Camporee idea?

[MattR]

I just got back from klondike and at 6am I was thinking about an idea for our Spring Camporee in May. A scout I was talking to yesterday wanted to have a really big event rather than the usual go from station to station thing. The overall theme is currently a meteor collides with an alien space ship and there's debris all over camp. Debris means a problem to solve. That supports things like emergency mobilization, first aid, and wilderness survival. So, aliens that need first aid or shelter,  radioactive alien space ship parts. Other ideas? The unique part of it would be to have all the patrols work together. So, there's a HQ where the SPL's are. They and all the PL's have radios. The SPL's have a big map and identify wreckage sites and track what has been searched. On Friday night there could be a big district PLC meeting where they divvy up searching. There could even be a night search for those that want some more.

Just to put some numbers in to help, assume there are 30 patrols and something like 100 pieces of wreckage (this would take a while to set up!). The patrols need to find and deal with all the wreckage/problems. Most of it is obvious and out in the middle of the field. But some is hidden back in the trees. They have 3 or 4 hours to find and solve all the problems.

Ideas?

[Jameson76]

At high level good.  But may want to keep it simple

[shortridge]

Sounds like a great way to work in search and rescue! The logistics and communication will take a significant amount of planning and prep. You’ll want to make sure each patrol gets assigned to an area or task that has some meat on the bones - so one unlucky group doesn’t just find itself wandering for the day without anything fun happening. Try enlisting your local emergency management agency or CERT group to help. And please let us know how this idea turns out!

[mrkstvns]

Hmmm.   Sure y'all  haven't been binge watching that TV series, "Roswell New Mexico" ???

[MattR]

I have a great idea for a patch. Alien wearing a cowboy hat riding a meteor like a bucking bronco.

Yeah, the 100 stations sounds crazy now. I could see putting a 100 long ribbons in trees and the scouts need to organize and find them. If only I can give them some incentive to make it more fun. It can't be get all you can, they need to work together. So ribbons need to have value to do something later. Each patrol needs to find their 3 ribbons in their sector to do something later in the day. It could be their ticket to the rifle shooting or a way to lower their race time or ....

[qwazse]

On 2/3/2019 at 6:29 PM, MattR said:

... Just to put some numbers in to help, assume there are 30 patrols and something like 100 pieces of wreckage (this would take a while to set up!). ...

Ideas?

How many GPS's do you have? I've set up a geocaching game where each team places cache, logs the coordinates on an index card, along with clues. Then brings the cards back to base. They then pick up the card that another team drops off, finds that cache and swaps tokens, the next team back picks up the next card, etc ...

So, basically, you have the teams build the game (in your case, scatter the debris) that they are about to play.

[Eagledad]

Create some kind of communications station for aliens to phone home. I've seen the concept in theory.

Barry

[MattR]

@qwazse, that's brilliant. Not sure about gps count. I could mark the corner of each section and then the scouts could go from there using a compass and pacing it out. Not real accurate but gps's have their issues as well. One scout wanted to do something at night. They could set it up at night or the next day.

@Eagledad, that's hilarious. It will have to be in there. It could be radios. Or it could be semaphore. Semaphore would match the steam punk theme. You will get full credit. You'd like the weapons I had in the clue-like murder mystery game: cotton, an outhouse, burnt pancakes, dull axe, and lightning.

Edited February 5, 2019 by MattR
grammar

[qwazse]

Brainstorm: rocket launches!

It could be a "lifeboat" problem. The aliens could be bingo markers or small coins or -- if you have an obsessive scouter -- die cast figures. (Maybe they rescue them from the "debris".) The scouts will have to build a rocket with a payload to launch as many aliens as they can into "orbit", which would be some minimum height. Or, it could be scored, say they get 2 points per alien times the altitude traveled: 2 aliens x 100 meters=200 points, 4 aliens * 60 meters= 240 points.

[SSScout]

If it is a search and rescue scenario, perhaps the Patrols need to HIKE into the camp, no cars or trailers.  The "emergency vehicles"  are parked, oh a quarter mile away?  1 Kilometer?  The wreckage can be strewn over a wide area that the Search Teams (Patrols) must hike into, set up camp, and reconnoiter their assigned area. .  Report back to GHQ , make notes on the topo map they have been given... Rescue folks and carry them back to GHQ , set up signal towers (pioneering),  signal stuff (wig wag morse code?  Semiphore?   ) to GHQ by a relay if it is too far away,   wow the ideas inherent... 

[Thunderbird]

Some kind of alien code or symbols to solve.  (Possible tie in with the Signs, Signals, and Codes merit badge?)

"How to Serve Man"  👽

[shortridge]

I was just reminded of a game my Cub den used to play. We called it “Refuel the Spaceship”; it’s probably known by other names. My memory may be a little leaky, and Googling only turned up stuff about real spaceships, but this is what I recall:

The game is played at night outdoors, suitable for a camp “wide game.” The team/patrol/den is a group of astronauts whose spaceship has crashed on a planet and run out of fuel. They need to bring fuel from a storage depot or natural fuel source at Point A (a full bucket of water) to the spaceship (an empty bucket of water) at Point B, using only the emergency containers that come with their spacesuits (small cups). They will have to make many trips to bring enough fuel to fill their tank (a predesignated amount of water).

There are aliens roaming the planet surface, and if they encounter a group of astronauts, the latter have to dump out their fuel. The alien was played by our den leader, who dressed in dark clothing and had great fun jumping out of shadows and scaring the bejeezus out of us (often causing us to spill). You could have multiple aliens as well.

You could have multiple spacecraft being refueled at once, or have everyone working together against the clock to fill an especially large spaceship fuel tank.