Reference

Capture the Flag

Capture the flag (sometimes CTF for short) is a popular and well-known game without water guns, and can be made very interesting by their addition. The game is played with two teams on opposite ends of a battlefield, each with a flag on their side that they have to guard and a designated "prison" area. Anyone who is shot must put their hands up to indicate that they are "dead," and move into the enemy prison. Any "live" teammate who gets to the prison without being shot triggers a jailbreak, immediately reviving everyone in the jail and allowing them to shoot and be shot once more.

Anyone who is alive may pick up the enemy flag, which should be placed in an easily visible location. If they bring it back to the starting point of their own flag, their team wins. If they are shot while they are carrying it, they must drop the flag and go to prison as normal. The flag can then be picked up by a teammate and carried further, or by its original owners, who can return it to its starting point. The defenders are not required to return the flag to its start point, if they think its new location is more defensible, so be careful where you get killed while carrying the flag. If the defenders pick up the flag, they must carry it straight back to its starting location, and once it is back at its starting location, the defenders may not touch it.

If someone is carrying their own flag or their opponents' flag and does not wish to be, they may drop it at any time, and it will remain there until it is picked up again. Remember that defenders carrying their own flag may only travel straight back to the flag's start location.

As always, you should define a few rules before the game starts:

Maximum Payload: what weapons are considered acceptable or not for the fight, and how many a person may carry at once. By default, there are no restrictions.
Boundaries: where you are allowed to go or not go during the fight. This always varies, so if you don't know, use common sense. Stay in a reasonable area for the number of people, don't trespass on others' property, and don't go near any place where water would be a bad idea (like inside houses).
Refill Safety: whether you can shoot someone who is refilling their weapon. It is recommended that you allow players to be attacked while refilling if there is a refill point near each team's base area, but if it is not specified, assume that by default you cannot attack someone while they are refilling.
Time Outs: whether players can call time-outs. By default, assume that players can call a halt to the game in the case of an emergency, an injury, a need to clarify rules, or if they wish to leave -- but not for other reasons, such as "I need to escape."
Targets of Opportunity: whether you can fire on unarmed opponents, or hapless bystanders who wander into the war zone. By default, assume you can shoot unarmed opponents, but not hapless bystanders.

Variations in Survivability

Capture the flag cannot be played successfully unless players are either permanently or temporarily removed from gameplay when they "die," but there are some alternatives to prisons.

Elimination Methods:

For permanent elimination, people are usually removed when they have been shot at and hit a designated number of times (which may be, but is usually not, different for each team). To avoid arguments, this number is often one. Usually what qualifies as a "hit" is being struck on any part of the body or any article of clothing by a direct blast, not mist, foam, or indirect splash damage if something nearby is hit.

Rotation Methods:

Some people prefer to remove people from the game only temporarily. Players are usually removed on the same criteria as elimination -- that is, a designated number of hits -- but the reentry method varies. The most common are a certain length of time (such as a minute), an uncertain length of time (such as until clothes are dry again), or a certain location (such as a tree). The criteria for removing a player or for them to reenter play may be different for each team (for example, you may have to return to your base).

Variants

~ Multi-Flag ~

Game Type: Capture the Flag

Played like normal capture the flag, but each team has more than one flag. To win, a team usually must capture all the enemy flags, but if you prefer you can shorten the game and declare a victor as soon as one flag is captured.

A team may steal back their captured flags to prolong their life. If players desire, you can require a team to have all of their own flags as well as all of their opponents' flags to win.

~ Keep-Away ~

Game Type: Capture the Flag

Played like normal capture the flag, except that the defenders of a flag may pick up their flag any time they desire and take it anywhere they wish. The flag may be hidden anywhere on the battlefield, or concealed on your person. Rather than just scoring a tactical victory to win, you have to actually decimate your opponents sufficiently to give you time to look for their flag.

Anyone who is killed must still immediately drop any flag(s) they are carrying where they stand.

Scenarios

~ Sectors of Control ~

Game Type: Capture the Flag (sort of)
Variant: Multi-Flag
Survivability: Rotational deaths with location-based reentry

Can be played with more than two teams if desired, but you must have at least two. Define and mark several "command points" throughout the battlefield before the game starts, and also pick one location to serve as a repository, preferably near the center of the battlefield. Each team should be given at least as many flags as there are command points. Each team should choose a command point as a starting location and place one of their flags on that command point. The other flags can also be placed at the command point, or may be carried by anyone of the appropriate team, or placed at the repository.

The goal of the game is to capture all command points and kill all enemies. Any enemy which is shot must return to any command point controlled by their team to reenter gameplay. You can determine which team controls a command point by the owner of whatever flag is positioned there.

Players may carry flags belonging to their own team, but may not take the last flag lying on the ground at a command point controlled by them. A player carrying a flag who arrives at a command point not controlled by their team may claim the command point for their team by placing a flag on the command point, and picking up any flag that is already there. If you pick up an enemy flag from a command point when you claim it, you must immediately bring the flag to the repository, any other command point controlled by that team, or any player of that team. You may not be shot while you are doing this if you choose to go unarmed, carrying no other flags, and with both hands above your head clutching the flag you are delivering so that everyone knows what you are doing. Once you have delivered the flag, you have safe passage back to one of your own command points if you do not pick up any flag or weapon on the way.

To prevent players from becoming "invincible" by standing on a command point controlled by their team, a player may not reenter play at a command point that is within fifteen feet of the place that they died, unless they first move at least fifteen feet away from the command point while they are dead.

If a player gets killed and their team controls no command points, that player may not reenter play unless one of his live teammates successfully captures a command point. If all players on a team are killed and the team controls no command points, none of the players can reenter play, and that team is eliminated from the game.

The last remaining team is the victor.