Gameplay Rules

      0.   “Don’t be a D-bag”

1. Safety

1. Eye Protection

1. Some form of eye protection must be worn at all times.
2. Eye protection that covers the sides and top of eyes is strongly encouraged.
3. Players are encouraged to bring their own eye protection. A small amount is available to borrow.

2. Physical Contact

1. Physical contact during games is prohibited.

3. Environmental Awareness

1. Our play area often has uneven ground or loose branches. Take caution when moving, especially quickly or backwards.

2. Respect

1. Respect our players.

1. No name calling or insults.
2. Light-hearted trash talk about Nerf is encouraged.
3. Solve problems without arguments.
4. Don’t shoot players between rounds, unless they agree to be shot at.

2. Respect other player’s equipment.

1. Ask before borrowing something, and make sure to return it.
2. You are responsible for lost or damaged items you borrowed.
3. Help gather items lost on the field.
4. Mark your equipment identifiably before loaning it to another player.

3. Respect the field of play.

1. Participate in dart sweeps at the end of each meet.
2. Clean up your trash before leaving for the day.
3. Stay within the designated play area to make cleanup easier. When you stray too far, you will be asked to move back into bounds before continuing to play.
4. Do not shoot towards/near non-players who may be passing by.

4. Respect players’ time.

1. Show up on time and load quickly between rounds to maximize play time for everyone.

5. Respect the admins.

1. Listen to rules briefings and announcements so that you can play the game correctly.

3. Age Limit

1. Players under 12 must be given a specific exception to be allowed on the field.

4. Tagging

1. Being Tagged

1. A tag is a hit to a player’s body, blaster, hair, clothing, gear, or anything they are holding or carrying, including objectives.

1. See the sections for shields and melee for exceptions.

2. Ricochets or bounces off the ground do not count.

1. Ricochets off walls (but not ground) DO count for Vortex.

3. Headshots count. If an admin suspects your headshots are happening on purpose, you will be asked to change blasters or aim better.

2. Calling hits

1. When you see that your shot hit a player, they do not notice, and you are 1000% you hit them, you may call the hit on them.
2. When you are not perfectly sure you hit them, DO NOT call the hit. This avoids confusion and argument on the field.
3. Use their name, blaster, or shirt color and call “hit!” to get their attention. Saying where you hit them is a great way to clear up confusion.
4. When someone calls a hit on you, do not argue about it.

3. After being hit

1. Players who have been tagged must put their hand(s) or blaster in the air.
2. Shooting players whose hands are in the air is prohibited.
3. Putting your hands in the air to pretend to be hit, and then continuing to play without respawning, is prohibited.
4. If you need to temporarily remove yourself from the game, you may put your hands in the air, take care of whatever you need to, go back to where you paused yourself, and yell “Back in!”. This is meant for minor non-nerf emergencies.
5. When the gamemode includes a “down-but-not-out” state, such as Kill Confirmed, players must drop their shields while they are down.
6. Players who are tagged are prohibited from giving game information to their teammates. Don’t call out who hit you or try to help active players in any way.
7. Players who are tagged must attempt to remove themselves from the active area of play, and may not act as “meat shields”.

1. As an active player, do not attempt to use tagged players as cover.

5. Respawning

1. Listen to the rules for how to respawn before each game mode.

1. The most common rule used is:

1. Start counting as soon as you get hit
2. Start walking back to the designated spawn point
3. When you count to 15, AND you are at the spawnpoint, you may respawn.

2. Players may put their hands/blasters down when reaching the spawn point.
3. Players may reload while respawning.
4. Spawn camping is prohibited. In order to be back in the game, a respawning player must either:

1. Move to a piece of cover
2. Take a shot
3. Be out of spawn for 15 seconds

6. FPS limits

1. No blaster/dart combination may exceed 250 feet per second (FPS).
2. Minimum Engagement Distance (MED)

1. A blaster which exceeds 150 FPS may not be used to shoot at a player within 30 feet. If you’re not sure about the distance, don’t risk it.
2. Players who bring a blaster which shoots greater than 150FPS are encouraged to bring a secondary which is under 150FPS.
3. Blasters that shoot less than 150 FPS are still eligible for “Bang Bang” rules.
4. When you fail to comply with MED rules, you will be asked to stop using that blaster or to leave the game entirely.
5. Any tag made that violates the MED rules does not count.

3. FPS checking process:

1. Only fresh out of the box, lightweight Worker Gen3 darts may be used during the test.
2. At least 5 valid chrono readings will be taken.
3. When any reading is more than 10 above the intended max (150 or 250), the blaster will be considered too strong to be used.
4. When the resulting average of all shots, minus obviously low outliers, exceeds the intended max, the blaster will be considered too strong to be used.

7. “Bang Bang” rules

1. These conditions must be met to use this rule:

1. You have successfully snuck up to an enemy player.
2. There is no cover between you and the enemy player.
3. The enemy player is not pointing a shield in your direction.

2. Pointing your blaster at a player and saying “Bang Bang” counts the same as tagging the player. The enemy player must take the hit.
3. When not all of the conditions are met, follow Minimum Engagement Distance rules instead.

8. Banned Modifications, Blasters, and Darts

1. Any dart type with a solid head. Prefer to use darts from the community bin instead.
2. Realistic Looking paint jobs. Orange tips are required.
3. Paint jobs which are not mostly bright colors. Orange tips are required.
4. Plastic bottles which are used to hold pressure.
5. PVC tanks which are used to hold pressure.
6. Any other material which may shatter, which is being used to hold pressure.
7. Hard or sharp tipped darts.
8. Airsoft Taggers. Blasters must fire some sort of foam.
9. Paintball Markers. Blasters must fire some sort of foam.
10. Non-Hasbro brand gel blasters. The hyper line IS currently allowed.
11. Blowguns which do not include a proper mouth piece.
12. Nitro cars.
13. Zing bows and other heavy arrows.
14. Super soakers or other water blasters.
15. Other bans may be issued at admin discretion.

9. Melee weapons

1. Structure

1. A melee weapon must have a somewhat flexible core.
2. A melee weapon must have a foam outside.
3. Melee weapons may be inspected and banned at admin discretion.

2. Tagging

1. Fast swinging or hard jabbing is prohibited. Only a soft touch is required.
2. The touch of a melee weapon to a player’s body, blaster, hair, clothing, gear, or anything they are holding or carrying, including objectives, counts as a tag on the player.
3. Another melee weapon or a shield may block a melee tag.
4. Throwing melee weapons is prohibited.

3. Blocking

1. Melee weapons block other melee weapons.
2. Melee weapons block regular sized ammo. See “Shield Piercers” for more info.

10. Shields

1. Structure

1. Shields must be constructed of a lightweight material.
2. Shields may not have rough edges or a rough face.
3. A shield may not be attached to a blaster. It will count as an attachment that is a taggable surface.
4. Shields may not have any holes that can be shot through.

2. Tagging

1. Shields CAN NOT tag. Shield bashing is strictly forbidden.

3. Blocking

1. Shields block melee weapons.
2. Shields block regular sized ammo. See “Shield Piercers” for more info.
3. Aiming a shield at a player prevents them from using “Bang Bang” rules on you.
4. A shield must be held or attached to your arm to work. It may not be strapped to your torso or leaned against another object.
5. If a dart passes through the shield material and hits the player, it counts as a tag.

4. Shield Piercers

1. When ammo of this type hits a shield, it counts as a tag on the player holding the shield.
2. The shield must respawn with the player and cannot be dropped for someone else to use.
3. Ammo of this type includes:

1. Full length mega darts (thrown or shot)
2. Mega XL darts (thrown or shot)
3. Vintage mega darts (thrown or shot)
4. Socks (thrown or slingshotted)
5. Thrown foam grenades and grenade-like objects
6. Demolisher or titan rockets (thrown or shot)
7.  Ballistic balls (thrown or shot)

4. Half length mega does NOT count as shield piercing
5. Only one item may be thrown at a time. “Shotgunning” of thrown items is NOT allowed.
6. Shotgunning of shield piercers by being shot out of a blaster/slingshot is allowed.
7. A shield may be dropped/thrown into a shield piercer as a way to avoid being tagged. Do not throw the shield at the opponent trying to tag you.

5. Items not allowed when using shields

1. Players who are carrying shields may not interact with items used as game mode objectives.

1. Players may drop their shield in order to interact with the objective.

2. Players who are carrying shields may not use semi or full auto blasters. They must do more than just pull a trigger between each shot.

11. Grenades

1. Grenades which contain Nerf-type ammo are allowed.
2. Grenades must be thrown underhand.
3. Thrown grenades may not exceed head height of any nearby players.
4. The body of the grenade does NOT count as a tag if it hits a player. Throw grenades towards players, not at them.
5. The ammo within the grenade must hit a player for it to count as a tag.
6. Grenades do NOT have an automatic area of effect.

12. Friendly Fire

1. Hits do not count against members of the same team. Save your ammo for the enemy.

13. Barriers

1. Do not move barriers that have been placed on the field.
2. Do not lean against barriers.
3. Do not run into barriers.
4. Help reset barriers if they fall over between rounds.

14. Remotely Operated Vehicles

1. Flying vehicles are not allowed on the field of play.
2. Land-based drones such as the Terrascout ARE allowed.

1. A player controlling a drone must be within sight of the drone.
2. Enemy players can gently turn the drone on its side as a way to temporarily disable it.

15. Gel

1. Gel type ammo is provisionally allowed in these forms:

1. Springer
2. Double action
3. Grenades

2. Gel is not allowed in any other forms, including:

1. Semi auto
2. Full auto

3. All usage of gel may be revoked at any time.

16. Default Rule

1. When you’re not sure if something is allowed, ask an admin before you do it.
2. When you’re not sure if something is allowed, and no admins are around, don’t do it.
3. When you see someone breaking any of the defined rules, tell an admin ASAP so that the situation can be resolved quickly.

17. Money

1. DFW nerf group events are free to play and always will be.
2. Admins will occasionally ask for donations to maintain the community bin of darts and equipment.
3. Records of donation are not kept so that no favoritism can occur.

18. Miscellaneous

1. When the game mode requires carrying an objective, that objective must be held with a hand or an arm. It cannot be hidden or held by any piece of gear. Objectives may not be moved by kicking them along the ground.
2. No fire.
3. Stay hydrated.