Lose the Tail

An example play area, between London's Natural History Museum and Hyde Park. Valid entrances and exits are marked with circles.

A two-player sneaking-and-tailing game that can be played in any urban environment.

Two-player rules

All you need to play this game are two agreed "safe zones" - one to start in, and one to end in. These should both be a good couple of hundred metres in radius, have clearly defined edges, contain a lot of scenery to obscure players' views, be at least five hundred metres apart, and have two or three exit points. (If there are more than three possible exits, players should agree on three "legal" exits and declare the others out of bounds.)

The start zone is usually best in a large, public building - the end zone can be another building, or any public area with a clear boundary. Museums, parks and shopping centres are all good.

Pick one player to be the Quarry and one to be the Tail. Both players start together somewhere in the start zone. The Quarry has to reach the end zone, within a certain time limit, and without the Tail tagging them.

The Tail can only tag the Quarry outside of the two safe zones - while the Quarry is still inside the start zone, the Tail can only follow them around, waiting for them to leave. (A good Tail will try to avoid being seen, so that the Quarry mistakenly thinks they've shaken them off, and leaves the start zone.)

If the Tail catches and tags the Quarry outside of the safe zones, the Tail wins the game. If the Quarry makes it to the end zone before the time is up, then the Quarry wins. (If the Quarry arrives before the Tail, they should proceed to a pre-agreed meeting point - a coffee shop might be a good idea here - and wait for the Tail to get there.)

Mobile phones

If both players have mobile phones, then the Quarry can announce their victory as soon as they set foot in the end zone, so that the Tail isn't prowling around pointlessly for the rest of the game.

Optionally, the Tail can be allowed a single "satellite trace" phonecall to the Quarry, during the game, to ask them where they are. The Quarry should give their exact location, and must be honest.

One-zone variant

A variant we're trying out at the BFI Sandpit this week is to play the game with only one safe zone, and an objective that requires the Quarry to sneak to a specific location outside the zone, and back again. We're running it with a secret-agent actor that the Quarry has to rendezvous with outside the safe zone, but it could also be played by collecting an object from a specific location (a flyer from a museum, a menu from a takeaway), or snapping a photo of a particular, distant location.

This variant possibly gives the Tail a bit of an edge, as the Quarry will be covering some of the same area twice.

Multi-player variant

(Note that this variant has not yet been tested.)

For a game with more than two players, split the players into two teams, a Quarry team and a Tail team. One of the Quarry team should carry a briefcase, a large manila folder, or some other prop. This prop can be passed between players or even left at a drop-off point, but it cannot be concealed inside a bag or coat - if it's being carried, then it should be clearly visible.

The rules are the same as the two-player version, except that the briefcase is the thing that needs to get to the end zone. If a Tail player tags a Quarry player who is carrying the briefcase (or manages to pick the briefcase up from a drop-off point), then the Tail team wins.

You'll probably also need an end zone that has more entrances than Tail players, to avoid a stalemated "one guard per exit" endgame.