Patrol Games More Violent than Laser Tag!

[Kudu]

For all young Boy Scout readers:

 

Have you ever played "Capture the Flag" or "Spider and Fly"?

 

Of course you have!

 

They first appeared in a military manual called Aids to Scouting written by a man we know as Lord Baden-Powell.

 

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

 

Yeah, he is the same guy who invented Scouting for boys!

 

Baden-Powell said that "Scouting is a game" and he included these two war games in his book Scouting for Boys and added many more in which Scouts pretend to "wound" and "kill" each other, just as human boys have pretended to do from the misty dawn of time up until the feminists were invented!

 

Baden-Powell called them "Patrol Games" or "Wide Games"!

 

The following Baden-Powell Patrol Games are a LOT more "politically incorrect" (which means more "fun") than Laser Tag, and you get to play them outdoors where obese adults can't keep up! This is what ALL Scouts did for the fitness aim of Scouting before leadership experts invented team-building exercises and Tenderfoot pull-ups!

 

Here are some "traditional" (which means more "fun") red-meat, fresh-air Scouting Games by Baden-Powell in his own words that you can play by Patrols at your next campout. It's called the "Patrol Method"!

 

BOMB-LAYING: is a typical Baden-Powell Scouting Wide Game: "Each Scout wears his 'life,' i.e. scarf, tie, or piece of tape, in the back of his belt as a tail, so that it can easily be pulled out.... A Scout is 'killed' when an opponent snatches his 'life' from his belt, and when 'dead' he can take no further part in the game, but must make his way quickly to a definite piece of neutral ground agreed upon before beginning the game [some versions allow you to get a new "life" there]... When the cover is good it is often possible to 'kill' a Scout without his noticing it, and when after carefully planting the 'bomb' the owner discovers he is 'dead,' his feelings are better imagined than described...If a Scout who has laid his bomb is caught on the return journey, he can be taken back to the captor's camp and made to remove his bomb, and then 'killed'."

 

B-P's "Bomb Laying" is only one of 84 Boy Scout Wide Games to be found at:

 

http://kudu.net/outdoor/games/wide

 

It will be getting cold soon, so here are some Scout Games designed for outdoor fun in the winter. In warm weather throw balls instead of snow:

 

LION-HUNTING: "If the hunters fail to come up to him neither wins the game. When they come near to the lair the lion fires at them with his tennis balls (or snowballs, weather permitting), and the moment a hunter is hit he must fall out dead and cannot throw his tennis ball. If the lion gets hit by a hunter's tennis ball he is wounded, and if he gets wounded three times he is killed.

 

SNOW FORT: "The snow fort may be built by one patrol according to their own ideas of fortification, with loop holes, and so on, for looking out. When finished it will be attacked by hostile patrols, using snowballs as ammunition. Every Scout struck by a snowball is counted dead.

 

SIBERIAN MAN HUNT: "A man has escaped through the snow and a patrol follows his tracks, but, when they think they are nearing his hiding place, they advance with great caution because for them one hit from a snowball means death. The escaped person has to be hit three times before he is killed."

 

For the complete texts of winter games written by Baden-Powell, see:

 

http://inquiry.net/outdoor/winter/activities/games

 

For Outdoor Tracking & Stalking skills, see:

 

http://www.inquiry.net/outdoor/skills/tracking

 

For additional stalking games, see:

 

http://www.inquiry.net/outdoor/games/ripley/stalking

 

Be sure to check out other politically incorrect Boy Scout Games like the BSA's own Games for Boy Scouts: Including Selected War Games of the YMCA and the Army and Navy:

 

http://inquiry.net/outdoor/games

 

Kudu

[shortridge]

I love the early Scouting games, and am envious of folks who can actually do the winter/snow activities. I'm from a region where we get maybe six inches of snow all winter - and that's with a lot of luck. Our Klondike Derby sleds just, er, glide over frozen ground and grassy stubble.

 

It is a constant source of amazement to me how much the older Scouting manuals emphasized stalking, tracking and trailing - and how that's mostly vanished today. Especially given BP's emphasis on those skills, it seems to leave a huge hole in the organized program.

[Stosh]

There's a lot of stuff that has been dropped out of the program since the days of B-P. Does the term "Parlor Scout" ring a bell? That's a term that goes way back and has historical significance for today's program. Even as recent as the 1940's and 50's the boys were still making their own equipment rather than simply swinging into REI or Cabelas for gear. Some of that stuff was kinda... you know... Fun!

 

And if one really knows their scouting stuff, there were certain world scouting organizations that actually armed their scouts with bayonetted rifles. Percy Keese Fitzhugh also had many of his literary characters armed in his fiction writing. It's too bad Pee Wee Harris has ended up nothing more than a humorous cartoon character today. It would be interesting to know whether the new versions of these books have been re-written to accommodate the PC crowd, because the originals were written at a time far different than what we have today.

 

Stosh

 

Stosh

[GaHillBilly]

My personal reasons for opposing laser tag and paintball are not the ones behind the G2SS. Rather, I dislike both games because I think they are hurtful to our troop.

 

First, they are expensive, and leave the Scouts with nothing to show for the expense -- no skills, no equipment, nothing but an empty wallet. Given that our troop's opportunity to grow requires us to reach out to single parent homes (a concept VERY close to B-P's ideas!), and given that BSA National has decided that uniform and book sales should be an important corporate revenue center, the $$$'s of Scouting are a major issue for us.

 

Second, they tend not to be team building. Johnny Uncoordinated gets told, you stay here in the bunker with Billy Toofat, and we'll go run around and look for the battle.

 

Third, they are not outdoors. Even most paintball is on prepared courses. Now, a paintball game in a National Forest, involving tracking and stalking and minimal auto-fire, might be another story. But, in our troop, a number of the older guys have learned to be rather timid house cats (afraid of water, afraid of heights, afraid of dark, afraid of snakes in the woods, . . . afraid of the woods in general), and I'd prefer to avoid that fate for the younger guys.

 

GaHillBilly

[Eagle1982]

Hmm,

 

I seem to recall some quarterstaff training material for Scouts...

 

I think the BSA stance on certain martial arts is just as out of hand as the lasertag concept.

 

I disagree with the assertion that lasertag and paintball are not team building, it's situations like that where groups of boys do some of their best team building. Every boy is gifted differently, not everyone can be quarterback, not everyone can be the pitcher. Sometimes being a team is using the gifts people have to their fullest. This does of course have to be tempered and not just run amok.

 

(This message has been edited by Eagle1982)

[Trevorum]

Some of my fondest Scouting memories as a youth are playing Capture the Flag - working strategy with my patrol, crawling noiselessly on my belly through enemy territory, sprinting through the forest, getting thoroughly dirty and sweaty and having a terrific time.

 

I always wanted to play Snow Fort too, but the southern California climate never cooperated.

[hot_foot_eagle]

German Spotlight was our favorite stalking game. It's about the only time I can remember our entire troop absolutely quiet for any length of time. Camo became de rigueur after dark. (The horror! Scout's in camo!)

 

 

[Stosh]

It's too bad that only a few of the BSA organizations get to play the fun stuff. With a US History crew we often times (at night) infiltrate the "enemy" and play "Capture the Flag" on a majorly grand scale (WWI and WWII). Of course rubber knives, blanks and low charge grenades replace the laser tag gear, but it's still quite the game. Of course the game lasts all night long, which is quite a challenge of staying awake as well as staying "alive".

 

Stosh

[shortridge]

Well, sure - the program has to evolve over time to accomodate cultural norms (ditching tents, anyone?).

 

But stalking, tracking and trailing don't seem to fit that mold. There's nothing dangerous about those activities unless you get too close to certain wildlife, or are creeping through a forest in the middle of hunting season. They're not more environmentally destructive than backpacking or hiking. And they are applicable in a wide range of outdoor activities - from wildlife observation to search and rescue.

[Stosh]

One does have to remember that Scouting is an out-of-doors activity and if one is going to accommodate today's world, one needs RV's, B&B's and organized nature tours to be in with the world/society of today. However, scouting has always been on the outside edge of society, doing things differently, setting high character standards, being close to nature as no one else does it, go to places very few ever venture, being recognized as something that is not common or ordinary, etc. So to evolve Scouting into the regular or ordinary of today's world would be a major mistake to the program. My boys don't do what everyone else does and that makes the program effective, at least for them. My boys are still trying to figure out how I can operate in today's world without a cell-phone. A scout is thrifty, just borrow someone else's or just enjoy life without the interruptions. Both work for me.

 

Stosh