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Okay, real world report:
The "all USCM marines report at 5pm" thing didn't work out at all. I was the only one to play in that particular game. But they were thrilled to have me play in full armor, and squeezed me into an ostensibly sold out game.
You sign up and pay, and you wait in some folding chairs, where you find helmets and tac vests. In the vests are four loaded G36 mags (lo cap).
You get instruction on the operation of a G36, advice on conservation of ammo and prevention of friendly fire, and the basic rules of what the enemies do to signal they're dead and out of play. The G36s have a very low FPS, making the vests and helmets more costume than protection. (Naturally, I had my own helmet and armor.)
You're then given safety glasses and a G36 with another loaded mag already inserted, and then you go through some doors into a tiny room with two rows of folding chairs facing each other. This is your "drop ship". The walls are just plastic and fabric stretched between metal frames. The entire "station" is like that. The "torch cutter" was a laser level finder. The "reactor core" was a table with some mic stand-like receptacles for the rods. The mutants wore Halloween store monster masks and zombie chest pieces...stuff like that. Very low tech but it did not detract from the experience.
I had expected an airsoft game with a touch of role play, but it turned out to be very much the other way around. This was surprising but not disappointing. Since I was lucky enough to be put in charge of my team, I took the role seriously and tried to do as good a job as my lack of real-world service experience could prepare me for, by following the Sergeant's lead without question and doing my best to protect, instruct, inspire and reassure my men.
My "men", by the way, were mostly teenage and younger, male and female.
The Sarge, the engineer, the Company guys and the scientists were all NPCs (non-player characters), so they weren't actually playing but running the show, always ready to give a subtle nudge to keep play from bogging down. This is why Sarge seemed to "figure out" things that weren't really apparent on their own, like the need to find cooling rods and the time to meltdown. This is also why the Company guy took my men somewhere, because they had finished resetting a room full of baddies that were waiting to be fought. I realized this but couldn't resist a brief in-character argument with him anyway. He had a big poofy Paul Riser haircut and a royal blue Miami Vice jacket--nice touch.
I don't even know if there WERE a sufficient number of cooling rods to be found. I somehow doubt it, as a complete success would mean a much less exciting ending.
Again, I had a great time.
_________________ Jay Pennington
Last edited by Treadwell on Tue Mar 11, 2008 5:59 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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