Help with Night Time Scenario

[T-Bird]

I wanted to do a little midnight woodsball with a small group of friends and was wondering what everyone would need for the event?

We were thinking of using some glow sticks to make it a little easier to find each other in total darkness, but was wondering where to put it on my body so it can be somewhat visible from front and back?

I also wanted to mix in some glow in the dark paint to get that tracer effect when we shoot, but from what ive read on the forms, they dont seem to last longer than a minute without a UV loader. Any recomendations?

We were also planning to use our cell phones and have 3-way call for radios (we are poor college students). Does anyone know if it is possible to 3-way our entire group (10+ people?). I was thinking that one person could be the link between 2 people, and each of those 2 could be a link for another 2.

Thanx

[EqualsP]

I take it you have never played a night game before...

some pointers based on how I organize my games

*** Use Glowsticks for more than just teams. decide on which colors will mean what..
I typically use:
Blue & Green are flags
Red is the entrance to Safe Area (it's easy to get disoriented in the dark)
Purple are Hazards (they are brighter than the red ones, mark dangerous stumps, drop offs, whatever)
Yellow are boundries (I rarely use these, the people I play with know the fields well enough it doesn't matter)

the glow necklaces are great for flags, just make sure you tape the joints, they tend to come apart while running.

I haven't played any games yet with the glow sticks on the people. it tends to mess up our night vision (biological, eat carrots ;) ) and seems to be more dangerous.. though I have heard of games where players put them on the back of thier masks.

*** Walk the fields before it gets dark and set up boundries
Fields seem 2x bigger in the dark. remember this.

*** Chrono down.
Scenario Rules for night play is 250fps.
People also tend to get 2x as close before they fire (usually either they aren't sure as to what they are shooting at, or don't see the opposition)

*** set a time limit with an audible timer, and some sort of alert system to alert the rest of the players when the game is over (whistle, fog horn...)
night games tend to last 3x longer than normal, but also seem to be 3x quicker.. you move a lot slower and tend to hold your breath at every sound you hear.

We use the Tracerball system (http://www.tracerball.com/), which is basically a strobe that goes on the end of your barrel.. when they work, they work great. you can read by the light of the ball when it goes by you. The downside is that usually 1/2 of the equipment any given night is broken. they seem to fail with the smallest amount of dirt/oil/moister gets on the sensor and then they just add dead weight to the end of your barrel. take GOOD care of them

One of my players and I are working on figuring out how to mount UV LEDs to our extra guns so we don't need to rely on the tracer units, or a specific UV hopper. But for simple play, Ricochet is supposed to have a decent hopper.

*** Paint
you tend to use a lot LESS paint at night.. 30 rounds lasted me in 5 games of 2v3. nows the time to break out the pump that never gets much play... and don't even bother with a pack.

*** radios.
you are going to kill your cellphone batteries. or someone is going to get mad when they are called on the phone while sneaking up on another. And why would you want to put s $100+ phone in a position where it could be lost or broken? I wouldn't even attempt it. Either go to Best Buy and buy a pair of the 14 channel FRS Family Radios with Privacy channels and an ear piece, or don't do it at all. For night play everyone is concentrating too much on staying quiet to even worry about it. (if you insist on radios, these are the ones I use. They are very rugged and have survived direct hits http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?id=1051826175740&skuId=5376112&type=product&productCategoryId=cat06017 )

I hope this helps.

=P