9 replies to this topic

[SonReeceSonJensen]

Powerball and now Seize My Balls (typically pronounced in the Latin) have been regular rounds at the war I have been too and it looks like regulars on most war threads game lists. I have played a couple different ways, I wanted to share and see what other variable factors big or small the NIC has done to the game type i.e. Buckets-and-balls.


Carpe (as I know it)
-3 Buckets, one per team
-Steal balls and fill your bucket
-15 total balls, all the same value
-20 minute limit
FEELINGS: Awesome!

Powerball (as I know it)
-2 teams, 3 buckets each with varying point value per bucket
-Fill your opponents' bucket
-15 balls with varying value based on color
- One designated "invincible" goalie type per team limited to a melee weapon and confined to a 30' "crease" that contains all three buckets.
FEELINGS: eh.

[CROW]

Could you explain the rules a little more in depth? I'm interested to try this out at my next war, but I'm a little confused as to how you play.

[CaliforniaPants]

You've never played real powerball. Its much better than eh.

[Zorns Lemma]

Could you explain the rules a little more in depth? I'm interested to try this out at my next war, but I'm a little confused as to how you play.

They are object based gametypes. The objectives are balls. Your goal is to hoard balls for your team so you can fill your hole or to take your balls and fill your opponent's holes with them. It's like capture the flag, but with multiple flags, and flag captures can be taken back or assault, but with multiple bombs and multiple targets, with each target giving point values and bombs having multipliers.

Or, if you play the socal/"real" way, you have some pokeballs, some energy cards, and two dudes in caps who yell at each other.

[CROW]

Damn, that sounds confusing. I like the idea of multiple targets though, along with that scoring system. I might see if I can't work a game off of that if that Powerball stuff doesnt work out.

[Ambience 327]

Here are the writeups for the games as they appear in my War Thread for Foam in the Fort II. This should at least give everyone a good base line for discussion.



Sieze the Balls

Teams: 2 or more (generally at least 3)

Setup: Each team is given a "base" location consisting of a bucket filled with a number of balls (3 or more), as well as a designated "spawn point" (which should be at least 20-30 yards behind their "base" locations). Players start at their designated "spawn point".

Respawn: Unlimited, 15-count at designated "spawn point"

Objectives: Take balls from your opponent's buckets and return them to your own bucket. The team with the most balls in their bucket when the time is up wins. Balls not in buckets when time is called do not count towards any team.

Special Rules: A player may only carry a single ball at any given time. If a player is hit while carrying a ball, they must drop the ball where they were hit before returning to their "spawn point".



Team Powerball
(Adapted from multiple sources.)

Teams: 2

Setup: Each team is given a "base" location consisting of 3 buckets spread out 20-40 yards apart, roughly parallel to the opposing team's buckets. (The center bucket on each side should be a bit further back than two outside buckets.) Each team is also given a designated "spawn point" which whould be 20-30 yards behind the "base" location. Finally, each team is given 8 balls of their team color (red or blue, or similarly contrasting colors) and 4 white balls (the "Powerballs"). These are placed at the team's designated "spawn point" at the start of the game.

Respawn: Unlimited, 15-count at designated "spawn point".

Objectives: Take your balls to your opponent's "base" and get them into one of their buckets. Any balls in a team's buckets when the time is called score points for the opposing team. The two outside buckets are worth 1 point each, the center bucket is worth 3 points. A "Powerball" in a bucket is worth double the normal points (so 2 or 6). Balls not in a bucket when time is called are worth no points. The team with the most points wins.

Special Rules: A player may only carry one ball at a time, and they may only carry balls of their team's color or "Powerballs". No player may intentionally touch, pick up, block or otherwise disturb a ball of the opposing team's color at any time. When a player is hit while carrying a ball, they must drop that ball where they were shot before returning to their "spawn point". (The ball may not be dropped into a bucket after a player has been hit.) Any player may touch, pick up, carry, block, etc. a "Powerball" at any time, except that you may not attempt to strip a "Powerball" from the hands of another player. Once a ball, whether it be a normal ball or a "Powerball", has been placed in a bucket, it may not be removed by either team.

Variants: One player per team may be designated a "Goalkeeper". The "Goalkeeper" is armed with either a melee weapon or a single shot blaster that shoots less than 50 feet (but not both). The "Goalkeeper" must remain on his team's side of the field (i.e. may not cross the "center line"). The "Goalkeeper" is invulnerable - i.e. he may not be eliminated by either shooting or melee hits. (Optional - the "Goalkeeper" may be "stunned" for a 5-count by shooting and/or melee hits - which means he cannot move or shoot/swing melee.) Unlike other players, the "Goalkeeper" may touch the opposing team's balls - but only to attempt to block a thrown ball or to quickly throw a ball back towards the opposing team's side. (The "Goalkeeper" may not hold an opposing team's ball for more than a 3-count before he must throw it away, and all throws must be directed toward the opposing team's side - no throwing it behind your own team's buckets.)

[SonReeceSonJensen]

I might see if I can't work a game off of that.

YES! And let us know what you come up with.

Here are the writeups for the games as they appear in my War Thread for Foam in the Fort II. This should at least give everyone a good base line for discussion.

Thank you, nice and thorough.

Sieze the Balls
Setup: Each team is given a "base" location consisting of a bucket filled with a number of balls (3 or more)

With 5 per team I have found that sometimes you have a team sitting around with NO balls at times. If anyone has any experience playing with 30+ balls add your bit, I’d like to see how that works.

Unlike other players, the "Goalkeeper" may touch the opposing team's balls.

Gently.

You've never played real powerball. It’s much better than eh.

C’mon C-Pants, don’t leave us hanging. Lay some knowledge on us about your non-eh Powerballing.

[Carbon]

You've never played real powerball. Its much better than eh.

I'll see your No True Scotsman and raise you a...er....No True Swede!

Or something. Anyway...

I'm interested in how you run the game on the west coast, as TPB seems to have some issues when we run it here. Essentially, it comes down to ball camping. After a few unsuccessful runs to the buckets, a team can have all their colored balls trapped down by the other team, especially since the opposing goalie has no real reason to chuck them back into play. The games here always seem to just get called because everyone is hanging around the last few unobtainable balls and just standing around.

From our experience, that's why we've found Carpe to be a faster paced game: it gets rid of ball colors, and allows stealing balls out of buckets. After a certain point in TPB, it seems that things just get hopeless. Carpe can turn around very quickly.

And because I can't resist, the moral of the story: a game is made better when there are no restrictions on the balls you can grab.

[SonReeceSonJensen]

the shooting of nerf guns is involved in these games.......right?

Correct: all ball-play and transportation, attempted or otherwise, is halted by a hit with a dart. What you do next is part of your own rules. OP fixed.


@carbon - Yeah, that is exactly why I had 'eh' feelings about Powerball: you get loosing and it is hard to dig out. Carpe seems to have less of a chance of this happening.

We don't really need threads about different game types.

I have seen buckets of time wasted at wars explaining rules starting from scratch. Might be nice to waste that time NOW and take some burden off the shoulders of war hosts to at least get the basic concept out, and from there build and customize. The worst it can do is lead to a list of stupid ‘what ifs’.

Besides, isn’t the point of Nerf to play the actual games themselves? I have seen little focus on that except AT wars where time should be spent playing (something mentioned in many war threads).

[Ryan201821]

The reason why 'Carpe' has always been ten times better, is because it's ten times simpler.

Powerball has too many special rules, and other random quarks, that make explaining the gametype sometimes difficult. In 'Carpe', the objective and rules are pretty straight forward.

As for the number of teams, it really depends on how many war participants there are. We've tried, 2, 3, and 4 teams which have all worked well. Ideally you'd like to have at least five per team. Also, setting up an even number of teams (2,4) is a bunch easier to get the playing field equal for each team. When we usually do three teams, the triangle is almost never equilateral, so one team is usually at a disadvantage.

Make sure when you're playing 'Carpe', you have more balls than players. This makes things a lot faster paced.

Another, extremely important part of the game, and any objective based game with unlimited lives, is your respawn point. Usually you want your respawn about 20-30 yards behind your bucket. 15 seconds is the normal count in time after you've reached your respawn, but it can be shortened if teams are smaller, and the game is slower paced than you'd like. Respawn points are the most critical part of these objective games. Make sure each team has a similarly distanced spawn, to make sure one team doesn't get a distinct advantage.

Just my two cents, on my favorite objective game to date.