Ep. 42 w/ Jamie aka J-Mom of Ragfest: It's All About Community

In episode 42, KT and Vile talk with Jamie aka J-Mom, founder and head organizer of Ragnarocktoberfest about the history and future of the event, the importance of community, and the importance of growing the hobby by keeping kids involved.

 

Check out Ragnarocktoberfest: http://www.ragnarocktoberfest.com

Episode Transcript

(00:01):
I always want to like catch the little like just before we start moments and then I forgetthat this doesn't work like the old way does we used to have to do the sync claps and all
that stuff and now it's like Now you hit record and everybody sees a countdown and there'sno surprises.
There's no You just you just get stuck with it anyway Hello
And welcome to episode 42 of the Foam News Collective podcast.

(00:24):
I'm KT.
I'm here with Vile.
No Grims this week, although I have some exciting news related to our special guest aboutGrims that we'll get to announce in a bit.
So I'm just going to dig right in and say hi, Jamie, aka J -Mom of Ragnaroktoberfest andFoamWar Inc.

(00:45):
So glad to have you on the podcast.
How are you doing this evening?
doing great.
Thank you so much for having me.
Sweet.
RegFest is the West Coast's largest multi -day Nerf event.
It's got little bit of everything, HVZ, PVP, comp, convention, and a mod party, which issomething that we haven't talked about in an event that had that yet on the pod.

(01:15):
I'm really excited, as a side announcement to start out, to make sure that our listenershear this.
We're gonna have a presence at Ragfest.
This is gonna be our second event as Foam News Collective being at something.
We were first one being Mayhem this last year with me and Vile.
Grims and I will both be there.
Grims will be there working and volunteering with Silver Fox Industries and I'm going tobe casting the competition alongside some other great folks, which I'm super, super

(01:45):
excited about.
And then we will join forces.
I say then, it's actually the opposite order, right?
Because the convention is the first day.
And we'll be doing our podcast live that week, which is first time we've done that.
Super, super excited.
So that'll wind up being, I think it's like episode 45 of the podcast.

(02:07):
We'll be recording it a week early, but it's fine.
Super, super excited about that.
Super excited to see Rag finally.
I've been hearing so many things about it for so long.
And...
Now we get to hang out here and talk with Jamie about it.
We're going to do this a little differently than a lot of our episodes.
We're still going to do trivia.
We're still going to do questions from the Kofi, but we're going to talk sort of moregenerally about rag and about Jamie's background at the top.

(02:37):
And then we're kind of going to go talk in more detail about rag rag fest and use the rulebooks as a guide after that.
And I hope that it can be a little bit of
sort of an alternate way for people who are planning on going to RAG or interested in itor just trying to understand how big events like this operate, who might be more of an

(02:58):
auditory learner or just like don't feel like you can dig into bigger text documents.
Although your rule book is like pretty svelte, it's pretty like pretty to the point.
I think it's really well put together.
But just a different way for people to parse some of that information that might be alittle bit different.
So.

(03:19):
Jamie, how did you get started in the hobby?
When did this all start for you?
Well, let's see my my middle child was born in 2002 and around the time that he was 13 Wehad a video game problem.

(03:40):
So we so we banned video games for a couple of years and we're homeschoolers so You know,everybody has nerve blasters laying around so he pulled some out and Started tinkering and
you know, there's still internet access.
It just wasn't video games.
So
Right.
know, he found the online nerf community and started modifying blasters.

(04:04):
And the way it was sold to me was, hey, mom, this is modifying.
It's engineering.
So I started paying for, you know, lipo chargers and batteries and wiring and soldering,you know, equipment and, you know, all the things.
And then suddenly it was a now we need paint and we even bought one of those boxes whereyou can sandblast stuff.
And I mean, it was just, my God, it got kind of crazy.

(04:25):
kind of crazy.
And eventually that turned into a...
you know, where can we play with these Nerf blasters?
Because my friends aren't as into this as I am.
And so that's when we found Noblecon up in Napa, which is unfortunately now defunct.
And so we drove an hour and a half from where we live in the Bay Area to go to these Nerfwars and an hour and a half each direction and started going to those.

(04:50):
And somehow we always missed, there was also a group in San Jose that we always seemed tomiss whatever weekend those were happening on.
And after going to these battles for just a few months, I, I'm an organizer.
I'm a type A personality.
I'm a planner.
So of course I jumped right in and was like, I can do this.
Like you just need sashes and you know, and some darts and you know, and so I totallymodeled East Bay Area Nerf off of what Nobicon was doing and started.

(05:21):
So let's see.
let's see.
So about 2015, 2006.
2016 right around there.
So I think like end of 2015 is when he's found the NERF community.
At the beginning of 2016 we're going to Nobicon and by summer, late summer of that year,we were running East Bay Area NERF.
And what was interesting is when we would go to Nobicon, I mean, I think the most people Iwould ever see there would be 40 people.

(05:46):
And it was always very hot up there too.
It was very hot in Napa.
Napa.
So that probably, you know, put the kibosh a little bit on people going.
And you know, a few teams, but you know, mostly 20, 30 something.
That was sort of interesting to me.
And we started in the East Bay.
So sort of around K word Union City, Fremont, if you want to look at a map, depending onwhere you are, might not be familiar with the Bay Area, but it's my neck of the woods.

(06:09):
Bay area, right?
And so I came up with a plan to rotate parks so that we were never in one place at thesame time.
We rotated Saturdays and Sundays and
you know, and just got up to a hundred people within six to nine months, a hundred peopleevery time.
So I, I do believe, I do believe we can say we were the largest monthly nerf batter in theworld in the battle in the world.

(06:34):
Right.
So at that number, at those numbers, at those consistent numbers.
and so
relatively early in hobby history, right?
Because like things go back to like 2000, but it was a very small, very small, smallthing.
That's, yeah.
I can tell you that the reason is because of homeschoolers.

(06:56):
So very quickly, we had a large amount of homeschoolers that were coming.
I hit 40 people within a month.
You know, so like I'm doing it for a month because I pulled from the homeschool communityin the Bay Area.
And then as we were going to these other battles where we were seeing the 20 and 30somethings and all the modders, they were like, cool.
And what was kind of funny too is because I'm a mom, I like super mom -ed all over thekids.

(07:20):
And like, you know, you're out, you're hit, you know, like just, you know, I didn't letthem get away with stuff and I was very big on the rules.
So the older players really appreciated that and they didn't mind playing with youngerkids because I kept everybody in line.
So I think that was kind of good.
And then everything kind of blew from there though.
I mean, we did that for five years until the pandemic hit.

(07:41):
So, but during that five years, even my husband got involved.
You know, we went to end war a couple of times and or several times And that was a funnything too because in the beginning my son is like, you know Wow, there's this nerf
community and we can go to nerf battles and there's this thing across country that you gotto travel to and I'm like no freaking way like no, that's expensive Totally did it So

(08:10):
yeah, we totally did that and had lots of fun and I came home from
one of the, I think it was the 2017, I think it was the 2017 end war in Ohio.
And I was like, we should make cages.
Cause my husband's super into gadgetry and machinery and things like that.

(08:33):
And so we actually bought, you know, CNC machine and we started making, we had Hestonsystems and we started making some, some cages.
and sold those and had a booth the next year and all that kind of stuff.
So we super got into the business side of it.
So my husband was really the pioneer of that working with our kids, of course, who helpedship things and run the business a little bit.

(08:56):
But I would say it was mostly my husband out there in the garage, making these really coolparts for the Nerf community and sort of just being a part of all of it.
And then that faded a little bit, but I mean, coming out of the Ohio,
end war in 2018 is really when RAG got started then, right?
So that's the next part of the story.

(09:18):
But just, the beginning was really just, hey, let's do something else with your timebesides just playing video games online.
And the whole nerf thing just spawned from that.
So very cool.
love hearing that because I still have it technically, but I have my own YouTube channelwhich was focused on trying to communicate to parents about the hobby and show them the

(09:39):
exact kinds of things that you discovered.
We were homeschoolers too for a long time.
And it was always trying to like, okay, like they're into this thing.
How do we turn it into something that they still enjoy but we know that they're benefitingfrom?
in a way that's helping their personal growth and building skills for them.
And this is a hobby that offers so much for that.

(10:01):
I'll use the same example that I've used a bazillion times.
Taffy, Caramel Designs, got into their college program partly based on the design of theskewer.
There is a direct connection there.
is so much to this.
Vile knows a ton about this too.
There's so much that like industry ties into the kind of work that we do here.

(10:23):
and community.
Community, right?
That's the people.
I mean, we've got all kinds of weird and wonderful people in this hobby, you know, fromall types of backgrounds.
And that's, and these are really good friends of ours now.
And just love that part of this as well, is that the friendships and the teamwork and allof that, which has been, you know, plays into why I do rag, right?

(10:48):
And why my husband and I both support it.
It's for the people.
also creates a lot of good connections.
Obviously, there's a lot of people that come from a lot of different backgrounds in thishobby that you wouldn't really expect, but you start to find like, there's a person that
does this, like you, like you said for yourself, CNC machining, you start seeing peoplefrom different industries start coming in and they put in their two cents into, you know,

(11:12):
modding or learning how to do this or how to do that, they come with those experiences andthose connections are really good, especially for the younger demographic.
because they start looking at these as, this, could continue doing this as a job.
I could do that as a career.
And you start seeing them, some of them going to college or some of them considering like,hey, I might change my career path because I really like this.

(11:33):
And it's, think it's a fantastic community for that reason.
It's, it's huge.
And there's just so many different avenues that you can take with it.
So
Yeah.
Yeah.
on too, when we first started at Novocon, we met Luke out of darts there and found out helived 15 minutes away from us in Hayworth at the time.
And at that time he was still doing, you know, his real, his, you know, quote unquote,real job.

(11:56):
And then like half and half, I think was his filming job and half was the nerf business.
And now to see that he's now moved up to the Pacific Northwest and has a full time withfull time business with the employees and a warehouse.
And I mean, just to see where it's gone, it's kind of crazy.
It's just,
It's really, really inspiring and really neat to see how much the hobby has grown in termsof that kind of activity as well.

(12:19):
like you said, the other creativity, just the building of blasters, the modifying ofblasters, that's really cool.
And then just the playing the commodity and the competition aspect of it now.
mean, just through lots, really, really cool and interesting.
Well, speaking of growth, how much has Ragfest grown over the years that you've been doingit?

(12:39):
Like how many people are coming on average now?
Well, you know, it's a little hard to because we on different days, I would say overall300 or so for the whole weekend, I would say about 300.
And interestingly, I mean, that's kind of where we were when we stopped for the pandemic.
And we kind of came right back to that.
So we're now hopefully in a growth period, right?

(13:02):
So, you know, it's interesting.
mean, Nobicon, the guys from Nobicon were the ones who first came up with sort ofRagnaroktoberfest and that name.
And we actually asked permission, you know, to continue using that name because they didsort of a thing up in Napa.
It was just like, once a year we'll do this longer thing.
That sort of HBZ over a couple of days rather than just a one day thing.

(13:24):
And then the year before we did it officially at an actual school and had a nonprofit andmade it really official and sold tickets and everything.
The year before we did that, we actually had it at a park near my home.
only because there were fires happening up in Napa that made the air unbreathable.
So we moved it down to where I live and a bunch of people stayed in my house on the livingroom floor and whatnot that weekend.

(13:50):
And so we kind of made that happen.
We even had one mom who brought a bunch of food one night and just, know, trays of mac andcheese and things like that to feed everybody.
And it was really, so that's where it came out of, right?
This, you know, initially, right?
This just homey, you know, let's just meet at a park, you know, and make this happen.
you know, over the course of a Friday, Saturday, you know, kind of thing to have a bigparty and nerf, nerf games and stuff.

(14:16):
and then it's, you know, of course involved from there, but that's kind of how it started.
Yeah.
What's your...
The team has grown around the project as well.
And what...
So I'm curious about your current role, having sort of founded this thing and I'm suredone so many different things as a part of it, but now having more people to help and take

(14:41):
over specific things.
What's your current role in the project?
I am kind of the head person.
mean, I'm really the overall organizer, right, I'd say.
So I make sure the meetings happen.
I am ordering things.
I do the budget.
I keep track of the Google Drive and everything that's on it.

(15:02):
The website, the rules, and bugging everybody.
Are you doing your part?
That kind of thing.
So that would be my role.
And I'm the one who filed for the nine.
nonprofit, you know, that kind of thing.
So we have other board members.
My husband's a board member.
have Addie's and Michelle Addie is a board member from Foamblast.
And then have another woman named Eileen, who's a board member as well, super involved inthe sport as well.

(15:27):
And so, you know, mostly women, that's kind of cool.
And so we are sort of the board of directors, and then we each have a role, you know,president, treasurer, you know, whatever, I'm the treasurer.
And so
So yeah, so I control the bank account, that kind of thing, right?
So that's what I mean, sort of the overseer, but like, I couldn't do it without all thepeople involved.
My husband is super involved.

(15:47):
You know, of course you've talked to Jengler recently, he's super involved, you know,dealing with 5v5.
And then we have Tarek.
Yeah, exactly.
It so much work, right?
So, and then Tarek is just our amazing, amazing, you know, game creator and runner of theStalking Dead, the HVZ part of the...

(16:08):
-hmm.
of the weekend and he's amazing as well.
And then we have a team of a few different people actually who are helping with all thesponsorship aspects of it and our Blaster Expo aspect of it.
And then we just have all of the other volunteers who are supporting that and working onprops and organizing the day of.
mean, even doing things like doing the blaster checks and doing the FPS checks and thingslike that.

(16:31):
And it's signing people and I have moms who come and help out.
I think we had 50 volunteers last year running the whole event and we need a good 40 to50.
I mean, even base mods for the stocking deck.
We need people who are just gonna sit at the base and scan key fobs, you know, because weuse some electronics in our game.
So it takes a total full team of people really getting involved and then also sacrificingthat they don't always get to play.

(16:57):
And it's interesting because some people, know if you know, Pandemonium from Australia.
He started out playing and we met him at End War and that kind of thing.
But then last year he ended up volunteering almost full time for the event and he waslike, you know what?
I think I like volunteering more than actually playing.
You know, and he was an NPC in the game too.
So he got, he was involved in the game, but not as a player per se.

(17:18):
And so he has actually switched over, switched over to the dark side and now he's a fulltime volunteer, which I love personally, cause that's what I do.
I mean, you know, there's always people who want to be OZs and there's always people whowant to be involved in the I'm like, I have to part of the reason I'm so excited to be

(17:38):
coming is I'm I mean, I'm just going to get to play in the HVZ, which is great, but I'm tobe involved in the competition side.
to be involved in having something to do.
I'm so much more comfortable and so much more excited to get to come to something new.
And I know I'm not the only one that feels that way.

(18:01):
it's such a blessing to have those people whenever you're working on a project like this,I know.
We always talk about how this show is really only possible because all the people who arehappy to just sit in our Discord and be like,
I found this, I found this, this is going on and like really spur all of our research andhelp us find things to go from.

(18:23):
It's the community part, yeah.
Absolutely.
None of the best things I think in this hobby or any hobby work without having a communitycentered around them.
What are your goals for Ragfest?

(18:45):
I, having kids myself, I could never have imagined the things that I'm doing in thishobby, which similarly were spawned by my kids interest in it.
I did not think I would be sitting and running a podcast and a news show, as this likedomino effect result of, of having children in, you know, whatever many years ago.

(19:10):
and, but yet here you are and, what do you hope for?
this project that so many people have put their efforts into.
I wanna grow it.
I want more people coming to the hobby.
I don't think enough people know that this is happening.
And so we're really trying to get the word out, which is, like I said, it's been a littlebit of a uphill climb because of the pandemic and just letting people know we exist.

(19:34):
And so part of our plan, this time as well, is not just posting in the Discord channels oronline where other nerfers are, but to try to pull people from outside who are maybe
interested in nerf, but have no idea this.
of a community exists and this kind of an event exists.

(19:55):
I'd love to see it grow to the point where we get not just Nerf vendors sponsoring us, butwe get big ticket, big name companies sponsoring us.
That's where I would like to be at some point, right?
That's, you that's interesting too, because I mean, both of my kids were super into theNerf earlier on.

(20:15):
Now just one of them is, that's Callie Nerfer, my.
my middle child and he, you he's still, you know, he's still into it, but like, I'm kindof doing this for me.
My husband and I just really love the community and the people.
Like if he went, I'm just, out, I'd probably still do it.
So, I mean, I did give up East Bay Area Nerf, right?

(20:37):
Because they were both off at college.
Both my kids, well, Kelly Nerver graduated from Davis with a history degree this lastJune.
So, so there, you know, he's back home, but my other one's off at school as a senior at UCDavis right now.
But, you know, you know, he's around, right?

(20:58):
He's actually going to volunteer this time and really help out and not necessarily play.
Well, except for the competition on Sunday.
He wants to be well rested, you know, so, but yeah.
my God, I just forgot.
It's Addy's team.
Addy and Michelle's team.
Dauntless, thank you.
Like it just went out of my head.
Yes, Dauntless.

(21:18):
See, I gotta know this stuff, because I gotta talk about it.
It's my own kids team, I forgot, my gosh.
So I'm gonna be pegged to the wall for that one, my gosh.
So yeah, Dauntless.
So yeah, so he's like I said, he's into that part of it, but when the pandemic kind of putthe kibosh on that, I was like, where are we gonna land here?

(21:40):
And are we gonna keep going with rag?
And then rag didn't happen for three years.
And, but then when it, you know, when it kind of was coming back, I was like, no, Iactually, think I'm into this.
This was cool.
So we'll see where it goes.
I really, yeah, I really like to, you know, put, like I said, put more effort in rightnow.
It's just about like running the thing, right?
It's just like getting it back going.
So, so, you know, sort of over the next year or so, I really would like to reach out tomore, more, more vendors, more companies, you know, more venues, that kind of thing.

(22:07):
The venue thing is always rough too, because
Here in California, there is a program called, if you just go online, it's Facilitron.com.
And pretty much all of the schools are signed up with Facilitron now.
And that's how you can rent the school.
And they don't open up their fall schedule usually until late summer.
So you can't guarantee you're going to have a spot.

(22:28):
So we are actually back at a location, Independence High School, where we were before thepandemic.
So the last rag before the pandemic was at Independence High School.
And it's our ideal map.
just, if you look at it from a Google view point of view, you can see on the school mapwhere your four bases go.
There's like little sunken areas that I just work perfectly with this clock tower in themiddle.

(22:51):
It's also great for super stock on Sunday, right?
Then you've got the field and you've got a gym.
So it's like our perfect location.
And then also like the staff at the school keep changing.
So I have to keep making new relationships with new people.
that's, that's to me, that's the rough part of it is getting the venue locked in.
You know, and we've even looked at colleges around here and there's just not a good mapfor it at any of the schools.

(23:13):
And then they've got all their rules and they want you to have insurance where, you know,if you go through a facilitron, you get the insurance that's offered on the site.
So that's kind of handy.
there's all these, the logistics, that's what I, yeah, really, actually that is a reallygood description of what I do.
I do logistics.
That it's hard to I've been on both sides of this, right?

(23:35):
Like I worked at a I worked at a state university and we have a lot of people coming inand renting our spaces and trying to like understand what it is that they're trying to do.
like, can we do that?
The number of times I've I've had to like send crew onto stage to like douse small firesbecause people thought they could like light incense on our stage or whatever.
Anyway, the

(23:57):
And like, for them to understand, like if you, we've had a couple of HVZ events in thehobby lose their venues partway through planning in the last year or two.
And it's hard because it's like you trying to explain what it is that you're doing and whywhat you've designed so far is so specifically tied around this specific campus.

(24:19):
And to lose that partway through, like you have to have good relationships with thosepeople.
That is a full -time job.
So it's not surprising to me at all that that's your primary role.
Because to build those relationships and have to cut through the bureaucracy part of itand be like, hey, this is what we're actually trying to do, making people understand it

(24:41):
and having those collaborations that reach, like you said, outside of a hobby.
Yeah, last year we lost our venue only because they decided they didn't have enough staffto run events and they were canceling all their events for the year.
It wasn't like, it's Nerf and we don't want Nerf here.
That wasn't the issue.
It was a total fluke.
Yeah, it was a real big bummer.
So yeah, we were scrambling.

(25:04):
Grounds people, yes.
Mm
Well, if you're listening to this and you are hearing about Ragnaroktoberfest for thefirst time, is going to be in the second weekend of October.
You want to rattle the details off real quick for anyone that's hearing about it for thefirst time?
13th.
So it's Friday, Saturday and Sunday, Thursday, three o 'clock on Friday.

(25:26):
Friday is the Blaster Expo.
We have lots of cool things happening there.
So all your favorite vendors are going to be there.
We have a modding party happening at the same time.
So we have tables out and bring your soldering irons and bring your projects and all yourtuneups that you want to do before you start the weekend.
We also have
the live Foam News Collective podcast.
Don't forget that.

(25:47):
It'll be happening.
it'll be happening as well, right?
And then we have a group here in San Francisco called Byways LARP, and they do sort ofLARPing with NERF in the city.
And so they're going to come and they're going to be setting up in a classroom.
So these little, you know, just little sort of PVP games that will be happening that youcan sign up for on site, you know, during the expo as well.

(26:12):
So that's kind of happening.
And then various
Various vendors are going to have different things going on in their booths as well.
There might be some little mini games or things like that.
And I, and I believe this year we're also having sort of one of those stamp books whereyou can go around to each vendor and get stamped and then you get a little goodie at the
end, that kind of thing.
So that'll be super fun.
So yeah, so that's kind of cool.
And I mean, it's just also just to relax time and you can also bring your blaster and getit pre -checked.

(26:36):
So you can do the FPS check and get the zip tie on it and be ready to go the next morning.
So that's kind of a time saver.
Yeah, so definitely plan on doing that and bring all your blasters that you're going toneed.
know, 5u5 has their own check -in for that, but this will just be for stocking dead or forsuper stock, right?
So then on Saturday, you know, sort of check -in is from 10 to noon and we start aroundnoon with rules for the stocking dead and that's our...

(27:02):
are three human teams against starting out with one zombie.
And they're competing against each other and the zombies did not be turned.
And we have all kinds of cool missions.
Of course, it's cyberpunk themed this year.
So come decked out in your cool costumes with LED lights.
As long as it doesn't shine in somebody's face, you can't direct the light at somebody.

(27:23):
You can have lighting on your costume.
So we're looking for.
You know, everybody's gonna have the lines on their face, right?
I think I actually went on Etsy and I got some temporary tattoos for my hands and my faceso I can look robotic as well.
And you know, we have all kinds of cool missions planned within the theme.
So last year we were pirates, this year we're cyber punks.

(27:45):
So we always like to change up the theme and have, yeah, this is our, you you can see ourwebsite here with all the cool neon colors and whatnot, right?
If you're watching on YouTube, yes.
Yes, I'm explaining it for those of you who are just listening.
go check out our website .com.
Yeah, yeah, exactly.
Yeah, so we have that going on on Saturday and that goes till late at night till 9 p Andthen on Sunday, we have two things happening.

(28:12):
We have the 5v5 competition.
believe check -in starts at 7 .30.
It's nice and bright and early.
And then by 9 a they're starting their matches.
And I think they kind of wrap up around 5 or 6 p
And in the middle of that, we've got Superstock, which I help run and Byways LARP isactually gonna help run as well.
And we just have, that's like two teams against each other.

(28:33):
We run various game modes.
They're gonna be a little bit cyberpunk theme this year, but more typically it's, know,things like capture the points or, you know, capture the flag, that kind of, you know,
just, you know, it's not elimination.
It's just, you know, you go back to your base and you respawn after 30 seconds kind ofthing.
So that's for the little kids, right?
So that's gonna be ages six and up.
for super stock.

(28:54):
So that's really for everybody.
And then the five V five teams, you know, that's going to close here in a month.
So if you want to get a team in, we've got 12 teams already.
We have room for 16.
So get a team signed up if you're interested in that.
And yeah, and then this is a really good lineup.
Yeah.
And stocking dead is 13 and up just because we have such a heavy complex rule set.

(29:18):
lots of things going on.
have tried it with younger players.
It just doesn't work.
So, and even the 13 and up, you got to have somebody with you that's playing so that, youthat you, you know, just kind of keeping on track.
know, the younger kids need to have somebody playing with them on super, Super Stock Daybasically too, so that, you know, they have a parent there with them, helping them, you

(29:40):
know, to learn the rules and hopefully, you know, indoctrinate them into the Nerf family,basically.
So yeah, it's a full weekend of all kinds of fun stuff.
We're actually having some cool things this year too.
We have a food, we have a couple of food trucks coming, which we've never had before.
Everybody always had to go off campus for food.
It's actually very exciting.
So I think we have like three different food trucks.

(30:01):
We're gonna have, I think where there's gonna be like a Philly cheese steak one, a hot dogone, and then another one that's got like mac and cheese and nachos and quesadillas or
something like that.
So.
So yeah, so and then that guy is even he's so cool.
He came to me last year and was like, hey, do you want food trucks next year?
Yes, please.
And so he said, even come in the morning, maybe we'll do like breakfast burritos andcoffee.

(30:23):
And I'm like, please, please do.
So, so yeah, so I'm working with with this, this food vendor to bring in some food trucks.
So yeah, so we're kind of just enhancing it every year, there's always like a little bitmore a little bit cooler stuff going on.
And, you know, to make it
you want.
You're getting that growth that you want.
Yeah, so if that sounds interesting to you, definitely check it out, folks.

(30:46):
It is an independent high school in San Jose, California.
There is still potentially time to get plane tickets if you want to travel.
They're getting a little pricier now, but still definitely a possibility.
You know what's interesting about that?
We actually looked at our demographics last year and I would say about 20 % of ourattendees come from out of California.

(31:09):
And so with a percentage of those, yeah, with a percentage of those being the PacificNorthwest, but we have Australia, the UK, Germany, Singapore.
So I mean, I mean, of course the East Coast, Canada, we have people from all over.
It's really, really cool to see.
has been strong in the US the last year or two.

(31:30):
It's it's been great.
Yeah, totally.
It's been great to have Gavin and all them coming out.
Well, so before we do our our Kofi questions and our trivia game, I wanted to kind ofstart looking at rag fest in a little more detail, partly just because your.

(31:55):
Your documentation is so clear, which I really appreciate.
Not that other events aren't doing clear documentation, like this has been really great.
And so like for the YouTube viewers, I've got the official general rules up, which arejust sort of the overarching rules for the whole event, which I really like just that as

(32:16):
an idea, because it really sort of ties all the different pieces together.
To some degree even though you can pick and choose and come to specific things Especiallyif you're local like you said like the third having the third day open to six and up is so
so great Because that's how you grow that sort of long -term interest And the hobby is getthem get them in the same room as people who do it at a high level get them into a

(32:41):
situation where When they play for a while and then they're tired and they take a break
Maybe they'll grab some food and they'll go sit and they'll watch the pros playing in the5v5.
That's a big thing.
know.
we end super stock at the time that we do around 4, 4 .30.
So that, I encourage everybody to, you we clean up and then we go over and we watch thefinals.

(33:03):
So that's the, and I want to watch the finals too.
for a pro nerf is so important and it's so hard to support that because oftentimes it'slike, you you're trying to find the perfect venue.
Where can you find a venue that's got the like seating and everything to make that happen?
But being out in an open field helps a lot.
You've got the classic rule zero.

(33:24):
Don't be a jerk.
Everybody's got a version of it as we all should.
And that's one of the things that makes this hobby so special is people being good to eachother.
And safety is of course a top thing.
One of your things that I think really kind of ties between safety and equipment, butyou've got it in your safety department, which is unique to your venue is don't bring any

(33:51):
ammo, that you provide all the ammo.
How long have you done that?
How did that get started?
We started that when we started renting schools.
And reason being is that when we did it in local parks and we collected darts, we foundillegal darts.
We found darts that would be harmful.
We found modified darts.

(34:13):
And so, and we don't know who they come from, right?
So we just decided that providing all of the darts would just eliminate that issue.
And we've really had no problem with it and it's fit into the budget as well.
And this year,
without a dart sponsoring our Superstock Day, he actually has not only sponsored, but it'sproviding all of the darts for the event.

(34:36):
So he is like a super great sponsor for that particular event and providing them all thatwe'll use throughout the weekend.
Now, 5v5 players will bring their own, but those also are checked to make sure thatthey're legal and everything.
And then I just use the leftover darts from Saturday for Sunday's super stock.
And I also have my own stash from East Bay Area Nerf leftover and that kind of thing.

(34:57):
So it works out really, really well.
And we just get fresh darts every year.
So we know they're new and we know they're legit.
we try to keep everybody on the up and up and then it's just not an issue.
your blaster and that's all you have to think about.
rounds do you have?
You know, I actually, I'm actually not going to say, I'm not going to say because that'spart of the game actually, right?

(35:19):
How many darts we have of each kind is, we do have a formula.
We have a formula that we use.
estimate how many players we're going to have because the stocking dead for the stockingdead, you will go up to registration and you will register.
And then you will go pick out your darts and you only get 50.
So you have to decide which 50 you're getting.

(35:41):
Right?
you going to get all short darts?
You're to get all rivals?
If you get all rivals and you shoot them all, are you getting them back?
You have to think about these things, right?
How many, you know, Megas will, will, you know, kill certain things that other dartswon't.
So how many of those do you, so you have to plan, you have to think.
real quick?
Is it showable?

(36:03):
Vile's been working on something for me to run at RAG, we might need to shift our plans.
It's okay.
The stock, the stock ammo capacity was 80.
So, you know, it, could just keep it with the stock ammo.
don't know.
Yeah, I'm definitely going to do something with it.
It's so, so, so cool.
Yeah, there will also be during the game, there will be stashes of darts throughout theplay area, right?

(36:29):
So there will be some additional darts, but you don't know how many.
So that's why I can't say.
up, Vile.
I forgot you had it taped up.
up, it's fine, but it's a cyclotron that I put the rival hopper system out of a soldier 76blaster into.
And it still uses the original tube mag that the cyclotron used.
It was it was basically one of those giant.

(36:51):
What do they call reactor balls?
It was this old school ammo types from 2003.
Yeah, they're huge.
And I put this thing inside of it and.
It still uses the original mag that holds 80 rounds.
I created a tub that clips onto the back that'll hold closer to 700.
And it's a one handed full auto rival blaster that you still have your offhand to dowhatever with.

(37:18):
So that's why that's why.
It doesn't sound like 700 rounds of rival ammo though is going to work out at thisparticular event.
So we'll have to adjust.
it you could you could at least have it in hand in case Right
It's amazing.
I'm so excited to see it, regardless of what.

(37:43):
Yeah.
But again, so yeah, this rule, think, is really kind cool and unique in the fact thatyou're able to offer that, the fact that you're able to offer that the ammo is part of the
game, and that you solve that safety problem.
by doing that.

(38:03):
I also noticed that every event has a different system for safety holds.
And I saw that yours is if there's a dangerous situation to initiate a hold by saying holdand holding your fist in the air specifically.
And I kind of just wanted to call that out.

(38:26):
I want to remember that because like it's sometimes going from event to event.
It's like you're trying to remember like wait What is the thing I'm supposed to do here inthe safety thing?
I like this one because it's very visual and striking and clear about what's going on
Yeah.
And you know what?
I've always, I mean, that's just how it's done in the Bay Area.
We all do this in the Bay Area.

(38:47):
How do they do it elsewhere?
I don't even know.
I guess it's not like mayhem is not that different taking a knee is sort of seen as the Asthe sort of the action that shows that you're holding more than more than the fist in air
sometimes like a mod will do that to to call the hold but But taking a knee is sort of thelike that's how you show that like all right.

(39:15):
We've stopped action.
Nobody's doing anything.
Nobody's going anywhere
And I've heard of other ones.
But yeah, it's good for me to try to remember that that's how the holds happen.
I also noticed that, of course, you allow modded blasters.

(39:36):
You allow melee at super stock, which has to be approved, of course.
That there's a universal rule about only picking up ammo
while or not wait I wrote the wrong thing I wrote the wrong thing not picking up ammowhile responding right you can only pick up ammo during gameplay

(40:00):
Now if you have ammo on you, you can reload.
But you can't pick up ammo, right?
Because you're dead.
So you can't go get new ammo.
You're out of play.
I'm out, I'm out, I'm out, I'm still out and just be like out forever and pick up ammo.
So that makes a lot of sense to me.
How do you enforce things like that though?
It's such a challenge.

(40:21):
Again, Superstock and I'm the mom and I just, I'm watching.
I mean, really, you know, and then sometimes we will also have some players who I willdeputize and I'll put a white sash around and they, at the beginning of the rules, I'll
say, these are my eyes and ears and you will listen to them just like you will listen tome when it comes to rule enforcement.

(40:41):
And honestly, it's not usually adults that I have an issue with.
It's the young kids, right?
And so we're always reinforcing with them.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
that stuff.
Sometimes they're just like, ooh, that's a, sometimes they're just like, that's a prettydart and I want it.
You know, it's not even about.
and you're not thinking, or especially when it comes to taking hits, right?
You didn't feel it, you know, so, but if somebody says, you know, you know, we hit you,then take it, you're just gonna respawn, you'll be right back in.

(41:06):
It's okay.
So, yeah.
Shifting gears a little bit, here at the Foam News Collective, are supported in part bythe subscribers on our Ko -Fi.
And one of the perks that they get is to ask our podcast guests questions.

(41:26):
We have a couple for you.
First up, Iron Gopher asked, can you share a behind the scenes story that people may notknow about?
A lot of potential there.
You've been involved in this for quite a while.
You've worked with some pretty big names and you've seen a lot of things.
Is there something that pops out to you?

(41:49):
honestly, the first thing that, popped into my head is that, we have a, last year and thisyear, we have a volunteer, named Ryan who works really hard to help build props and
whatnot.
And, last year he manned the, the boss, the squid, right?

(42:10):
We had a pirate theme and we had a squid at the end and it was so hot.
We had a heat wave that weekend and.
You know, the boss battle of that particular game lasted a really long time.
And I almost feel like he probably should have gone to the hospital after that.
Like really, it was bad.

(42:30):
It was bad.
He was exhausted and dehydrated.
And it was like, and we're like, okay, if we ever do something like that again, we have tochange things up so we don't kill one of our players.
mean, just, you know, it was just, it was rough on him and wow.
you know, he gets all the kudos for having manned that particular, that boss and, youknow, moving it around in the heat.

(42:54):
was, it was a lot.
And yeah, and we even had a couple of players who fainted and had issues.
Like, thank goodness we rent this utility cart, right?
To help us move, move things around campus.
And I'm really glad we had it because we actually had to transport a few people back tothe main area to get cooled off, right?
Cause it was so hot.
had this.
really late heat wave last year.

(43:16):
We're really hoping we don't get it this year, but who knows?
Climate change is happening.
don't know.
But yeah, that's the one that comes to mind is just a lot of people would not know thesacrifice that Ryan made for the game to do all of that and really took a physical toll on
him.
Well, everybody, you see Ryan at Rag Fest this year, make sure you thank him for his squidservice.

(43:43):
Teacup Story asks, how has Ragnaroktoberfest surprised you since its creation?
I'm always surprised every year at all the people who come out of the woodwork to help.
Surprised and not surprised, right?
Like, I mean, you know, it's so indicative of our community, but I'm always a littleworried at the beginning, like, only so many people have signed up.

(44:07):
And then, but by the end it's rolling and people are just helping or just stepping up.
You know, last year we actually had a problem with some of the darts that we had.
And, you know, so last minute, one of our...
volunteers ton was just like, I have darts at home, I'll go get them and just like runsoff and gets them.
you know, just people are so willing to just jump in last minute.

(44:29):
And that, in a way, like I said, in a way, it's kind of feel, I feel like, you know, myfamily would do that, but like, not everybody else does, you know, so like, you know, just
to see that other people do jump in.
And it's to make the event cool for everybody else.
Right?
It's there's no selfish motive here.
It's like,
And people are spending their own money, right?
Like just, that's gonna cost me some money because I'm gonna basically now donate thesedarts to the event and to just jump in last minute and do that kind of stuff.

(44:56):
It's so amazing to me.
It's so, it warms my heart to see that kind of stuff.
yeah, that's, like I said, surprising and yet not, right?
Just, yeah, love it.
Yeah, and just, you
it's surprising every like it just keeps happening and it feels like you feel like at somepoint people are going to get tired of doing this.
But it's like, you know, maybe someone gets legitimately tired, but there's always someoneelse that's excited to be a part of it.

(45:21):
idea, right?
That hopefully you do get some turnover.
Because even this year, we have some people who aren't volunteering this year whovolunteered last year, but you know, they should be able to come and play and not always
volunteer as well.
Right?
So and you know, and then just also the sponsors that come out, I've mentioned out ofdarts, but like frontline foam is basically sponsoring expo on Friday.
So they're
They put their money where their mouth is and they're coming and they're supporting it.

(45:44):
And we have Silver Fox, who's basically the main sponsor of 5e5 on Sunday as well.
So, and we have others, right?
know of course, Five Ways LARP is coming in and participating, Containment Crew, Flywheelin the World, works.
Xbox Games, Maryland Foam Alliance actually is sponsoring us as well as here.
So we have...

(46:04):
all these cool people who are really supporting us, even if they can't come, likecontainment crew, they're not gonna come, but they're supporting us financially, right?
So I just really appreciate everybody who puts their time and their money where theirmouth is to really make this event happen for the community.
I think if that's, that would be something I would want the community to know, like, heycommunity, and do you know how many like individual donations I have as well, just from

(46:29):
people who put $100, $500 in?
to help support this group and this group that is putting on this event.
They're hard earned money to make this event cool for you.
That's what I think is really cool.
that.
I love that.
It's a good surprise.
It's a good continuous surprise.

(46:50):
Speaking of hopefully good surprises, except you're not surprised because you knew thatthis was coming, it's time to play our increasingly infamous hobby trivia game.
We will, we will today we are playing a game that we are calling April, Ocalypse, aPalooza.

(47:13):
You run a major event known for taking place in October, but how much do know about majorevents that have occurred during the opposite month of the year in April?
If you are able to get two out of three of these questions right, you will win anopportunity for one of our listeners to ask a free question of our next podcast guest,

(47:36):
which is Taffy of Caramel Designs.
It's coming on next week to talk about work with...
Busby and other design work that's happened recently.
and I yet again did not run the raffle before we started, but it doesn't take that longbecause I can just go.

(47:57):
I basically shout out random .org every time we do the podcast because I sit here doingthe raffle.
We have 16 people, so I'm just going to go.
Actually, yes.
your icon doesn't light up when you're chatting.
Yeah, and then you said in the Discord, hey, are we recording correctly?
And I said, yes.

(48:18):
Yeah, I did.
it.
Okay.
Now I see it.
Thanks for thanks for thanks for doing that.
I wanted to make sure we've okay.
I was like, wait a minute.
Something seems off here.
I get halfway through it and nothing's there.
Mare, AKA neon green dart eater in the Discord, you are the winner of this raffle.

(48:43):
So if Jamie is able to get two out of three questions right, you will have an opportunityto ask a free question of Taffy next episode.
So, and just to recap also, I'm no longer chasing down the winners of these raffles.
You have to listen to the podcast and you have to let me know that you have a question.
So just DM me.

(49:04):
My DMs are open on Discord.
Anyway, Vile, how do we want to do this since there's just two of us?
do you want to read?
Do you just want to read one and three and I'll read two?
I'm sure.
Do you want to start the first one and then I'll do the next one and then that way you canend off?
I mean, it doesn't matter.
Good with either way.
with one that I hypothetically is easy.

(49:27):
We'll see but that was the intent.
We'll just see.
Our hobby has grown to host a large number of invitational events that folks sometimestravel across the US and beyond to.
Which of the following hobby events generally happens in the month of April?
Is it a Survival Fest?
B, Maryland mayhem, or C, end war.

(49:51):
I know it's not in the war, because that's June.
Gosh, but I'm...
I think it's Marilyn Mayhem.
You are correct.
It is B, Marilyn Mayhem.
All right, good.
See, that was the...
I was like, you're an event organizer.
I'm sure you have a handle on when the other events are.

(50:12):
So that was like a little warmup, right?
Now you're good.
You're already...
events you trying to remember all of them.
I could see where it might be a little difficult, you know
Well, you know, when I was writing this question, I was looking at like RIT HVZ's invite,like a spring invitational and like Carolina Radlands has like seasonal stuff.

(50:32):
And there was a bunch of other stuff I was considering, but I think this was this wasgood.
Go ahead, Vowell.
Go with question two.
right.
There have been a lot of changes and shifts in the hobby in the last few years.
Which of the following transitions occurred in April of 2023?
A, Coop773 leaving YouTube.

(50:54):
B, Sophie Lightning ending her tenure as chief TikTok officer at Nerf.
Or was it C, Cakes creative customs closing his Etsy shop?
Yeah, that is a tough one.
That is definitely a tough one.
There's a lot that's been going on.

(51:16):
I'm gonna guess it's Sophie.
You gonna go for Sophie?
Any particular reason?
I just remember when I had, I'm thinking like, okay, was that a little bit over a yearago?
feel like maybe it was, it might've been longer than that because she got the other job.
So yeah, I mean, I'm on Facebook with her.
that's the one that comes to mind.

(51:38):
course.
Alright, so if we're gonna go, are you going with Sophie then?
Yeah, I have to go with Toby.
That would be incorrect.
was actually cakes creative customs closing is at C shop.
Yeah, coupe left YouTube actually.
Yeah, coupe left YouTube in June.
Sophie lightning left nerf in February.

(51:59):
It was yeah, it was close.
There was a yeah, there was it was right in the middle of the two of those.
Yeah, it was the first half of 20.
So like we started the channel at the beginning of 2023 and we were covering all theselike people leaving the hobby, people quit like the whole first year.
It was like every episode there was it was like Nerf talk and American Foam and Coop andSophie Lightning.

(52:22):
Obviously not leaving the hobby, but like, you know, like things changing and shiftingaround and Nerf Taiwan, who's still around, of course, but not making videos anymore.
Just like a lot of a lot of stuff.
People.
foam blasts shut down too, right?
So like just all the, geez, all the things.
Yeah.
close the shop.
yeah, it was like, yeah, it was a whole lot of crazy stuff.

(52:43):
2023 was a heck of a change for the hobby.
It's a lot of things got turned upside down.
I mean, the pandemic wreak havoc on everybody's like, what are my priorities?
Right.
So like that.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah, but everybody shifted.
It was interesting just seeing so many, especially really like people like Coop, right?
Like somebody who's been around for so long, people who were very influential.

(53:05):
I mean, obviously, it's such a big shop like, you know, Foam Blast.
That was a massive change for the entire hobby of just seeing all that change come soquickly.
It felt like it was just like an avalanche of things all at once.
So, yeah.
how much stuff because like I feel like foam blasts, know, it paved the way for a lot oflike we have such a robust retail for a hobby our size the amount of like specific

(53:32):
retailers online just catering to what we do who are like quality product makers andsellers is crazy and they they were a big part of paving the way for that.
yeah.
Which is funny because they were also big part of paving the way for what we do.
I mean, they didn't start the news thing, but they really built it into what it what itwas while they were doing it.

(53:53):
So it was wild to see them leave, leave just as we were like as we were taking off.
All right.
We're one and one.
We got one more question.
Here we go.
Most new blasters by major brands are released in either the spring or fall.

(54:13):
hoping to catch either the summer excitement or the holiday gift buying rush.
Which of the following Nerf limited series blasters was announced and available for pre-order in the month of April?
Was it A, the Travis Scott Fortnite collab AR Goosebumps in 2020, B, the Supreme Takedownin 2021, or C,

(54:41):
the Star Wars Boba Fett EE3 in 2022.
I have zero idea.
I'm gonna have to completely guess on this one.
my gosh.
I don't know, do you remember any of these?

(55:01):
Ha ha ha.
Bye.
I have to go Eenie Meenie Minie Moe because okay, I'm gonna say the first one
So here there's the AR Goosebumps.
This was like when this there was a lot of outcry about this, right?
Because this was the like image of it.

(55:22):
And then I wonder if, is this?
here we go.
Here we go.
I always forget how, sorry, it's kind of clunky doing the image sharing on this, but I canshow you.
that when people actually got it they like didn't Yeah, they did not look like like theydid on the box and This was one so I actually Well, we'll get to that later and then the

(56:00):
What was the next one the supreme takedown this one was funny because here let's just dothis
The supreme takedown is kind of a funny one because it's just this, right?
Like it's, it's, is, it is, it is this.

(56:20):
That's it.
It's just the takedown.
out too, yeah, because somebody in the local club I was in had to get one and thenmodified it.
It was just for the sake to have a Supreme logo blaster and stuff.
It was really funny.
well and it's it's like I if it didn't say supreme on it, I would love this paint job.

(56:42):
These look sick I don't care about supreme.
It's it's Yeah, and then
The Boba Fett one.
This was another one of these ones where it, I think it looked more like what they saidthat it would when it came out.

(57:05):
Anyway, so you've got a Fortnite blaster, a Supreme blaster and a Star Wars blasterbasically.
Which one do you think had an April announcement?
You are 100 % correct.
The Fortnite Travis Scott.
Okay, so.
So here's the deal.

(57:27):
Hey, you know, sometimes that's what it takes.
Well, also, yes, exactly, exactly.
So congrats, Mayor.
Mayor, be sure to get in touch.
I was gonna say, so at one point we were doing research on limited because people werereally talking about like the pre -order time and how long they promised it would take for

(57:50):
release and how long it actually took to release.
And I haven't updated this in a while since the Star Trek and the League of Legends onescame out.
But the AR Goosebumps Blaster was announced in April, late April 2020, April 23rdspecifically, and was immediately available for pre -order.

(58:10):
They promised delivery in October of 2020 and did not deliver it until January of 2021.
Ooh, after Christmas, that's not good.
After Christmas is not great.
I mean, realistically, it's like three months delay considering what was going on in 2020in terms of shipping is not crazy, but it was a bad start.

(58:34):
Like carrying on to each one, the delay times get longer and longer and longer.
And the Boba Fett EE3 was announced on January and available for preorder on January 11th,2022.
promised to deliver in March of 2023.
So they were already, actually that one was more or less on time.
What was the one that had the crazy delay?

(58:56):
The, well, they already gave themselves a year and they like kind of made time on thatone.
But the one that was really delayed was actually the one after Goosebumps, the Mandalorianrifle, which so many people just panned really, really.
They promised it in spring of 2021 and it came out in December of 2021.

(59:18):
The first reports of it were just after Christmas in 2021.
So they've had a rough time.
It's gotten better over time, but it was a rough start with that Goosebumps rifle.
But it was announced in April, so congratulations.
It's fine.
My kids are always into all these new blasters, but I'm like, I'm a strife girl.

(59:38):
I'm just, you know, give me a stripe and I'm good.
Right?
I went up to the Pacific.
yeah, totally.
Well, you know, it's funny.
It's still in the box in my bedroom though.
haven't opened it yet.
But I have it.
I have it, right?
But what's funny is I went up.
We have a family reunion every year up in Washington.
So when we go, we try to coordinate with the Pacific Northwest Nerfers so that we can goto a game up there at the fort.

(01:00:04):
And so I remember I played a game up there one time with a stock, with a stock blaster, astock stripe.
And it was one of those elimination games, right?
Where you only have so many darts and you can just pick up off the ground, but you startwith so many and then you can only pick up off the ground after that and round after round
after round.
I...
lasted like a ton of rounds for that until I finally just ran out of darts and I justcouldn't do it anymore.

(01:00:25):
And everybody was like, hey, she has a stock blaster.
I'm like, I don't know how this is happening.
Yeah, so I've had really good luck with just even stock stripes.
So yeah, that's my thing.
That's my jam.
Okay.
So getting back to the Bike Fest talk, I want to talk a little more depth about your,about your HVZ, the Stalking Dead.

(01:00:51):
Again, kind of using the rule book as a guide.
You start off your rule book with key changes from last year.
and immediately I am interested in humans having two lives against the undead.
It seems like talking about how there's three human teams and you're starting, you said,with one zombie.

(01:01:17):
The balance of power between the different factions is very different than a lot of otherHvZ events.
Can you talk a little bit about that?
This is what is so unique, I think, to our event is that it's not just humans againstzombies.
It's humans versus humans versus humans versus zombies.
I love it.
what's the mall event?

(01:01:38):
Everyone knows what I'm talking about, but I can never remember what it's called.
Mall Mutation Madness, but I forget where it is.
I know they also do HVHVHVZ, but it's different, right?
It's indoors and the layout is kind of linear.
But yeah, go ahead.
right, right.
Yeah, no.
Yeah, I mean, so I really enjoy this because I mean, you know, do teams team up?

(01:02:03):
Do they not team up?
I mean, like, you know, just, you know, all the different ways that this can go is reallyinteresting.
And Tarek, who runs the game, is just so good at taking the experience of the year beforeand then applying new rules or tweaks to balance the game the next year.
So...
We are also unique in the way that we play and that all of our players get a key fob thathas lives loaded on it.

(01:02:30):
So it's just like a key fob that you just run by a scanner, right?
It beeps and now you have nine lives, now you have seven, eight lives or however manylives you end up with.
So you can lose lives from getting hit by a dart or of course being tagged.
so it's honestly everything comes down to game.
balance and what he saw last year and what he wants to accomplish this year.

(01:02:52):
And so our zombies also have lots of opportunities for missions and upgrades as well.
So, you know, there's it's all about like gameplay and making it interesting and fun andthen balancing and he'll even do things on the fly.
Like he might have planned to do a certain thing during the game.
but because it's unbalanced, he'll scrap that and not give somebody a perk or whatever,right?

(01:03:14):
And last year, and everybody will have to see what happens this year because I'm not gonnagive any spoilers, but last year I can talk about, you didn't just do a mission and always
win a perk.
Sometimes you won a curse.
Okay, so last year we were doing pirate themed.
One of the curses, for instance, was that you were tied to another player for a while.

(01:03:37):
Another -
might be that you got a piece of fabric that went around your leg that looked like wood.
And so you had a peg leg, right?
And so you couldn't run if you had that on you for a certain amount of time.
Another thing we had was a parrot that went on your shoulder that we tied to you.
So was a little stuffed pirate that my husband 3D printed a little holder for somespeakers and batteries and whatnot.

(01:04:04):
And I recorded some insults.
along with some tips and some clues to some puzzles.
And so the idea being that they got a perk and a curse.
So they would get some tips if they listened to what was being said on the speaker, butalso it gave away their position because it would keep squawking and making noise.

(01:04:25):
So we really try to just make it interesting and creative and fun.
like that a lot.
my my son, Callie Nerf, was actually tied to casual felon for like an hour or somethingbecause they got a curse at one point and they honestly said it was like the best part of
the game being tied together.
It was hilarious, right?
So just, you know, we had walk the plank, we had, you know, just so many different thingsgoing on.

(01:04:48):
So anything you see about changes, about rules or lives or anything like that, it just, itreally comes down to balance.
And I know what you might look and go, well, but that might be unbalanced, but truly.
We've tested it out and we kind of, he knows what he's doing and I trust him and he'sgreat at this, he's brilliant.
And then another aspect of that too, just so you know that in the past when people didscan those key fobs, we had the data, we knew where the teams were at in terms of how many

(01:05:16):
lives were left or who infected who, that kind of thing as well.
But this year we are creating a webpage that's going to have that information.
So teams will be able to track that.
my next question, because you had an integrated website with the year's game, which isalso fascinating.
So this year that's happening and it's just, you know, we just didn't get it together tomake that happen in the past years, but that's going to be happening this year.

(01:05:40):
so, you know, using our website will be kind of integral in terms of, know, being able totrack and, know, so players who aren't even at, you know, people who aren't even at the
game, you know, could be able to watch.
And if they know the name of their team, they might be able to know who's, you know, who'sdoing what habit teams are fairing.
I love that.
I love that.
Yeah, I'm definitely, I like having this information as sort of like, A, it's the rules.

(01:06:06):
You want to know the rules, but also just like, it's kind of a teaser.
like, how does multiple, like, how does that work?
Like, what is, you know, like, as long as you have, like, I have a lot of trust in gamemakers for this, and I'm really curious to see what this actually looks like.
it makes it really exciting.

(01:06:28):
I just want to take a second to emphasize a rule down here.
There's a lot of the...
There's no way we're going through all of the specific rules about bandanas and whatnot.
I'm sure there'll be briefings about that too.
totally, totally, we go over the rules, but before you even get down to the next thing,you did skip over a part I just want to call out, and that is items.

(01:06:52):
There's like last year we had various items you could collect like gems and things thatwere sort of related to piratey themes, you know.
There were even, we used old filament boxes that we painted to make it look like a.
like a chest, like a pirate chest that had waters in them.
And it was just, it was basically, you got victory points by bringing that back.
And then the person at your base scanning, scanning a key fob that was worth a certainamount of points because you brought back a specific item, you gained points for your

(01:07:22):
team.
So that's another way in which you can help your team is by going not just on missions,but also scouting the area and finding these items to bring them back to your base and get
points, you what we call victory points.
Victory points.
Very Settlers of Catan coded.
That's cool.
Yeah.
Paper bags, ammo caches, health boosters.

(01:07:44):
yeah, even ways to add extra lives.
Items that you can find.
It's wild.
OK.
I just wanted to take a second to talk about, there's a lot of the regular stuff.
No headshots.
Don't shoot non -players.
Things that.
Regular HVZ goers should be very familiar with.
Yeah.

(01:08:05):
Don't hurt your, you know, your fellow player.
That's a bottom line.
And of course, your specific sock creation technique demonstrated by Out of Darts thateverybody should definitely know about.
There's a YouTube video on that that you link at the bottom of your rules thing.
There's a very specific way which really everybody should be making sock bombs, keepingthem nice and loose but secure.

(01:08:34):
But you also have a great...
a great note in here, wherever it is, I don't know, about participating when you getturned.
I think sometimes people, they go to their first HvZ and they don't realize how fun itactually is to be a zombie.
And so they are like, I lost and they leave.
And it's like, well, you're kind of ruining the game for everybody.

(01:08:55):
So if you're going to an HvZ, especially if you get turned, like I always feel like,especially if you get turned early, it's like, well, I'm not going to throw away the
entire rest of this event.
by leaving.
I think it's pretty reasonable if you're halfway through the event and you get turned totake a break before you come back, but don't disappear.

(01:09:16):
Don't disappear.
We need you.
agree.
Yeah.
There's still community.
There's still, you know, and, and, it's a lot of running.
I get it.
It's, know, can be rough, especially with hot, you know, I understand, but so maybe takeit a little easier, take breaks, but you know, don't just completely quit, right?
You know, the spirit of the game is, you know, rule zero, right?
Back to rule zero again.

(01:09:36):
Let's all participate fully and, and, you know, help out your fellow players too.
If you're not, if you're dropping out, then you're kind of, you know, you're not beingthere for everybody else.
So, yeah.
one of the things that's important and unique about this sort of game type is it's almostlike a collaborative performance as much as it is a game and remembering that everybody is

(01:10:00):
playing a part in a role -playing type game and everybody's reliant on each other forhaving a good time.
So...
Yeah, and we're hoping that because we're tracking it now, you will be able to track howmany people you infected and who they infected.
You'll be able to see your tree, right?
So I'm hoping that that's an incentive for people to play as a zombie because they'll beable to see and maybe there'll be a little bit of competition there about how many people

(01:10:29):
can I infect, you know, versus my friend.
another incentive too, I know that Boomstick is making the brain name tags for a bunch ofpeople again.
I had one at Mayhem, Vile had one at Mayhem.
And so whoever tags me gets my brain tag.

(01:10:50):
And I know that's true for a number of other people.
You did.
You were very, very close to getting mine.
KT's brain tag.
Right, then you collect them and yeah, it's a whole thing, right?
Yeah, very cool.
like 18 at Mayhem.
I remember that person just had a stack of I'm just hanging from like a lanyard.
It was crazy.
They were like specifically targeting people that had the lanyards and gathered a lot ofthem.

(01:11:19):
So okay, yes.
And of course, 130 FPS soft cap, specifically a soft cap based on a three dart average.
Right.
Yes, which speaks for itself, but like it's just worth repeating because people, you know,people are sitting and modding their blasters right now for this event.

(01:11:41):
And if they're heading, if they're heading for, if they're testing it based on a hard capor if they're testing it based on a different number of problems.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
No, no, no.
think, I think a soft cap is reasonable.
generally, generally speaking.
What it
in line with that too, we want to see colorful blasters.

(01:12:02):
We want to see orange tips.
You know, we're really big on making it family friendly.
I don't want any police officer walking by and thinking this is a scary thing, right?
We don't want to be wearing full military outfits.
We don't want full face masks, you know, things like that, right?
We want to just keep it family friendly, like leave your military full gear at home.
You know, you can load out and everything, but keep it colorful, keep it family friendly.

(01:12:25):
So we get to keep doing this at schools.
I had my fingers crossed that it's not gonna be in time, but I'm so excited for the SCRDgear to become available.
I'm so, so excited.
The hobby has needed that for so long and I'm so pumped.

(01:12:46):
And I mean, there's other people doing bright colored gear, foamando, hand makes gear anddoes a lot of work for people.
what was the other company that just restarted that Handmade gear in Australia?
It was like two episodes ago and we talked to him and he was super cool.

(01:13:08):
And he makes stuff that's different than the stuff that SCRD is making and Fomando ismaking.
So there's a lot of options out there.
But yeah, super excited for the SCRD stuff.
And I think there might have some of the prototypes at RAG.
I think they were talking about bringing some of that stuff at the SFI booth.
Yeah, I support that message.

(01:13:30):
Yeah.
But yeah, OK.
So that's that's some of the things that makes Stalking Dead specifically unique.
And I especially now with the information that because I think I had missed.
there we go.
think I had missed the fact that Superstock was open to to really young kids, which is so,so cool, because not a lot of not a lot of groups are doing that, which I understand.

(01:13:55):
Like, it's a lot to wrangle.
But I guess with a mom in charge the things are a little bit different things a little bitdifferent, right
then we had a, we had a cap of a soft cap of 150.
And it was funny because we'd have parents come and there'd be, there was this one family,think they had four kids and one of the kids got hit by a dirt and was crying, but the

(01:14:18):
other three were fine.
And I was like, okay, so here's the deal.
The darts are going to hurt sometimes.
If you guys can't handle that.
don't play.
mean, like, you know, just had to, you know, like, that's why we wear eye probe.
And, and, you know, I allow six and up because some kids are ready for this.
But if your kid is not ready, then don't do it to pick a different sport.
Right?

(01:14:38):
So that's where I was kind of held the line on that, that, you know, there, I had some sixyear olds who were just fine.
And I had, you know, 13 year olds who were crying.
So, I mean, you just, you can't know until you get out there.
And I've been smacked in the face with a dart before, keep coming right a corner and youknow, you know, and it surprises you.
mean, it
I mean, Kelly Nerford came home the other day from a 5v5 practice and had taken his shirtoff and I'm like, my God, that's right, dark.

(01:15:03):
I thought he had chickenpox or something for a second, but he just had welts, know what?
It happens and that's to be expected.
safety goggles for my fellow glasses wearers out in the audience, if you got yourprescription, you can go on Zenni and you can get prescription safety glasses like sport
rated, like Z81, is that what the number is?

(01:15:24):
Safety goggles, I just ordered a new pair to have before rag because my old one is just aprescription old.
It's a little old, not very expensive.
You can get them.
It's well under $100 for something that, as glasses wearers we know tends to cost morethan that.

(01:15:45):
That's nice.
And we're not super sticklers about the safety glasses, right?
Like we just want you to wear some sort of eye protection.
So if that's your glasses, if that's your sunglasses, if that's actual safety glasses,know, full face shield that's clear, you know, whatever, whatever you feel you need to do,
do it, but just wear something, protect your eyes, right?
We don't want to have any, we haven't had any accidents so far and we don't want to haveany in the future.

(01:16:07):
Yep.
One of the things I'm curious about Superstock is game types.
I didn't see that.
What kind of game types are they planning on running at Superstock?
Yeah.
I mean, they're just kind of picking them on the fly usually, right?
Is there like a list that they pick from or are they just sort of vibing?
no, no.
And so I usually run it.
honestly, by the time we get that big of a group together, we only end up playing three orfour games.

(01:16:29):
And sometimes it's one game mode and we switch sides and play again, kind of thing.
Right.
So it's not a lot of game modes and this year byways LARP is helping out.
So they're going to do some, you know,
I don't want to give away what we're doing exactly, but it's going to be a little morecyberpunk, a little more mission based, you know, while also defending.
So we're going to at least run a couple of games like that.

(01:16:50):
But like in the past, it could be a capture the points.
It could be, it could be that I have like a, like a chess timer.
And so you're, you're clicking it for your side, blue or red, you know, and we're rackingup a certain amount of time, you know, it could be something like that.
I even like playing Civil War sometimes where you just, you you line up and you walkcloser and closer to each other after each round of one shot, you know.

(01:17:15):
And so there's all kinds of just game modes and it's honestly, it's sort of the day of,how many players, you know, what do we think would be fun in the moment, you know.
So that's really variable.
But again, this year we're trying to incorporate our theme more.
So I think it will be a little more mission based and, you know, sort of capture the pointteams and also, you know,

(01:17:37):
search around the campus a little bit for some items.
So we're working on that to make it a little more, a little more theme based.
I like that a lot.
Speaking of objective -based gameplay...
Your competitive field is a little bit unique also in that you run a King of the Hill gametype.

(01:17:58):
And of course, Jangular is in charge of that and is a master of this kind of organizationand this kind of gameplay.
We've enjoyed having Jangular on to do our competitive play recaps on the show, which hasbeen just to have someone that knowledgeable about that space has been really amazing.

(01:18:21):
How long has this game type been?
Has it always been this for rag?
Or did it change?
Yeah.
Right.
was interesting, because when I went to End War and I saw the other game type that istypically used, I was like, okay, this is...
I wasn't really aware.
I thought everybody did King of the Hell.

(01:18:42):
and Mayhem and another one, do you remember Vile, which is the other one that's alsorunning Flagdash, which is Mayhem's format.
Flagdash has been really significant.
So its eliminations are worth points, getting the flag to the goal is worth more points.

(01:19:04):
So you can...
changed then?
Because Endwar used to do that,
End war is still, and well, I think SenZone, see, I'm actually less familiar with theSenZone rules than I am with these King of the Hill rules and Flag Dash rules.
But SenZone is more similar to Flag Dash, but I think it's more focused on the flag.

(01:19:29):
I could be completely wrong with that, but I feel like that's true.
But I know that...
for Flag Dash, it's you can score points either way, you can fully eliminate the opposingteam, or you can run the flag.
Right, so I feel like that's what End War did the year that Dauntless won in Ohio.
Or was it Ohio or Georgia?

(01:19:50):
I can't remember now.
So many places we've been.
that flag dash was based on that rule set and I'll have look into that more.
Cause one of the things that's interesting about the flag dash rules is that both teamscan score every round.

(01:20:14):
Eliminations are still worth a point and then running the flag sort of caps that round.
Right, exactly.
which I think is really interesting and scoring.
Yeah, because this is like a control, your King of the Hill gameplay type is control-based, right?

(01:20:35):
or points, there's more than, yeah, there's several buckets.
This one's interesting, it's more strategy based, it's more, you know, it's longer, so youhave to have more stamina as well.
You know, good and bad points to both.
I actually really think the, Endor is using is, you whatever we're gonna call it, it'sreally pretty exciting, because it's very quick, it's very quick.

(01:20:55):
But like I said, this one is a longer game, but also, you know, when it gets down to it,like, well,
You know, how many eliminations?
They only get so many darts.
I mean, just, you know, I just, love all the different aspects of it.
Well, and you have to push through the field.
Like you have to control all three points so you can't stay in one place.
There's a lot of game time.
Like if you're doing basic five V five elimination, there's a lot of sniping.

(01:21:19):
And it's cool that the technology can achieve that now.
But when all of your gameplay is people hiding behind cover.
It gets a little, it can get a little old.
So I know that that's.
if you watch a game, right, they're just moving constantly.
Everybody's just moving around the field constantly in this game mode.
So I really like it, yeah.
I think that that's really fabulous.

(01:21:41):
Got a nice little map here.
I was looking at a map earlier too that had our casting station on it.
I forget where everything was.
The stream has been really great too.
I mean, it feels like a lot of the events are doing really great with streaming now.
TNT has been doing really well.
Maryland Mayhem was good.

(01:22:01):
Rag has been good for a couple events.
And I think that's...
kind of a new frontier for our hobby and for the competitive side of the hobby especially.
And when you talk about trying to make more people know about the things that we do here,this is such a big part of that, of being able to really clearly show what it is that we

(01:22:25):
actually do and how the gameplay goes.
I feel like that's a big goal.
for a lot of our events is to keep building on that success.
It's, you gotta have the volunteers who are willing to do it and have the equipment andhave the talent.
I mean, we've got Fish who's running the stream last year and this year.

(01:22:47):
And Casual Fallon was our, you know, on -air personality basically last year and he'sdoing it again this year.
I think he might have some help this year as well.
But I he was fantastic, right?
Was that you?
Are you helping?
fantastic.
Good, good, good.
I missed that.
I missed that.
No, no, no, I didn't know.
Fantastic.
I'm working with Casual and I'm hoping to find at least one other person to have on a teamso we can tag off periodically.

(01:23:13):
Yeah.
Which is impress, it's like, it's one of these things where it's like, I mean, like I cando that.
I can be on from nine to five, but like I'll,
Ooh.
Exactly.
off and take.
Well, and the other thing we've talked about doing and fingers crossed that we're able toget this together is being able to fill some of the in -between rounds time.

(01:23:37):
Not that there's a ton of it, it's run pretty tight, like with interviews with people.
So at Maryland Mayhem Foam News, and actually this is something folks can look out forbecause I want to before rag, I want to just put a video out about this because we, Viola
and I went around and we
took interviews with players between rounds.
And so we sort of captured these moments in time where people were unsure where thetournament was going, or maybe like a team that just got eliminated might talk about like

(01:24:05):
what they would have done differently and then talk about like their predictions for thefinals.
And so we have all this footage and we were gonna do a video with WorldFoam Alliance andwe just never got around to it.
So I think I'm just going to release all of those interviews.
But I think that that is something, capturing the human side of these competitivetournaments and allowing people to follow the stories and the personalities of individual

(01:24:30):
players and of teams and sort of see these moments in the middle of a tournament whereyou, you know, on a normal, just if you're just watching gameplay, you sort of miss some
of that stuff, I think.
Things that other professional, that like professional sports often have,

(01:24:51):
trying to squeeze some of that in.
The amount of stuff that you're already doing on the budget and the amount of resourcesthat you have is incredible.
So I'm excited to just continue to help the team and grow that.
I think that's awesome.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I think it's going to be killer.

(01:25:12):
It's kind of amazing when you think about it, like on the tight budget that we have, youknow, what we're able to do.
And again, it comes down to all the people, right?
Just you, yourself, you everybody else who's involved, everybody being passionate aboutit.
That's, to me, that is the draw.
Yeah, agreed.
It is in the end primarily about people, right?

(01:25:34):
Like, blasters are sweet.
I love cool blasters.
even that, it's like, like, Val, what would you say it was like?
I would say that like Mr.
Nathan's blaster, what was it called?
Mergemasters.
One of the highlights of the modding year.
Yeah, it's it was a pretty big one.
There's it's it's funny what you can see people do with the things that are out there,whether it's obviously integrations, just simple mods or, you know, fully printed

(01:26:04):
blasters, because you'll see all of this stuff, even in these competitions or at an HVC,you'll see a goofy build, you'll see somebody bring I saw.
who was it?
think it's blast.
It was a blaster show.
I think so, but he brought out one of his integration blasters and that at Maryland.
You see so many different types of blasters and different play styles and all kinds ofstuff and it just makes for such a really awesome thing to watch and be a part of.

(01:26:34):
Because that's the thing, even when you're talking about the gear, it's about the varietyand people's different approaches and the people and what different people bring to it.
So being able to get together for these big events is such a big deal.
And thank you, Jamie, for all of your dedication and your work over the years doing all ofthis and continuing to plow through it and potentially continuing to do so even when your

(01:27:00):
kids lose interest.
Thank you, thank you.
Yeah.
I honestly, I do it with the support of my husband, right?
Like he's really into it as well.
And he's doing all the, you know, he's working with the, with the team, you know, on thekey fobs and whatnot and all of that kind of stuff.
And we kind of do it together.
It's like our thing that we do, you know, for the community.

(01:27:21):
mean, you know, talking about community, I was, I was just thinking briefly about, about,you know, the friends that we've made and the fact that like, for instance, you know,
nobody has a key to our house.
except for Addie and Michelle from Film Blast.
mean, they literally have a key to our house because they would stay with us in the Bayarea, know, began before the pandemic all the time, right?

(01:27:42):
So like, I mean, that's the level of connection that you can make with people through theNerve community, right?
It's just, it's really worthwhile.
So that would be my pitch to people like just come, feel the love, you know, talk topeople, get to know people and...
know, friendships can come out of it.

(01:28:02):
Yeah, I love that.
So yeah, with that, think we've we've casted a great podcast.
was wonderful talking to you.
I'm excited to meet you in person soon.
That's going to be really, really, really great.
With your mask on?
No?
darn it.
Okay, All right.

(01:28:23):
just didn't work out for me.
Yeah.
were so close to having all of the Foam News Collective cast together for the first time,because Vile and I were at Mayhem, but Grims couldn't make it, and Grims and I will be at
Ragfest, but Vile can't make it.
And Vile's the close one.
Vile's the close one.
Vile could, like, drive.
Foam Blast.
I could have literally gotten a ride with Foam Blast, but no, I, timing just unfortunatelydidn't work out and I was a bit upset, but I was trying to get something.

(01:28:49):
That's why I was trying to build a blaster that I could hand off to Michelle and Addiethat they could give to KT and he could run it at the event.
And yeah, cause I, yeah, I'll be there in spirit at least.
I'll try my best.
Yep.
I'll run it for you, Vile, even if it doesn't make sense with the ammo that I haveavailable.

(01:29:11):
Unless you'll need a high capacity NPC of some kind, I guess.
Let me know, because I'm already there to work.
Happy to do more.
Yeah, so last plug for rag, you're listening to the sound of my voice, go buy your ticketstoday.
Yes, for sure.
If you have any way to get to California, definitely highly recommended.

(01:29:36):
And yeah, great plug there.
Vile, of course, is streaming on Friday and Saturday nights every week, although not thistime.
Do not go to Vile's stream.
Yeah, when are you back?
I am literally flying out tomorrow morning and I will not be back until October.

(01:29:59):
Like actually October 1st is when I finally like - I hopefully get in.
We'll see how flights are.
You never know nowadays so we'll see.
Yeah.
So yeah, no file streams for the time being, but the news will continue.
We will still be here.
I think we're still going to record Pod, right?
You're going to be.
Yeah.
computer, and we have a webcam.

(01:30:21):
I can still do the hands only recordings.
So that'd be the hands.
You gotta bring a roll out blue.
Just get, you should just get, you should get like a custom desk mat printed that lookslike your desk that just has like a picture of all the tools and stuff on it.
And you just roll it out over something and it's like, and you can just like, all thisstuff is fake.
You can just rub your hands on it.

(01:30:41):
None of it's real.
could do it with a mouse pad.
I could do with a full desk like mouse pad.
You can print those.
That's a genius idea.
I'm going to have to do that now.
be pretty fun.
That'd be pretty fun.
Anyway, thank you again for coming on.
Thank you everybody for listening.
If you're not already following, follow, blah, blah, like, subscribe, you know the deal,et cetera.

(01:31:03):
Really appreciate all of y 'all and see you in two weeks for another episode.
Bye.
Bye.
Bye.
and then