Administration: Pt.4 and Pt.5(final part)

Water warfare game types, ideas, rules, organization, etc.
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mutuhaha
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Post by mutuhaha » Thu May 24, 2007 10:57 am

4. Execution

Prerequisite: Battlefield, logistics, game plan, marshals and medics, player teams, a good communication network between officials is invaluable.

All the previous stages have the goal of putting you, as the organizer, in the best possible situation to execute the water war, which shall be described in this stage. As a result, you now have a legal-to-use battlefield, materials, players, your trusty marshals and medics and a plan of how the game should go.

All you have to do is follow what your game plan says.

Though there are some important notes I have to add here, which could either make, break, or if you’re a good enough organizer and skip this section, have no effect whatsoever on your water war.

In other words, you may just want to read the following section.

Problems may (and I guarantee will) occur in your water war. But don’t fret, small problems will always occur. The thing now is not to worry about the problems that are insignificant, but the really…problematic problems.

These are some of the major things that could happen:
- Injury
- Large scale disputes over rules and general rowdy behaviour
- Cheating
- Weather

Injury:
Your medic protocol is meant to deal with this problem, as it is the most dangerous (physically and legally) you could ever come across. Take responsible action and do as per the medical protocol.

The only thing worse than someone getting seriously injured is lots of people getting seriously injured. Once maybe 2-4 people have been seriously injured (which means not counting minor abrasions and small bruises), you may want to consider stopping the game altogether. 1 or 2 people getting seriously injured can be attributed to reckless behaviour and/or mishap, but more than that suggests that there is something wrong with the environment (like too many dangerous places, too dark, too slippery, etc). Once numbers like 5-6 serious casualties have been “achieved”, I strongly suggest the game be terminated, casualties treated and the source of the problem reviewed over some time.

Other than that, minor to moderate injury should be taken care of sufficiently by the standard medic protocol.

Disputes and rowdy behaviour:
This is the most troublesome problem in my opinion. The best way to deal with this problem is to prevent it from occurring in the first place. That said, there are a myriad of ways this problem can be triggered. The best safeguard against this is to have a large number of mature players, who can rationally solve their own disputes.

When the player population isn’t very mature, the next best thing would be to minimize the opportunity for these things to happen. Pre-game gun distribution could be facilitated (not necessarily decided) by objective officials, to help prevent gun snatching. Rules can be very clearly spelled out to ease confusion arising from such. Marshals, with their power over disputes, should also be easily identified so as to settle disputes in the field quickly.

When a dispute does break out, the marshals are the first line against general chaos and disorder. They should try to arrive at a compromise when possible. However, behaviours such as illegal hand-to-hand combat or fistfights should be punished with some penalty to discourage others from doing so. When dealing with heated arguments, diplomacy and maturity on the part of the marshals is a safe choice. Becoming frustrated and losing nerve would reflect badly on a marshal, so try to avoid that. When it is an argument between two people and the others are merely standing aside waiting for the dispute to be solved, if possible, try to resume gameplay for the rest first, and then take the disputees aside to solve the problem. Discretion is generally advised for this entire problem.

Cheating
Generally another troublesome problem. This is quite hard to safeguard against unless you write rules of judiciary standard. Since not many people can do that, expect some problems from this aspect. Again, the best solution is to have a mature and honest player population.

Given that as usual, most if not all player populations are not that utopian, you should add the following clause into any rule set you wish to make:

“Any attempt to exploit existing loopholes in the rule set is prohibited. When in doubt, refer to a marshal, whose verdict on the subject would be considered in all cases to be final.”

Basically, this empowers your marshals to resolve loopholes discovered in-game, and reduces messy player-player arguments breaking out, due to the marshals’ absolute power over the issue. Though, when a loophole is found and corrected, it should be conveyed to the rest of the officials so as to prevent different marshals from giving different verdicts. Take note of these loopholes for the last stage.

Weather
There isn’t really much you can do about this if it starts to pour during your water war. A few days prior to the game though, you could check the weather forecasts and at least know roughly what to expect on the day itself.

There are a few things you can do if weather conditions become unfavourable:
- Stop gameplay
- Postponement
- Carry on
- Something creative

Stopping gameplay and counting the existing score is a decent option if the war has gone on for a long enough period of time for people to be relatively satisfied or a reliable score count to be racked up. It is less advisable if you just started the water war.

Postponement is a better option if you just started the water war and people haven’t really gotten into the real action yet. Simply gather everyone, pick a suitable date and agree. Bear in mind that you should ask the management authority of your battlefield for permission once more.

Carrying on may be ok if the rain is light and people don’t mind. However, people with flu, severe asthma and other such ailments should be removed from gameplay for health reasons (though they shouldn’t really be playing in the first place). If playing in an urban setting, remember that the floor can get a lot more slippery in the smoother areas, so advise caution to players there.

Alternatively, you could do something fun. For example, my rain plan for one of my recent water wars was that anyone who wanted to venture out of the covered urban areas into the open would have to travel in a “vehicle” or suffer instant death from “radiation damage” due to nuclear fallout. This vehicle was a groundsheet held up at all four corners, and the occupants walking along under its cover. This would have made for good teamwork exercises too, but it didn’t rain and as such I didn’t need to use that plan. If it is a light shower, but threatening to get heavier, then a sudden death mode could be activated. Think of things like these, it could be rather fun and add a brilliant twist to an otherwise bleak situation.

In case of lightning storms and other natural disasters, it is advisable to stop or postpone gameplay as lightning can be rather dangerous, and more so for tornadoes and earthquakes.

The Overall in-charge
The OIC should be someone constantly having the big picture of the water war. He should be able to preempt problems and solve them quickly by using the marshals and officials under his command. It is quite a tough job to be an OIC, and I’d expect he should be running around a great deal trying to contain potential problems. In the case of loopholes and rule problems, he should be on hand to solve them. As the force of balance in the game, he should not panic when problems occur, but keep his nerve and deal with them quickly and appropriately, which is easier said than done. But, it’s not impossible, so don’t worry too much. Arguably, an OIC gains as much strategic skills from handling the administrative aspect of a water war, as a commander does on the battlefield. There are a myriad of scenarios an OIC can run into, so be creative and especially, calm when dealing with such problems.

Marshals and officials
If you’re one of the officials presiding over the water war, normally the best thing you could do to help is to stick to what you have been assigned to do. Stay in the designated location so as to be easily contacted and do the assigned job well. Like the OIC, you should look out for possible problems, solve the minor ones yourself, and report the larger ones to the OIC. Following the creative and calm ethos of the OIC helps too. The basic aim of these people is to contribute to the well-being of the game and help the OIC do his job.

To close this stage:
- Don’t Panic
- Hold the game together
- Do the job

After the water war is over:
- Make sure everyone’s alright
- Collect back and account for equipment
- Clean-up the battlefield, especially if water bombs were used, clean-up also helps sweep the battlefield for lost items.
- Collect feedback from players

5. Debrief

Prerequisite: The water war must be over.

Congratulations! You have executed a large-scale water war. But before you lay back, there are a few things to take care of.

Feedback:
If you collected feedback, reflect on it and see what was good, bad and what could have been better. This may help you greatly if you plan on organizing more water wars.

Equipment:
After accounting for equipment, return borrowed items to the respective owners and find somewhere to keep the unused or intact equipment, which may come in handy in the future. Thank the people who you borrowed stuff from if any.

Battlefield:
Thank the relevant authorities for use of the area.

Your committee:
Thank them. A lot. They probably deserve a treat for their hard work, unless you are so unfortunate as to get a slacking team. But, reward their effort; they may even become valuable and experienced partners in future games.

Report:
If you like, you could write a battle report and tell the online community about your experience!

It’s this long because of the great detail that could go into planning a good water war. I’m not really done, but for now, this should be sufficient. Have fun (though I have something to say about that next time) in your planning venture.

Anyone is free (and encouraged) to summarize this into a shorter form so as not to scare new organizers like I have just done with this monstrously long article.
118th Urban Corp

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isoaker
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Post by isoaker » Thu May 24, 2007 11:26 am

Good stuff! I will be reposting this article in its entirety on iSoaker.com. I still wondering if a single thread would have been better, though, with multiple posts if the amount of text per post is too much.

In general, this article is similar, though more personable, to the generic Water Warfare rule set, IMO. As different people prefer different ways of looking at organizing water wars, your input is most highly appreciated and will undoubtedly be well received. There may be some parts that others have slight preferences in how to handle situations, but one can't write for every possible situation. Good job overall!

:cool:
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HBWW
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Post by HBWW » Thu May 24, 2007 2:02 pm

Lol, I just happen to be in the process of preparing for a war (that I've been doing this whole week) thats on monday, memorial day. My last war was pretty disorganized, and my 1000's strap had to be repaired, but it was still fun lol. This time I'll definately make the rules more clear, as my previous water war wasn't even really expected.
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isoaker
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Post by isoaker » Thu May 24, 2007 7:05 pm

Article Reposted. Click the link to view it in full.

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