Guns, Guns, Guns

[cristovau]

So, I have been stepping bit by bit into the world of NERF gun fandom. It started with the need for gun props for The Serpent Spiral LARP. We had soldiers and they should hold weapons. So, I bought some water guns and a couple of Buzzbee Hunters.

The Hunters came highly recommended and I can see why. They look cool. However, the two that I received jammed like crazy. Not a big deal. They were cheap and I wanted props, not Nerf guns. I tried to drill out the pins, but that did not help. I have seen other Hunters work wonderfully. Somehow I got duds. So, my first entry to Nerf guns was a bit of a bust.

That was for the first run of Serpent in 2012. After this, I started peaking in on Nerf guns at Amazon and comparing and rating them. Then, last October Amazon had a great deal on the NERF Hailfire. It was about 1/3 off, and Nyren had been talking about Dreams of Eden, a scifi game where a crazy mega-gun like the Hailfire would be useful. So, this was my next gun in my arsenal.

This is a crazy Nerf gun. It is battery powered and uses clips (each with six darts, although there are 12 and 18 dart clips out there, too) that can fire at wild speeds and shoot really far, fast and hard. Part of this is because the Elite Darts are streamlined and get good distance. They are somewhat inaccurate, but I get ahead of myself.

The Hailfire is great, but very limited. It doesn’t look historical at all, so it is useless in Serpents and Shadows of Amun. The fast fire and battery power removes it from most Accelerant use. It is a great toy, but the rate of fire and spray of darts means that darts get lost quickly. Still, it is impressive and a strong gateway drug to more NERF wonders.

When the second Serpent Spiral came around, I found that Amazon had a good price on the Retaliator, which is a nice generic Nerf rifle that uses a 12 dart clip that is compatible with the Hailfire and the same Elite darts. The Retaliator, however, is not battery powered. It is a spring loaded gun that is cocked by pulling back on a slide on the top of the gun. It mimics cocking some real firearms and has a reasonable this-is-a-rifle profile. It is an approved gun for Shadows of Amun and a number of Accelerant games like Occam’s Razor. I bought three for the last Run of The Serpent’s Spiral because they seemed like reasonable fits for a soldier’s gun. I wasn’t disappointed. Ira had been eager to get a nerf gun, too, so one became his.

Overall, this is a great Nerf gun for NPC use. It has three parts, so it can look like a lot of different guns. The 12 dart clip is a bit excessive for a lot of LARPS, but you can get a Hailfire expansion pack with four 6 dart clips that work really well for NPCs and look better. The forward pistol grip on the muzzle of the gun is silly, but removable. It is basic and works well. However, the clips only seem to work with Nerf Elite ammo. This might become problematic, but more on that soon.

So, those were great and with the Buzzbee and some squirt guns, I have plenty of guns for The Serpent Spiral. Of course, by this time, I have become an addict. AND I have started to write for Shadows of Amun, a game which has a lot of Nerf guns. So, I buy MORE!

There is the Triad Blaster. I know some PCs have this and I decided to get it to test it out. It is not very historical in form, but incredibly useful for the Accelerant LARP player. It has three shots, fires long, is easy to conceal and very accurate. Also, CHEAP! This would be a great gun for arming a camp of gun toting goons. Except it is very sci-fi. If I could get over the shape and form, I would recommend it to most PCs who want to just dip into the hobby. It has a bottom plunger spring that fires one of three darts. This is one more less-than-historical element. But for the bang and load, this is a fine pistol.

Then there is the smaller version of this, the tiny JOLT blaster. This is probably the smallest Nerf gun around, and just as powerful as the Triad. Strangely enough, it is not as accurate. The Triad has a nice site on the top that is pretty useful. However, the Jolt is SOOOO wee and cute. This is a great concealed weapon, and probably one I will use a lot as an NPC. Although it has no direct historical antecedent, it is less jarring than the Triad to me, because it has one barrel, not three. In use, it is limited as it holds only one dart at a time. But I may well use this in Occam’s Razor, as a backup, if not a main gun. It is stylish and the single shot element is not as much a problem in accelerant as it might be in other games. It also has the bottom plunger, which is a bit weird, but I have modified the mechanism to make it look less weird. More on that later.

Somewhere along the line, I also bought a pair of Scout IX pistols. These are older Nerf guns, and I bought them for their look and feel, and because they seemed to be a better NERF gun for kids in many ways. The Scout is a great gun to paint and make look realistic. More on that later. These guns have a lot less power than the newer Elite guns, and had the whistler darts, which also limit range. That is fine for the kids though, and one has become Noah’s. They are also single shooter guns, like the Jolt, but use a slider on the top of the pistol like the Retaliator. This makes the pistol quite a bit more realistic. There are two slots for holding darts under the barrel, and those are weird, but could be cut off. More modifications. For realism, and looks, this might be the best pistol I have.

And that is a strange thing, because the Jolt is so much smaller and fires much better and the Triad is the most accurate of the pistols. So, possibly the worst of my guns is the one that looks best, but that is just how it goes. However, the things that make it less functional also make it safer. Because it packs less power, the darts will sting less and are less likely to be a problem.

Which brings me to a huge point here; variation in NERF darts. I have three types of darts. There are the new streamlined blue and orange elite darts that are used in clips and come with the modern pistols. Then I have the black and orange whistler darts that came with the Scouts. Finally, I have a handful of suction cup classic darts that came with the Buzzbee guns. All of these have benefits and some may have problems.

The classic suction cup darts are fun, but fly the poorest. They lose some aerodynamics with the cups and don’t fly as far or with the power of the other types. However, they have SUCTION CUPS! This means that you can shoot them at a white board target and retrieve them without bending over. That is a huge bonus. Also, the cups and the loss of power, means they sting less than the others and are generally nicer. Since these are off-brand, they are cheap, but it is worth noting that they do not work in the Elite clips for the Retaliator or Hailfire or others. That could be a big limitation for the guns or ammo style. Overall, I am sort of attached to the suction cup darts. The loss in power is a gain in safety and suck!

The next step up is the Whistler Darts. I love the whistlers. They are more aerodynamic than the suction, but less than the elite. They tend to fly straighter than the others, and are reasonably soft because of the rubber heads. Although they do not stick to things like the suction cup darts, they do whistle and that is pretty awesome. It is somewhat intimidating to hear a dart whistle past you, and it also means that these darts are the favorite among cats. Our Cassie-kitty goes crazy for whistlers. An interesting aspect is that the tips are black, which means that in a painted gun, they do not look too weird. The elite have bright orange tips and the suction cups are purple-tipped. In a loaded pistol, the whistler looks least obtrusive. Again, like the suction cup dart, they do not work in clips and that is a pity. Overall, they might also be the most expensive of the dart choices. Still, these are my favorite and I will load up on them for Occam’s Razor.

Finally, there is the Elite Dart. This is the latest and they work in every gun I have. Still, the Elite is probably my least favorite dart, and that is a pity because they are likely to be everywhere. Why? The streamlined Elite has two flaws. First, it is easy for the foam shaft to get a slight bend or kink in them. A slight bend in the form means that the shot will curve like crazy and become wildly inaccurate. With the other darts, the heavier tip compensates a little for slight irregularities. The streamlined form and minimal tip only increases the problem with the Elite. Then, there is the power problem. The Elite fires faster and farther than other darts, largely because of the small tip. Do you see a problem with this? Lots of power, possible inaccuracy and a small tip… I doubt anyone will seriously lose an eye and I am not going to be an old geezer about this, but overall I don’t like the combination. The power itself means the darts sting more when they hit bare skin. Close shots or face shots will be much more annoying with these darts than with the others. As a result, I am going to personally minimize my use of these to clip guns which require them, and make a strong effort to aim low with those. This is just a warning to people going into Nerf LARPs. Be careful with the blue/orange darts. They sting.

I have painted up my teeny jolt pistol all black, but kept the orange for safety reasons. I also cut off the weirdly obtrusive bottom of the plunger and replaced it with a key ring to make the plunger mechanism less obtrusive and jarring. I will post pictures sometime. I have also trimmed my Scout to remove the weird storage compartment. This one I have fully painted and will have to be careful about. It has the profile and look of a real pistol now. Again, that is funny because it is wimpy. In Occam’s Razor, I may well waive this around a bit for effect as needed. It is three times the size of my little Jolt and less useful, but looks awesome.



Sorry for the Nerf gun geekery. It may be of interest to a few select people. I really ought to by the Nerf mainstay, The Maverick (or the Strongarm, which replaced it) It seems like a nice middle ground and versatile gun. If it wasn’t for the fact that it looks like nothing in history, I’d probably have one. It is likely to be the most useful for a larper.

Now, the real amusing thing for me is that I can now see one reason why gun rights people get so obsessive. The urge to collect toys is strong. For me, the toys are actually toys and not life-threatening firearms, but I can well imagine the collection thrill is similar. Firearms are a geekdom or fetish.

However, I will happily stick to the toy variety, thanks!


More anon…

Comments

[cristovau.livejournal.com]

A quick update. I have tried and played around with the Maverick and the Strongarm. Both are good for games as six-shooters are nice, low need to reload, and the price is not painful. The profile is a bit big and they are not balanced that well. I found the strongarm to be a better gun for aiming. Neither is particularly historically accurate, but neither is too terrible when painted up

These would be good, simple entry guns into a lot of games. They are ubiquitous and well-known. There are a lot of interesting paint jobs of the Maverick done online for inspiration. The Triad is still the best (for me) in terms of aim, and I think I will use the single shooters a lot in my own games.