The Potato Game
| The Potato Game | |
|---|---|
| Designer: | Pippa Johnson |
| Year: | unknown |
| Players: | 9+ |
| Stuff required: | Something not entirely dissimilar to a bag of potatoes |
| Crew required: | nil/one. |
| Preparation: | Ten minutes. |
| Time required: | Variable. |
| Place required: | Outdoors space. |
| Activities: | Running, teamwork. |
| This is a playable game - it's finished, tested and ready to play. | |
 | |
A tactical team game with running and potatoes. Potatoes and running optional.
You will need
- at the very least 9 people, but more is better
- some potatoes - from 2 per person should be right
- an interesting area larger than about 30m by 30m.
Setup
Divide people up into teams of at least 3.
Give each team more potatoes than there are people in the team and two/three same-coloured balloons with potatoes in them.
Get at least one person in each team to start the stopwatch on their phone: they'll need one minute for tactical discussion at the start point and one minute to get away and start their first base plus how ever many minutes you want the game to run for. After those two minutes are up any excess potato carrying will be penalised.
Send the teams on their way.
Play lasts as long as you want it to.
Gameplay
Teams may travel together or as individuals and may go anywhere.
The aim of the game is to collect as many potatoes as possible.
You can move your stash of tubers at any time and hide them elsewhere (ie choose a new Potato Base), but you can have no more than two/three Potato Bases at any one time.
Potatoes may only be transported by groups of two or more, and a group may only carry one less potato than the number of people involved. ie, 3 people can carry 2, 2 people can carry 1, but 1 person can't carry any - they can scout around for other Potato Bases, however.
The potato base balloons count as potatoes.
You can only 'get' potatoes by taking them from the floor (be they in a potato base or not): no one can stop anyone else picking up a potato if they can reach it - the only defence you have once your base has been discovered it to relocate.
Play history
- The Potato Game first ran at Sandpit #13 in June 2009.
- It ran again at the Hide&Seek Weekender 2009.
