Golfo Polo

Even in the apocalypse, those with wealth try to find ways to entertain themselves. Piecing together old traditions of the wealthy, communicated through an unreliable game of telephone, they have made a modern sport.
From afar, one might mistake Golfo Polo for a battle. Shots fired in the air, sequential yelling, both in pain but also in a sort of chant that goes up every once in a while. Depending on how wealthy of a match, there may also be noises of panicked animals, or vehicles.
The sport itself is not a causal one. In the game of Golfo Polo, you either win or you die. Each team is equipped with their own large hammers, possibly some kind of mount, maybe padding if they are lucky, an assortment of rifles, and, of course, blindfolds.

History

This game developed when those who had enough money to pay their way out of trouble in this hell on earth decided they were bored. Knowing little of the traditions that their parents partook in, they tried to put together what exactly these large fields were for. They decided to try out the rough outline they had, which was having two teams try to smash a ball into a sort of goal area. This was somewhat good, but they found this did not take up nearly enough space, and felt too peasantish. To improve the game, they added mounts, and at the same time, they found a set of rules which suddenly upped the stakes. Coming from another version of the old world game of "polo", they heard of the series of chants that should accompany it, being "Marco", and "Polo". With this, and the new revelation that blindfolds made things much more challenging, the game progressed. The only issue was that the ball had no way of responding to these yells, which was discovered far too long after it should have been. To help with this, they replaced the balls with slaves, or any peasants they could find, and they added rifles, taking from more of the old traditions, and in order to add more excitement to the game. With these additions, the game was created as it exists now.

Execution

Two teams on either side of a large field take their mounts, be that bikes or horses or cows or deer or slaves, don their blindfolds, and hoist their weapons. A single game master presides, and starts the match when ready. They are in charge of keeping score of the match, and try to help anyone important from dying, alongside an angel or two, if the match can afford that. The two teams, upon the match start, charge forth, shouting "Marco" at the slaves that stand in the middle of the field between them. Upon thread of being shot by the game master, the slaves respond with "Polo", and then try to avoid the mass of bullets and sledgehammers and entitled assholes that come flying at them. The goals are scored when a slave is either herded off the field by one member, after which they are shot by the game master, or if they are killed in the field. The game master, once all the slaves are dead, calls out "golf", which, being different than the other calls, signifies the end of the match. The two teams dismount, proceed to the center of the field, and share in hearty laughter, if they were not injured in the match. Once the totals are counted and any injured team members are returned to their teams, the results are announced. Sometimes, these games are run in tournaments, but those are for only the most wealthy patrons of the game.

Components and tools

Mounts, consisting of animals, slaves, or vehicles, often limited to bikes to make it more sporting than being able to run slaves over with cars. Weapons are normally split evenly between single shot rifles and sledgehammers, one of either given to each team member. Blindfolds are also applied, and often are decorated or embroidered with team colors or player names.

Participants

The wealthiest members of apocalyptic Rochester take part in this, although it is not as popular as it may have been in the old world.