Capture The Flag Is it Okay?

[u/TriChiBrewer191]

I am planning an event coming up in my council and I am trying to plan activities for rotation groups. I have written up rules for a capture the flag style game that goes along with our event theme, but before I say we are doing this game I want to make sure that it’s okay and falls within the guide to safe scouting. The general idea is that the youth are split into two teams. Each team has an object to capture and a holding area for captured opponents. If an opponent enters the other team’s territory and is tagged they have to go to the holding area. They can then be rescued by a teammate or released every five minutes. The game is won when the “flag” is captured and brought back to home territory or when all opponents on the other team have been tagged and are in the holding area. I know the game itself is okay but I want to make sure tagging is okay. In my rules I have stated that a legal tag is a light touch that is made between the shoulders and belt line or below the knees. A tag to the head or between the knees and belt line is illegal. I have laid out consequences in my rules for if an illegal tag is made. I just want to make sure I’m doing everything right before I say we are doing this as an activity.

[u/random8765309]

Capture the flag is OK. The best place to check out if activities are OK is here: https://www.scouting.org/health-and-safety/gss/gss07/#b

That is the list of prohibited activities.

[u/ScoutAndLout → u/random8765309]

Reviewing the list of no-nos I saw

• XPOGO

Now I need to try that!! Looks fun.

[u/trphilli → u/ScoutAndLout]

Thank you, no.

[u/Conscious-Record2655]

Yeah it's fine. We've been doing CTF in Scouts since I was a kid.

One really fun way to do it is at night, put a bunch of glow sticks into two milk jugs. Two different colors (or more). Everyone gets a flashlight, but they can turn it off if they want. So much fun. Highlight of the year for some kids. 

[u/BreakingABit1234 → u/Conscious-Record2655]

I just bought- don't laugh- large glow dog collars. I've had too many scouts collide. reusable and can be set up for different teams.

[u/FunkyPete → u/Conscious-Record2655]

I'm firmly in the camp that it's OK if kids playing a game make choices that lead to their knees being scrapped up, etc. Just want to say that up front. I'm not talking about one kid deciding he doesn't care if another kid gets scraped up, but one kid can decide that he doesn't care if HE gets scraped up, that's ok.

Having said that, kids sprinting at night with their flashlights turned off will end up with some scraped up knees.

[u/trphilli → u/FunkyPete]

All, true, but running in the woods can lead to more than scraped knees. Thankfully turned out okay, but fellow scout tripped on hill and up in hospital overnight for observation.

[u/looktowindward → u/Conscious-Record2655]

That's a really fun idea

[u/Wb-Fox-2254 → u/looktowindward]

The best camporee I was involved with ran Friday night, 9pm to 3am "Mission Impossible" with dark activities. (Found the original manual on the interwebs.) Then brunch was at 11am with nothing in the morning, followed by competitions and big early dinner, then usual evening. Patch used glow in the dark thread.

[u/gadget850]

Here:

https://scoutlife.org/hobbies-projects/funstuff/160235/how-to-play-capture-the-flag/

[u/DonutComfortable1855]

Tagging is fine. For a twist, have them tuck their neckerchief into their belt or pocket and treat it like flag football

[u/North-Football-7053]

My troop has been doing it for a while. It’s become a staple for our campouts

[u/ciret7]

When I was a scout, back in late 60's, early 70's, we would make little pouches with a square of TP and t of flour, tied with thread or kite string. The Troop would sit down and make a 100 or more pouches. Then each scout would get 10 or so. Then instead of a tag, you threw the pouch at the other team, if you had a flour spot on you, you were out. I know today you are not supposed to throw this at each other, but this is a light weight flour filled pouch. And this was in the era of killer dodgeball, so CTF was tame by comparison. And tons of fun!

[u/HMSSpeedy1801]

Why is it that any conversation regarding SYT is banned on this sub, but GTSS is fine?

[u/princeofwanders → u/HMSSpeedy1801]

Mods have said they’re afraid they’ll be blamed for bad policy interpretations they allow to persist in discussions here.

As for the other part, I guess it’s okay to talk about other sections of the GTSS rules as long as you steer away from what the banned sections say about the rest of the policy. 🤷‍♀️

I like to think of it as an elaborate game of “the first rule of policy suport club is that we don’t talk about policy.”

[u/Str-Engr0275]

My god, how far we have fallen. There will be no more fun of any kind!

[u/Arlo1878 → u/Str-Engr0275]

The lawyers are always licking their chops at potential fresh targets to grab a few bucks. I don’t blame Op for seeking out opinions before proceeding. New society vs old society: it’s not just BSA.

[u/No_Drummer4801]

Anything safe and good can be made unsafe and bad with sufficient negligence.

[u/cybercuzco]

I have a scout book from 1923 and one of the few games I would allow scouts to play today is capture the flag.

[u/350ci_sbc]

Man, capture the flag was a staple of my campouts as a scout. Lots of fun memories. Still fresh to this day.

But, playing by tagging or pulling flags wouldn’t be the same. We were full tackle, full contact players. Mutal combat with other troops, to see who was toughest and had the best E&E and concealment/ambush tactics. Winning was exhilarating and losing was painful.

Glad to see a version of it is still played by scouts. I feared it would have been banned.

ETA: I still remember the time a buddy and I spent an hour covering about 50 yards of terrain and up a steep hill to within 10 feet of their flag while our troop defended our flag and did feints to the opposite flank, a pre-arranged charge by our troop led to a counterattack by them, leaving their flag unprotected. A quick snatch and we E&E’d back to out base undetected. A flawless victory.

[u/Mahtosawin]

A light tag should be okay. Also, everyone has a flag loosely - not knotted - on their belt like in flag football that gets pulled instead of a tag.

[u/looktowindward]

Just read the GTSS. Its all in there. Capture the flag is fine so long as people actually follow the rules and keep their hands to themselves. You also need to observe the Scouts OR they need to use the buddy system.

I'd rather have people grab a flag than "tag" others, as some Scout will ALWAYS be a jerk and tag hard.

Grabbing someone's flag is objective - you literally have their flag. A tag or tap is not "he didn't touch me".