Wide Games

[Lisabob 13]

I'd love to hear from those of you who do these. What are your favorites? What makes something a wide game, anyway? Which ones do the boys seem to particularly enjoy?

 

 

[emb021 16]

To me, a 'wide game' is a huge game aimed at getting everyone at an event involved and meeting each other.

 

I first encountered these at the National Jamboree in 1981. They had done these at prior Jamboree, and would do so at future ones, but I think they dropped them at the most recent couple of ones. (they tried doing this a few times at NOAC, but with less success, as I recall).

 

All of these were card trading games. You were given a set number of cards, all the same. You had to complete the set by trading ALL the cards with other people. The other cards were held by people from other subcamps, so you had to get out and met people from other subcamps (the cards had a place to put your name and contact info).

 

Completing the set got you the wide game strip, which was designed to go with your jamboree patch and 'complete it'. For some reason they didn't do this in 1989, instead apparently having a small shuttle pin that went on the patch. The last 3 jamborees they had several patches that went around the patch, but only the youth participants got them.

 

 

[Buffalo Skipper 13]

I just recently came across my historical flag cards from the 1981 Jamboree. Thanks for the refresher course. I had forgotten some of those specifics about them. I guess as a scout, I was not aware (or do not remember) that they were called "wide games."

[Buffalo Skipper 13]

Oops, sorry double post.(This message has been edited by Buffalo Skipper)

[Kudu 186]

Lisabob writes:

 

What makes something a wide game, anyway?

 

Wide Games are rugged, active games played over a wide wooded area.

 

Trading cards is not a Wide Game. As the term "Wide" implies, the most important aspect of Wide Games is the amount of territory. I have found that it is equally important that the areas have very distinct boundaries. In this regard our Troop had the most luck with four local venues:

 

The first was a densely wooded area at a local park encircled by a paved park loop roadway. It was the smallest of the four venues, only 1/4 mile diameter, but the dense undergrowth made it ideal for hiding. This is where we started, spending an entire summer with outdoor meetings devoted only to Wide Games. We never met indoors from June to September. Our first Wide Game was "Spiders and Flies."

 

Our second and third successful venues were both wooded peninsulas in an area where, over geographic time, creek beds had formed significant cliff walls. One was at remote local parkland, and it was very narrow, only a few hundred yards between radical cliff drop-offs, but about 1/2 mile long. The second was our Troop's own property, a similar peninsula, but the cliffs on one border were very dangerous, a 200 foot sheer vertical drop. The other border was a gravel quarry only about 60 feet deep and not so steep. This area was 1/4 mile by 1/2 mile.

 

The forth was an actual island, about 1/4 mile by 1 mile. This is where we played "All Night Capture the Flag" once a year in November. The Patrols would spend all day Saturday Scouting the island for their bases, and then begin playing after dark. The central theme was to play all night, but after a day of building forts, the actual games were usually over by midnight.

 

Wide Games are the reason that we have Boy Scout associations.

 

Baden-Powell included eight military Wide Games in his applied reconnaissance book Aids to Scouting, published during the Siege of Mafeking. English boys seized upon these eight games right away. Perhaps you have already heard of one of them, an obscure mounted horse game called "Flag Stealing" now known to all American boys as "Capture the Flag." This and the other military games intended to be played on horses (note the equine Google ads on the page), were adapted to foot or bicycles by pre-Boy Scout English boys.

 

http://inquiry.net/traditional/b-p/aids2scout/a2s_167.htm

 

Lisabob writes:

 

Which ones do the boys seem to particularly enjoy?

 

In Troops with passive adults, boys seem to enjoy Capture the Flag and Manhunt the most, but that is only because those are the Wide Games that they have already heard of.

 

In Baden-Powell's day Scouters were not as theoretical as we are now with 21st century "Leadership Development" where "boy-run" is often an excuse for adults to stand around spouting business formulas while Scouts try to figure out for themselves something interesting enough to do to keep them from dropping out of Scouting.

 

Scouters should be resources for introducing physically demanding new activities. This is what is required to get your Troop interested in Wide Games. With a few significant exceptions, boys no longer read things to learn new game ideas, and reading is what is required here. It usually takes an adult to comb through the 84 different Wide Games and find a few that he or she knows will appeal to his or her Scouts.

 

Some of these games will become your Troop's passion!

 

For instance, "Manhunt" is not one game as most American boys believe. Manhunt is a whole class of 31 different Manhunt Wide Games. See:

 

http://inquiry.net/outdoor/games/wide/man_hunt_type.htm

 

Finding the half-dozen Wide Games that will become your Scouts' main reason for attending campouts or weekly summer meetings held in the woods is all a matter of matching the dominant personalities in the Troop that you serve with the games that compliment the personalities of your Troop's natural leaders. For instance, our District Commissioner asked me to be Scoutmaster for his sons' Troop. The Scouts (most of whom were friends with at least one of his four sons) were always after him because of his compulsive smoking, so their favorite Wide Game when he went camping became "The Escaped Smoker."

 

A Convict has escaped from prison, and, being an inveterate smoker, the first thing he does is to buy a large supply of cigarettes and matches. On a dark night a message is brought to the Scouts that he has been seen in a wood close by, still smoking. The troop at once turn out, and, enclosing the wood, silently try to find their man by using their eyes, ears, and noses, as well as they can. The man, who is playing the part of the convict, is obliged to keep his cigarette in full view all the time, and strike a match at least once every three minutes... See:

 

http://inquiry.net/outdoor/games/b-p/night.htm#1.

 

Another Manhunt Wide Game that became popular when we had a deaf Scout in the Troop is "Showing the Light." We played "Showing the Light" with a laser pointer. When the game leader blows the whistle at regular intervals, the quarry was required to shine the laser into the branches of a tree (works best with bare winter trees). The visually oriented deaf Scout was really good at picking up traces of the laser in the branches of intervening trees when the quarry projected the light on the branches of a tree a significant distance away from him so as to throw off the pursuing Scouts. The intervening trees could be traced back to the quarry's actual location.

 

In dense summer foliage we also played "Showing the Light" with cheap electronic photographic flash units. I have a couple of these, one has a broken "foot" that once attached the unit to the camera but still works fine, and the other has a broken battery door which I "fixed" with duct tape.

 

The big advantage of introducing light into a Manhunt game is that it greatly increases the pace of the game, especially where a well-hidden quarry could otherwise be hiding 3/4 of a mile away for hours. See:

 

http://inquiry.net/outdoor/games/b-p/night.htm#5.

 

American Wide Games are divided into three categories:

 

Treasure Hunts

Seizure

Conquest

 

English Wide Games are roughly divided into four categories:

 

Raid

Cordon-Breaking

Treasure-Hunt

Man-Hunt

 

See:

 

http://inquiry.net/outdoor/games/wide/index.htm

 

Our Scouts much preferred the English Wide Games, especially the Raid Games which include "Bomb Laying." See:

 

http://inquiry.net/outdoor/games/b-p/bomb_laying.htm

 

The English Wide Games have indeed withstood the test of time better than the American Games, but the three American categories above are worth clicking on just to view the three master-sketches that at a glance provide an overview of how all the games in each category work.

 

Enjoy!

 

Kudu

 

[SSScout 1622]

Kudu: Thank you! I agree, card trading ain't the wide game I know.

 

"Capture the Flag" The usual, played with a 'flag', a 'jail', a defined area, and teams.

 

"Jugs" Like CtF, but with a 'Pantry' of water filled gallon jugs (any number) for each team to retrieve and carry to their pantry. Tagged opponants must SIT where they are tagged and wait to be rescued by their own team members. Tagged jugs are carried back to team pantry. Winning team has collected all the jugs.

 

"Jail Break" Police and crooks, police tag crooks and send them to any of several jails, crooks tag prisoners and they must escape holding hands, running together. Police can retag crook train. Tag head of train, ALL go back to jail. Tag one, everyone behind him goes back.

 

" Steal the Bacon" Adjusted rules to accommodate a much larger playing area. Caller calls out single or numerous opponants to StB. "All First Class Scouts. GO!" "Anyone born in JANUARY! GO!" " If your name begins with T", etc. Bacon may not be in the same place as before, but must be placed in plain sight.

 

"Amoeba" In a strictly defined area, "IT" tags whomever he can, and they hold hands and try to collect everyone else. Either IT or the amoeba can tag others. Last one remaining is winner.