Host a Splatoon Style Paint War (Water Gun Battle)

Host a Splatoon Style Paint War (Water Gun Battle)

This activity is perfect for teenagers and kids birthday parties, youth events, camps and cast & crew parties.

STUDENTS SHOULD BRING: 

-modest paint war undershirt to wear under the war t-shirt that will be provided at the war

-plus paint war shorts or pants

-a full change of clothes for after the war 

-you can be barefoot or wear shoes that will get painted but flip flops and crocs are not recommended because of how slippery it will be

-shower caps, swim caps or head covering if you want, paint might stain if it’s not washed off immediately. 

-AN OLD TOWEL that will get paint on it

Note to parents: if you have any request or concerns about the paint war, please let your host know before the day of the paint war so they can be prepared

Supplies provided and already prepared by the host: 

• White t-shirts with targets that are rubber bands and 2 safety pins with little gatherings with a safety pin in the center to ensure the rubber band does not come off, 4 staggered on each shirt. Put names on all the shirts before the paint war so you know who’s is who's. 

• Scrap boxes to hide behind from your local hardware stores, or we just used old lawn chairs and duct tape

• Acrylic craft paint or washable paint (craft paint can stain but makes cool shirts). It’s important that the paint is watered down but not so runny that it doesn’t stay on surfaces. Test out the consistency on a spare piece of cardboard and do your best to make the consistency of the 3 colors of paint equal. Color theory!  Don’t pick colors opposite each other on the color wheel or they will make brown and stay away from red because it looks like blood. For teams of 7 people on each, we had rubbermaid bins that had about 2” deep of paint, then added about 5” of water and stirred. 
• Trash cans or bins for paint, one per team

• Water gun pencil things, several extra guns prizes for trivia, solo cups filled with paint for war winners to drizzle

• Goggles all found at a dollar store
• Spray paint for marking playing field lines
• Giant balloons, poster boards and scrap fabric or old clothes to cover the balloons and targets because the fabric will hold paint better than the slippery surface. 
• Free standing ladder and garden hose with water on top of a mat or surface that won’t get muddy.. 
• A monitored garage or place students can change

• 3 whistles, one at each paint bucket
• Speaker with Splatoon music playing extremely loud!
• Place to hang shirts while they dry completely, the next day scrub them with hose water to get all the paint off, then wash them & everyone has a souvenir, or plastic bags to send them home wet
• Designated photographer & videographer

Playing field set up:

• The field should be set up in a giant circle so you can easily place the teams paint buckets, targets and stationary players balanced across the playing field to be fair.
• Use spray paint to give 3 feet around all stationary targets so people can’t stand right in front of a target and completely block it with their bodies
• Spray a line 6 feet around all paint buckets
• (be sure to watch this video on YouTube to find the picture of my playing field)

How to Play:

• Have all the students put their extra clothes, towel and all other belonging in the garage or somewhere outside before everything starts so they don’t have to go inside a nice building painted and wet
• 3 teams need to be divided up evenly. The best way to do this is to make a line of girls and a line of guys by age. Count off in 3’s.  If it’s not even, the teams will have to rotate players in
• Give each team their shirts
• Give each team a chance to put on their team’s color of paint as  “war paint” but tell them not to waste paint. This war-paint will help them remember who is on their team.
• Have funny trivia questions for the teams to answer to earn extra guns they can use during the war (this increases team bonding before the war) (make your trivia relevant to the occasion you are celebrating or the people group you are hosting and hopefully funny)
• Give 3 minutes of strategy time for the teams before the war
• If you have students who can’t run around or who are afraid, you can have designated stationary players who are not wearing a target on them and are not allowed to be sprayed, but they have their own buckets of paint and gun that matches their team.  They need to know that when their bucket is empty they are done playing. Each team needs to have the same number of stationary players so you might need to get adult volunteers for this so it’s even. If you notice that these players are not close enough to the action, move them closer during the game.
• The first team to run out of paint should blow their whistle and the game is over.  Everyone puts their hands in the air and sits down. If you see that people are tired, it’s getting dangerous or the targets are too saturated with paint to work anymore, blow a whistle and end the game.
• The judges will go around and for each target award a point for the predominant color on each target, including the 4 targets on each shirt, and tally up the points to get a winning team. It’s not always easy to tell which color should get a point…just do your best.
• Calmly, each player from the winning team picks one other player to dump/drizzle a solo cup of paint on.  This can be their opponents, a teammate, or themselves.  This will be done calmly and one at a time with the victims all seated in a row facing the crowd. I picked a new color to add to the mix (a light teal)
• Now calmly get everyone together for a group picture 
• Have extra t-shirts and get paint on them for the students who could not fully participate before you let the leftover paint be given to the students
• The remaining paint can be used in a ‘free for all’ with the leaders saying ‘go’ and make sure everyone knows that you still can’t pick up the paint buckets or cans to dump, and still stay within the paint war boundaries and don’t touch other participants so their shirts stay nice.
• Place the shirts somewhere to lay flat, or hang, and dry completely. Rinse them in outdoor water if you are concerned for your washing machine, then wash them all together and you have a great souvenir from this epic event

Points will be take away for:

• Going inside the other teams paint bucket area, going inside target areas, going outside perimeter boundaries
• Picking up any paint buckets/bins/cans, stealing the other teams weapons, touching other people on purpose
• Spraying yourself with your own color
• Not putting your hands in the air when the war is over
• Using someone else's weapon
• Hiding a target on your shirt
• Spaying another teams bucket or anyone in the bucket area
• Finding new ways to ruin the game in any way.

Send this entire “how to host a paint war” script to everyone playing so they know what to expect, how to prepare and how to play fairly

~Coach Baldwin