Me and my brothers have an outlaw field in eastern Va. It is a quite nice field and we have compressors for air and a netted in safety area. It is extremely hard for us to get people that want to play, I have plenty of extra gear for people and supply the paint for their first few times playing. Are games are usually 3v3 because 6 people in the max that come out. Most we have had is 5v5 and that's only happened once. Anyone have any ideas for getting people to come play at your outlaw field? People on here are welcome to come but doubt anyone would want to make the drive. Here are some photos of our field..
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Gas, Grass or Brass, no one rides for free... -
I ran an outlaw field for years, its HARD to get people out as most people arent as dedicated at it as you. You can do everything til you are blue in the face, and they will still flake. In my early early outlaw days, I used to fill the tanks and buy the paint, then meet the guys at the field, and they would still be late.
First thing that pops into my head, is just have more games, and advertise them. Not so much pre game, but get good footage of last weeks games, and make local ads saying " this could be you!!" I call it " be the lighthouse" rather than asking people to come out, show them how fun it is to be there, and let them decide they want to come out. Its oddly effective in helping others through life, I imagine it would work in this regard.
as I wrote that, I thought about the fact that sunday is a hangover day for a lot of people generally sadly. Which makes sunday game turnouts fluctuate. You may have 3 peeps dead set on going. They they tie one to many on Saturday evening, and never make it. Ive personally been that guy, but when you have 3v3 the one person not showing up is a huge loss.
Get the kids out there!! I see a few adults in the photos. The only other adults you will pull likely are people whom already love the game. If you want to bring new cannon fodder that repeatedly shows up, get some 13-16 year old kids out there having fun. They will be more likely to show up regularly if they dont have other stuff going on. And as they get better they will make you get better.
Lastly you could make a symetrical field like a hyperball field, to newer players this seems to be more comfortable to them. If you had a symetrical field more people may find that type of fight comfortable.
I can say having done it for years, we had co2. Lunch, a grill, extra paint for sale, and whole families coming out at its peak. Maybe got up to 9 vs 9 but even with all of the accomodations, it was hit or miss om any given Sunday
I dunno, Im just babbling now. -
Where abouts in Eastern VA. I am in MD and can get behind some outlaw."but we all have electros and you guys only have pumps, this wont be fair"
(chuckling quietly) "we know"
My collection:
Memornix's Collection V2 - mcarterbrown.comComment
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Getting like-minded players to travel or just already, in the same area. Is easier said, than done. I've had success a few times. But mostly, I enjoy, just the small local group games the best.
Heres a few pictures of games... I've attended the past couple years.
I hosted a few local games at the Birdhouse 2.0 aka Mothman's Place ©®™
Traveled by night/day, from WV to PA and back again, for the CCB game...
Local game on the edge of a Super fund/Wildlife conservation area...
This was a game, I night/day traveled for, from WV to PA and back again...(Am I a hobbit or a Gnome? 😆)
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Thanks for the advice! How did you advertise? Not sure how it would go inviting complete strangers. I need to just accept the fact that my friends just arent that into paintball and never will be. I've thought about inviting people from a VA paintball group on Facebook but am worried about random aholes ruining it. As that is one thing I love about our outlaw field, no dbags, no drama, just casual recreation. As for the kid, I dont know any, the ones I do are a bit too young for paintball. We play on Saturdays for that reason and also we dont wanna go back to work sore on monday from playing all day sunday.Originally posted by BrickHaus View Post
Gas, Grass or Brass, no one rides for free...Comment
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Tappahannock va, about 1 hour from the maryland line!Originally posted by Memornix View PostGas, Grass or Brass, no one rides for free...Comment
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What we do is advertise through Craigslist and Facebook and Let Go. If you have local colleges, post fliers. Even chalking works too. We get 40 to 90 folks that show up to our plays.
Best,
SmileyComment
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Weird randos are a concern of mine too. There used to be a HUGE outlaw field in the county next door. It was at some guy's house, set up in the back where he had about four acres of flat, wooded land. The dude had bunkers, trenches, tree forts....everything. He would regularly have 30-40 players. I went a bunch of times with a friend and usually had a good time. But the guy also advertised on craigslist, and he had a homemade sign on the road so any random person come see and join. So, some jerks started coming to the field. They were young. They had e-guns. They overshot and wiped all the time. I nearly got into a fist-fight with one of them once because he seemed to think that overshooting was just part of the game. Nevermind that he pulled off a nice flank, snuck up behind me, and then decided to shoot me six times in the back. He "had to be sure" that he got me. Right.
So yeah....you either need to be really careful about who you invite, or you need to be willing to be tough and tell people not to come back if they break your rules.
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You might just need some patience. I've got a similar small outlaw field in Fredericksburg, VA, but our group has been going for over 10 years now, and it's really only been "good" for the past two or three. For the first 5 years or so, we would be lucky to get 3 on 3. Now we usually get 10-20 players overall, but we still have to wait for that to happen. We try to play once a month, but we reschedule if we can't get more than 10 guys out. And when we do play, we only play for about 2 hours on Saturday mornings. That's about all the time most guys can spare.
It comes down to meeting the right people, asking all your friends, then having your friends ask their friends, and so on. But then guys will quit because they lose interest, or they move, or they have kids, or whatever. So you gotta just keep plugging away.
I should also mention that we've had to learn that fair play is really important too. And I'm not just talking about following the rules. I mean equal footing. If someone comes to play with you and you let him borrow a cheap blowback and a crappy mask, and then he spends the next two hours getting shot by guys with RT Tippmanns, he's probably not going to have fun, and he's likely not to come back. But if he has the same chance as everyone else, he's much more likely to try it again.
Keeping it cheap is also important. If you don't play with limited paint, you should try it sometime. We typically play hopper ball, where everyone starts with one full hopper and isn't allowed to fill up while on the field. So if someone doesn't have a nice pod pack, they're not at a disadvantage. And you can't just camp behind the same tree for twenty minutes. I mean...they can still camp, but it won't last long.
In the end, though, you also have to remember that for lots of guys, paintball is a bucket list kind of thing. They want to try to once just to say they did. Even if they have a good time, they're probably not going to spend the money to do it again if they don't really love it. And that's fine. Paintball isn't for everyone. But hopefully in time you'll build up your crew and get some great games in.
And if you ever feel like driving up to Fredericksburg for a game, let me know. We'd love to have you. (And I promise we're not jerks.)View my feedback or read about my Virginia woodsball club.
Let me make you something. I build pneumags, auto-response frames, and wooden pill cases.Comment
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A random idea for adverts now that things are opening back up would be old school flyers in store entrances or peg boards with those rip off tabs on the bottom for reaching out.Comment
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We've been doing it for 4 years now, actually had more people willing to come out and play in the beginning, I guess the novelty has wore off now, the only people still playing are dedicated and love playing. We usually wont play with more than a hopper of paint and the experienced players will play pump while the newer players use semis. I also tried a new game mode like fortnite, you start with no paint and each bunker has a 10 rd tube behind it, requiring you to scavenge for paint and keep moving around the field. It is fun but requires resetting 10 rd tubes after each game which is a bit annoying. I'd love to come play in the burg with you!Originally posted by rawbutter View PostGas, Grass or Brass, no one rides for free...Comment
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Outlaw fields are wonderful, had a lot of fun over the years playing in someone's back yard or in some random woods someone spruced up...
Much of the time fields like this work because of a core group of friends and family that come together over the activity. Be very aware that once you start introducing strangers down to play that not all good things come with (all the time).
It would be a good idea to confer with a lawyer about a waiver, as weak as they actually are it is a first level of protection. You should make sure you know whose land you are playing on and whether they are willing to accept the liability of a lawsuit over someone breaking a leg in a chuck hole or blasted in the eye with a paintball. Watch out for ego as well. Nothing will break up a friendly outlaw field quicker than a fight and the word that goes round. It absolutely ruined one place we used to play, and possibly the best natural enviro I have ever played on.
I don't say this to cast shadow on what you are doing, but so you understand that once it gets outside a close knit group of friends and that understanding things can change quickly.Comment
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If you advertise, do so without giving out the address, then you can vet those who respond. Not foolproof but you can often get a good idea if someone will be a dbag by asking a few questions about their prior experience. DEfnitely advertise here in the local section, I've met some good friends that way.
Less is more, in my experience. We had a place to play on a friends land years ago. First couple games we got a great turnout. We tried doing every Sunday for a while and we would get 3 or 4 people. You might get a better turn out if you focus on a monthly game. And if peeps know its not available every week they might be more inclined to plan ahead and make the game.
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capitalpaintball has been running an outlaw field in Rhody for many years and this is great advice. You want to vett people before they just come down, especially if you just have permission to play on the land vs. owning the land.Originally posted by Chappy View Post
Some great advice here in general. As much as I dislike FB it can be a very useful tool for gathering people. In general when it comes to online communication (rather than people you know IRL) a 30% return rate is about standard.
Along the same lines of what Chappy was saying you are not likely to get an amazing turnout every week. Our group plays (or attempts to play) weekly, but I would say we only get groups of more than 6 once or twice a month if we're lucky. We plays as long as 4 people show up and I've grown to accept and enjoy that.
Another fun thing that can entice people is holding special, silly events. Things like costume days, Easter Egg ball, themed games - that kind of thing.💀 PK x Ragnastock 💀Comment
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What game modes do yall do with 4-6 players? Is there anything you do to switch it up or keep it exciting? Usually when I get bored with our field I'll go play at an actual field but the closest one is an hour drive and it's much more pricey than playing at home. -
KMDPB We play in a huge wooded area with lots of hills, rocks, swamps and varying sizes of trees. Your field is generally way more "constructed" so to speak, we generally just use natural terrain. There's a smaller speedball field we'll play on if people don't feel like hiking. House rules are 2 hits to die, bounces count, equipment shots don't count. This way with smaller numbers we can still encourage good fire fights in case you get the drop on someone or vice versa. Some people don't like the rules, but for classic woodsball it encourages more back-and-forth. Most of the guys use pumps or old school guns and we will regularly have "themed" days (Thundercat day, ICD day, weird gun day, etc.). Another game mode example is around Easter we will hide large plastic Easter eggs around the field with 10 paintballs in them, you don't start with ANY paint and you have to find the eggs and kill the other team before they find them. -
^^^ This is what we used to do for rec games with the local shop owner years back. 2 hits, gun hits don't count. That way, newbies and kids have a "second chance" so they get more field time per game. Also good for warm-ups and just making games longer in general.
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I love outlaw ball, I'd come out if I was closer, I live in SC, hell paintball here in SC is mainly birthday renter groups and is just kinda boring after a few games or the refs just don't wanna really reff and won't call hits, the fields around me just put a bad taste in my mouthComment
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I'm in Waynesboro, VA (just around the corner and over the mountain from Charlottesville), and regularly drove 2+ hours to play when I was playing every month or so. Been years since I've see a field, but I'd happily drag my OFG butt to either of yours if you want to IM some details. I have a MicroMag I've never shot, and forgot that I owned. It's far past time for me to get out somewhere.
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