Game Ideas for Group of 14 or so players

[Cdn_Cuda]

Doing a private rental at my local field for about 14 player (give or take) and want to have a few different game options ideas. Want to start with an easy straight elimination with two lives. Then maybe a centre flag (or rubber chicken) game. What are some other fun variation of games? We have a mixed of brand new players and once a year players, skewing older (40s) and some younger kids around 14.

Rentals are included and I was planning on a bringing a stack of markers to use so I could do something like eliminated players can trade their rental marker for one of mine etc.

[ClockworkSoldier]

Lots of different options, but there's also a lot of dependency on field size/layout.

King of the hill can always be fun if you have a raised position to fight over, and usually it's better to skew the team numbers towards the attackers.

A hunter/stalker game type, if you have deep woods to play in. A smaller team finds a defendable spot, or tries to be stealthy, while the larger team hunts them.

Zombies vs. survivors game, where all but one or two of the players defend a set location, and can't move too far away, while one or two "zombie" players try to eliminate them and turn them to their side. The eliminated players respawn at the zombie starting location and join the other zombies.

If you want something a bit chaotic, you could do a tag type game, but that's better once you have pretty evenly skilled teams figured out. Any time a player gets eliminated, they join the opposing team, and respawn from their start point.

And you could always do an Iron man game if you have someone crazy enough to want to be the Iron Man, lol. My buddies and I always used to play it by having the Iron Man wear a barrel cover around their neck, and getting a direct hit on it was the only way to eliminate them.

[Cdn_Cuda]

Ooh lots of good options. I like the non-elmination aspect of the Zombie vs Surviviors and tag type game. Lets people still keep playing more.

I don't think our group would have someone that wants to be Iron man. Played some protect the VIP games and they can be fun as well.

[Glovebox Operator]

Maybe a game that put most or all of the other players against myself and a couple of more experienced players. Fox hunt kinda thing if the field's big enough. Or a VIP game where someone's the VIP with a body guard or 2, VIP gets very limited paint in a pistol and can only be eliminated with a head shot, sometimes special hits to eliminate a bodyguard, and then get the VIP has to get to a certain place on the field. I also like a good zombie invasion game.

[Cdn_Cuda]

They have nice bush area at the field. That's my favourite field type.

[Fossilhead]

One we used to play if we had a younger nervous kid on the field was that he was the only one with the marker.

Everyone else had to make it into the dead box behind him without getting hit.

Akin to space invaders.

[Cdn_Cuda]

Oh that might be fun as well. Good introduction to some of the newer kids, as long as the older players were fine. Likely be a pretty quick game.

[freedom]

One we used to play if we had a younger nervous kid on the field was that he was the only one with the marker.

Everyone else had to make it into the dead box behind him without getting hit.

Akin to space invaders.

that's really good. ^^

I always played with the newer kids: shooting at their feet or near them but never hitting them, just to get them to come out of the bunkers.

can always do black hawk down: two people get unlimited paint and good defenses but can't leave a small location. the rest of the players get only ten balls and have to respawn to get more paint.

[Cdn_Cuda]

Limited paint is a good idea too!

[Chaos]

Nothing beats a good old-fashioned game of birthday ball. Technically it's supposed to be played with pumps but realistically you can play with any kind of marker.
The rules are two teams, 5 minute time limit, all of the elimination, 10 rounds only in the marker with no reloads aside from one 10 round tube that is midfield that whomever can get to it first can use it however they want.

[Cdn_Cuda]

Ooh that sounds fun. I do have a bunch of 10 round tubes.

[Chaos]

It's lots of fun, the game was first created by our fallen brother Splattttttt and I try to keep the game alive where ever possible. We even have a game every year honoring him and play pretty much strictly that style for the day. It makes for a lot of interesting games because there's a lot of movement and strategy involved but not a lot of shooting.

[EvilCreature]

We often played a game called something like Kings and Jacks, and 14 players is a great number for the game.

You will need a deck of cards and take out a red King and Jack, a black King and Jack, and enough red/black cards to fill out the players you have with even teams. Cards are drawn and not shown to anyone except for the kings, which are revealed. Each side then starts with their colored king's team with the goal of killing the other team's king to win. THE CATCH is that the Jack is a secret double-agent that can kill anyone on their own color team EXCEPT the king to create a little distrust/chaos. The Jack can reveal himself during the game if he wants but that is usually only to avoid being shot, and even then, it could be a trick to earn trust by some non-jack player. The King needs to keep a lookout and all the rank-and-file guys play with their heads on a swivel, not totally trusting their teammates.

We would play on a relatively small field so you could often see your whole team, or at least know where they are.

Kids might see this as kind of like the game "Among Us"

I have been the Jack a couple of times and when it works out right (usually a little bit of a slow-play by the Jack), you can cause an absolute, chaotic bloodbath.

[Cdn_Cuda]

Great game option too! I'll need to bring cards

[Cdn_Cuda]

Lots of awesome ideas! The joys of a private rental is I basically get to run the show and can play whatever game I want. Eventually I'll love to do something crazy like everyone starts with rentals but there are markers spread out through the field you can trade. Even attach a helium balloon so you can see where a marker is but not know what marker. But for this outing I want an easier setup.

[flyweightnate]

We did 4 corners CTF once, where the most flags wins. With 4 teams, there's a strategy to how hard to come out to avoid leaving your flag open, inciting others to gang up, etc.

[Cdn_Cuda]

That would be a bit of chaos on the field and be a lot of fun.

[Rainmaker]

Recently when we were winding down for the day, we did 1v1, walk 10 paces, turn and shoot, while the rest of us stood by and jeered/cheered. It was a fun way to end the day, because most of the rest of the time we were all split up and running around, but this got us all back together at the end for some banter.

[SockeyeSteve]

I think like ClockworkSoldier said:

Zombies vs. survivors game is always a hit at my local field for rec ball. Zombies only get eliminated by head shot. Depending on group size 1-2 zombies to start is a good option.

I've been playing alot on Fridays recently and it's one of the most requested games amount the younger players, ref typically puts myself and one other old head on the zombie team against 10-15 others and there's been plenty of times the survivors win.

Attack and defend is always a good bet as well.
Select # of players to defend and not leave a base, attacking team must touch the base to win, attackers get infinite respawns. 15 minute game, defenders must have at least 1 body alive in the base at the end of time to win

[Cdn_Cuda]

They do have a nice fort the built up for a big game. That would make a good defensive position with space for defenders to move. Played too many attack and defend where the defence were shoehorned into a tiny spot and couldn’t move at all, was shooting fish in a barrel. Needs to be a bit of room for defence to be able to actually move around and defend.

[Cdn_Cuda]

And just to wrap this up, we had a great day of paintball despite the rain. Had 18 players in total show up and stay the entire time. We played some straight elimination, Zombie (which worked really well, and Zombies won), Team tag (you get shot and join the other team) which got a little confusing but worked well.

Next time we'll try some fancier games like a VIP escort, centre flag push etc. But had rave reviews and everyone said they wanted to play again. So thanks for the advice!