In an effort to account for a player characters’ possessing a collection of high skills that seem unusual outside a high-tech military, I hypothesised a high-tech extreme sport that I call “parasniper rogaining”. It obviously has its roots in a military training exercise, but I can really see it taking off among people who are rich enough, addicted to adrenalin and endorphins, and heavily-reinforced enough to get away with it.
The basic idea is that there a number of sniper targets are placed around an area of rugged wilderness (the “range”), and a rogaining map prepared that specifies where they are, what aspect they are in, and special conditions for each one (e.g. disappears half a second after a microphone detects a supersonic bullet report). Targets are often so arranged so that some can be scored by long rifle shots, others only by close approach in heavy cover. On a well designed course some targets offer several distinct ways of getting a shot at them with competing advantages.
Competitors participate in teams of two (“sniper” and “spotter”) or solo. They are given the maps and time to plan their strategy. Then they enter the course carrying all the equipment and supplies that they will use, and have a time limit in which to shoot as many targets as they can get to and hit.
The spotter may use observation drones for scouting, but targets often become unavailable if drones are detected near them. Weapons must be held and fired by a competitor, not mounted on drones or robotic carriages. Participants must carry all their supplies and equipment; robotic ammunition carriers such as the military use are not permitted.
Ranges are often large, and with difficult terrain to traverse. The time limit is often two days or more, forcing the participants to carry significant food, water, and shelter — or to do without them. (“Run at night. Shoot in light.”)
In the “para” variant the participants enter the course at significant altitude and speed, from an aircraft. Those who choose parachutes can land a greater weight of equipment; those who prefer wingsuits trade lighter loads for better choices of landing spots.
Biathlon is clearly an influence, as is practical shooting. (I hadn’t heard of rogaining before.) Do I understand correctly that the idea is to have more targets than any team can practically reach, so that the planning is a significant part of the task?
I think that it would be very hard to balance a target setup for long shot vs time-consuming close approach, but it would certainly be worth trying.
I suspect that a decent steerable parachute would be a compellingly better option than a wingsuit unless you have mountains you can leap off after the initial drop.
And rogaining, and fastpacking, and the “Happy Wanderer” exercise in the selection process for the SASR (three days in the Stirling Ranges without food or sleep, try to check off as many way-points as you can).
(I hadn’t heard of rogaining before.)
It is an obscure Australian innovation that will catch on overseas when we have been doing it for a century, like ranked-choice voting and the eight-hour workday.
Do I understand correctly that the idea is to have more targets than any team can practically reach, so that the planning is a significant part of the task?
Correct. With trade-offs between long slogs on level trails against short legs that you have to climb or scramble, and “what can we do at night?”.
I think that it would be very hard to balance a target setup for long shot vs time-consuming close approach, but it would certainly be worth trying.
It does sound tricky. The first thing that I would try is concealment screens with openings facing distant peaks and ridge lines. The second would be to put a target on the side of a cliff facing a gorge a couple of kilometres wide with thick bush in the bottom. You get a line of sight from the top of the opposite cliff, but it’s a 2,000-metre shot. If you descend into the gorge you can’t see though the canopy, and have to cross the gorge (with a river or marsh at the bottom, perhaps) and climb part of the slope below the target to get a clear shot again.
Probably. Oh well!
1 Like
The rules will likely get complicated in terms of allowed equipment and personal augmentations.
If it became a spectator sport, there’d be pressure to allow separate planning teams who didn’t go onto the course, which the TV-equivalents would favour as allowing more drama for less effort on their part.
1 Like
It seems to be basically the same as what’s known as a ‘Score event’ in orienteering (Orienteering - Wikipedia), which is more or less the principle behind the Original Mountain Marathon (Original Mountain Marathon - Wikipedia). I hadn’t realised there was an Australian version with a cool name.
What I really meant was “I hadn’t realised it was invented in Australia and already had a cool name”.
1 Like
Never mind, I’m just teasing.