10 brilliant wide games to play

The goal:

Stay hidden for as long as possible and rescue your teammates from jail!

Set up:

• Define the boundaries of the playing area.
• Create a central ‘jail’ using cones or markers.
• Choose 1 person to be the ‘jailer’ and 2 people to be the ‘cops’ – they could wear bibs.
• Everyone else is a ‘robber’.

How to play:

1. All the robbers should hide.
2. The jailer stands next to the jail during the game, but can leave if they want to.
3. After 30 seconds, the cops can start looking for people.
4. The robbers can move about to stay hidden.
5. If a cop finds and tags a robber, that person must go to the jail.
6. Robbers who are still ‘free’ can release all the prisoners. They should sneak up (without being caught by the jailer), put 1 foot in the jail and shout ‘Jailbreak!’ Everyone in jail is now free. 
7. Once freed, robbers get 10 seconds to run and find a new hiding spot before they can be tagged again.
8. The cops and jailer win if they manage to get every single player into the jail at the same time. The robbers win if the time limit runs out!

The goal:

Find the hider and join them in their spot without being spotted by the other seekers!

Set up:

• Choose 1 person to be the hider. They’re the ‘Sardine’.
• Everyone else is a seeker and stays at the base to count.
• Define the boundaries of the ‘tin’ (the hiding area).

How to play:

1. The 'sardine' goes off to find a hiding spot. Ideally, it should be one that’s large enough to eventually fit the whole group.
2. After 30 seconds, everyone should start to look for the 'sardine' individually.
3. When a seeker finds them, they don't say anything. They just quietly hide with them too.
4. One by one, the seekers become ‘sardines’ until everyone is packed into the same spot.
5. The game ends when the very last seeker finds the sardines. The first person to have found the 'sardine' gets to be the hider in the next round.

The goal:

Gather all the ingredients to brew a potion that makes the Silly Scientist listen to your instructions!

Set up:

• Hide ‘ingredient’ cards (pictures of things like dragon scales or stardust) around the space.
• Designate one leader to be the ‘Silly Scientist’ who constantly moves around the area. They won’t listen to instructions unless they have been given the potion.
• Set up a ‘Lab’ base for each team.
• Give each team a ‘recipe’ (a list of ingredients) that tell them what they’ll need to collect for their potion. The teams could use the same recipe or have slightly different ones.

How to play:

1. Teams must hunt for the ingredients and bring them back to their Lab base one by one.
2. When someone brings an ingredient back, another team member can leave.
3. Once all ingredients are collected, the team must get catch the moving scientist to ‘administer’ the potion and bring them back to their lab.
4. Once at the lab, the scientist should check the ingredients. The scientist can then leave the lab if they’ve not brewed the potion correctly or used the wrong ingredients.
5. The first team to successfully brew their potion and get the Scientist back to their lab wins the game.
6. To make it harder, hide in some extra ‘decoy’ ingredients that aren’t on the recipe.

The goal:

Be the first team to sneak into enemy territory, grab their flag, and race it back to your base!

Set up:

• Divide your space into two halves using cones or tape.
• Create a small 'jail' area on each side.
• Get into 2 teams and give each team a flag to hide on their own side.
• Create a base point for each team. This could be a cone or the back wall of their space.

How to play:

1. The teams need to try to get the flag from the opponent’s side.
2. Some of the team can defend your flag while the others try to capture the opponent's.
3. Team’s aren’t allowed to guard the flag - stay back from your own flag!
4. if you’re tagged while on the other team's side, you’re sent to their jail.
5. A teammate can free you by tagging you in jail. Once freed, walk back to your base with your hands on your head and tag your team’s base to get back in the game.
6. If you tag someone on your team’s side, they go to jail.
7. You can’t get tagged or sent to jail while on your own side.
8. The first team to bring the opponent's flag safely back to their base wins! You can also win by successfully jailing the entire other team.

The goal:

Get creative and be the first team to capture a full list of funny or what seem like impossible photos!

Set up:

• Create a list of photo challenges.
• Make sure each team has access to a camera or a phone.
• Set the boundaries of the photo zone.
• Create a central ‘Gallery’ base where teams return to show their photos.

Our photo ideas:

• Something round.
• A tree with legs.
• A team member posing as a famous statue.
• Something red.
• The biggest leaf.
• A ballet lesson.
• A reflection selfie.
• A 3-legged monster.
• The best camouflaged thing.
• Something that starts with the letter ‘n’.
• Playing air guitars.

How to play:

• Get into teams and give out the list of photos to each team.
• Teams race around the area to find or create the scenes on their list and snap a photo of each.
• Some items might be easy, but others need some more creativity or imagination (like making a famous person out of sticks).
• At the end of a set amount of time, teams should head back to the gallery. Teams are given 1 point for each photo on their list that they managed to get. If a team completed the full list, they get an extra 5 points. You can give out bonus points for things like the best photo in each category, the best teamwork, all the team being in a photo or the most imagination.
• The team with the most points wins!

The goal:

Avoid being tagged by linking arms with a pair and sending a new runner into the game!

Set up:

• Define a clear playing area with set boundaries.
• Choose 1 person to be ‘it’ (the tagger) and 1 person to be the ‘runner.’
• Ask everyone else to find a partner and link arms. Spread the pairs out around the space.

How to play:

• The runner and whoever’s ‘it’ should stand apart in the space.
• Whoever’s ‘it' tries to tag the runner. If the runner is tagged, they swap roles immediately.
• The runner can become safe at any time by linking arms with any pair they choose.
• The runner links onto a pair, that group now has 3 people.
• The person on the opposite end of the link is pushed off and must immediately become the new runner.
• Keep the game moving fast! Pairs should be ready to react as soon as someone links onto their arm.
• There’s no final winner in this game - it’s a high-energy loop! The game ends when everyone wants a rest, or you can set a timer to see how many people can be ‘it’ in 5 minutes.

The goal:

'It' wants to freeze everyone, while the team wants to keep everyone moving!

Set up:

• Define a clear playing area.
• Choose 1 or 2 people to be ‘it’ – you may want to wear bibs to identify them.

How to play:

• Give everyone who isn’t ‘it’ the chance to move around for 20 seconds.
• After 20 seconds, whoever’s ‘it’ can start trying to catch and tag people.
• If ‘it’ tags you, you’re ‘stuck in the mud.’ You must stand still with your arms out and legs apart.
• You can only be freed if a teammate who isn't stuck crawls through your legs. You can also have it where people need to go under an arm.
• ‘It’ can try to guard the stuck players to prevent a rescue.
• ‘It’ wins if they manage to stick everyone in the mud at the same time. You can also play for a set amount of time and whoever isn’t stuck in the mud at the end, wins.

The goal:

Solves the puzzles and complete challenges at various bases to collect all the fragments of a jigsaw!

Set up:

• Have a jigsaw (or a picture cut into pieces) for each team. They each need to have the same number of pieces.
• Set up several ‘challenge bases’ around the area, each with a puzzle or a challenge. They could be ‘minute to win it’ challenges.
• An adult needs to be with each base.
• Place different jigsaw puzzles at each base as rewards. You should aim to have one piece of each puzzle at each base.
• Create a finish line or zone where teams need to go to at the end.

How to play:

• Teams move from base to base, completing challenges to earn their jigsaw pieces.
• If a team fails a challenge, the leader can take one of their earned jigsaw pieces.
• A roaming leader can stop teams and ask them a question. If they get it wrong, the leader can steal a jigsaw piece and return it to any base.
• Once a team has all the pieces, they must race back to the finish line to assemble the full jigsaw.
• The first team to correctly assemble their complete jigsaw at the finish line wins.

The goal:

As a ‘hunted’ player, stay hidden as long as possible; as a ‘hunter’ find everyone!

Set up:

• Choose a few players to be the ‘hunted’ and the rest to be ‘hunters.’
• Define a clear playing area and any boundaries.

How to play:

• Give the Hunted players 2 minutes to hide.
• When you’re ready, the Hunters can start looking and try to track down the hidden players.
• If a Hunted player is found, they don't go to a jail, they immediately join the Hunters to help find the remaining hiders.
• It’s up to you if Hunted players can move once hidden or if they need to stay in one place.
• The game ends when the very last Hunted player is discovered.

The goal:

Be the team that spreads its ‘infection’ to the most people by using up all your cones!

Set up:

• Define a clear playing area and any boundaries.
• Find an area with lots of hiding spots and set clear boundaries.
• Pick 2 pairs of players to be the 'zombies' for each team (1 red pair, 1 green pair).
• Give each pair a stack of coloured cones to match their team colour.

How to play:

• Everyone else gets a one-minute head start to hide.
• When an zombie tags a hider, that person is now infected. The tagger gives the new zombie half of their cones.
• Both zombies now hunt for more people to infect. If a zombie runs out of cones (making sure to keep 1 for themselves), they return to base.
• The first team (red or green) to use up all their cones by infecting others wins!