28 Darts Later - After Action Report

I didn't get any photos of the event itself, I was too paranoid being a human to really stop and get pictures. There will be other places that post photos, I'm sure but the only one I got was the rushed photo of the train as I hastened onto it at Waterloo.

I like trains!

Event Overview:

Run by the Royal Holloway HvZ Society, this event was an invitational event open to the public and promoted by Games of Foam. Running for its third year, 28 Darts Later is a US style HvZ event set across the very scenic RHUL campus. I was last there in 2009 to visit a friend and several of my current closest friends are RHUL grads so I know of the area fairly well. However, my legendarily bad sense of direction meant I was no use to anyone. They use the TaggerOS bot on Discord to manage their game with each human being issued a brain code that they hand over to a zombie when tagged. In all, the game was well run, a very loose overhanging arc themed on Dying of the Light. Ostensibily there was an human v human element with players being run in three factions but it had very little effect on gameplay from my perspective. More on that later. It was a great way to spend a day, would recommend for folks wanting to try Nerf a little different.

Equipment review:

In all, my equipment was great. I need a sidearm of some sort just because the holster felt empty and there were a few CQB spots where I felt that the rifle was a little bulky for close in work. The hydration bladder in the rucksack was a god send, it meant I stayed hydrated and fuelled all day without needing to think too much about it. Skirmish belt was a good choice and worked wonderfully. I think I might need to look into a 3 point sling in future events because it felt very odd walking around safe zones with a rifle hanging from my hip. I shifted the belt around just a little bit so the buckle was off the midline to give my right thigh more range of movement when running. The Tempus did what the Tempus was going to do: it fish tailed basically every dart in the universe and scored maybe two or three tags the whole day. I mean, HvZ is more about situational awareness and non-blaster skills but having a blaster that was only semi-functional was an experience.

Highlights

It was fantastic to be back in a fully immersed environment. It's been years since I've been expected to carry my full fighting load for the day on my back. I arrived to site with no room or car to stow my gear so everything I had had to be carried on me. It really forced me to think about equipment utility and my own limits which was fantastic. Being in a full threat environment at all times was great with needing to plan runs between buildings for things like acquiring food. Managing perimeters and making bug out plans when folks needed to be in exposed spaces for various reasons was great fun. Of course, it's a lot of hurry up and wait, a lot of tension and jumping at shadows but it was great fun to have that for a day.

Getting tagged was a fantastic lesson in situational awareness and happened at just the right time in the day. I'd been hoping to get tagged sometime after Mission 3 thinking there was more play after that but it happened on the mini-mission between 2 and 3. A zombie had managed to infiltrate our lines getting close and then respawned just on top of us tagging two of us in the vanguard before we noticed they were a threat. It was a combination of fatigue, complacency and solid play by the zombie and a well deserved pair of tags. Turns out it was perfect timing, too because I got to play Mission 3 as a zombie with all the carnage and chaos that entailed before heading home.

The zombies were also very welcoming once I came over to their side. Just pacing behind a large group of humans and feeding the zombie chat intel on their location and movements was great fun. I'm not the running sort but quickly found a niche wearing humans down, keeping a constant low level pressure on them.

Something else that occurs to me as I write this is how these sorts of HvZ games make for great outreach for the hobby. A couple of times we were approached by randos on campus asking what we were up to, including a couple of curious international students. Explaining why a bunch of nerds were dressed up in brightly colorued tac gear with toy blasters offers a means to showcase the game in a way that closed site games don't give you the option.

Other stuff. 

I might be a purist but I'd prefer a simpler HvZ game for an invitational. I understand why a society who is running games year round might want to try different things and how a HvHvZ element will mix things up for them but I wouldn't necessarily port it across to the open inivitational. There was some effort to make alliances and co-ordinate humans efforts in the day play which added another dimension but also led to issues around some factions feeling targeted over others.

There needed to be a clearer ruling on zombie head bands. Other HvZs I'm aware of allow zombie bands to be worn around necks and heads with them being removed when stunned. RHUL allows for them to be on the neck and requires in play zombies to have them around the head. That was confusing because the bands were blue and my hat is blue. I did my best to obscure the BritNerf patch when in play to make it obvious and acted like a zombie. It also meant it was difficult in places to keep track of zombies that were in play or not because there would be bands around necks not making it immediately obvious if they were in play. The distinction between absent band and band in different place is important and ought to be maintained. This is probably my only gripe with the game. Otherwise, it was well run and I had a great day out.

Thank you to all the mods and RHUL staff who made yesterday (and today, it's run over 2 days but I could only do 1) possible. I know you folks are working on this in your free time and you gave up your weekend to do something awesome. Thank you to Games of Foam for co-ordinating with the society and everything else for getting this together. If it runs next year, hopefully I'll be back with a functioning rifle this time!

28 Darts Later - Kit Overview

I've never actually played a campus style Humans vs Zombies in all my years of Nerfing. We simply don't have that culture here in the UK - our stuff is very much focused on private games on private land. That has created a unique cultural environment in the UK but at the cost of not having had that experience. Royal Holloway, a College of the University of London, is the exception in that they have done outside invitational HvZ games for the last few years. With the career change, I've been at scohol so not able to attend but finally this year I've gotten around to it. Promoted by Games of Foam and run by the university's Human's Versus Zombies society, it's running tomorrow at their Egham campus in Surrey. It'll be a 2 day event but I'll go for the Saturday to check it out. Between Foam Fest last weekend, this weekend and then Bristol Blast likely next weekend, it's a lot of Nerf in August so I'll be fine with 1 day.

The design philosophy of LARP and HvZ have some considerable overlaps. First, you're not expecting anywhere to be safe so everything you have must be portable on yourself. Second, reliability is king so nothing complex or over the top. I would have opted for the Gryphon but it won't be safe for use on campus hence the Tempus being repaired as best posible to be reliable. I've learned from kettle HvZ games at Bristol Blast and BUZAN that lightweight mobility is key and that pitched engagements with heavy exchanges of fire are not to be expected. To that end, I've opted for the skirmish belt, moved some pouches off my vest and will keep things fast and light as a result.

Regular viewers will notice that I've swapped the location of the medium zip dump pouch with the position of the mag pouches. That removes the steric hinderance that comes from the pouch on the front of my thigh when running while keeping loose ammo sufficiently close by that I can top off after engagements. 5 mags (4+1) ought to be enough for most engagements. There is a full refresh of mags in my back pack in the event of exhaustion but I figure if I'm at that stage, we've made a grave error of some sort. The sling is a quick and dirty single point sling I made to let me drop the blaster while doing other things. The stock strap design was inspired by real steel firearms while the remainder of the sling is just a simple strap assembly linked to the blaster mount. I did consider a 3 point sling for this sosrt of game but don't have the brain power to make it happen this close to an event with everything else going on.

I've moved one of my small zip dump pouches off the vest and onto the other side of the belt to carry mission McGuffins and other bits as needed. It's currently carrying the hat, OTG eye pro and gloves I'll need to keep the sun off, darts out and hands clean from injuries. The holster is empty because the local regulations prevent use of compressed gas blasters and I've not been able to find a replacement for the Mayday. I might borrow something on the day or I've got a handy jolt if not. Finally, there are two socks in the front pouches for when everything absolutely goes sideways and I need a last ditch escape mechanism.

Not pictured is my day rucksack which will contain my 3L hydration bladder, sunscreen, medications, first aid kit, spare batteries and probably my will to live. It's packed such that everything I carry to site will fit in it so I don't have to leave things lying around. It'll make running around as a zombie an interesting experience but I'm very much more a long term stalking zombie than I am a sprinter zombie. It's better to wear humans down than wear yourself down!

Foam Fest Convention 2024 - After Action Report

This past weekend was Foam Fest 2024. I ran a table for the first time since 2019 and here are my thoughts on things. Most of my event specific feedback has been relayed back to the appropriate game organisers so this will mostly focus on logistics and other meta remarks about information in the hobby etc.

The stall...

With life being a little bit on fire and covered in bees it wasn't exactly certain whether I'd make it to the event. The day job is a demanding mistress and I'm on short notice changes to shifts so things were not planned as well as I'd have liked. Supply chain problems on my part meant I didn't have the sort of stock that would be useful at a convention. Remember, folks, be sure to order your thread and keep an eye on fixings stock levels if attending a major event!

Things I learned include to ensure you've got lots of drop-leg holsters in both black and left handed varieties. I think less space on the table for the machine with maybe some sort of back board to display more pouches and holsters. MOLLE is a hell of a thing so something laser cut wouldn't hurt as a back board weighed down with the dummy and other bits so it doesn't fall over.

I spoke to one attendee who gave very effective feedback about the convention in general. They made a good point about it needing to be different from what you can buy online. I did a lot of attaching Velcro to patches, some minor repairs and knocked together some custom slings for folks while on site which isn't something you'd get anywhere else. I think a better focus on the tactical gear advice service would help, too since I can advise better if I've got the person in front of me. I guess for other vendors, promoting the try before you buy aspect of having the target ranges on hand to try things out would be a good idea, too. I had my swatch book, too which was new for me since I forgot it in 2019. That makes it easy for a customer to flick through and find a colour they like for delivery later. Payments worked fine even though I did forget my tablet for the terminal and had to rapidly install it on my phone. Not taking cash didn't seem to turn people away and I appreciate the faff of not having to manage a float and banking side of things there.

I'll see what I think about a table for next year. With the day job moving into a new phase as of today, I'll see what I can commit to. I was very close to shutting up show prior to the convention but getting to see folks in person has reignited the love of getting the tactical gear message out there.

Driving...

Those that know me know that I like trains. Well, I like well planned urban spaces that move people efficiently and quickly. I don't like driving because it's stressful and inefficient to do so in London. I only learned to drive because I needed to for work and this Foam Fest weekend was the first time I'd ever driven solo - without either a crewmate or instructor in the passenger seat. I hadn't realised how much of a different skill set driving logistics is versus public transport. I very much bought into the whole "bring what you want and dump it in the car" mentality which made for a miserable experience. In particular, transferring between the car and the venue I used some boxes that I'd stuff all my gear into from the stall. I hadn't realised I'd be walking through a public area between the car and the site. To that end, I needed to bury my blacked out blasters in the bottom of the box at the last moment. I think grab bags with event kit in the same way I'd set up for public transport are a must for next time. It's possible that if I'm regularly driving to events then some sort of trolley apparatus to reduce the number of runs between vehicle and site will be in order. I'm sure those with more driving experience will be very keen to share their logistical insights.

There is a myth to the convienence of driving when you have to consider parking and other down time. My rental van opted to drop the fuel gauge from half full to nearly empty in the course of a single journey leaving me with little option to take an unexpected detour in the middle of the night after what was already a very stressful day. There was a lot learned there.

And don't get me started on multistory car parks! They can get in the bin! The massive dent I put in the van will attest to that.

Forgetting stuff...

I do think most of the issues were a lack of planning on my part coupled with a lack of experience behind the wheel. It's an interesting albeit uncomfortable realisation to note how rough the last couple of months have been personally and how that's impacted my ability to plan. I've learned a lot of lessons over the years on how to do stuff and apparently I've begun to forget that with time. That doesn't just apply to me, however. There are areas in the hobby where we've learned lessons and folks have started forgetting them. I need to have a think about persistence of memory and information in the hobby space because the idea of progress is to allow for hard learned lessons to be passed to the next generation and there are spaces where that is starting to falter.

Future plans

Enough moaning. Future plans will see me tackle my high energy rig as the next big project. In the meantime, I'm going to try to get to 28 Darts Later on 17th August for the day to try the campus HvZ there. I've got a planned rig for that but I need to sort the Tempus out and get it firing in a straight line rather than the current mess. There's also Barnet Battleground on 16th August that I'll probably get to, too. High FPS in a CQB space will be interesting. It's only a short bus ride and I'll head down for the evening to see what's what.