Hide and seek
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Template:Unreferenced Hide and seek (sometimes also called hide and go seek) is a popular tag variant that is best played in areas with lots of potential hiding spots, such as a forest or a large house. The game starts with all players in a central location. "It" covers their eyes or uses some other method to avoid seeing the other players while they count out loud for a predetermined number of seconds, often with the aid of a word that takes about one second to say (e.g., "one-alligator, two-alligator . . ." or "one-Mississippi, two-Mississippi . . ."). Meanwhile, the other players hide. It announces when they have finished counting by shouting a phrase such as "Ready or not, here I come!" They then try to find the hiding players. The next "it" is either the first or the last player found, depending on the rules agreed to by the players.
Players may move to other hiding spots while "it" isn't looking. Those who can remain hidden the longest are considered the best players.
Variants
- Hiding players may be "tagged" simply by being spotted by "it,"
- Or they may give chase once they are spotted, forcing "it" to run them down and tag them.
- In some variants, if the hiding player makes it safely "home" (typically to a gatepost), they can no longer be caught. In this case, the first or last person home is the next "it", depending on local rules. If nobody makes it home "it" remains the same. This variant was known in some parts of southern England as Tin Can Alley.
- In a similar variant (called Block), when "it" spots a player, the player and "it" immediately run a race to home. If the player touches the object specified as home before "it" does,(and says Block 1, 2, 3 save all) then the player is not considered to be caught. Conversely, if "it" touches home before the player does (and says Block 1, 2, 3 [name] no save all), then the player is caught. The first player to be caught is "it" in the next round.
For instance, in a typical version of Hide-and-Go-Seek (as played in the US Midwest) children playing the game chose a tree, a gatepost or the edge of a wall as "Home," and selected one player as "It". He (or she) put his head on his arm at Home, to cover his eyes; and began to count loudly to some limit such as 25, giving the others some 25 seconds in which to hide "Out" in the general vicinity. He then announced, "Ready or not, here I come!", and tried to locate an Out to race Home. An Out who could race Home first, was "Home Free"; he then waited at Home for the game to end while the player who was It tried to locate another Out. If the player who was It won the race Home, the Out who lost this race became It. They then called, "All 'e, all 'e Outs In Free!" to bring the rest of the players Home, and restart the game with the new It; or call off the game for the day.
- Hide and Go Get It
This is similar to tag except there are usually two teams consisting of boys and girls. Usually played with teenagers, one team hides and the other counts in the usual fashion. Either the boys or the gurls can be "It". Upon finding someone, "It" proceeds to kiss the Hidee.
- An adult-child hide and seek is usually played as a two person game, involving one adult searching for a single hidden child. Upon finding the child, the adult will usually engage in some form of intimate activity such as hugging or tickling the child. The adult may give up, where the child then is considered "the winner" but does not receive a hug or a tickling. In such games, the child usually expects to be found and looks forward to the physical activity at the end of the game.
- A game similar to hide and seek, but played with babies, is called peekaboo (peek a boo). In this game the adult hides their face, pops back into the baby's view, and says - to the baby's amusement - Peekaboo!.
"It" may give up, of course, or the game may have some form of "game over" rule. A common way of doing this is to shout "Alley, alley, oxen free!" or "Ollie, Ollie, oxen free!" – probably a corruption of the German "Alle, alle auch sind frei", (literally, "Everyone, everyone also is free"). Another variant in the US Midwest is "Ollie, Ollie, in come free". Charles Wilson wrote: “When I was growing up in the American South we actually said, ‘All ye all ye outs in free’ when playing hide-and-seek (although we called it ‘hide-and-go-seek’).”
Sardines
In the variant known as sardines, only one player hides while all the rest count. All the counting players then split up and each searches for the one player hiding. When a searcher find the hiding player, they join in hiding in the same hiding place. The game is over when the last player finds all the others. They are the loser of the game and generally the next one to hide (although sometimes this role is given to the first to have found the original hiding place). Often, "sardines" is played in the dark.
Zombie
A seasonal variation of this is a game played during Autumn and Winter called "Zombie!". This is normally played after dark or during late evening. A player will be elected to be the Zombie who is the finder. The zombie will pretend to be mad/insane and try and find the hiders as quietly as possible. The object of the game is to scare the hiders by getting as close to them as possible then jumping out on them and shouting "Zombie!" and frighten them as much as possible. If you make the hiders scream and bolt from the hiding place they are considered caught. If the Zombie can actually physically catch the hider without being seen this is considered a perfect catch! The person caught will then become part of the Zombie's Army. There is also reverse Zombie where the Zombie hides and must try and catch each of the seekers as they try and find him/her individually by shouting "Zombie!", once caught they become Zombies as well. This is ideally played near Halloween, and the more bizarre and scary the Zombies behaviour, the better.bg:Криеница cs:Hra na schovávanou de:Versteckspiel he:מחבואים nl:Verstoppertje ja:かくれんぼ ru:Прятки sv:Kurragömma