Hydrolysis
Games & Scenarios

Tag

Rules & Guidelines

Tag is a good game to play on a day when you don't want to get too wet. One player is designated "it." In very large games, you may wish to designate more than one player "it." Only the player who is it may shoot. The first person that the player who is it hits becomes it (only one player is it at a time).

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).
• 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 not.

Variations in Survivability

There are no variations in survivability in tag, although the survivability in some variations and scenarios is different than normal tag.

Variants

~ Freeze ~

Game Type: Tag

The same person remains it for the entire game. Anyone who is shot by the player who is it is "frozen," and may not move (and, consequently, cannot shoot). Anyone who is neither "it" nor "frozen" may shoot players who are frozen to un-freeze them, returning them to normal.

Game ends if the person who is "it" managed to freeze all other players at once.

Scenarios

~ North Wind vs. South Wind ~

Game Type: Tag
Variant: Freeze
Survivability: Rotational paralysis with uncertain time-based reentry

No one is designated "it." At least one player is designated "north wind," and at least one is designated "south wind." Anyone shot by the north wind, except for other north wind and south wind, is frozen and may not move. Anyone who is shot by the south wind becomes unfrozen.

If you have a sufficiently large game to warrant more than one north wind, you should always have fewer south wind than north wind.

Those of you playing in the southern hemisphere may wish to reverse the roles of north and south wind.