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BLIND MAN’S NERF GUN
About as close as a game can get to a hostage situation.
Obviously for all of these games you’ll need a NERF gun. For some of them you’ll need multiple spongey weapons but for this one, the classic NERF gun game, you’ll merely need one NERF and a way of playing music. The game is simple: blindfold one young person and put them in the middle of a circle. Play some music and encourage the rest of the group to dance around the blindfolded teenager in a circle. When the music stops, everyone should stand still while the blindfolded person shoots at random. Whoever is hit by the bullet is out and the game continues until just one person is left who is crowned the winner and becomes the shooter.
NERF GUN EAT-OUT
Eating food items at random, like a toddler in McDonalds.
For this game you need one NERF gun and a mix of tasty foods (jam, doughnuts, jam doughnuts, chocolate, crisps etc) and disgusting foods (raw sardines, Marmite, cinnamon, custard powder). Get the group into pairs and give one of them a gun. Line the food items up a decent distance away and blindfold the person with the gun before spinning them around a few times. They should shoot towards the food and whichever item they hit is to be consumed by the partner. Give everyone a go at both eating and shooting.
DODGENERF
Dodge, dip, dive, duck, dodge, shoot!
By now, all youth workers are pretty familiar with the rules of dodgeball: split the group into two teams and get them to throw balls at each other until one team is eliminated. What the game clearly needs is a NERF makeover. As always, split the group into two. If you’ve got enough NERF guns for everyone, hand them out, if not, give an equal amount, with equal capabilities and bullets to each team. Shots must be aimed below the head and anyone who is hit is eliminated. As in regular dodgeball, if someone catches a bullet with their hand, the shooter is out and one of the catcher’s teammates can re-enter the game (in the order they were eliminated). If you have fewer guns than people, make sure that everyone is given a go at shooting. Teams can re-use bullets fired by the opposition.
NERF DARTS
The difference between NERF darts and ‘nerd darts’ is very important. No geeks were hurt in the making of this game.
This game does exactly what it says in the… title. Source a Velcro dart board and use the stickable NERF bullets to have a game of darts. You could give each young person three darts to get the highest score, let them play down from 501 as is traditional or, if you’re feeling really daring construct an elaborate game of NERF Bullseye by adding in some questions and categories – you can’t beat a bit of Bully.
QUICK DRAW NERF
As with all the games on this page, please only play this one with NERF guns. Now we’ve added in this caveat, we cannot be sued.
This is a NERF gun classic and definitely not one we just invented: you’ll need two NERF guns and two brooms. Get the young people into two teams and lined up at one end of a hall with a broom and a NERF gun for each team at the other end. When you say go, the first person from each team should run to the other end, spin around with the broom in the air for 30 seconds before picking up the gun and attempting to fire (while hilariously dizzy) at their opponent. The first person to get a shot on target wins a point for their team. The game continues until each person has had a go.
