24hr OP (previously 48hr OP)

[Steve]

I'd probably try reaching out to the folks who have successfully run events in the past to see if they have tips and tricks that have worked for them.

Also, the elephant in the room is insurance. I'd seriously look into it, or hosting at a field that already has it.

No insurance = Bad Juju.



I have absolutely zero experience when it comes to putting on events. I have a small amount of experience herding cats. I have a good bit more experience as one of the cats being herded. And I have had the benefit of learning from some outstanding (or outstandingly terrible) leaders, both in seeing what right looks like, as well as seeing how badly things can get dicked up by career-first, people-last jackassery.

[Lukens]

Phase 0: Muster
All participants are briefed at staging areas. Comms channels for reaching admins, comm channel for MedEvac delineated. Safety areas identified on all participants maps, as well as methods of marking outlined. Area of play delineated on maps, defined preferably by terrain features (creeks, roads, cliff faces, whatever).
Phase 1: Deployment
Military forces are given USGS maps showing route for forces to head out on patrol and sent out.
Rebel forces are escorted to their encampment areas. Note, AREAS, plural, as one is a safety zone.

Phase 2:
Military forces undergo movement exercise through a series of movement checkpoints. Each checkpoint serves as the rally point for force en route to next checkpoint. So, if the military forces are moving from checkpoint 7 to checkpoint 8 and come under fire, anyone whacked would respawn at checkpoint 7. Somewhere along this route, an optional mission to locate and secure a cache of supplies (like a few cases of MREs and some bottled water, for example) can be executed.
Rebel forces are split, with group A sent to “dig in”, and group “B” sent to move along preselected patrol routes. Most, if not all, of these patrols will make no contact. So, if you broke group B into four 2-5 man squads, only one of the squads would be sent on a route that would make contact with the military forces. If they do make contact, and are eliminated, they respawn all the way back at their base. If they are sneaky-sneaky, they could conceivably shadow the military force and call back for reinforcements, though.

Phase 3:
Military forces continue mission.
Rebel forces switch, with group B continuing to prep for defence while group A performs patrols.

Phase 4:
Military forces reach and occupy their RON (Remain Over Night) hide. This, like the Rebel Camp, is broken into two areas separated for safety. The first area is a safe zone, and should be marked as such. It should be a few hundred meters away from their overwatch position of the rebel camp. The overwatch position should be selected by the military forces, and should get or keep eyes on the rebel encampment. They should attempt to remain unobserved by the rebels.
Rebel forces should continue their patrolling missions.

Phase 5: Nightfall
Military forces maintain their forward overwatch position (or don’t) according to their scheduling rotation, with those who choose to sleep retiring to within the confines of their safe area to set up camp. Their goals are to maintain surveillance of the target area while remaining undetected by roving rebels. There should also be several bonus objectives available within the rebel camp for them to attempt to sneak in and seize / destroy. For example, if they succeed in sneaking in and planting charges on the “generator”, the rebel respawn for the next day is moved an extra 75 meters further out. More difficult objectives are worth bigger bonuses. Shooting the “camp commandant” between 0125 and 0140 while he is making his nightly check of the perimeter could add an extra 60 seconds to the rebel respawn timer the next day, or whatever mechanic has actual impact on the gameplay.
Rebel forces stand guard around their camp, or retire to their safe area to eat / sleep. During the night, if their patrols successfully locate the position of the overwatch site, they score bonuses for the following day similar to the military forces. If they manage to locate and overrun the site, they score higher bonuses. And if they can successfully occupy the site for 30 minutes, they score an even larger bonus. Once this has been done, the rebels must return to their camp for 30 minutes while the military forces are provided with the opportunity to relocate their observation point. Also, the rebels are given the location of each of the rally points used by the military on the way in. They get points for each rally point area that they “capture”, which is defined as policing up the engineer tape and numbered cardboard marker that was left to mark the trail earlier in the day (that way, the admins don’t have to trek out to the points to collect them after the game).
As a side note, I’d probably use a guidon as the marker for the observation point. Once the 30 minutes of occupation is up, the guidon is returned to the safe zone of the military forces. If they choose not to establish a new observation point, the rebels gain points on the order of the equivalent of overrunning, but not capturing, the observation point every 45 minutes that the guidon is not planted. The guidon can be moved freely by the military forces until an observation point has been established, but can’t be moved by them once the post has been established. So, if they are spotted and attacked, they can run like b*tches, but the guidon stays to mark the location of their observation point. 45 minutes after being spotted, the admins return the guidon to the military safe area, and they can attempt to set up a new site. This mechanic will probably need work.

Phase 6: Dawn breaks
Now it’s on like Donkey Kong with a hard on chasing Mrs. Kong with no panties on. Military forces try to do the dirty to the rebels, the rebels try to defeat the imperialist invaders. Side missions and plot twists abound. The fascist lackeys of the state flee the scene with the glorious rebels in hot pursuit, or the valiant defenders of the people succeed in their mission and exfiltrate to their pickup point. However it goes down, both sides are able to claim a certain moral victory and seek to get the People to rally behind their various causes. If the military forces overrun the rebels too quickly, you can execute Plan B on their pickup a la Team 2 Bravo (What’s Plan B? Run to Syria.), fighting the rebels the entire way. If they do it in a moderate amount of time, then the game is called with their victory among the figurative ashes of the compound. If they completely fail, at a set point, they withdraw to their RON “Safe Area” to end the game defeated.

A setup like this allows for delineated safe areas to remove eyepro and sleep and eat. It lets you set up a bunch of side missions to keep everyone involved, while cutting down on the total number of admin staff you need. You can set up a few caches for the military and rebels to fight over, whether it be actual food and water, or a mortar crate that represents a mortar salvo fired in support of the side that owns it. The day 1 stuff is biased heavily in favour of the military forces, since they have the strength of numbers, but the rebels should get a chance to get some good licks in fighting from ambush positions. And you can lay out the orienteering section to maximize the amount of new and different terrain that the military forces have to trek through. Basically, the Rebel camp is at the center of the spider web, and the military forces are marching roughly around the perimeter. Rebel forces patrol out from the center to set up ambushes along their projected route.

I’d leave the gear list up to the element leaders for the forces, with the minimum list including boots, a uniform, eye protection, some method of carrying a couple of liters of water, a whistle, and whatever other safety gear they need. Element leaders can add to the minimum list as they see fit. Failure to meet the minimums at the phase 0 showdown, and you’re out of the game. Failure to meet the gear list published by the element leaders, and it’s up to the element leader to up-check or down-check your participation. Showing up in stripper heels instead of boots would be an admin safety disqualification, for example. Showing up with a non-NATO primary may or may not be a disqualification, depending on how the element leader wants to handle it.

Something I've found that works remarkably well for marking LZs at night is you take a few full 1-gallon water jugs, and suspend chem lights inside of them, hanging in the water by 550 cord. The water diffuses the chem light glow, and basically turns them into glowing balls that can be seen from a very long way. You can prep them in advance, and snap the light if you need to use them. And since you have a few of them to use for markers, you can lay them out in a pattern so the helicopter crew knows that it's you rather than a random hiker dude reading a book by chemlight.

Can always depend on Steve for a book on how to get shit done right!

[Pacman]

Hopefully your talking to the proper agency. Oregon Department of Forestry administers the state lands TSF encompasses and not the Forest Service which deals with federal lands. Your also going to have to be aware of the fact that fire restrictions are in place during summer months which will limit ability to have fires and use any types of pyro/flares/etc. Junto had a fallout game that was shut down during fire season IIRC.

[Jester316]

It will be in the summer so that i don't have to worry about all the cold related injuries and problem. Winter danger far outweighs summer dangers. Also i will have the entire route along a road so that one there is vehicle access to the rebel base, (if i have to admin i don't want to walk) so we will never be to terribly far from the road. Also i will be scouting beforehand and determining 2 or 3 spots big enough to land a rescue helicopter in IE. lifeflight. during the game all admins will have flares and some sort of strobe light for alerting pilots where to land in case of emergency.

This mindset will get someone hurt. Heat injuries are worse then cold injuries. It takes a good drop in core temperature to kill you. It takes only a few degrees in the + to cook your brain.

Have you ever worked with LifeFlight/REACH? I have. You can't just call them up and say land the helicopter here. They get called by the fire dept/ambulance/hospital. Then they have to do a weather check of the take off area, route to the scene, landing zone, route to hospital, and hospital. Those factors mean that 75% of the time they can't fly.

Do you know the proper size of the LZ? What about if it's at night? Do you have the radio's needed to contact them to give them the needed information to land? Do you know the closest ambulance? Do you know the closest fire department*?

You are making a lot of presumptions that very likely will get someone hurt. You admit it yourself that you don't have experience hosting events. I emplore you stop with this idea until you get experience with small skirmishes and games. Learn how to properly host a game. Talk to another team (that is established in hosting games) and try to co-host. Learn. Talk to Ivan. He has access to a great field that he lets pretty much anyone host a game on (some restrictions may apply).

I'm not trying to be a prick (contrary to what it may seem). I'm genuinely trying to help you out and make sure you don't get someone hurt or killed.






*If you are in the middle of a forest, good luck getting a FD/ambulance to respond to you.

[$tealth]

*If you are in the middle of a forest, good luck getting a FD/ambulance to respond to you.

Is anyone here a boy scout? Even if you're not, everyone should know that you can't get an ambulance in the forest. You have to send a runner(s) to get help, or get a rescue helicopter (which someone already explained is very difficult and time consuming). Even if you can get a helicopter on the line, where in a forest are you going to find a clear LZ? Then you have to find a way to get the injured person(s) to the LZ, which is even more difficult depending on the injury. But, if Shadow is correct in that there is a road relatively close to the main play area, then MAYBE you could get an ambulance. There is still the problem of moving the injured person(s). I'd find a better place to play and a better time of year... It would go much better, say, in the fall, because then you don't have as restricting weather and there is less of a chance of weather related injury.

[Evil Zergling137]

Risks don't seem to be any greater than a normal public land event.

<keep things civil>

[Lukens]

Risks don't seem to be any greater than a normal public land event.

Just SPECDET trollers out in full force again. Best not to feed them.

I wouldnt disrespect the experience of SPECDET members. All their advice is sound advice, and things that should be accounted for. They might be a little over the top, but then again, we also have no experience with these kinds of things. Thus, they know what their talking about in comparison to us. Any advice is good advice in this stage of OP planning. Things can always be taken, or thrown out.

[Matt]

Yeah, better just stay home. We can't go outside because we might get injured.

Injuries are a valid concern, but that's a concern for any type of activity in a remote location. If I organize a backpacking outing and somebody falls from a ledge, is it my fault for suggesting we go backpacking? They assume the risk when they participate in the activity. You'd have a hell of a time getting an ambulance to respond in many cases, backpacking, rock climbing, camping, river rafting, snow shoeing, ice fishing, hunting... the list goes on. Does this stop people from participating in these activities? Hardly.

That said, maybe you should keep your event at 18+ to limit your liability. The problem with you guys being minors is that somebody is responsible whether they like it or not.

[CommieHunter]

I like the idea. Whether or not I attend is much more directly related to work schedule, since my gear list and experience from SAR makes this sound like a lot of fun.

Take advice where it seems valid, but ignore the haters. There are some people that cry every time someone has a new idea, so just keep pressing forward.

[Evil Zergling137]

I think I'd sign up for the rebels the way it is here.

I really am concerned though about the lack of contact between the teams and if the large distance between them could be covered by all in the 24 hours. When teams start trying to move tactically they really slow down.

The respawn and goals don't seem to leave much room right now for specialized forces or risk taking. Would the rebels really send out a patrol if respawn is to walk back 100 ft?

I've done lots of backpacking, and beyond having a first aid kid all you can really do to react to injury is help them get out and drive them to an emergency room or if it were really bad go get help.

What I would like to see is for both teams to have real base camps at most a couple miles apart. For protecting your camp at night to be a real part of the game. For missions/goals to take you to different parts of the field. For there to be a real benefit gamewise to taking out squads of the other team. I like how it is scripted leading up to a large attach on the rebels. I do not necessarily like how the lead up to that fight is setup or how the times for the fight are scripted.

Ideally I'd like to have a commander controlling multiple squads doing various things around the field to gain objectives (like intel or instant respawns) and working together to defend and attack.

[Jester316]

Risks don't seem to be any greater than a normal public land event.

Go clean the dishes Zergling. My concerns are valid. The reason there is more risk, is due to location. How many places we play at are more then 10 minutes from a town? The only one I can think of is Camp R&R (and I don't even really know that because I've never played there). At most, help is 20 minutes away. But when you start going deep into a forest, those response times become longer and longer. Combine that with miles of hiking, in summer heat, and you have a recipe for disaster. How many people had heat related injuries at Summer Slaughter last year? They weren't hiking for miles. They were at a bleeding paintball park. The middle of the Tillamook State Forest? Forget about getting any sort of help in a timely manor.

[Jason Bourne]

If people are concerned about getting heat exhaustion etc... then they don't need to come. Lay out and plan for safety procedures, but other than that, if people don't feel safe enough (based on your description in the game announcement) playing out there then they don't have to come. It is not up to the host to make sure everyone is going to be alright playing in the woods, it is up to the players whether or not they want to take the risk. The host can only do so much and then it is up to the players. Maybe the host wont do everything he could... that still doesn't mean that people can/can't come. It is up to them.

Shadow, I think you should listen to ALL the safety cautions listed so you host it with everything you can, as a host, do to keep everyone safe.

Jester, if he wants to host it it is fine, regardless of the safety precautions he takes, if you don't feel safe then you have to go. I am only saying this, because I think you would agree...I am NOT saying what you said was incorrect.

[Variable]

Keep it civil guys. No personal attacks or such. This thread is to talk about how to put together a game, not call names.

[Evil Zergling137]

lol that you telling me to clean dishes variable? Jester is pretty clearly hating on the idea instead of trying to contribute. It is pretty obv when held in contrast to Matt's post. You are feeding the trolls =P. plz stop heh.

[Sir Stubby Eyre]

The only one I can think of is Camp R&R (and I don't even really know that because I've never played there).

FYI Camp R&R is 15 minutes from Forest Grove Emergency Room and 30 minutes from St. V's.