trouble...

This was the outfall from what I can only dub the genius of Watto's Junk Yard. After deciding to donate 11,000 light sabers earlier on in the day, the rest of the burn was filled with pocket battles. People took sides as Siths and Jedis, built teams, coordinated attacks. Rogues wandered the dusty roads. No one was safe. In my opinion this was one of the better projects because it was both inclusive, extremely social, competitive and a ton of fun. There were very few rules.

Watto's Junk Yard - Lightsaber battle


The project I'm looking to put together has already been tested in another Burning Man regional, Nowhere in Spain. Earlier on in the year we gathered funding for 100 players at this 1000 attendee event. The format for the game is water gun assassinations where we provide the LED armbands and water guns but the players provide the water. The game will be a free for all with the intention of giving out prizes to the 3 people who brings back the most armbands to our camp on the final night. I thoroughly expect most game rules to be broken however there will be a framework which is you should wear the band at all times when you're playing and they must be turned on at night. Once shot you must give up your armband to your assassin and the stronger players will whittle out the weak. Fellow camp members have amnesty so you cannot and should not kill your brethren and no coloured dye or dirty water should be used in the guns. Disputes should be settled by a 5 pace gun draw.

There will be a few of us giving out armbands throughout the festival so if you get a chance to meet us and regenerate that's allowed. Ideally we'll be looking to host around 5-10% of the attendees as to truly have an impact to the festival at the minimum but if we can meet our goal to meet 10,000 that would be a dream come true. We will be teaming up with a charity to donate some of the proceeds, most likely those that have suffered from the outfall of war. Right now the final choice has not been made but we're speaking with charities and taking suggestions.

Here's our Facebook page up from the last game with a few photos of the players:
http://www.nowarkills.com/

So what help do we need?? Right now, quite a few things just to get started but the list will increase as we go on.

1) Volunteers to give out the armbands whether at camp or on the Playa.
2) A camp that would be willing to host our awards night. The group of us coordinating this are quite small in number and travelling from the UK so it would be easier if we were able to team up with a camp to give out the prizes.
3) Any suggestions and guidance from burners with creative input. There's a valuable community here which we'd benefit from tapping into.

Well that's it from me for now. Hopefully this post won't get eaten up and we can all look forward to hunting each other down in the dust.

[Humin]

It sounds really fun, but with all the wiring and elaborate costumes, spraying water around seems dangerous. I would hate for someone in an LED suit like Junlgesmacks to get mistaken for a player and get electrocuted, or more realisticly some stray water hit a generator or adapter and short out a whole theme camp. That doesn't mean I don't think you should go for it, it sounds pretty awesome, just maybe water isn't the way to go. Maybe Airzookas, if the wind doesn't make them worthless, or just toy laser guns and the honor system.

[graidawg]

this is based on a game called killer which was popular in the late '80s early '90's a friend of mine played it at university, actually anything could be a weapon i was told when it was played in new york a banana was the favored weapon because it looked vaguely gun like, but not enough to get you shot by a copper and if hungry you could eat it.
the concept is good however it does have flaws - a if you kill someone with a lot of armbands do you get all if theirs? (already i see how a team of 2 could use this to their advantage)
the way they got round this at uni was you had a target, that person had another target and so on, everyone registered you hunted someone and someone else hunted you. when you kill a person you get their target until only 2 people remain and they hunt each other.

perhps something similar could be used here with a player registering camp name and location so they can be found. i suspect this would take a bit of working out but it could be immense fun,

thought maybe instead of water guns you win by getting someone elses armband? by means fair or foul.

[theCryptofishist]

So, what happens when the event ends and there are many more than two left?

[Elliot]

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I was kind'a hoping this thread would drop thru the bottom with no replies. Don't we have enough hunting-down-people-and-killing-them in the default world? I would like to think of Burning Man as a respite from all that.

[Ugly Dougly]

Plenty of people out there with squirt guns and boffers.

[Finneganistan]

this is based on a game called killer which was popular in the late '80s early '90's a friend of mine played it at university, actually anything could be a weapon i was told when it was played in new york a banana was the favored weapon because it looked vaguely gun like, but not enough to get you shot by a copper and if hungry you could eat it.
the concept is good however it does have flaws - a if you kill someone with a lot of armbands do you get all if theirs? (already i see how a team of 2 could use this to their advantage)
the way they got round this at uni was you had a target, that person had another target and so on, everyone registered you hunted someone and someone else hunted you. when you kill a person you get their target until only 2 people remain and they hunt each other.

perhps something similar could be used here with a player registering camp name and location so they can be found. i suspect this would take a bit of working out but it could be immense fun,

thought maybe instead of water guns you win by getting someone elses armband? by means fair or foul.

I ran a Killer game out there a few years ago, hosted by the Havana Room. I'd be happy to help with advice or suggestions if you like.

The game I ran was pretty much as you describe above. Each player had a polaroid taken, by me. Each was given another player's photo with some scant details (where they are camped) and let loose upon the playa.

Happy Killing!

[Playa Hater]

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I was kind'a hoping this thread would drop thru the bottom with no replies. Don't we have enough hunting-down-people-and-killing-them in the default world? I would like to think of Burning Man as a respite from all that.

What next? Ban violent video games? Violent movies? Its just a game.