But there are some small rules that are best worked out before you start playing. There is no "right" way to play, so simply pick the rules that you like the most: When a player is freed from jail do they need to run back to their side before getting re-tagged, or do they get a free walk back? Can a player save everyone in jail at once, or just one person?
If you grab the flag and are tagged, do you drop the flag there or let the other team return it? Can you move your own team's flag somewhere new? How far must a player stand away from their own flag ie. Break your team up into "guards" and "attackers. This way you know that a certain number of people will be defending your flag, no matter what. You may want one more guard than attacker, someone who focuses on getting your team out of jail if anything goes wrong. Patrol the center line and the rest of your field, ready to tag anyone who crosses or tries to find your flag.
Often calls out to the rest of the team when they've found someone hiding or sneaking on their side. They also try and prevent jailbreaks. Try and sneak away or outrun the guards, looking for the flag. They will go to jail often while searching, so other attackers need to take turns saving them so that all the attackers don't end up in jail at once. Once they find the flag, they tell the rest of their team and try to capture it. If you have a big team, you'll want a few fast players who can switch between offensive and defense, depending on the team's needs.
These players usually save others from jail, help search for the flag near the border, defend when the guards are outnumbered, or slowly sneak into enemy territory while the attackers distract the guards. Plan your modes of attack. The fun of capture the flag comes from the strategy involved. Do you want to play defensively, picking off the other team's attackers and then rushing them with superior numbers? Or do you want to try and sneak into their side, hiding and moving slowly to spend as much time looking for the flag as possible? Talk with your team to work out a gameplan for the best results.
A desperate move, or one used if you know where the flag is, this involves sending almost everyone in at once in the hopes that one person gets the flag back safely. Risky but rewarding, this involves sending some of your fastest players all to one side of the field. Their goal is simply not to get tagged, drawing as many guards to chase them as possible, while another player on the other side of the field quietly sneaks around to look for the flag.
If you have the flag or know where to find it, group up with other teammates. Run together towards the flag with your fastest person in the middle and the rest of the team feet away on either side, taking tags as "blockers. They cannot keep blocking after they've been tagged. Hide your flag cleverly. There are a lot of things to consider when hiding a flag, and the "best spot" might not be what you expect at first. Try to think about the first places you would look if you were the other team, as they will likely look their first as well.
You usually want a spot that is far back in your territory, but not too near the jail. The farther away your flag, the more ground the team has to cover without being tagged, making it easier to defend. That said, mixing in a very close location once in a while may be a risk worth taking, as the other team might not even look at the nearby hiding spots if they expect it farther back. If the flag has to be visible, try and make it only see-able from behind so that the team needs to run all the way around to get a view of it. Putting the flag near your jail may lead to a prisoner seeing it while they wait, so try and keep some distance.
Switch sides after every game. In order to prevent one team from feeling like they got the "worst side," you should switch sides every game. If the games are quick, play until one team wins by 2 games , , etc. This ensures that the winning team fairly won on both sides of the field. Freeze people on tags instead of sending them to jail. If you're tagged, simply stop moving and stand in place until someone on your team tags you, at which point you can play again as if nothing ever happened.
Play with a frisbee or ball for your flag that you can pass to teammates. This often makes the game much faster and more offensive minded. If you capture the flag you can throw it to a teammate to try and get it out of your territory. The tagging rules still apply, and you can add the rule stating that if the flag is dropped by a bad pass or missed catch , the flag must be returned to the starting space.
This is a great variation for Open-Field games, where it is impossible to hide a flag. Hide multiple flags per team. Give each team flags to hide individually. The game is not over until all the flags are found by one team. You can also give each flag a point score, based on the difficulty of finding and returning it to your base.
Set a time limit on the game, and the team with the most points at the end wins. Try out Night Capture the Flag. Don flashlights or headlamps and head out for a spooky, extra challenging game of CTF. To prevent dangerous collisions, make a rule that you can only be running with a light on. However, turning your light off and sneaking slowly around is a great way to search for the flag, or spring a trap on an unsuspecting attacker.
Tag people with water balloons or "flour bombs" instead of your hands. For a safer, easier version of paintball capture the flag, cut up several pairs of pantyhose into small, inch long strips. Tie one end up and fill it with enough flour that it is easily thrown back and forth. Tie the top up, and make sure all the players are wearing dark clothing. Now, instead of tagging someone, you have to hit them with the flour bomb, which will leave a puff of flour as proof. Set up a neutral zone where no one can be tagged.
Having a neutral zone prevents impossible-to-judge situations where two players tag each other near or on the line. To do so, simply make the center line yards wide. If you're in this area, no one can be tagged and sent to jail. Players are not allowed to go to the neutral zone and stay there! That is considered cheating. There is no required number, but it would be better to have a large group rather that people. Not Helpful 1 Helpful You can make your playing area as big or as small as you like. You can also set up boundaries.
Not Helpful 2 Helpful Not Helpful 12 Helpful You could, but it would not be as fun as larger games. What you could do is have two of the people playing: Or you could just play 2 Vs. Not Helpful 18 Helpful You can't touch the flag after someone from the other team has touched it, you have to leave it where they dropped it.
Not Helpful 13 Helpful You could make each team wear something similar; one team could wear hats, or the same colored shirts. Get creative, there are tons of possibilities! At any age, as long as you can understand the rules and perform all the actions the game involves. Not Helpful 5 Helpful Yes, but there couldn't be any jail, or the jail would have to have a time limit, so the one person can get out. Not Helpful 19 Helpful Yes, but one of the teams would be one player short and that would be a disadvantage. Not Helpful 6 Helpful Depends on the rules, but the rules usually state that you have to be tagged by another member of your team before getting out.
Not Helpful 3 Helpful 7. Answer this question Flag as Include your email address to get a message when this question is answered. Already answered Not a question Bad question Other. How to Play Capture the Flag. Article Summary X To play capture the flag, divide the players into two even teams. Did this summary help you? Tips Make sure to mark boundaries very clearly to avoid confusion. If you are playing at night put on dark clothes to blend into your surroundings. Consider having a neutral ground for time-outs and rests. Always make sure you know where your flag is and don't move it without talking to the whole team first.
Make your own obstacles for your game. It will make it harder and a bit more fun! But in some variants team mates who got tagged can be jailed only 3 times or they are kicked from the game until the next round. In general freed players are obligated to return directly to their own territory before attempting offensive action i. While they return to their own side, freed players usually acquire "free walk-backs", in which they are safe from tagging until they reach their home territory. The player performing the jail break, on the other hand, is neither safe, nor restricted from performing other actions such as attempting to grab the flag or generally moving about enemy territory.
Sometimes, players in jail form chains, so that if a teammate tags one person in the chain, everyone is free. Simply leaving jail without being freed is considered poor sportsmanship and is severely frowned upon, often leading to expulsion from the game. If all players on one team are jailed meaning no teammate can free them from jail , then the other team will have all the time they want to find the other team's flag. The rules for the handling of the flag also vary from game to game and deal mostly with the disposition of the flag after a failed attempt at capturing it. In one variant, after a player is tagged while carrying the flag, it is returned to its original place.
In another variant, the flag is left in the location where the player was tagged. This latter variant makes offensive play easier, as the flag will tend, over the course of the game, to be moved closer to the dividing line between territories. In some games, it is possible for the players to throw the flag to teammates. As long as the flag stays in play without hitting the ground, it is allowed for the players to pass.
When the flag is captured by one player, they're not safe from being tagged, unless they trip. Sometimes, the flag holder may not be safe at all, even in their home territory, until they obtain both flags, thus ending the game. But they have the option to return to their own side or hand it off to a teammate who will then carry it to the other side. In most versions, they may not throw the flag but only hand it off while running. The game is won when a player returns to their own territory with the enemy flag or both teams' flags. Also, as a general rule, the flag carrier may not attempt to free any of their teammates from jail.
Alterations may include "one flag" CTF in which there is a defensive team and an offensive team, or games with three or more flags. In the case of the latter, one can only win when all flags are captured, not only one. Another variation is when the players put bandannas in their pockets with about six inches sticking out. Instead of tagging your opponents, you must pull your opponent's bandanna out of their pocket. No matter where a player is when their bandanna is pulled, they're captured and must, depending on the preferences of the players, go to jail, or return to their base before returning to play.
In this version there is no team territory, only a small base where the team's flag is kept.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Not Helpful 2 Helpful However, players from their own team may free them from jail by means of a jailbreak. What you could do is have two of the people playing: Each player may only take one of their opponents' sticks at a time.
To win, one team must have both of the flags in their base. In some urban settings, the game is played indoors in an enclosed area with walls, similar to the walls in a hockey rink. There is also a spot sticking out of the back of the opposing ends which is connected to the playing area for the flag to be placed in.
In this urban variation, legal checking hockey style and legal checking against the boards is allowed. A player who commits a foul or illegal check is placed in a penalty box for a specified amount of time, depending on the severity of the foul. A player who deliberately injures an opponent is expelled from the rest of the game. Throwing the flag is allowed in this variation, as long as the flag is caught before it hits the ground.
If the flag is thrown to a teammate but hits the ground before it can be caught, the flag is placed from the spot of the throw. If a player throws the flag, but is blocked or intercepted by a player from the opposing team, the flag is placed back at the base. It is not uncommon for airsoft, paintball, Nerf and water warriors to play CTF. Typically there are no territories in these versions. Players who are "hit" must sit out a predetermined amount of time before returning to play respawning.
However, instead of a flag, a number of sticks or other items such as coats or hats are placed in a "goal" on the far end of each side of the playing field or area. As in capture the flag, players are sent to a "prison" if tagged on the opponents' side, and may be freed by teammates.
Each player may only take one of their opponents' sticks at a time. The first team to take all of the opponents' sticks to their own side wins. An edutainment game with recognizable capture-the-flag mechanics, Bannercatch allows up to two humans each alternating between two characters in the game world to play capture the flag against an increasingly difficult team of four AI bots.
Bannercatch ' s game world is divided into quadrants: A successful capture requires bringing the enemy flag into one team's "home" quadrant. Players can be captured when in an enemy territory, or in "no-mans land" while holding a flag.
Captured players must be "rescued" from their designated jail by one of the other members of the team. Fallen flags remain where they dropped until a time-out period elapses, after which the flag returns to one of several starting locations in home territory.
The 2D map also features walls, trees and a moving river, enabling a wide variety of strategies. Special locations in the play area allow humans to query the game state such as flag status using binary messages. The game required players to merely move one of their characters onto the same square as their opponent's flag, as opposed to bringing it back to friendly territory, because of difficulties implementing the artificial intelligence that the computer player would have needed to bring the enemy flag home and intercept opposing characters carrying the flag.
In computer security , Capture the Flag CTF , a type of cryptosport , is a computer security competition. CTF contests are usually designed to serve as an educational exercise to give participants experience in securing a machine, as well as conducting and reacting to the sort of attacks found in the real world.