9 replies to this topic

[GeshmanWG]

I have always loved Nerfing. I have many of my own blasters and have even made a couple write-ups here. I work as a youth leader at my church, and I thought that "Hey, why not have a Nerf war with my students." I am wanting to plan a night when I invite all the kids from youth group to have a Nerf war together. I was wondering if anyone else has done this or participated in a youth held Nerf war? Anyone have any advice for me? I'm sure there will be possible legal complications, but I don't see why there would be any more than your standard youth event. I figured I would run this by everyone here and see what the NIC has to say about it.

[shandsgator8]

Where will will this war be held? That will probably make a difference from your legal standpoint. Also, even if it's held at a public park (or somewhere other than church grounds), will it be an official church even? I imagine a church's liability insurance would cover any injuries that might occur on the church's premises or at any church organized event, but either get an attorney or ask the appropriate church official to answer your questions.

My first non-legal thought is whether to allow modded blasters. I guess that would depend on the type of students you have. Are any of them into modding or NIC wars?

Edited by shandsgator8, 09 September 2015 - 03:46 PM.

[Meaker VI]

Use all stock blasters or lightly modded blasters, stock ammo, and make all participants wear eye protection when anywhere near the game area and you should be good to go. We did one recently that appeared to go very well and used those rules. Get a pastor/council member/deacon/elder/other appointed leadership position onboard if you're not one of those already, and if you are, get another one just to be safe. Find out how your congregation feels about kids running around with fake guns in their church, and do it outside on the grounds, in a park, or in your designated youth area (if you have one) if they don't like the idea of shots being fired in the sanctuary.

If you've got older kids, you can maybe start considering homemades and heavily modded blasters once they get into it, but I'd stick to stock ammo if you're concerned about liability. I'd also make the kids provide anything non-stock.

[hoongfu]

I've run several nerf wars in my old church , inside the building.

• Have waivers signed by parents
• Mandatory eye protection
• Clear boundaries
• Clear rules and game types
• Have a few older people - even older participants help you with keeping kids in line
• Figure out how to work out darts and such (I bough a ton of darts off Craigslist and ebay, about 1700, and charged the participants $1 each if they wanted to use my darts, otherwise they could bring their own and take their own back because inevitably darts get damaged and lost. I also bought about 50 blasters and loaned them all out, free of charge of course.
• Get help, getting a ton of kids under control when they are shooting each other, even before the round starts is really rough on your body.

[Astech]

I've been to one of these nerf youth events. In my case, it was held in a multi-story church building, divided up into zones. Each zone could support two teams shooting at each other, and everyone got to choose their own teams. Each zone had a different theme - V.I.P. transfer, unthinking slaughter, storm the fort, to name a few. Essentially, the rules were simple enough that anyone - even the littler kids - could grasp the concept in 5 seconds and then go have fun. If you haven't done so already get a supply of large cardboard boxes organised, they'll be your best friend when you need to quickly set up cover. The benefits of having multiple zones to play in rather than a single large one was that in perhaps 150 square meters of floor space we could have 60 or so kids playing without feeling cramped.

If a blaster is heavily modded (upgraded batteries, improved spring power, etc), don't allow it. Both the modder and everyone else will have more fun with balanced game play. You can check every blaster for mods, or just make a rule about it and trust it will obeyed, it probably will be.

Supply all the darts yourself. Charge for them or give them out free it doesn't matter. Otherwise everyone who brought their own will end up taking yours from the ground or feeling cheated because they lost half their stash. Besides, if you supply them all, they'll all come back to you. I stuck around for the cleanup and out of around 1000 + elites, virtually none were trashed. Be generous, and everyone will want to come to the next war.

Other than that, its just common sense, legalities and safety.

[GeshmanWG]

Awesome, thanks a lot for all the help. I'm glad to hear that other churches have done this in the past and it has worked out. I was worried this might have been one of those things that seems really good in my head but would be a disaster to actually do. I definitely need to consider if I will allow them to bring their own darts. As far as guns are concerned I'm not too worried about lightly modded guns. It will run much like the HvZ I've participated in that didn't allow modded darts but allowed modded guns. I am quite experienced in nerf modding so I should be able to spot any gun someone brings that is heavily modded. Also the group that is coming will be 11-15 so they will likely both be able to take a hit and probably not be too great at modding themselves.

The place has been semi-finalized and will be in the gym as the church has no other area that is large enough to support the group of 10-20 that will be coming (this first one is going to be for middle school boys only) while not having anything breakable. It also has the advantage of being on church grounds and closed in so I don't have to worry about losing anyone. I'm really hoping this works out so that I can continue them and also bring a larger group in the future.

To clarify I am not the youth pastor at this church but I am a full time intern and I work very closely with the youth pastor so getting him on board has already been taken care of.

Edited by GeshmanWG, 14 September 2015 - 11:49 AM.

[apocalypticamerica]

Back when I went to church I remember the youth group would have Super Soaker wars every summer, out in the courtyard at the church. Just something to consider- could be a little easier logistically.

Edited by apocalypticamerica, 14 October 2015 - 11:10 AM.

[Maniacal Coyote]

Make sure that you make teams based upon what blasters people have and what sort of mods they have, and that the youth pastor is not a dick. When I was in a youth group, we had a nerf war, and the pastor was painfully obliterated by a bunch of darts. After that, we never had one again, because he didn't like losing.

Story:

Spoiler

The Nerf War was right at the beginning of the Elite era, back when N-Strike still reigned supreme. Most of the people used relatively crappy blasters like the Dart Tag Furyfire (I'm talking about you, Chlobo!) or the Maverick. Now, these might have been good in their era, but the age of direct plungers and flywheels had already dawned. The youth pastor had the best loadout on his team, twin Barricades.

On our team, I had a Stampede, Nico had twin Rayvens, Ageless Dash had a Retaliator, Karate Duo1 had an overvolted Vulcan, and assorted other nerds with assorted other awesome blasters.

How were teams divided up? The youth pastor said "If you want the 49'ers to win the Super Bowl, you're on my team," and got quite mostly jocks who had grabbed their old shitty blasters from the donation pile. On the other team were a few jocks, but mostly nerds who might have had a total of two or three air restrictors in the whole team.

They resorted to Banzai charges with their weak blasters, which we fended off with volleys of rapid fire. Then, we advanced down the hallway, creating a wall of darts. We squeezed our way into their spawning room, and began the extermination.

Moral of the story: Never divide up teams for a Nerf War along the "jocks vs nerds" line; you'll have an extermination of the jocks by the nerds.

[xXD3V1LXx]

Make sure that you make teams based upon what blasters people have and what sort of mods they have, and that the youth pastor is not a dick. When I was in a youth group, we had a nerf war, and the pastor was painfully obliterated by a bunch of darts. After that, we never had one again, because he didn't like losing.

Story:

Spoiler

The Nerf War was right at the beginning of the Elite era, back when N-Strike still reigned supreme. Most of the people used relatively crappy blasters like the Dart Tag Furyfire (I'm talking about you, Chlobo!) or the Maverick. Now, these might have been good in their era, but the age of direct plungers and flywheels had already dawned. The youth pastor had the best loadout on his team, twin Barricades.

On our team, I had a Stampede, Nico had twin Rayvens, Ageless Dash had a Retaliator, Karate Duo1 had an overvolted Vulcan, and assorted other nerds with assorted other awesome blasters.

How were teams divided up? The youth pastor said "If you want the 49'ers to win the Super Bowl, you're on my team," and got quite mostly jocks who had grabbed their old shitty blasters from the donation pile. On the other team were a few jocks, but mostly nerds who might have had a total of two or three air restrictors in the whole team.

They resorted to Banzai charges with their weak blasters, which we fended off with volleys of rapid fire. Then, we advanced down the hallway, creating a wall of darts. We squeezed our way into their spawning room, and began the extermination.

Moral of the story: Never divide up teams for a Nerf War along the "jocks vs nerds" line; you'll have an extermination of the jocks by the nerds.

Gonna show this to all my friends because of how you sued nerds and jocks and how we always sit together at lunch and call ourselves the nerd table and sometimes the illuminerdy

[Maniacal Coyote]

Gonna show this to all my friends because of how you sued nerds and jocks and how we always sit together at lunch and call ourselves the nerd table and sometimes the illuminerdy

Revenge of the Nerds!
You like what happened? (Apart from the "No more Nerf Wars" decree afterwards)