Flashlight Tag

How To Play:

This game must be played outside at night. To start, give each player a flashlight, and choose one player to be the tagger (i.e. "it"). The tagger must stand at a designated starting point and count out loud to 30 while all of the other players run and hide. (Advise the other players to leave their flashlights off unless absolutely necessary; otherwise, they could easily give away their hiding places and be tagged.) When the tagger finishes counting, he or she must find and tag other players using the flashlight. (Actually tagging other players by hand is not required.)

Rules/Variations:

You can use any combination of the following rules to make this game easier (for younger children/smaller groups), more challenging (for older children/larger groups), and/or as fair as possible for all players:

Play the standard version, in which either the first player or the last player to be tagged with the flashlight is it for the next round.
Have the tagger use the flashlight only to find other players, not to tag them. He or she must actually tag all of the other players by hand to end the round.
Play Flashlight Freeze Tag, and have all tagged players stay where they are tagged. They must also turn on their flashlights as beacons so that they can be found and unfrozen. (Tell the children to shine their flashlights straight into the air when they need to be unfrozen, rather than shining them around the play area.) Use any combination of the rules and variations from Freeze Tag in conjunction with this game.

Theme Party Modifications:

If you're throwing a theme party, you can adjust this game to fit your chosen theme by naming the players after characters or groups from your theme. For example, if your party has a dinosaur theme, the player who is "it" can be "T-Rex" and the other players can be "Cavemen" or "Cavewomen."