My Retirement Project

I will have some videos up over the next week or so. The Business Plan is at: https://mojaverangerschool.com/bplan

This is basically the Executive Summary;

Mojave Rangers: The Game – https://mojaverangerschool.com/gamebooklet

Welcome to Mojave Rangers: The Game

The Mojave Rangers Game is a post-apocalyptic version of D&D, based on the Fallout: New Vegas video game, that uses video games, tabletop RPG, LARP and Milsim to teach real-world first aid, radio and outdoor skills in an immersive, family-friendly, Scouting-compatible game system that’s free to download and play at all levels.

The Mojave Rangers Game can be played from 1-player on the Mojave Rangers Fallout: New Vegas video game mod, to a full live-action multi-day milsim adventure at an NCR fort in the Mojave Desert.

The game includes free downloadable Fallout: New Vegas mods, GURPS tabletop role play game modules and an online course, Field Manual and monthly training for live-action milsim players.

The Mojave Rangers Game features 10 monthly trainings and drills that teach all the first aid, radio, Search & Rescue and outdoor survival skills from a dozen merit badges plus basic milsim patrolling and bivouacs.

The training runs in 3 phases and players progress at their own pace.

Players in the game are Rangers, Raiders, Settlers, Refugees and Trainees and there are a variety of civilian roles.

Mojave Rangers Are Post-Apocalyptic Park Rangers

• The Mojave Rangers are a volunteer civilian group, organized like a volunteer fire department crossed with a martial arts school, who run security, medical and tech missions throughout the Mojave.
• The Followers of the Apocalypse are the civilian trainers who teach the first aid, radio and non-military topics and coordinate closely with the Mojave Rangers
• The Mojave Raiders are teams of raiders who are trained, armed and led by Brotherhood of Steel and Caesar’s Legion advisors, who attack NCR resources in the Mojave
  • the ‘advisors’ are actually Enclave instigators rather than BoS or Legion, which is part of the storyline

• Settlers are players who fulfill a civilian function, and their families
  • shopkeepers
  • campground hosts
  • smiths
  • artists, musicians, crafters
• Refugees are visitors or guests who aren’t club members and are renting space in the Bunker B&B
• Trainees: get free camping and free training for the Ranger Basic, Leadership, Medic and RTO courses, which all run on the same yearly schedule
  • Medic & RTO can be taken concurrently with the Ranger Basic Course

Fort Edwards, Mojave Territory, 2287

Fort Edwards is a 2.5-acre Fallout-themed desert fort and market village being developed 13.5 miles NNE of Edwards AFB on the western edge of the Mojave Desert. Fort Edwards sits about halfway between New Vegas and the Boneyard (LA).

The Fort Edwards site is 330×330 ft. The rear 1/3^rd of the site is a 100x100ft inner fort and associated airsoft training areas. The front 2/3rds of the site is being developed as a small market village. Historically, the fort/market village combination provides security as well as a center for commerce.

Like a Martial Arts School

The game system progresses like a martial arts school with task books that allow players to sign off on skills.

• One 4-hour training each month (1st Saturday) and one 4-hour drill (last Saturday) and we’ll be running live-stream classes from the fort site in summer ’26
• Weekly free games at the fort for all players, starting this summer for those who want to camp and help build. Live-streamed so Ranger Training Clubs can participate from the outlands.
• 10 monthly drills cover all the basic first aid, rifle, radio, SAR, etc. skills for a dozen merit badges, regardless of whether Scouting is officially organized into the system, plus basic patrolling and Army basic training skills.

Yearly Schedule, Crawl-Walk-Run

Fort Phase Jan-March Crawl: initial basic training at the fort
Patrol Base Phase April-June Walk: trainees learn to run radio relay stations and operate away from the fort
SAR Phase July-Oct Run: full-speed operations during the hottest part of the year
Expert Rifleman Challenge Nov: Rangers run an opposed orienteering course with stations for all weapons, leadership drills, etc.
YOUHAD & Winter Games Dec 23rd-26th: Yearly Operational Unit Holiday Avoidance Drill (YOUHAD) – the 4th Rangers have been tasked with maintaining a radio navigation beacon from 0900zulu 24 Dec until 0900zulu 25 Dec, with SAR teams on standby, for an undisclosed aerial mission, no further details. You had a year to get ready for this…

• Winter Games for the beacon crew and standby SAR teams
  • Holiday Avoidance Feast
  • Skills station contests for prizes
    • full-speed, instructors against students
  •  Year-end review/Next Year Planning

Game System

• Fallout: New Vegas Mojave Rangers mod (in development): starts in 2281 with the early development of the Mojave Rangers.
  • The Player has to assemble the starting cadre and complete quests that teach radio and outdoor training
  • integrates the Mojave Rangers into the New Vegas storyline with quests and missions for each major stage
• Mojave Rangers GURPS Modules: same storyline played like D&D
  • The GURPS modules allow unlimited expansion
• LARP: Mojave Rangers training is immersive and instructors are subject matter experts who also maintain the immersion, like staff at a ren fair.
• Milsim: Force-on-force with plastic BB’s. No paper targets, at MRS your instructors shoot back. It’s the only school where teachers get bonuses for shooting students.

Field Manual, Online Course, Task Book: https://mojaverangerschool.com/FMdownload
I need to finish the Task Book, and then cut and paste the relevant parts into the Field Manual and online course, so as I update the Task Book then I can build out the other parts. The basic structure is there.

The 4th Ranger Association is the nonprofit that represents the NCR as the top-level sponsor

The basic storyline is that the Mojave Rangers were being incorporated into the NCR Army as the 4th Ranger Bn in response to the rise of the Mojave raiders, but then Shady Sands got nuked and the ‘battalion’ is in bureaucratic limbo, but still forming as a civilian volunteer group sponsored by some local businesses, because the raiders are still growing…

• Rangers, Settlers, Followers and Raiders at the fort are volunteers under the nonprofit
  • Colorado nonprofit

Gute-N-Berg Laser Engraving, LLC sponsors the 4th Ranger Assoc.

• Fort Edwards Post Xchange: GNB’s primary sales outlet
• Fort Edwards Merchant’s Guild: Wasteland crafters and flea market vendors who establish a franchised Outpost locally
  • Guild Merchants can add their products to the PX catalog
  • Guild Merchants get a sales link they can distribute online for a 20% commission (same as Avon)
• Gun Runners Armory: GNB’s airsoft shop at Fort Edwards
• Gun Runners Sales Team: not open to the public
  • Gun Runners are club members/players who help market the programs and PX catalogs
  • Gun Runners get an individual sales link with a 20% commission

Working at the Fort Shops
GNB leases shops and cabins (10×12 shops and cabins, that have a 10×12 courtyard) at Fort Edwards, from the 4th Rangers, for,

• GNB Laser Engraving shop: a Shopkeeper makes a per piece commission on patches, posters and other products made at the shop on weekends
  • fulfills Etsy and online engraving orders
  • $.50 per package for packaging (paid from the S&H fees)
  • makes stuff that gets shipped (through the Pak-N-Ship) to our Merchant’s Guild vendors
• Gun Runners Armory: a Gun Runner makes a direct commission on any sales + a per day stipend
  • fulfills airsoft gun orders
  • $.50 per package for packaging (paid from the S&H fees)
• Fort Edwards PX and Mojave General Store: 10×12 old west style general store with some snacks, sodas, munchies and accessories
  • managed by a Shopkeeper
  • makes a commission on daily sales + daily stipend
  • fulfills orders for the Merchant’s Guild vendors
  • $.50 per package for packaging (paid from the S&H fees)
• Mojave Express Pak-N-Ship: the storage and shipping center for the mail order products
  • A Shopkeeper makes $.50 per each package collected, inspected and shipped (from the S&H fees)
• Atomic Cafe: hosts a Wasteland Cooking demo each weekend with dutch oven and in-ground cooking
  • free food for players from demo’s, first come, first served
  • very simple made-to-order sandwiches and sodas
  • assembles home made MRE’s for field players
  • managed by a shopkeeper who makes a per-day stipend from the General Fund
• Out of Tune Music Shop: used instruments and home made wasteland musical instruments
• Wasteland Gallery: the only known official wastelands art gallery
• Shops available for wasteland crafters: Fort Edwards has 10×12 shops with a 10×12 courtyard available for monthly weekend rental
  • includes a 10×12 cabin/courtyard for the weekend
  • available long-term, but non-residential
  • makes a great immersive weekend workshop for certain types of smith or crafter
  • NOTE: Fort Edwards isn’t organized for large-scale ren-fair-style operations, but a shop is a great place to make videos and work on projects in an immersive atmosphere

Sponsored Milsim Team & General Fund
GNB sends 80% of its net profits to the 4th Ranger General Fund. The General Fund pays,

• Ranger Training Club insurance and operating costs
• Air, BB’s, mileage reimbursement and event fees for the Mojave Ranger Troop 4 Milsim Team
  • Course Completion Gear
    • Baofeng Radio for Team RTO’s
    • Team 1st Aid Kits for Team Medics
    • Airsoft Pistol for Leadership Course, etc.
• Mileage Reimbursement for Convoy Drivers
•  The Milsim Team has a Team Sales Link with a joint 20% commission on any products sold through the link. Team fans are encouraged to spread the link
  • paid as a rank-based group commission to 1099 contractors for GNB

Publishing & PIO Team
Also under GNB,

• I’m paying book royalties for the Field Manual and Task Books, GURPS and game manuals, etc.
• Wasteland News (YouTube channel) is like a Wastelands Public Access TV channel that helps train other producers
  I pay out a percentage of ad income (once we get some)
• PIO Team members have an individual PX sales link for 20% and we market their links on YouTube, etc.
  pays rank-based commissions from the joint account

Trade Route Convoys
I’m actively preventing casual drive-in access and not providing public parking at the fort because I don’t want the vehicle damage issues, road maintenance with the County, etc. etc. and we aren’t going to have that many people there at any given time

GNB sponsors Ranger Trade Route Convoys with drivers in Fresno, LA and Vegas who carpool players to the fort on the weekends.

• Convoy crews have a Team Sales Link that gives a 20% joint commission,
• rank-based stipends for the drivers
• mileage reimbursement ($.72.5 per mile) from the General Fund
• The long term goal is shuttle buses in Fresno, LA and Vegas and we may be able to charter those next year
  • Players who like being shuttled are encouraged to spread the Convoy links

Banning Politics, Sexuality and Religion on the Entire Project

There’s been a lot of misunderstanding and Facebook hatred from the Champions of Inclusivity so be clear about this rule,

When You Can’t Be Equally Fair to Anybody The the Only Option is to Be Equally Unfair to Everybody

It will not be said, by anyone, that we’re training Muslim terrorists, or Catholic terrorists, or red, blue or rainbow terrorists.

• Politics, sexuality and religion are the most divisive topics on Earth
• Instigators use those topics to start fights in whatever group they are in, regardless of the theme of the group
• Those topics break the immersion of the game, like when some ahole drives a modern car through the middle of Wasteland Weekend (or walks around naked in the Mojave Desert)
• This is not about
  • sex
    • homophobia, etc.
  • the 1st Amendment
  • God, in any form

This is a fairly small club and people who can’t leave those topics at home are not invited to play and will be asked to leave if they can’t stop forcing their views and agendas on our players. It’s a simple rule that’s equally unfair for everybody.

Recruiting in June
As soon as I have the public-facing parts organized I’ll be,

• at the local farmer’s market
• going to airsoft fields looking for a place to run free classes every Saturday morning locally

Training starts in July
I’m going to run my first training day the first weekend of July and get the process started, even if no one shows up.

OK there’s the game; free, fun for the whole family and you can get paid to help market it, if you’re a player. Once I get this setup done then it’s mostly a weekend gig, even for me.