Graham Ranson

Haha, I was in a small village over near Charlbury/Burford so quite a difference. The prison certainly looks great from what I've been able to see and I can get there easily by bus so double good. I better get shopping then!

Hey! Been out of the game for quite a number of years due to life etc but hoping to get back into it this year now that I've moved out of the sticks and into the Big City of Cheltenham. I'm hoping to try Strikeforce and UCAP, both over in Gloucester, as I don't drive I'm limited to places I can reach via public transport which is naturally extra tricky when most game days are Sundays. I also need to actually buy gear as I've since sold all mine.

Thanks both, that's not as pricey as I thought actually so perfectly doable.

Perfect thanks, will do! I'm assuming this sort of thing would be collection only as posting something this large might be cost prohibitive. Plus not sure of the rules in regards to posting RIFs?

TM G3 SG/1 old and untouched for quite some time, TM MC51 ( with solid stock ) fairly old and also untouched for some time, 4 hicaps, 2 lowcaps, a sling, a TM scope mount for the G3 ( with a scope that is missing some of the clamps ) and a few NIMH batteries. Any ideas? What's one up from the boneyard?

Another possible revenue stream, space permitting, is a gun range. Not really sure of logistics, or even interest, so just throwing out an idea but basically you'd rent a lane for £x an hour and you can come along with your own stuff and practice ( to avoid the nosy neighbour issue in back gardens ) or you could rent whatever things we have on-site for £x an hour to try out other guns etc. Or joe public could come in for a few hours for the "shooting experience". If all goes to plan with the actual gamezone outfitting then could also have teams/people rent out the main site on offdays / weekdays for kill-house style training sessions with little popup "bad buy / civilian / hostage" type targets, but again not sure if this is something that people would actually want.

I like the numbered armband idea yea that's good and added. I can't find a copy of the Mall's rules, naturally, and was thinking it might be one of the rules for the new Zed Adventures site but it's not listed, able to tell me what the rule was? Yea chrono will have to be absolutely enforced constantly, particularly for the guns that are known to be potential trouble. With enforced player bans if required. Hmm, good point. Maybe no ricochets. For small gaps/ hard cover maybe just "if it looks like this was put here as an actual BB obstacle, or it looks like some of the walls just aren't joined properly and the gap isn't intentional, don't shoot through it" ?

Thank you all for all comments so far, incredibly helpful! Here is a link to the current rules list, it's not final nor in any particular order, just writing it as I think of things / things get mentioned. All feedback is very welcome and encouraged. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ywLA_cuDyah09K6okAFq78eKRIZ8h-DVx3hX_LUYiaE/edit?usp=drivesdk

Haha yea, it'll be quite a while before I get to the purchasing stage so hopefully it'll all be sorted by then but if not I'll just get a smorgasbord of rentals and spin the variety as a feature. Any particular brands that you do rate, Elite Force seem popular? But will need to find a wholesale provider really. Vigilant, confident, fair, and consistent marshals will be a priority yea. And they are employees doing a job, if they're not good at it then yea they should be let go ( presuming they had all the required training beforehand that is ) Rules I'm thinking so far are semi only, hard limit on fps, no blindfiring, no prefiring ( unless it's just a legitimate tactic to stop someone popping their head around a door before you make a move ), chrono everything at the beginning with no excuses, random spot checks throughout the day ( particularly on known trouble gun models ) Will need to have marshals focus primarily on safety and from that hopefully a non-toxic and welcoming environment will able to be fostered and then yea from that if people are enjoying themselves and feel safe / listened to then hopefully that will remove a lot of the trouble. Noted, avoiding that brand then. Although I guess can't really police brands that players use but at least I can limit what I'm handing out to rentals.

I was thinking that the group would be all rentals but they would at least all know each other - rather than just a Rental only day where strangers turn up - so it might make it a bit better, but then yea it might make it worse if they all know each other and take things too far. Just trying to limit the potential for anyone being tempted to overshoot even with a semi only rule but yea I guess limiting it to mid/lo caps is really just trying to take away the marshalling responsibility which isn't great. Far better to let people use the equipment they prefer and then just enforce proper rules. I'm thinking to keep things simpler I'd probably just for a 50/50 split of Firehawks / Raiders just so mags are interchangeable, both are pretty similar from a usability standpoint, but then there's still some "variety" just to give the rental players a bit of choice. Definitely getting friendly with the competition is a good shout yea. In my day job we make games in a small niche market and we run a discord and have devs from other games in there too who make similar games and are technically "competition" but we encourage people recommending other games than ours etc as it all helps everyone. Speaking of rental equipment, I'm obviously a long way off from this stage but just getting ideas of costs and trying to avoid doing the day job for a minute so I started looking around at face protection. All I want is something full face, to limit the potential of someone removing the bottom half, losing some teeth, and then blaming me, and probably not a helmet but maybe that'd be better, especially to accommodate glasses wearers. But the closest I can find is one that has mesh eye protection. BBs are plastic and can shatter. Doesn't really mix that well with mesh. https://www.defconairsoft.co.uk/product/big-foot-airsoft-mask-with-mesh-goggles/

Yea it would need to be marshalled properly, I guess I was thinking much like sten party might do go-karting, laser tag, a room escape, anything like that, they could also do a few hours of airsofting. Not easy to find someone no, but certainly can be done. Just need to make sure I pay them properly and get the right person. All VERY good points, thank you for all of this. BID is a good idea yea, will be fielding some questions to my accountants soon ( business advise as well ) and see what things they can think of in this direction. Good marshalls and specific rules, that are adhered to, is a big one yea. Any thoughts on the rule of "no hicaps"?

Yea more realistic rooms is exactly what I'm thinking. In my day job I make first person adventure / room escape games and half of that is just dressing the games to look interesting and fit the narrative, so I'm hoping I can take some of that knowledge and bring it to set design in real life.

Yea it was more just for spares and just ballparking prices, figured it's best to err on the side of caution just when I'm in early stages now thinking about things, and then if after a little more time of thinking about it it looks like something I can actually do I'll get more specific with estimations. But also, I'm thinking for private events etc when everyone on the site at the same time will require a rental and there won't be any normal skirmishers. - Edit - Maybe 25 rental aegs, with 30 mags/batteries/masks so there's spares to go around. More than enough for rentals on a regular skirmish day but also enough to host 20 person private events with a few spare.

That's a very good point yea, will make sure it's all fully explained and agreed upon, in writing, what can and can't be done. Re: training days, still deciding on how that might work best and think two versions could work well, days targeted at Joe Public that want an adrenaline experience like a red letter day where all equipment would be provided and another that is aimed at airsofters who have their own equipment.

I think potentially trying to separate gamestyles to different days could work maybe? One skirmish day would be aimed at quicker/simpler/casualer games and another at the milsims and the a separate day for speedsofters. This of course requires there to be enough of each type to support that though.

Rental price yes, not sure about rates yet which as mentioned is the real killer ( and it's what eventually took down a non-airsoft thing my dad did so the charity option as mentioned by Rogerborg above could be a good shout. ) This would be quite a few months out from now if I actually do it so hopefully we'll know by then if "normal" is ever something we can go back to. But yea, it's certainly something I need to think about but it may not be until next year before I can do this anyway.

Do you mean sell more than just game day consumables i.e. an actual retail store?

Yea that's a good idea, don't want a Mall situation. Estimating costs so was thinking 30-40 rental guns and mid-caps, maybe G&G Raider, G&G Firehawk, or a Cyma MP5 ?

That vole story is just way too specific to be made up and I'd love to hear it in full. What are people's thoughts on things like corporate "team building" and stag/hen/sten dos? Do they get done much in Airsoft? Training days with ex-special forces types brought in etc?

That's a good idea yea, hadn't thought of that. One thing I was thinking, to try to keep it interesting to regular players, is take a hint from theatre staging and game development by having small "rooms", essentially tiles, on moveable castors so that the layout can be rearranged between game days. These layouts could then also be saved so if a particular layout was especially popular it could then be selected much like a game level.

Thanks! Competition - there's no other sites in the city itself, the closest other CQB sites is Strikeforce in Gloucester and then the courthouse in Bristol. I'm hoping that I can bring something different to them so all can still survive. Parking - The venue has a small private parking area plus a larger shared one on the industrial estate itself. Storefront - I'm thinking consumables like ammo, gas, pyros, batteries, that sort of thing rather than a full on shop. Food - I was thinking simple tuck shop + vending machine rather than cooking on site, and maybe trying to find a friendly food truck that wants to pop over at lunch. Relatively close, Cheltenham. About an hour by train, 45 minute drive. Still early early days at present though.

Long story short when I was in secondary school I, like most people, had a 5 minute meeting with a careers advisor to decide my entire future. The two things I said I wanted to do was "make video games" and "run an airsoft site", and as expected the advisor knew nothing of both topics and said I should maybe do a business or IT course in college. Fast forward a couple of decades and I've now been running a "successful" video game company for the past 10 years and thought, maybe it's time I take a stab at the other thing? So I've found a potential location for a city centre CQB site that has good transport links and thought I'd see if I could crowd source any potential issues/questions I hadn't thought of yet. So, if you've ever ran a site ( successfully or not ) or maybe gone through this same thought process before, what sort of things should I be thinking about? I've got a list of ideas that could be done to supplement the income of the occasional skirmish day and I'm not expecting to get rich off this. My games company used to have an office but for the past 5 years or so we've just worked from our homes, so I was thinking I could potentially set up a small office in the CQB site so I could work there rather than home and then get my spare room back finally. As for a list of costs, this is what I have so far - Startup Costs Rental Gear First and Last Rent Setting Up The Site First Aid Training Monthly Expenses Rent Business Rates Staff Salaries / Marshall Pay Insurance Utilities Rental Maintenance Ammo / Gas / Batteries etc for Rental Gear General Upkeep / Changing Layouts etc Marketing Business Expenses ( Accountants / Legal )

Thanks will do!

Prepping for a house move and finally decided it's time to get back into airsoft however want to have a clean slate with gear. I have these two WA SV Infinities with 6 mags ( and two lockable cases ) and not sure what they are worth. They'd most likely need a proper once over as they haven't been touched in about a decade. The thumb safety catch is missing on the left hand gun. P.S. I will also be posting about a TM G3 SG/1 and a TM MC51 but need to get some photos first but in case anyone happens to have a ballpark figure for those now I'll ask here first.