Welcome to the Origin Story.

Hi there! This is Elena (AKA Panda Hat Girl) and I’m here to give you guys the lowdown on who I am and what I do. I’m kind of the classic geeky girl. I collect hats, and am currently up to 38 in total. I’m a huge TMNT and My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic fan, and Buzz Lightyear and Batman are practically my idols. I love computers and I hope to learn code. I was born and raised in a Star Wars family. (I was that girl whose dad took her to see the midnight premiere of Episode II in 3rd grade.) I guess you could call me a gamer. I’m more for the Nintendo 64 and Gameboy Advance than the Xbox, but I have a major soft spot for Assassin’s Creed. Pokémon has always been a favorite of mine; TCG, video games, plushies, the works. You can expect to see at least one of my posts in the future on the franchise. I even have a habit of painting my nails to look like pokéballs.

Yeah. That’s a thing that happens.

Anyway, what I’m here to tell y’all about is Nerf Wars.

Nerf Wars, also known as Dart Gun, is this amazingly awesome thing in which college students get to enjoy the privilege of invading an entire building and shooting each other with “toy” Nerf Guns between the hours of 9pm and 2am. (I use quotes around the word toy because if you’ve ever gotten hit point blank by a modified NiteFinder, you know it’s a bit more than a toy.)

Now, if you think that this sounds like a calm, leisurely activity, you are sorely mistaken. Nerf Wars is by far one of the single most intense experiences I have ever had.

For those of you who don’t know too much about Nerf Wars, here’s the sitch: Nerf Wars is a branch of the Sci-Fi club, also known as Skiffy. In charge, we have one Master at Arms who goes by the name “Mack Attack”. (Yes, I said Master at Arms. This is legit.) He’s the one who announces which building we meet in, decides which games we’re going to play, and regulates modified guns.

The weaponry options for Nerf Wars are almost limitless. Pretty much any commercially sold dart gun can be used in the game, including Nerf’s arsenal of traditional guns, their new Vortex line, and guns from a lesser-known company, BuzzBee. Another popular weapon is a two-to-four foot length of PVC pipe that can be used as a blowgun. Every one of these weapons can also be modified and manipulated for longer range, better accuracy, or faster reloading.

Every Saturday night, all of us nerfers convene in one of the academic buildings for a battle of truly epic proportions. The number of players fluctuates on a weekly basis, and throughout the night, ranging anywhere between 12 and 50 people. People arrive both in and out of costume – some dressed in all black, camouflage, army surplus gear, or as CIA agents – wielding NiteFinders, blowguns, Praxis, Longstrikes, and the occasional Nerf grenade. Personally, I prefer a BuzzBee Berzerker and a Nerf NiteFinder, both modified for longer range.

Hells to the yes.

Contrary to popular belief, Nerf Wars is not just five hours of battle-royale-esque, no-holds-barred war. We rotate through playing several different games, all of which come with an individual set of rules. Crowd favorites include “Dawn of the Dead,” “Vampires,” and “Supervillains”. Almost every game has a time limit of roughly 15-20 minutes, though some are known to end sooner. Most of the games we play split the group into two or three teams, which are picked playground-style. Once the games begin, they run pretty much non-stop until 2am, oftentimes running much later. (My first week, we went until 4:30am.) The games can get pretty intense, and some require tons of sprinting, oftentimes up and down flights of stairs, but they’re all extremely fun.

Nerf Wars runs on one golden rule: “Don’t be a dick”. What is commonly referred to as the “Don’t be a dick clause” is fundamentally a form of the honor code. You are hit if the shooter says you’ve been hit, you don’t lie about hitting someone, and you generally just use your head. Basically, just because the rules don’t say you’re not allowed to shoot someone 15 seconds into a game, doesn’t mean you should do it. Besides, if you do, you’re doomed to die less than a minute into every game for the rest of the night.

Now, if you’ve read the title of this post, y’all are probably wondering how this ragtag group of college freshmen came to be and what in the world Nerf Wars has to do with it. Here’s where we get to the Origin Story part. The group that is now known as the Redshirt Crew came to be all thanks to Nerf Wars. For me, it all started when Mack Attack sent out an email to the Nerf Wars interest list advertising a Nerf run to a nearby Target, where us newbies (AKA redshirts) could buy ourselves our first weapons. On this Nerf run, I met Chase (Marist Play Boy) and Jason (Junior Varsity). After the Nerf run, we spent several hours with Mack as he helped us test out and modify each of our new guns. That night, we met back up in the Mathematics building for Nerf Wars. Being the noobs, we stuck together. Over the following couple weeks, we slowly accumulated a group of regular redshirts – Dallas (Sallad), Thomas (Huge 8itch), and Kyle (Elyk) included – who happened to live in nearby dorms. (Traveling in groups comes in handy when you have to walk back to your dorm at 3am.)

As we grew more acquainted, we started referring to ourselves as “The Crew”. Not only would we stick together when we were under fire from the veterans, but we started meeting up for Crew dinners and brunches before and after Nerf Wars. It was during one of these mealtime get-togethers, after yet another hilariously entertaining conversation about some poorly-written movie, that Chase broached the idea of doing a podcast. We discussed the idea for a bit, contemplating the things we could and would talk about. Ultimately, we decided as a group to try our hand at our first podcast (which you guys should totally check out, it’s below) and see how we liked it. And thus, the Red Shirt Crew Blog/Podcast Network was born!

In the end, we’re all just a bunch of nerds who were drawn together through an interest in foam-dart warfare. Every week, I’ll give you guys a rundown of the crazy antics that make up Nerf Wars, so y’all can experience the awesomeness, excitement, and occasionally the adrenaline-fueled terror, that is Skiffy’s weekly Nerf Wars. Be excited!