Blind Tig

From Ludocity
Blind Tig
Designer: Peter Law
Year: unknown
Players: 3-4
Stuff required: Blindfolds and 3 or 4 pairs of ribbons or tabards to identify teams
Crew required: One.
Preparation: Ten minutes.
Time required: 5 - 50 mins
Place required: Somewhere without hard obstacles or things to trip people up (indoors or out)
Activities: Chasing, guiding, creative disorientation
This is a tested game. It's been tested in real life, but needs a bit more polishing before it's fully playable.
Cc-by-nc.png
This game is made available under an Attribution-Noncommercial Creative Commons licence. (What does this mean?)

This is a variant of the playground game tig/tag/chase/it, only with blindfolds.

Setting up

The playing area must be forgiving if people fall over and have no dangerous obstacles. The game can be fast and rowdy so it's best to demarcate it so that the public don't stray into the area. Soft obstacles like cushions or soft furniture can be spread around the area to make barriers which slow the game down. Make sure they're not going to trip anyone up.

Basic rules

Players form pairs. In each pair one player is blindfolded and only they can catch and be caught. The other player is a guide. Each team is given another team to try to catch.

A team is caught out when their blindfold player it tigged (touched) by another blindfold player with their hand (gently please!). When a team is caught the game stops and blindfolds come off. Then teams change targets and blind and guiding players swap roles.

To begin with try allowing the guides to take their blindfold partners by the hand.

It's worth reminding people to be careful every time you start the game.

Variations

Have fun working through the variations. Slowing the game down so that players are blindfold for longer and become more disorientated is fun.

(i) Guides cannot touch their partners but can follow them

(ii) Guides must give their instructions from outside the play area

(iii) The facilitator spins and moves the blindfold players around before the game begins for 30 seconds each to disorientate them

Variations we haven't tested yet

(iv) Blindfold players can only move in time to a clap or drum beat, which is q u i t e s l o w.

(v) Guides can only give instructions at fixed intervals, say every five seconds.