‘Wide games’ are any game requiring or making use of any large area of land. Provided you stick to a few simple rules, they are very easy to set up, very popular and can take advantage of almost any space. Particularly good areas are those where it is easy to hide, such as woodland or heath, but they can be played in fields and parks too!
The importance of risk assessment is increased because of the nature of the space. All wide games need you and all players to be aware of the size and type of playing area. This is mainly from the point of view of safety, particularly if you are playing in areas open to the public. It helps when setting boundaries to take advantage of natural barriers like paths, streams, edges of woods or fields. If necessary walk everybody around the boundary and/or spend a little time placing boundary markers that are within sight of each other (strips of bright cloth tied to a tree); boundary markers are only really necessary if is difficult to determine a boundary. The facilitator should complete a full risk assessment ahead of the day, thinking through every conceivable risk associated with the activity and the weather, the likelihood of the risk happening and how they will alleviate the risk. Some degree of risk will inevitably remain, but if the facilitators are aware of it, they can be ready to act promptly should it occur.
Depending on the age of the players and the size and openness of the playing area it may be worthwhile having ‘marshals’ patrolling the area and you may even want to consider using mobile telephones or short-range radios if the area is very large or quite hilly.
Wide games often take longer to set up than indoor games, but they also last longer for the participants. The space brings an added dimension as the group members are further distanced from one another and so communication is more complex, emphasising planning and co-operation.
Equipment: life bands, energy tokens (cards)
Bigfoot is based on the legend of the ‘sasquatch’. ‘Bigfoot’, a large hairy manlike creature is loose and said to have been recently discovered in this area. It has never been captured and only spotted a few times. Your mission is to capture it. However, Bigfoot is notoriously hard to find because it can take the form of any animal at will and when cornered it has the ability to paralyse others by freezing them. In order to trap it, you not only have to find Bigfoot but you will need to have life bands and enough energy tokens to protect you from being frozen by its power.
Give everybody a life band (coloured cotton to go around the wrist or other method) and energy tokens (the cards can have different energy amounts on them). Before they go out, warn them that not only will failure to capture Bigfoot result in loss of their life bands, requiring them to return to base for a new one, but Bigfoot will also steal all their energy and have its power increased by that amount.
What the young people don’t know is that one of the facilitators with them at that moment is playing Bigfoot. It would be useful for one or two facilitators who are known to the young people to be mysteriously absent (and in the woods) so the young people immediately suspect them.
Bigfoot is given a high energy rating to start with, so the young people have to discover not only who Bigfoot is, but to capture them they have to work together to have enough energy tokens between them to win.
When the groups disperse into the woods, the facilitator playing Bigfoot sets the game in motion, waiting for an opportune moment to freeze the members of a small group.
Bigfoot has one other trick: on meeting another facilitator, they can make the other facilitator become Bigfoot (and hand over the power tokens) so that young people don’t always know who Bigfoot is.
If challenged, Bigfoot must confess who they are and find out the collective power rating of the hunters; for example, if Bigfoot has a 15 energy rating and a group of players challenges with a collective energy between them of 12, the 12 is lower than the 15 so the group all lose their life bands and power cards. Bigfoot keeps these and now has an energy rating of 27!
In the event of a power-rating tie, players lose their life bands (forcing them to return to base and get new ones) but not their power rating cards
Equipment: none
One or two players take position in the centre of the room, facing the group. At ‘go’, the entire group charges and tries to reach the other side of the area, without being caught. To catch someone, the ‘bulldogs’ in the centre must hold the player long enough to yell ‘1, 2, 3, bulldog!’. When a player is caught, they become a ‘bulldog’ for the next charge. Not more than three ‘bulldogs’ can tackle a single player; if a struggling player is not held while the group slowly counts to ten, they are declared free for another charge.
The game is run until everyone has been caught. The last person charging the line without being caught is the winner.
For safety, have players take off watches, glasses and other breakables.
Equipment: two flags on staffs and two different coloured sets of arm or headbands Divide the group into two teams. Identify each by a set of arm or headbands. Set up a gaol area and a separate hiding spot for each flag. Gaols are set up at opposite ends of the playing area. The object of the game is to penetrate the other team’s area and capture their flag. A flag is ‘captured’ after it has been returned to the captor’s gaol area.
Prisoners are taken by having their arm or headbands removed by an opponent. Prisoners are taken to the gaol of their captors, where they wait quietly until released; prisoners can only be released when a member of their team (with arm or headband intact) runs through the gaol in which they are being held captive. After their release, prisoners are given free escort back to a central spot near their end of the area. Here, they are issued a new arm or headband.
The game continues until a flag is captured, or the allotted time is up.
Equipment: a piece of rope
The snake is the piece of rope. One player is ‘it’, holds an end and drags the rope about, so that the snake writhes over the ground. The other players give chase and whoever succeeds in catching the snake becomes ‘it.’
Equipment: none
Players are divided into two teams, a small team of ‘coastguards’ and everybody else becoming ‘smugglers’. The number of coastguards depends on the terrain; in open spaces, smugglers need the advantage of people, while in woodland where there are many places to hide, coastguards need people!
Coastguards establish a base, which becomes the ‘gaol’. Smugglers are given time to get away and hide.
Coastguards have to catch all the smugglers and the game ends when this is done. In the event of this not occurring in a reasonable time (as it does frequently!), points are made on the number of smugglers remaining in gaol at the end of a time limit.
Smugglers must remain free; once captured they can only be released from gaol by being touched by a smuggler who is still free.
Coastguards can use whatever technique they want to try to capture smugglers, (hunting as a pack, in pairs or singularly). Capture is by touch; once a coastguard has caught a smuggler, the smuggler must go back to gaol (players showing any resistance or cheating can be expelled from the game for not playing fair!).
Only a limited number of coastguards can protect the gaol.
Equipment: potatoes, ink pad and face paint, cardboard ‘cattle’ concealed around the field
Divide the group into a tribe and wardens. Each tribe believes all the cattle on earth belong to them. Cattle are valuable as a source of food, clothing and warmth, and all cattle found are immediately claimed and branded.
Groups make brands from potatoes and mark their faces with the same sign. Groups travel in tribes, find cattle and brand them. Wardens will arrest any tribes caught branding and imprison for ten minutes. Points are awarded for the number of cattle branded and for the number of prisoners taken.
Equipment: none
Line up teams in relay formation, parallel to each other. Opposite each team, a compass is drawn on the floor, the cardinal (and maybe inter-cardinal) points are indicated but only the north is lettered. The facilitator calls out a direction; the first person of each line steps out and places a pencil on the compass, pointing in the given direction, before the facilitator has counted to six. If correct, the player falls in line behind the compass; if incorrect, they go to the back of their team line. Another point is called and the second member steps out. The first complete team to fall in behind the compass wins. There should be a referee for each team to avoid time waste in verifying the compass directions shown.
Equipment: long coloured ribbon, a headquarters and perimeter boundary A team member is chosen to carry a dispatch to the designated headquarters. The dispatch runner must wear a coloured tag pinned to their shoulder; they must reach their goal with this in its proper place.
The besieging enemy must prevent them reaching the headquarters, but cannot go within the perimeter. To catch them, the enemy must take the tag from their shoulder. They know the despatcher starts from a certain place at a certain time (as far from the headquarters as the facilitator likes) and they may take any steps to capture him, except they may not actually witness the departure.
The game may be played in any space, the larger and with the more obstacles, the better and the dispatch runner can adopt any disguise, so long as they wear the rag pinned to their shoulder.
Equipment: bands (a different colour for each team), and ‘gold ingots’ (15 potatoes per team)
Split the group into teams and establish a base for each team. Each base should be an equal distance from all others. Place the team’s ‘gold’ (the 15 potatoes) in a pile at the base. Only a limited number of the team can hover round the base as defenders. Tie a band to the wrist of each player and blow a whistle to allow combat to commence.
Players must infiltrate the other team’s base to steal their ‘gold’, but players may only take one potato at once. Once out of the opposing base, they may pass it to another player or can take it back to their base themselves.
Everyone must keep their team band on show while in the game and only players with a band may remove another player’s band. To remove their life, simply take it off their arm but the other player may resist.
Rules for safety:
Equipment: a whistle or flour
Divide into two teams, approximately a quarter being ‘foxes’ and the rest ‘hounds’.
Foxes are given either a whistle or a packet of flour and a time limit is set. Foxes are given a minute’s head start and must either lay flour every 20 seconds of their journey or blow the whistle every 20–30 seconds.
After the initial minute is over, the hounds are let out to chase the foxes following their path and every fox tagged is out.
The foxes win if any of them are still active after the time and the hounds win if all foxes have been caught.
Equipment: none
One of the players is the lighthouse, parked at one end of the area. Half the group are rocks and they are spaced around the area, with a gap between each of them. The rest of the group are ships who have to make their way, blindfolded, through the rock to the lighthouse.
On ‘go’, the lighthouse goes ‘woo-woo’ to guide the ships. The rocks go ‘swish-swish’, very gently, to warn the approaching ships of danger, and the ships are supposed to sail between the rocks to the lighthouse beyond. If a ship hits a rock it sinks and stays where it is. When all the ships arrive at the lighthouse, the two halves of the group swap sides: the rocks become ships and the ships become rocks.
Equipment: none
The object of this game is to discover a friend in nature, without harming any living thing that might be found outdoors. Players are taken on a short walk during which time each player collects something from the natural environment (nothing may be broken or picked from any living thing, the item has to be either lying on the ground or resting on another object like a tree stump). Everyone keeps their object hidden from all players.
Following the walk, each player is given the opportunity to build a small home for his ‘friend’. He is also asked to give his friend a name, and to think of one way in which they could take care of their friend out of its natural environment.
When all in the group is ready, everyone tours the small homes that have been created, and meets each special friend.
Equipment: none
The purpose of this game is to discover the beautiful sounds that can be created by the natural objects in our environment. Each player is given time to find objects in nature that make a noise when banged, blown or rubbed. Players bring back their ‘instruments’ and a conductor is chosen to organise the group into an orchestra.
Each musician is allowed to ‘tune’ their instrument, so all the group can hear the different sounds.
The conductor chooses a familiar tune that all can play and leads the orchestra. Players can make requests for songs to play and the musicians can work on ‘solos’ to perform for everyone.
Equipment: armbands, pieces of paper with the smuggled items, (with point values written on each):
Divide the group into two teams. Each team member puts on an armband; one team becomes the smugglers, the other the spies. Each team retreats to separate ends of the playing area.
The smugglers each receive the pieces of paper, which they are going to try to carry into enemy (spy) headquarters. The spies set up their headquarters inside an area that has a definite perimeter. The scorekeeper sits inside spy headquarters.
After each team has been given time to develop their strategy, play begins. The spies move away from their headquarters and try to intercept smugglers as they attempt to take their goods inside.
When a smuggler is caught, they must stand still and permit a one-minute search of their person by the spy who caught them. If the spy cannot find the piece of paper within one minute (the paper has to be hidden in external clothing layers), the smuggler is free to try to advance again into the headquarters. If the spy does find the ‘loot’, they take the piece of paper into spy headquarters and give it to the scorekeeper, while the smuggler returns to their headquarters to receive another piece of paper.
If a smuggler penetrates spy headquarters, they give their goods to the scorekeeper, and are escorted back to their own headquarters by the facilitator supervising the game. The winner is the team with the most points at the end.
Equipment: none
One person is chosen to become ‘it’. The players scatter around the area and ‘it’ tries to tag them. The players may become safe from being tagged by assuming a squatting position. When ‘it’ is not close by, they can stand up and run again.
Each player may only use this method of escape three times and then they can only escape by running. If ‘it’ retreats five steps from a player who has escaped by assuming the squatting position, and then returns, the player must run or they will be caught. Anyone who is tagged becomes ‘it’ and the game continues.
Equipment: blindfolds and stones
Half the group is given blindfolds to wear. These players are scattered around the playing area. A stone is placed between their feet, but not touching them.
The other half of the group (the ones who can see) begin to stalk the blindfolded players, trying to obtain the stone from between their feet. To stop a stalker, the blindfolded players may point to any sound they (think they can) hear. If a stalker is there, the two players switch positions.
Stalkers try to collect as many stones as possible without being caught.
Equipment: a small ball for each player
The idea is that the group is divided into two halves: the French and the Prussians. The French camp on one side of the wood and the Prussians camp on the other. In the Prussian camp is a traitor, who has made an agreement with the French to place a letter containing important information about Prussian plans in a tree, which they will mark in a certain way. This tree should be near the centre of the area. The ‘traitor’ heads out to place the letter in the tree and retires again to their own camp. Their treachery has been discovered and they are arrested on their return to camp (a member of staff could undertake this role as the traitor refuses to divulge the hiding-place of the letter and is therefore sentenced to be shot, so takes on the part of onlooker or assistant facilitator).
At a given signal from the facilitator, the Prussians set out to recover their letter and try to prevent the French from obtaining it; meanwhile the French simultaneously leave their camp intent on obtaining the letter, and watching out for the Prussians. Each young person is armed with a tennis ball for if they are found. The Prussians must look for signs of the traitor being there and the French must look for a tree marked a particular way. When two opponents meet, the first one hit by a ball will be ‘out of action’ and that young person takes no further part in the game (or whichever part of the body is hit cannot be used again for the remainder of the game). One mark is awarded to the French or Prussians for every person they put out of action and four marks are awarded to the side that finds and takes possession of the letter. The side with the most marks are the winners.
Equipment: a candle, a box of matches, some torches
One or two group members are designated troglodytes, the remainder are defenders of earth. The premise behind the game is that troglodytes have landed on our planet from another galaxy and are preparing to take over the world. The troglodytes have a faulty spaceship, which will explode if it is set on fire. The team has to try to sneak up to the troglodyte ship and blow it up. However, the troglodytes are more advanced than humans are and have laser blasters (torches) that can kill the team members. The candle and some matches are placed at the location of the spaceship. The team must navigate to the area, sneak up and try to light the candle. If a troglodyte hears them, they turn on their flashlight and blast the defender (but warn them not to shine torches into people’s eyes). If a defender is ‘hit’ with the laser, they are out. The game continues until the candle is lit or until all defenders are dead.
Equipment: none
Establish a base and select one person to be the witch, who goes off and hides. After a short while, the other players disperse out from the base to seek out the witch. Once the witch is discovered, players run back to base. The object is for the witch to catch as many team members as possible, even if they ‘surprise’ them from their hiding place(s) before they can get back to base.
Equipment: none
The object of this game is to allow the players the opportunity to pretend they are animals, trying to hide from man. Each player is given time to hide along the trail.
They may travel no more than a set distance from either side of the trail, and may use anything in the natural environment to provide camouflage. The seeker waits about five minutes until all players are hidden. They walk the distance of the trail once only, and try to find as many players as possible. After the walk, they call out, and watch to see where all the successful ‘animals’ hid.