Tag Games

Tag games are well suited at the beginning of a rehearsal evening, or in between sessions to wake everyone up again. Some tag games also help new groups overcome the fear of physical contact.

Alphabet Tag

This game builds on the classic tag game everyone knows. You can protect yourself from the chaser by saying a word starting with the letter "A" before being touched. With every attempted tag you must say a new word starting with "A". Players who can't think of a word, repeat one already said, or get touched before they can speak become the new chaser. With each new chaser the next letter of the alphabet applies; for the second chaser, players protect themselves with words starting with "B", and so on, until you reach A again. The game gets harder if only one-syllable words are allowed.

Name Calling

Players can avoid being caught by calling out the name of another player when things get tight. That player immediately becomes the new chaser. (It gets funny when you call out a player who is, say, standing right behind the current chaser and can tag them right back...)

Chain Tag

Two players hold hands and form a pair. This pair tries to tag other players together. They must not let go of each other. The tagged player joins as a third link in the chain. Now the three try to catch new players. When a fourth is caught, the four split into two pairs. The last player not in a chain wins.

Tag with Hot Spot

The chaser tries to tag the others by touching them. Once successful, everyone holds the part of their body (the hot spot) where the caught player was touched. They keep holding it until a new player is caught.

Tag with Crawl-Through

Once tagged by the chaser, you stop and stand with your legs spread. You are freed as soon as another "free" player crawls through your legs. While crawling, that player must not be tagged. If everyone is standing still, the chaser has won. With many players, that's unlikely to happen. This game is also called "Cat and Mouse".

Blind Man's Bluff

The chaser is blindfolded. They have to try to catch one of the other players. Once caught, they have to identify the victim by touch. If they guess wrong, they remain the chaser.

Pulling Carrots

Pulling Carrots is a game where everyone is active. One player is chosen as the farmer. The others lie down in one large circle or several small ones, holding hands tightly; hooking arms or grabbing onto anything else is forbidden. Whenever a carrot is pulled out (meaning the others can no longer hold on), that carrot becomes a farmer. This continues until only one "carrot to be pulled" is left.

Devil and Lovers

The chaser is the "Devil". Whoever they catch becomes the new Devil. Players can save themselves from the Devil's clutches by hugging another player (they are then "lovers").

Variant: The lovers must not only hug but also shout "Married!". The Devil can separate them with "Divorced!".

Tag Without the Floor

Another variant: two players can save themselves from the chaser if one of them isn't touching the floor. No props such as chairs or tables may be used.

Fisherman, Fisherman, How Deep Is the Water?

The "fisherman" answers this question with a number (3 m deep; 100 m deep, etc.). To the next question, "How do we get across?", the chaser names a movement: walking backwards, crawling, hopping. Now both the fisherman and the players try to reach the other side using that movement, while the fisherman tries to catch as many fish as possible. The last fish becomes the new fisherman.

Steal the Clothespins

A tag game that can really make you sweat. Clothespins are handed out to all players, the same number each. They attach the pins to their clothes. The goal is to steal the other players' clothespins and clip them to your own clothes. Whoever has the most pins after a set time wins.

Give Away the Clothespins

Like Steal the Clothespins, but now the goal is not to grab as many pins as possible, but to attach your own pins to other players' clothes. The first player with no pins left wins.

Wolf - Sheep - Stones

A tag game for warming up large groups:

One player is the wolf, one is the sheep, and all the others stand around the room paired up and linked ("stones"). The wolf tries to catch the sheep (by tagging). If the sheep is tagged, the sheep becomes the wolf and the wolf becomes the sheep.

A sheep can also break off the chase by stopping at a pair of players (a stone) and linking arms with one of them. The other player of that pair (the one the sheep didn't link to) then becomes the wolf and the wolf becomes the sheep.

Variant for smaller groups: Each player is a stone. The stones crouch on the floor. The sheep crouches in the spot of a stone, becomes a stone itself, the stone becomes the wolf, and the wolf becomes the sheep.

This game is also known as Princess - Dragon - Towers.