A game about guns and about guns in games. An arms race in foam.
They say “Guns don’t kill people. People kill people.” Well in this game, we get to test that theory. In Crossfire! players start out with a single shot nerf gun and a single bullet, with the directive to do one thing: be the sole survivor. Players must choose how they survive to the end of the game. Will they use their gun to eliminate fellow players, or avoid the arms race entirely? Will they team with other players, knowing that only may survive to the end, or go it alone? Run, hide, dodge, or seek out ammo dumps to escalate the foam arms race in this live nerf gun based game.
The object of Crossfire! is to explore what happens when players get the opportunity to shoot at each other, face to face, in the real world with the safest of foam weapons. Yet unlike in games that seek to distance from the violence of gun play, players must listen to and see their handiwork litter the battlefield around them. Fallen players are encouraged to scream, cry, and shout as they die on the battlefield. At the end, one player will stand victorious… but is it a victory at all?
Number of Players: 10-20
Number of Organizers Needed: 1
Length of Play: 30 Minutes
Rules PDF soon to be available!
Designers Note: Crossfire! is not meant in any way to glorify gun violence. Far from it. The initial design idea was to show the futility of an escalating arms race, the absurdity of the constant inclusion of gun violence in game culture, and ultimately the horrors of gun violence in our society. Yet with the escalation of mass shootings in the United States, I feel more and more uncomfortable with the design of this game and it’s head-on tackling of the issue. While I stand behind the design aims behind Crossfire! I admit to a level of discomfort and inner conflict over organizing it for play or bringing it to any play spaces. The last thing I would want is to be disrespectful to the very topic that I’m trying to address, and I find myself very conflicted as to whether this game would not be in poor taste and/or triggering to players or bystanders. In the end, this game may turn into an exercise in game design but sidelined for the sake of respect.