CAPTURE THE FLAG

WITH STUFF

IN GOLDEN GATE PARK

Note: These rules are subject to change, including but not limited to typo fixes.

Capture the Flag With Stuff in Golden Gate Park Rules

The game is a competition between two teams, red and yellow, played in Speedway Meadow in Golden Gate park. The precise boundaries will be demarcated at game time. Each team has a number of flags hidden throughout its territory, and the other team tries to find these flags without being captured by the enemy defenders. However, the task is made much more interesting by the addition of stuff: wands, belts, and potions that affect the game in exciting ways.

Based on the rules at CMU.

Base Rules

Each player is on the yellow or the red team. Team membership is indicated by appropriately colored armbands, which must be worn visibly at all times. Each team has a home territory. All other spaces are neutral. Fenced off and inside areas are forbidden territory: no player may enter these at any time during the game.

A player is in a team's territory if any part of his body is in the team's territory. If he is in neither team's territory, he is in neutral territory, and is not affected by Stuff. (The team territories should be at least ten feet apart, so no player may be in both territories simultaneously.)

If you touch an enemy when both of you are in your home territory, you may capture her. (Note that this is optional; make it clear whether or not you are capturing). You may then request any non-concealable items she is carrying, and she must give them to you. Further, if you know that she has concealable items (e.g., you just saw her use one) you may ask for those. If, however, you do not know that she has a concealable item, she need not give it up. She must also immediately drop any flags she was carrying.

You must then lead your captive directly to your team's jail at reasonable speed. She may not use magic items or move flags on her way to jail. You may not make any more captures until she has entered the jail, either by touching the Shrine of Jail (see below) directly or through a chain of other prisoners (at this point, she may again use magic items). If you are stunned before reaching jail, your prisoner is freed.

Jail

The jail is designated by the Shrine of Jail (see Shrines, below). There is also an associated jailer's sash. A player on the team owning the jail wearing this sash assumes the role of Jailer. This role is transient; at any point, the jailer may give the sash to a teammate (who then becomes jailer) or remove it (leaving the team without a jailer). Note that the lack of a jailer does not make the jail less functional; prisoners are still stuck there. You may not move the opposing team's sash.

The prisoners must form one or more chains, with each player touching the Shrine of Jail either directly or through a chain of other prisoners. The jailer (if one exists) may relax this requirement. Typically, the prisoners are allowed to sit in the vicinity of the jail.

Every fifteen minutes, starting from the beginning of play, all prisoners are released from jail. They must return to their home territories at reasonable speed, by the most direct route. They are ethereal (may not use, drop, or pick up magic items, are not affected by magic items, may not capture, and may not be captured) until they return to their home territory. They may use jazz hands to signal that they are ethereal.

If you touch a prisoner in the other team's jail, and freeing him does not break the chain leading back to the Shrine of Jail, he is freed. You both become ethereal, and must return to your home territory as on a jailbreak.

The jailer (if one exists) also has a supply of Truth Serum. He may poke a prisoner in the shoulder with a pinky finger, making the prisoner an interrogation victim, and freeing any previous victim. The victim is now under the control of the jailer, and may not use magic items until freed from interrogation. The jailer may ask her up to six yes/no questions, and the victim may lie no more than once. She may answer "I don't know" if she really doesn't know, but then the question doesn't count against the six.

The questioning is finished when the victim answers the sixth question, if the jailer decides he is done, if the victim is freed, at jailbreak, if there is no jailer, or if the jailer leaves line of sight of the victim. At this point, the victim becomes ethereal and must return to her home territory as after a jailbreak.

Initial Setup and Game Completion

At the beginning of the game, there is a setup period of fifteen minutes. This time should be used for the placement of flags and shrines, and distribution of magic items. No player may enter enemy territory during this period; they must remain in their own territories or neutral space. Magic items have no effect during this time.

The game ends after one hour, or when there remains only one team with uncaptured flags. The winner is the team with the greatest number of points; in the case of a tie, the winner is the tying team that reached its final point total first.

Additional Terms

Flags

As the name implies, the goal is to capture the opposing team's flags. These are large pieces of cloth or felt; each team has three or more of them. Before each game, a point value will be assigned to each flag. If you bring an enemy flag to the judge's room, your team gets the points for the flag.

During the initial setup time, flags must be placed, with placement supervised by a judge. They must be placed no more than six feet above the floor, with at least half the flag visible from every angle. There may be no more than one flag per hallway or corridor. If the flag is placed inside a container, there must be an obvious way to remove the flag in one smooth motion.

No flag may ever exist in an area with fewer than two exits, unless it is being carried. If a flag is dropped in an area with only one exit, a judge must move it the shortest possible distance to a valid location.

Any magic items a player is carrying are dispelled if he is carrying a flag, and remain dispelled for one minute after the player gives up the item or drops the flag.

Judges

Judges wear blue headbands, and are responsible for keeping the game running smoothly. The head judge is the final arbiter and scorekeeper, and should remain in the judges' area, in the main buffer space between the two territories. There should be several roaming judges whose job is to resolve conflicts or perform other duties required of them.

Judges should attempt to resolve disputes fairly and find outcomes agreeable to both sides. However, if this is impossible, the judge's decision is final.

Shrines

Shrines are large cardboard behemoths of paper and cardboard marked with a spell. Each shrine is colored with a team's color, and belongs to that team; it must be placed in that team's territory and affects only enemy players within that territory. The Shrines are distinguished by a word printed on them. The shrine must be placed in the team's territory, and may not be placed within ten feet of a flag. If a flag is dropped within ten feet of a shrine other than the Shrine of Jail, that shrine is dispelled for as long as the flag remains, and for one minute after.

Shrine of Jail ("Jail")

It functions as described above under "Jail", and may not be dispelled.

Shrine of Entrancement ("Gotcha")

If you see an enemy Shrine of Entrancement, you are stunned for one minute.

Shrine of Alarm ("Alarm")

If you see the Shrine of Alarm, you must shout or sing "Alarm" or a similar loud phrase as loudly as possible for one minute or until you are captured or return to neutral space.

Yukko Tape

Each team will be given a length of Tape of the Disgusting Doorknob, which can be used to define a border that members of the opposing team cannot cross. Yukko tape must be suspended parallel to the ground at approximately eye level; members of the owning team may freely duck under it and pass beyond, and members of the opposing team cannot cross the vertical plane extending from the ground upwards through the tape. If a member of the opposing team passes through the tape accidentally and realizes afterwards, they must return to the side of the tape they crossed from and become stunned for one minute and all their Stuff is dispelled for one minute.

Yukko tape may not be used to surround a flag by more than 180 degrees; if a flag is dropped within such a perimeter, it must be moved to the nearest spot on the ground at which it is no longer more than half encircled.

Potions

Potions are foam-rubber balls which are concealable: you may hide them, and if captured, you do not need to give them up unless your captor knows you have them. They are distinguished by color.

Potion of Lubrication (Brown, Cooldown)

The Potion of Lubrication has cooldown, so you must wait a minute or sing the cooldown song before reusing it. If you are stunned or a prisoner, you may use this potion by bonking yourself on the head. You are then free; you are unstunned or free from jail. If freed from jail, you do not get "free backs": you are merely a normal player standing in the middle of the enemy jail.

Potion of Jolt (Green, Cooldown)

A stunned player bonked with this is no longer stunned.

Light Grenade (Red)

If you pick up this potion in enemy territory or voluntarily accept it from another player, you are stunned for one minute. Note that picking it up in your home territory has no effect, but accepting from another player (teammate or enemy) does stun you in your home territory.

Wands

Wands are two-foot lengths of foam, distinguished by color. They are used by whapping a person or glyph and shouting the appropriate keyword. Each use of the keyword invokes at most one wand on one subject.

Wand of Vengeance (Red, "Toast", Sacrificial)

This wand is sacrificial, so may only be used in enemy territory and must be dropped on use. If you whap an enemy player with this wand in the enemy's home territory, you capture him and you must lead him back to your jail as on a normal capture. However, you are both ethereal until you get into your home territory, at which point you become a normal captor/captive pair. Thus, you may not ask for his items, may not be stunned, etc., until you reach your home territory.

Wand of Stun (Green, "Stun", Cooldown)

Any player whapped with this wand is stunned for one minute.

Wand of Dispel (Blue, "Dispel", Cooldown)

If a player is whapped with the wand of dispel, all magic items he is carrying are dispelled for one minute, or until he sings the cooldown song. If two players simultaneously use this wand on each other, all items carried by both players are dispelled for one minute. The wand may also be used on a shrine; it is then dispelled for one minute.

Belts

Belts are long sashes of cloth or felt, which must be tied around a player's waist to be active. A belt can be worn by at most one player, and a player can wear at most one belt. Belts are distinguished by color.

The Belt of Your Forces Are Doomed to Obscurity (Brown)

When the wearer of the Belt of Your Ninja Forces are Doomed to Obscurity is captured, the Belt serves as a captive in her stead. The captor must then escort the Belt to his jail, while the wearer remains free. The Belt reverts from a captive to a magic item when it touches the Glyph of Jail (and ownership transfers to the capturing team). If the captor is stunned or captured on the way to his jail, he must drop the Belt (which immediately reverts to a magic item) and cannot pick it up again for one minute. If the wearer is captured by someone with a Doc Ock's Belt of Many Arms, the captor gets two captives, the wearer and the Belt--unless he already has three or four captives. The Belt's magic does not work against a Wand of Vengeance. The Belt is not dispelled by flags.

Goombah's Belt of Humiliating Protection (Green)

This belt is activated by skipping and loudly singing Yankee Doodle. While active, the wearer is immune to capture and stun. Any number of teammates may share the protection of this belt by holding hands with the wearer, either directly or through a chain of teammates, as long as all teammates in the chain are skipping and singing along.

If any player in the chain is dispelled, all items carried by all members of the chain are dispelled; it is as though all players were hit with the wand. In particular, Goombah's belt is dispelled.

This belt does not function in elevators. If you try to use it in one, you may be captured, stunned, or stuck in the elevator until it starts moving again. (NOTE: I think we should leave this text in independent of the existence of any elevators in the game area).

Doc Ock's Belt of Many Arms (Blue)

If you are wearing this belt, you may have up to four captives, as long as you are within an arm's length of each previous captive when you capture a new one. If you have at least one captive, you must lead her back to jail as usual; but may make more captures on the way to jail, as long as you are within an arm's reach of the previous captives at the time of capture.

If the belt is dispelled when you have multiple captives, all but the first are freed. If there is a tie for first captive, you choose which one to keep.

Sportsmanship

This is intended to be a friendly and fun game for all involved. This works much better if all players involved make an honest attempt to follow the rules.

There are innocent bystanders around. Don't bother them. Don't run into them. Don't use profanity around their children.

There are innocent critters and plants around. Don't chase them, tear their limbs off, run into them, etc. Feel free to use profanity around their children.

Physicality

The following are additional rules to help make the game fun for all.

Do not physically impede or block other players, either with your body or with objects. Breakage of this rule is grounds to eject you from the game.

Although lies and deceit are part of the game, there are several things you may not conceal, obfuscate, or lie about.