Better Axe Around

A couple of weeks back, I brought out an old purchase, a Nerf Warlock Axe,  that I hadn't used since maybe February at the latest. I was hosting a Humans vs. Zombies training event of sorts, with the park I picked for the event located just a few blocks from my house. Since I didn't have to travel as far as I normally do for games, I figured that I could bring out some blasters and melee weapons that I don't ever use. There can be plenty of reasons why a weapon falls out of use: they're jam prone, lack accuracy, blow through ammo too quickly, or most of all, since I'm walking to most games, they're too damn big to fit in my bag.

My Warlock Axe, which as stated I hadn't used since February, was definitely too damn big to carry around with me on the street to a game. Prior to this training session, I hadn't really given melee weapons too much thought in general. My load out, mission planning and point of view game wise has always been blaster-centric. As a primary, I go with this: 

Its stock as far as internals go, but it still is very effective. For Tactical Ops and Jericho (which allow  foam knives or nothing at all as far as melees go) I usually complement it with either a sidearm of sorts ( Strongarm or Triad). For HvZ I bring a ton of sock grenades as well. 

At the training session, we did an exercise where 4 humans had to square off against 12 zombies for 10 minutes, or the last human perished. They had to stay within an area that was about 30 square feet. For the first two rounds of this exercise, the humans were allowed to use blasters but for the final round they were allowed melee weapons only. I was part of this human group, dying in about 6 or 7 minutes after being the last human standing. Prior to my demise, I was able to defend myself against zombie attacks well enough that I went on the offensive, chasing down a group of 4 zombies attacking a fellow human. I ran them down and the both of us were able to catch a breath. Sadly, my fellow humans died shortly after and it was the last breather I could take, as I spent the next 2 or 3 minutes running around by myself, whacking zombies with the axe. 

After the round, I was impressed, but still skeptical. I decided that I was going to bring a light load out to my next HvZ game, which you can see below: 

I had structured the game where each mission had two parts: In the first part, the humans would be mobile and have to travel to a safe zone. In the second part, they would be forced to survive for a period of time within the boundaries of a designated area. It was during the second part of this mission where the Axe started getting a lot of use. 

We were held up at a Cannon Battery (complete with an old cannon), with most of my fellow humans huddled together on a ridge, fighting a slowly encircling zombie attack. The zombies would eventually get stunned, but they would put the human's backs closer and closer to the boundaries each time. I decided I wanted no part of this.  Clearing the way with a couple of sock grenades, I got trotted past the stunned zombies and took up a position behind them. They paid me no mind and when they jumped back up to push at the humans once more, I whacked them with the axe. The next time they got up, they paid a little more attention, forming a smallish group to confront me. 

I stood still. When they got close, I immediately struck two of the group as the other zombies looked on. They seemed a little baffled that I was still standing there, so as they stared at me I whacked a couple more before running off. The non stunned zombies in this group waited for their stunned fellow Zs to rise back up before giving chase. 

They also added a couple more friends to their lot, announcing to everyone they could, that they had a lone human in their midst. I planned to fight them all, giving the Axe a solid test in the process. I knew where to lead them as well: there was a concrete bunker that came up against officer's quarters (we were in an old military base), and I planned on retreating into a corner where the two structures met. They kept pursuing me, licking their zombie chops along the way as it must of seemed like I was digging myself more and more of a grave. 

When I got to the corner, I put my back against the wall and stopped. There had been a zombie running on top of the wall of the bunker, who was immediately bummed out that his height advantage was lost. I got surrounded by the zombies, with a player named Sinclair charging me first (It was the first of maybe 100 charges Sinclair aimed at humans that day. He charged at us so much that I dubbed him the Charge Master in honor). With a whack of the Axe he was down and since I was so close to a couple of other zombies, I took a whack at them as well. I fell back to the wall and the remaining Zs, with their options a little more limited with their numbers about halved, charged me and received Axe whacks for their measure. I retreated away from all these fallen Zombies, running in the opposite direction with my Nerf outlook changed considerably. 

So all of this is well and good, but what makes the Axe so special to me now?

Dimensions: The handle is about 20 inches long, with the axe head measuring about a foot wide and long total. I have fairly long arms, so I'm not affected by the relative short length of the handle. If anything, I prefer it. With the shorter length, but considerably wider area of the Axe head, I can cut at angles and in ways that a sword does not allow. The fact that it is foam, not wood and iron makes it incredible light and very easy to use with just one hand. 

Unlimited Ammo: I've died too many times in HvZ hearing the click an empty blaster. With the Axe I can defend myself as long as I can continue to swing my arms. 

Dual Wielding?: Not too into it, believe it or not. I feel off balance, or perhaps just a little too overextended when dual wielding. I feel like I'm covering too much ground, instead of focusing my attention on just one area. The other night, I messed around in my apartment with my Axe in one hand and a pool noodle in the other. 

I stopped myself a few moments later. There I was, in my living room, by myself, flailing about the axe as I stabbed at the air with the pool noodle. I can definitely say that I've done nerdier stuff in my life, but I hadn't felt like THAT much of a nerd in quite some time.

I decided to just go with the Axe. 

A breakdown of Assassin: Team Challenge

Hey everyone!

Once again I'm back after a period of lag with the first post of the week. Last week saw the finale of A Friendly Game of Assassin: Team Challenge, of which I was the organizer, as well as a participant. This five week game saw a lot of action, with the team I was placed on, consisting of Beth, Arthur, Yoshi, his co-worker Nina and Ben from Jericho. But enough about who was on what team, who got killed and how?

Andrew:

I had talked to Andrew about Assassin about a week prior to the game starting and he told me that he planned on allowing attacks to occur in his house, something I had mentioned in a post before. In his mind, he felt that the only way someone was was to be able to get into his house is through the front door, with the help of his landlord.

Arthur, Beth and Ben had another plan.  On the first night of the game, the trio (I would have been the 4th wheel on this murder wagon had I not been out of the city) hopped a fence and found Andrew's back door. Arthur brought a lock pick set (!) and was able to jimmy the door open after a good deal of effort. Andrew wasn't home, so they hung around in his apartment for a few hours before leaving a poisoned item. Andrew didn't take the bait, thus a second trip was needed.

The following night, they returned to his house, once again picking the lock on the backdoor. Arthur walked into the apartment and spotted Andrew sitting on his couch. He took a shot, which missed and startled Andrew. Ben was right behind him though, taking Andrew out with a single shot from his pistol.

Sargun:

I posted about this the day after it happened, but in short Sargun had shown an unusual interest in how I was getting home, to the point of saying that if I needed a lift home that I could call him up and he'd swing by. A very nice sentiment, but since we were playing Assassin I said no thanks. After hanging out in front of my apartment for an hour plus, Sargun almost killed me as I walked through my door. I armed myself and stood in the doorway, still safe while talking to him, giving Sargun the impression that I was going to my place to crash. About twenty seconds after he walked away from my apartment, I ran him down and killed him.

Me:

I posted about this as well. Lauren came to my job in disguise and while I was about 95% sure it was her under the wig, the 5% was enough for me to hesitate and get a sock grenade chucked my way. I laughed and congratulated Lauren on a kill well done.

In life, I was connected to the decision  making process of my team, who kept me in the loop after I passed. But in death, I was filled in on the decision making process of the team who had just killed me as well. I found being able to talk shop and hear about the strategies of both teams just as, if not more enjoyable then going on the missions themselves. I've committed to the next game of Assassin, but following this I'll likely take a break from gameplay and just moderate a couple of games.

Casey & Trevor:

Casey was my team's target at the time of my death and was subject to no less then three assaults on his apartment complex, one of which I went on before I was killed. Originally the plan was to ambush him at a Magic night at a game shop in Berkeley. When he didn't show, we... "infiltrated" ...  his apartment complex. As Trevor is his roommate and was also playing Assassin, I knew that I could goad him out if he sensed I was in the area. Trevor lives for the Nerf kill and if one is potentially outside his proverbial doorstep, he'll at least come out and take a look. Casey will definitely come with him if he's home.

After "infiltrating" the complex and gaining access to the main courtyard area I sent Trevor a text saying that the gym facilities in his building were really nice. His first thought was "Oh, is Connor looking to buy a Condo here?" His second thought was "wait a minute...." He sent me a text back and I sent him a couple more texts describing pieces of the complex. Yoshi and I were able to get inside Trevor's building while Arthur and Beth waited outside. But Trevor spotted Yoshi as we crept past their door and met us in the stairwell of his building, with a brief shootout ensuing.

Another shooout occurred when Casey and Trevor came outside, but with both parties a little uncertain of the legality of the action, namely as Casey and Trevor believed they were in a safe zone. They said that they would waive future protection in the building and we went back to the status quo of before we hit the complex.

Casey met his end in the third attack on his place, as Beth and Arthur attempted to storm the apartment from the front and back doors. It didn't work and they had to fall back outside the building, with Casey and Trevor plotting their next movements. Casey decided to go outside and attempt a flanking move, but was cut down in the process by Arthur.

All of this happened in the very early hours of the morning, with the action stopping some time around 2am. Trevor, a student, very much needed his brain in the morning. But after the surge of Assassin adrenaline, he was unable to get much rest. With much important schoolwork to be done that week, Trevor decided that he didn't have time for work and Assassin, and committed Nerf suicide that night.

Eric & Beth:

Losing two players in one night is tough when your team is only four people. However, when one of your remaining players is dedicated to Nerf assassination as Lauren is, you're never truly out of the running. As stated, I was filled in on what her team was doing after she killed me and though I winced at her plan of killing Beth, a friend and constant teammate of mine, I still thought it was pretty cool.

For the plan to be possible, Eric had to pay the iron price (shout out to Balon Greyjoy) beforehand. If he followed Trevor's lead and leaped into the Nerf void, Lauren would be the sole remaining player on her team and thus the target of the other team. In this game of Assassin, players could defend themselves if attacked, but darts shot in defense would only count as kills if they came from the gun of the target. Lauren knew that Beth was attending an event in Union Square, so she told Eric to wait until maybe 30 minutes prior to Lauren attending to end his Nerf life.

Eric kept his end of the bargain and I informed my former team of his death and Lauren's targethood. Lauren went to the Macy's near Union Square and applied a fake beard with make up before finding Beth. She was able to pass in front of Beth a time or two before pulling out her weapon and taking Beth out.

Yoshi & Lauren:

Lauren had been hunting and obsessing over killing Yoshi since before she killed Beth. She had managed to get access to Yoshi's office and plant some poison items of his desk, yet Yoshi had none of it and disposed of the items with a pair of tongs. This prompted more cross dressing from Lauren and in a similar manly get up, she paid Yoshi a visit on the last day of the game.

In disguise, Lauren waited outside of Yoshi's job (though this wasn't the first time. Beth had pulled effective guard duty for Yoshi while she was alive, spotting Lauren in disguise in the same location). She spotted him leaving his job and started to tail him. She had a small pistol (Jolt or Triad?) and was almost close enough to touch her target, when Yoshi suddenly spun around with a Jolt in his hand. The two shot each other at pretty much the same time. This double death, the first in a game of Assassin I have run, meant her team had died out and our team was victorious.

In the end, the team format was so popular that, next Assassin game aside, future games will use it. However, this next one is going to be nuts: every player for themselves, with each player receiving the dossier of every active player at the start of the game. All players will be considered valid targets. I'm scheduling it to run 3 weeks, but I'd be surprised if it makes it 2.

Tomorrow, I'll be talking about the HvZ game I organized this past Saturday, as well as a reevaluation of feeling regarding melee weapons. At the game, I only brought my Warlock Axe and sock grenades and had one of my better HvZ games in some time.

How did we end up leading the mob?

This was not a question I expected to ask myself. Not that long ago, I wrote a post about my personal preference of employing small squad tactics during games. Yet, despite this preference, at the Humans vs. Zombies, at a few points of the game, I found myself along with my usual squad mates leading the vanguard of a giant group.

How the hell did this happen?

Instead of doing a play by play of the game (as it ran over 4 hours, thats way too many plays), I'll touch on something that didn't occur to me before when playing or writing about group dynamics. Simply put, I didn't think too much about who exactly these groups were made of. More specifically, who wasn't there was just as big of a factor as who was. As mentioned in the post on large groups, I talks about the guys who like leading a large group into battle. Two of the most prominent mob leaders, Skylar and David Madison, weren't at the game. In addition to this, there were other players who are good at managing crowds present, but a good majority of them turned zombie early on. So what ended up happening?

As we stood around talking about what we were going to do, other players started latching onto our group. After all, to an outsider we at least appeared to know what we were doing. So one hanger on became three, which became another whole squad of people following us. Then that squad started attracting hangers on , with these people eventually rallying others to join us.

So my group, normally no more then eight people usually, was now more then twenty strong. I uttered the title of this post as we were heading out on the second mission at the head of a large column. Though we were able to separate ourselves a few times from the big group (using tactics that will remain secret) but in he end we found ourselves leading the pack time and again.
Sure enough, we cant wait to see Dave and Skylar again! <

Game on

Hey everyone!

I'm feeling pretty much normal once again so I'll definitely get back to posting more this week. But more importantly, today The Field, my game that I have been cryptically plugging here and there, became playable. I've already sent out new member packets to a few folks and in honesty, I'm ready to go out and snatch some blocks. I'll post again later today about the fantastic SFSU HvZ game I attended this past Saturday, but until then, since its an actual thing now, check out

The World's First Real World Urban Crime Game!

All systems go for The Field

Hey everyone, I hope you all are doing well, wherever in the world that you're Nerfing. Im still a bit under the weather, but even so I was able to host an awesome session of HvZ: Academy this past Saturday, in addition to wrapping up the details on The Field. The game is going to start accepting registrations this Friday, though I will be limiting game play to San Francisco, Berkeley, Oakland and the rest of Alameda county. Players will be able to begin game play immediately after registering here, receive their ID cards and will also get new player bonuses (eight 99% full units+twenty four 50% full units of Cargo, 200k in In Game Currency). These bonuses come with a few delivery options: you'll get more units of Cargo and INC if you pick it up off me, less of a bonus if I meet you somewhere in SF and no bonus if I mail/email your new player kit. This will be a beta test of sorts, but if you live outside these areas and want to play The Field, just drop me an email and we'll talk about dedicating a map to your city, country town, desolate stretch of desert, or wherever you live. Those who live in these places but have ties to the Bay Area can earn themselves tremendous Transport mission bonuses by registering and operating with the people they know out here. For more information, check out The Field's Official Website.
Tomorrow, I'm going to talk about the importance of maintaining composure during games. Its a no brainer that freaking out and running around is detrimental to team cohesion, but no brainer or not it happens at every game I go to. Until then, Nerf on!

Tactical Talk: Getting lost in a crowd

Tomorrow I'm organizing HvZ: Academy, which will be a scenario based, almost training exercise for players looking to sharpen their HvZ skills. Hosted in Lafayette Park, we'll be working out some scenarios or situations players find themselves in, with an equal balance of things I have in mind as well as input from the players present. With this in mind, I figured why not talk shop in preparation for tomorrow's event? As indicated by the title, I'll be talking about the finer points of losing yourself in a crowd of people.

I tend to host my HvZ games in well populated areas, as the crowds become a game element on their own as you have to focus more attention to make sure there aren't zombies lurking in the midst. However, as you also tend to travel in larger groups during these same games, my HvZ games won't be the focus of this post. Nor will Tactical Ops, which is played in more isolated environments. However, Jericho is stealth based and frequently played Downtown, thus near large crowds to lose yourself in. As such it'll be the focus of this post.

I got to thinking about the subject after nearly losing myself in a crowd and not knowing it. I was walking with my girlfriend Courtney and our roommate Maro up Van Ness from Fort Mason after watching the 4th of July fireworks. I don't like being in crowds, especially giant ones consisting of either A) drunk people or B) slow walking tourists. This mob consisted of a blend of both, so I was eager to get past them. My plan was to get off Van Ness via North Point, then walk up the stairs leading to Larkin st and away from the crowd.

Not a bad plan for a person like a myself. The only downside of it was I didn't inform either of the people I was walking with of said plan. Instead, I opted to simply employ the tactics I'll describe shortly. I heard Courtney call out for me and after we linked back up she said that I was just "ten feet away one second and gone the next." Maybe a minute later, in some corner of my mind I connected the experience with a Jericho courier mission and a blog post was born.

When I'm the courier in a game of Jericho, if possible I like to operate remotely. By this I mean simply that if I don't have to do the pickup myself (whether taking a picture or getting an item) I won't. If this is the case, the first thing I will do is disappear. I'll get out of the starting area, traveling by myself and making sure not to come anywhere near the pickup location. Instead, I'll head to within a block or two of the drop off location and hide out.

In Downtown San Francisco, there is a lot to keep track of, so this means hiding in plain sight. The first thing to do, naturally, is to join the crowd. Your insert into this group needs to be sudden and inauspicious. What I like to do is speed up in pace, nowhere near a run, but a steady stride, and walk around the edge of the group. When I see an opening, usually from the side, I'll speed up even more, moving laterally into the thick of the crowd. Once then, I'll continue to maneuver around people in the crowd, before coming back to a slower speed in the middle. If the person following me is outside the crowd, they most likely can't see me. I can just keep plodding along those terribly lengthy blocks on Market street and be lost to the world.

So now that I'm hiding out, I'll either just stay firmly surrounded by human shields, or move to a nice hidey-hole if I come across one. I prefer to stay with the crowd, or move between crowds, because if I spot players from the other team, I can safely observe and report their movements the same as if I was in a concealed location. Anywhere they go, aslong as I stay with mob. If there is just a straggler or two and the risk isn't too high (as the courier in Jericho, if you die the mission ends) for me to take them out, I'll give it a try.

There's something to say about the virtues of losing yourself in a crowd when being pursued. The benefits of such go without saying. The process for doing so doesn't change either, but there is one factor in this situation that can spoil it for you: keeping calm. To the person looking for you, anybody acting agitated, namely by constantly looking over their shoulder or breaking out into a run in the middle of a crowd is going to draw their attention. If they can keep calm and catch up with you, being in a crowd will work against you. However, even if you are freaking out on the inside, if you don't let it show in any visible way, nobody will notice it. You'll be one person in a hundred, or a thousand depending on when and where you are, the needle in a human haystack. If you lose your tail, it'll be possible to turn the tables on them and take them out if you can move to a position to watch them. The moment they doze off or stop to do something you unload.

So in light of this tactical talk, I'm excited about tomorrow's non-game and especially excited to hear any suggestions players have in mind that they want to give some practice. Talk to you next week!

Estoy Enfermo

Sorry for the lack of updates this weeks. My sinuses have been burning since the 4th and its been a little tough to do anything but hang out in bed. That's not really different from most days, but its enough to do  the trick. However, I do want to write something before Saturday's HvZ academy, in addition to showing my updated load out. So I'll get back to you all tomorrow, but until then be well and Nerf on!

Who's this guy?

Hey everyone, its been a few days since I last posted and in that time I've been wrapping up details on the project I eluded to. For my readers in the bay area, if I'm not already in contact with you, drop me a line if you're interested in participating in the beta testing of this project. If so, I'll give you the url with all the information as well as answer any questions you may have during the process.

In the meantime, there are a couple of games coming up in the next few weeks, including HvZ at SFSU, Jericho and my own games of HvZ in Lafayette Park and Fort Mason. I'll be attending and posting about SFSU HvZ (not sure if I'll go to my games though), but sadly I won't be able to make Jericho this month as the games are happening when I'm at work. But what about the man attending the games? Who's this guy? I haven't done a post like this yet, but I don't feel I can go on without doing so. So without further adue, this is me:

Q: Where are you from and where do you live?
A: I was born and raised in San Francisco, where I currently live. I grew up over on Cortland avenue, about a block up from Mission street, went to school in the Mission District and until I went to high school, pretty much did everything in that neighborhood.

Q: Where is your family from and do you have any siblings?
A: My mother is from Belmont, a smaller town in the Peninsula. My father was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland and lived there until his early 30's when he came to the US to play music. He met my mom in San Francisco and not long after he went back to Belfast, she went out there, found him and they got married. My older sister Siobhan (they really hit us heavy with the Irish names) was the immediate product of this union, with me coming along a couple of years later.

Q: How long have you been Nerfing?
A: Just since the start of this year. The project I cryptically alluded to above steered me in the direction of the NIC, which manifested in the form of Jericho. I found out about it on meetup.com, but just missed a game by day or two. I was already looking to host games, but I needed to play first. That three hours of game play hooked me. I created my meetup.com group the next day and hosted my first game a couple of weeks later. Ever since I've been organizing games, managing a Facebook community, blogging and creating projects and  then speaking of them cryptically. As of the last month or so, if I go a couple of days without doing something Nerf related, that's a pretty long time.

Q: Have you always been such a nerd?
A: Yes, but I didn't always know it or necessarily acknowledge it. As funny as it may sound, in the late 80's and early 90's when I was first coming in contact with the world, San Francisco wasn't the friendliest town to nerds. At least in my neighborhood it wasn't. When I was a kid, I was too young to know that I was nerding out hardcore when I was memorizing the wing span of birds (subsequently ambushing my mom and bombarding her with the facts), but as I got older and started trying to be a cool guy like all the other guys around me, I noticed how nerdy I truly was. When we were playing basketball,  I would casually discuss how many defensive rebounds or assits a player averaged a season. Or when I was writing graffiti I would talk about to my friends about guys who tagged not even in San Francisco, but back in New York a few years before we were born. In neither instance did I get anything but stares (at best), so I realized I needed to keep my nerdness in check if I wanted to be cool like my buddies.

I started nerding out even harder when I hit 15/16, sitting down and devouring history books in a couple of days, week after week, for the rest of my teenage years. I crossed the nerd threshold, stopped caring about being cool and just did my thing.

Q: What is your favorite Nerf blaster?
A: The Strongarm. Any time I've ever needed it, its served me very well. Its easy to transport, conceal, its very accurate and the 6 dart capacity gives you enough time to create space and reload.

Q: What is your favorite location that you've hosted a game at?
A: The UCSF campus down in Mission Bay. Both Tactical Ops games I've done there have been a blast and the environment the space creates, especially in the Garage can't be duplicated.

Q: Where would you like to host a game?
A: That question deserves two answers: I would love to do an all day event in a giant park, somewhere like Hyde Park in London or Mount Royal park in Montreal. As far as indoor games, I want to do a either a hostage rescue or HvZ game in a high rise building.

Q: What are your favorite countries you've visited?
A: Israel, Ireland, the UK and Canada are all ranked about even.

Q: Favorite cities then?
A: 1) Montreal
     2) London
     3) Belfast
     4) Jerusalem
     5) New York

Q: Someone is sending a Nerf hit squad after you, with orders for your demise. Who is backing you up and what do they have?
A: Ben as a scout, wielding a Retaliator stripped of the attachments. Eric is waiting in ambush with a Rampage: loaded with a 35 dart drum and a blowgun taped to the top (because, as Eric said himself "I'm a spammy muthaf@cka"). Trevor is on one side of me with a Rayven/Stryfe and Beth is on the other with Retaliator and a Strongarm. Arthur is running all over the place either with his Strongarm or just with a sword.

Q: Do you have a Nerf nemesis?
A: I think I have a couple. Yoshi Murai and Andrew Shenck, who I play with here in the city I definitely have a positive, very healthy nemesis relationship with. These guys always want to take me out when we play against each other, so I oblige in returning the favor. Though I have only played with him a coupe of times, Ryan Ramirez, who I play with down in San Jose and up here at games I host, is definitey becoming one. We're always running into each other and at least as of late, I've been able to pull a couple of kind of cool, sneaky tricks on him during games. He's also been able to come back from these tricks and take me out soon after. In the first game I played with him (an HvZ game), he lead a pack of zombies that chased me all through the upper Castro (and its many giant hills) for about 10-15 minutes straight. When I got to the rendezvous point and took a breather, he snuck up through some bushes and tried to get me. He definitely earned my respect then and his many instances of accurate shooting, successful charges and his endless energy have impressed me.

Q: What is your ultimate goal Nerf wise?
A: I want to travel to places with people are into Nerf (or places where they aren't), but the infrastructure for games isn't really established. I would go there, show them how to organize, ultilize the internet and media, give them rule sets for different games and just get regularly scheduled games going. A Johnny Nerfseed if you will.

If you have any other questions, just send them to questionsforconnor@gmail.com I'll answer em and toss them up on the site. Until next time my nerf kindred.

Death becomes me

Pretty emo title I know, but perhaps a little emo is in order as yesterday I was assassinated. I was definitely a little bummed to bite the nerf bullet (dart?), but putting aside the fact that I'm out of the game, I'm actually pretty glad someone came by and took me out. Before I get to that, some backstory is in order.

This wasn't the only attack on me this week, but a player named Lauren picked up where her fallen comrade Sargun left off. With Sargun taken out, Lauren was the only player left on her team remaining in San Francisco, so I expected her to come by for me at some point. I mostly know Lauren from Jericho games, but at that I don't know her very well. That means I was blank on her playing style, favorite weapons and overall competence in the realm of Nerf. The last time I saw her, she had bright pink hair, so I figured I should at least notice her first above anything else.

So when she came for me yesterday at my job, I thought I had spotted her. However, this Lauren like person had black hair, a hat and sunglasses on. I grabbed at my Strongarm and waited for her to pass through the door.

Still unsure, I hesitated to shoot. In that one or two seconds of me trying to figure this person out, she lobbed a sock grenade at me and sent me to Nerf Valhalla. I was dead and Lauren was an incredibly happy young lady for drawing her first blood. My death gave me a new perspective on disguises instantly: previously, for some reason, I thought for a disguise to be effective, it has to conceal your identity almost totally. But not so. It merely has to make your rival second guess themselves for a couple of seconds, plenty of time to chuck a sock or shoot a dart.

On top of this, as I mentioned at the start of this post, I'm very happy to have someone come around and take me out. Lauren definitely took some time out for preparations, considered what weapons to use and planned a strategy. On top of that, she executed me without saying a word, simply walking up to me and doing the deed. I'm happy because that means there's another ultra nerd out there playing my games and at that having a great time. With another ultra in the mix, more crazy stuff will happen, thus triggering the ultra nerd instincts in others, resulting in a chain reaction of fun.

I'll still allow attacks at my job for the next Assassin game, somewhere down the line. I will also just shoot anyone who looks like someone from the game. It may create an awkward situation or two, but screw it, I'll live to tell the story. Good luck to all the players left in the game and happy 4th of July!

Super Secret

I have been working on a project for the last couple of months, which I haven't spoken too much about except with those I'm fairly close to. However, in a last rush of action, it looks it I should have it up and running this week. All I will say for now is that is a game one can play every day, regardless of where they are. With Nerf guns.