A
childhood game in which the person who is
designated as "it" must go around and try to find one of the other players, all of which are hiding. Each round ends when this
occurs.
Reccomended number of Players:
3 or more
Field of Play:
Any
designated area agreed upon by all players. The defined peramiters are
important. Usually something like "Anywhere inside the
house" or "From that fence to the
river to the street to the other fence"
Rules:
The person who is "it" must count to a pre-designated number using
alligators or
Mississippi's with their eyes closed. The number should generally be no greater than 100 but no less than 20.
The
objective of the
game is simply "
don't be it". Optional rules may include quite a few variations:
- Kick the can or base: In which a hiding player may become "safe" by making it to "Home Base" or by kicking the can. When using the can method the game is called.. well, Kick-the-can and that's a whole 'nother deal. :P "Home base" can be any spot or object agreed upon by all players (this is usually the spot where the "it" player counts). When playing with this rule, one the hiding player touches the "Home Base" he is then "safe" for the rest of the round and may hang out and chill until such a time as the next round begins. If while playing with this rule ALL the players make it to "Home Base" before the "it" player may catch any of them; it is generally held that the "it" player is taunted for an arbitrary length of time and then must be "it" for yet another round (much to the sadistic delight of the other players). It is not always necessary to have a "can" or a "home base" and it is as frequently played with as without. In that case the round goes until someone is found.
- Line of sight or Tag: This determines how the "it" player may end the round. Some people play that the "it" player must only see another player (ala Kick-the-can) for the round to end, the recommended way is that the "it" player must "tag" another player, that is, to touch that player or an article of their clothing with one hand. Once this objective is accomplished, the "it" player must scream "Ali Ali Oxenfree", a term in some manner of mystical foreign tongue, the true meaning of which has in all probability been lost to humanity but which in the game means (loosely) "Come out Come Out where ever you are, the games over now". Should a tag be disputed, the bigger kid usually wins the disagreement. If both kids are the same size, it is generally handled by screaming, yelling and or a brief fist fight.
House RulesAs with any game it is of great import to observe the
house rules. As with "
schoolyard" games,
house rules are usually the most
popular rules since the "house" belongs to all (not to be confused with "
called rules" games such as
Wallball), however
Hide-and-go-seek is rarely a
schoolyard game. When in
Rome, do as the
Romans do, when at cousin
Lenny's for Thanksgiving, do as cousin
Lenny does.
Winners: The nice thing about
Hide-and-go-seek is that there really are no winners. Rounds go by and no one much pays
attention, though everyone generally has a more than clear idea of who the
loser was. :P
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