Digest: Wayne, I understand you had a colorful life long before you got to be the “father of paintball scenario games .”
Wayne: I played my first game of paintball in 1983 after we moved to Ocala. Paintball was mostly rogue fields out in the woods in those days. Before that, I’d been a graphics artist specializing in advertising. But in the early’80s, artists began switching to computers to do all their art, and I figured that after 38 years it was time for a career change.
Paintball Digest: So, tell us about your first scenario games.
Wayne: It was back in 1986, I think, and the field was quite large. We called it “Operation CIA.” We put in $2 each and buried the money in a cash box in a hidden tower we’d built in the middle of this field. The object was to find the money and keep from getting shot. If you found the money, you got to keep it. We had a ball.
The next year in “Operation Stealth,” we built an airplane out of plywood that looked like a Stealth bomber and tried to get all 38 players in the mood. Then we looked up, and honest to God, we had police department helicopters circling overhead taking pictures. They were watching that black-painted Stealth bomber, I guess, because they never did contact us about it and we couldn’t figure out what they wanted. Eventually they just flew off. What we didn’t know was that the real Stealth bomber was about to be unveiled and it was real Top Secret stuff. How about that! Since then, we’ve had a lot of law enforcement people come out and play. That game, “Operation Stealth” in 1987, was our first role-playing scenario game.
Paintball Digest: So, your very first game drew a lot of attention, but it wasn’t necessarily the kind of attention you wanted. How did the idea of playing roles in the game come up?
Wayne: I swear that story is true. But a buddy of mine , an army engineer who had been in Vietnam named Gaylan Lancaster, came up with the idea of character cards, and we got together and made up roles for some of the games. Gaylan, of course, wanted to be the “Game Operations Director” and called himself GOD for short. We soon discovered that the more you become your character, the more you get into it, the more you enjoy the experience and that’s what it’s all about.
Paintball Digest: Was that your first 24-hour game?
Wayne: Yes. In those days, a 24-hour game actually played for 24 hours. Today, most games shut down for dinner and then from about 2 to 7 on Sunday morning. Give everybody a break, including the referees . You get 300 people out on the field and with a 1:15 ref-to-player ratio, you’ve got a big staff to worry about, maybe 25 people.
Paintball Digest: How does a scenario game differ from tournament play?
Guards provide security for a shipment of gold in Nocer Productions ’ “Great Train Robbery” at First Strike Paintball in Newberry, Florida.
Wayne: Tournaments are very fast and involve small teams that are sponsored by manufacturers. Team members are usually fast and athletic, so play can be much more aggressive. And with lots of money, often thousands of dollars, riding on the outcome of some 5-man shoot-out that barely lasts 5 minutes, tempers can get out of hand. The refs have to be on top of the play all the time. You almost never see somebody losing their temper on a scenario field. In scenario play, the emphasis is on sportsmanship and enjoying the game.
I mentioned that tournament teams are sponsored. That means manufacturers provide equipment, clothing or travel expenses to a high-profile team like Michael “Blue” Hanse’s Blue’s Crew or the Jacksonville Warriors from Jacksonville, Florida. The team gets its gear free, gets its picture in magazines, travels to tournaments or big, high profile games and sometimes even part of their expenses (meals or motels) will be reimbursed. A manufacturer gets visibility because the guys on the team wear the manufacturer’s name on their clothes and let the manufacturer use their pictures and maybe do some PR stuff.
Paintball Digest: So where do you go from here?
Wayne: Jackie and I travel all over the country now putting on scenario games and there are a lot of other good groups doing it, too. We’re headed up to Wasaga Beach Paintball in Canada to help put on “Stars War” (didn’t want to get in trouble with anyone in Tinsel Town) soon. Paul has a great operation. He gets 60,000 players a year at Skirmish and he’s into white-water rafting, too. We did the only, or at least the first, 48-hour scenario game in the world at Skirmish. It was based on the movie “Blade Runner” and practically everybody had a great time. I had no idea that movie was such a hit.
Wayne Dollack (left) with his field and business manager Eddie Williamson at Wayne’s World of Paintball in Ocala, Florida. Wayne says he never thought much about being called the “father of paintball scenario games.” He just thought he was having fun and making a living.
Lying in wait!
People don’t realize it, but planning a game and building props and scripting character cards and missions for 500 people takes from 4 to 6 weeks. Then you’ve got to haul everything to the field and hope for good weather. If the weather is great, you could have twice the turnout you expect and that leaves you scrambling for more Porta-Potties and referees . If it turns rotten, maybe nobody will show up and you can lose thousands of dollars.
But everything in paintball is changing fast. The equipment, especially. Paintball is on television now and then and lots of people out on the west coast are trying “air soft.” It’s like paintball, but you shoot little plastic pellets instead of breakable balls so, obviously, it is more of an honor-based game. You can’t tell when someone else gets hit. But the air soft guns (they’re not markers , because they don’t actually mark anything) shoot faster and farther. Air soft hasn’t caught on here in the east or the south, yet.
I’d say that even in regular paintball, though, the markers are much faster than they used to be. They shoot further and straighter, too.
Paintball Digest: How do you like being thought of as the “father” of scenario games?
Wayne: It’s a compliment, really, but I never looked at it that way. I’ve always just had fun and my business is helping other people have fun and play this game the right way, with sportsmanship.
Paintball Digest: What are your favorite foods?
Wayne: I like a good cheesecake and there’s a restaurant not far from here that serves a wonderful marinated octopus salad. [The noise in the background is Wayne’s World field and business manager Eddie Williamson turning green.]
You can learn more about Wayne and Jackie Dollack’s playing field and scenario games at www.waynes-world.com.
Packing paint and carrying a prize! If you don’t carry extra paint with you, you may run out in an intense fire-fight and that can mean time off the scenario field.
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