I’m guessing almost every little child has dreamed of becoming a prince or a princess when they grow up. It always seemed like a fairy tale: You live in a big castle, have a few horses, a big garden, a playground and of course, one of the most important things, pretty dresses and an armour with swords. This always seemed like the perfect life. A life in which you don’t have to think or worry about anything and you can tell people what to do and they have to follow your orders.
Even though we all knew that it will never happen and that those are unrealistic expectations of the life as a princess or a prince, it was a nice dream to have.
One part of this dream can become reality though by a fun game. This game is called “King/ Queen” and fulfills the part of the dream that is about telling other people what to do.
The game can be played at any time, wherever you want and with no equipment. The only requirement is that you are at least three players.
How does the game work?
The game starts by choosing one player to be the King or the Queen, depending on who they want to be. Next, you have to select a playing field. You can make it however big is fitting for you but since this game involves a lot of running, I would suggest to choose a playing field that is not too big.
The King/ Queen then stands on one side of the field while the other players stand on the opposite side, the two groups facing each other. It’s the Kings or the Queens job then to choose a category, for example, colour, animal, food, job, …
You can be as creative as you want to be for that part because it can be whichever category you want (that’s the good part about being the King/ the Queen). The other players then each have to choose an answer that fits the category, so for the category food for example, a player could choose chocolate. When every player has their answer, they discuss it with the rest of the players to make sure that no one has the same answer. It is really important that each player has a different answer and that the King/ Queen doesn’t hear anything about who the answers belong to. Once the players are done talking about it, one of them has to call out all of the answers to let the King/ Queen know what options he or she can choose from. Without knowing whose answer is whose, the King/ Queen calls out one answer and starts running to the other side of the playing field (where the other players are), touch the ground and run right back to the opposite side. At the same time, the player whose answer got selected starts running to the other side of the field as well (where the King/ Queen stood), touch the ground and also run right back to where he or she came from.
The King/ Queen and the chosen player both have to try to run as fast as possible because the person that arrives first at their starting side of the playing field becomes the new King/ Queen.
When both players are back on their side of the field, it’s the new King’s/ Queen’s turn to choose a category and then call out one of the answers, once the other players agreed on their answers. The game then goes on like that until the players don’t want to play anymore.
This game doesn’t equal to being a princess or a prince but when you become the King or the Queen in the game, you get a little bit of a taste on how it could feel to be the ruler of a kingdom, since you are the one who chooses the category and the answer.
Have fun playing!