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Super simple water war rules

Posted: Wed Aug 17, 2011 8:02 pm
by DLVR8R
I'm organizing a big (hopefully) water gun war this weekend. I wanted to make a set of rules that would be simple enough to explain in just a couple minutes, and would ensure that people get squirted as much as possible. I also didn't want to deal with hit markers, calling people 'out,' etc, but I still wanted to have a tactical purpose for squirting enemies. Let me know what you think.. I'll follow up to let you all know how it goes.


General Rules:

- When you are being squirted, you may NOT advance toward the enemy base.

- When you are being squirted, you may either freeze in place, or retreat directly toward your own base.

- You may squirt back at enemy players while being squirted.

- You may move normally again, once the enemy stops squirting you.

- A hit from a water balloon is treated the same as a hit from a squirt gun.

- You can stop to refill your gun at any time.

- Players who are refilling their guns can and SHOULD be squirted.


Mission:

The Red and Blue teams start the game in their bases at opposite ends of the field.

- Objective: Enter the enemy's base.

- Each player who enters the enemy's base scores 1 point for their team.

- Once a player enters the enemy's base, they are OUT for the rest of the round!

- Round time: 10 minutes.


Strategy:

Balance scoring points with keeping enough players on the field to defend your base.

Squirt enemies to block them from entering your base!

Use your ammo wisely, so you can block enemies for as long as possible.

Re: Super simple water war rules

Posted: Wed Aug 17, 2011 10:49 pm
by atvan
Sounds boring. Hate to say it, but is encourages like the thunderstorm that can shoot for days. A decent gun will likely have less shot time, thus loosing out. Remember, a 2k user will have 4 seconds of fighting. I doubt that you have any 2k users, but it will still be a problem.

Re: Super simple water war rules

Posted: Thu Aug 18, 2011 12:32 am
by DLVR8R
Well it's in 2 days, so if you have suggestions, make them now :D

Re: Super simple water war rules

Posted: Thu Aug 18, 2011 2:05 am
by atvan
IMO, a simple ruleset will be very difficult to make fun. It id not that it csn't be done, it is just that to make things fair and prevent argument, you should define hit, soaked, win, etc. After all this, it is not simple any more.

An Idea is everybody has played regular capture the flag before, right? Play that, except that soakers are like your hands, to tag with, or can be used on offense to scare the enemy away. You hide the flags, and if you get hit in enemy area, you go to jail. Just have to define a hit, and that is all the rule explaining. They already know hoe to play, you are just extending the possiblities.

Re: Super simple water war rules

Posted: Thu Aug 18, 2011 6:10 am
by DLVR8R
Think of it like a (US) football game. You don't tag opposing players out of the game - you can only impede them from moving toward your team's end zone / base.

This is a pretty casual game, which is why I don't want to get into a lot of detail such as differentiating between 'hit', 'soaked', etc. There will be probably 50-70 players (including kids and semi-drunk adults), and I doubt most of them have played a squirt gun game with any sort of objectives or rules before. It needs to be simple to understand, and simple to orchestrate. Setting up this many people with hit markers, and then resetting them all after every round? Not gonna happen.

I agree that these rules make big guns have less of an advantage, but the other side of the coin is that the game is more balanced in favor of the casual players with average guns (who will be in the majority).

Re: Super simple water war rules

Posted: Thu Aug 18, 2011 11:23 am
by atvan
It still sounds boring to me. Also, you have to define being squirted, as you put it. Otherwise, you will have arguments and the semi-drunks dont help. Just as complicated.

Re: Super simple water war rules

Posted: Thu Aug 18, 2011 1:31 pm
by isoaker_com
I don't think this is a bad rule-set and could be a lot of fun, but I'd be worried about semi-drunk people at any event.

That said, the main rule I'd adjust is if you are being squirted, you MUST move back towards your own base (must retreat) as opposed to just freezing in place. If being squirted, you can still fire back (thus forcing the attacker to also retreat), but this prevents lock-ups where you end up with two people just standing still, firing at each other.

Other thing I recommend is to swap bases for alternating rounds so players don't complain that one base is better/worse than the other.

:cool:

Re: Super simple water war rules

Posted: Thu Aug 18, 2011 6:21 pm
by DLVR8R
"this prevents lock-ups where you end up with two people just standing still, firing at each other."

Agreed.. but shouldn't the option to retreat prevent this? That should work similarly to your idea. But rather than being forced to retreat, you have a tactical option to either continue counter-blocking the opposing player, or fall back and re-attack from another angle. There is also the question of whether you want to keep using up your ammo or not. Forcing retreat has its own problems - how fast do players retreat? How do you make them retreat at the 'correct' speed?

The advantage of freezing instead of being tagged out is that the penalty is much 'softer'. Tagging out can be a several-minute penalty (you're 'dead' for the rest of the round), whereas freezing is a penalty of only seconds - if you can even call it a penalty - and you don't even have to stop shooting at enemies while frozen. IMO less interruption of fun = less incentive to be dishonest.

Even with hit markers, you can still have 'I shot your marker off first!' arguments. But it's a moot point because markers are going to be way too impractical for us to set up, re-set up, and re-re-set up every round.

"You have to define being squirted"
Is water hitting you? Stand still for a sec.

Re: Super simple water war rules

Posted: Thu Aug 18, 2011 8:19 pm
by isoaker_com
Agreed.. but shouldn't the option to retreat prevent this? That should work similarly to your idea. But rather than being forced to retreat, you have a tactical option to either continue counter-blocking the opposing player, or fall back and re-attack from another angle. There is also the question of whether you want to keep using up your ammo or not. Forcing retreat has its own problems - how fast do players retreat? How do you make them retreat at the 'correct' speed?
While there's the speed angle, by not getting people to yield by heading back towards their base (perhaps at least as regular walking speed), you are relying too much on individual's willingness to retreat. I've found in games involving casual players, many are really willing to just stand there and get soaked instead of yielding. In theory, one can just stand there until the attacker runs out of water, then you can proceed towards the enemy base again once the attacker runs out of water. In a way, freezing in place is really not enough of a penalty since there are no lives to be lost if hit.

Of course, this is all a matter of opinion. In the end, you may need to adjust rules after the first game based on how the Players react to the first game. Make sure you have a few options available if things don't quite work out as planned.

:cool:

Re: Super simple water war rules

Posted: Thu Aug 18, 2011 8:28 pm
by Fatalness
Hey Chris!, Why don't we go with the wet t-shirt marker?

A HAnd sized splash on your shirt = out till it dries?

no materials required

Re: Super simple water war rules

Posted: Thu Aug 18, 2011 9:42 pm
by atvan
That still takes a while. And water hitting you can be argued, as can a sec. The drunks won't help either.

Re: Super simple water war rules

Posted: Thu Aug 18, 2011 10:34 pm
by DLVR8R
I think regardless of the type of hit marker, you're still going to have 'who shot who first' disputes... 'hand sized' splash opens up all kinds of different interpretations too... whose hand size are we using? Does a long narrow wet area on a shirt count the same as a round hand sized wet area? etc...

I'd prefer to have players soak the hell out of each other, than to just get a little splash and call out. :D These rules are intentionally made to encourage that, but we'll see how it goes!

Re: Super simple water war rules

Posted: Thu Aug 18, 2011 11:07 pm
by marauder_4
If you are anywhere near NY you should just come to our war...

Re: Super simple water war rules

Posted: Fri Aug 19, 2011 5:21 am
by DLVR8R
CA but thanks :)

Re: Super simple water war rules

Posted: Fri Aug 19, 2011 11:05 am
by atvan
You might be able to have a war with strato. Depends on where in CA you are.