Do you enjoy hugging trees? And slithering on the ground? Well, if you do or if you would like to try, Red Moose is the perfect game for you!
Red Moose is a very popular game among Italian scouts. It requires speed, fast thinking and an unconditional love for nature, because…you are going to hug many trees if you play this game.
NECESSARY:
Old bed sheets (or, as an alternative, cardboard)
Red and blue cardboard
Red and blue permanent markers
Safety pins
Plastic tape (ex.: warning tape) or rope
PREPARATION:
It may take a little effort the first time, but once ready, you can reuse the material over and over again.
First of all, cut out of the sheets as many cloths, 20x15cm sized, as the number of the players, plus two or three spare cloths for each team. Then, write down on every cloth a different combination of 3 or 4 numbers a/o letters, using the red marker for the cloths of one team and the blue marker for the other team cloths. Now, cut out of the red and blue cardboard as many cards as the number of players for each team (again, red cards for the players of one team and blue cards for the players of the other team). Then, hand out the cloths and the cards to the teams. Every team must create its headquarter and mark it with the plastic tape. The headquarter will be the storage site for the cards of the opposing team, so the headquarter of the Blue team will host the red cards and the headquarter of the Red team will host the blue cards.
TIME TO PLAY!
The players of each team meet at their headquarter and choose one cloth to pin on the front side of their t-shirt with the safety pins. Now the game can start!
The aim of the game is to gain all the cards of your team color, shielded in the opposing team headquarter. The teams can talk their own strategies to get their cards. Usually, the team members split in two groups: defense and offence. The defense is in charge of protecting the headquarter by reading out loud the combination written on the cloths of the opposing players, who try to enter the headquarter. Meanwhile, the offense tries to enter the opposing headquarter to get their cards. It is recommended to exchange the roles of defense and offence within the team at least once.
RULES:
Every player (both from the defense and from the offence) can read out loud the combinations of the opposing players.
Every time that our combination is identified, we must go back to our headquarter and stay out of the game for 60 seconds. Before coming back in the game we must change our cloth with one of the spare cloths.
Every time that we succeed in entering the opposing headquarter, we can only take one card at a time.
Once a player has entered in the opposing headquarter, as a result, he/she gains one card. The defense cannot take the card away from him/her, even by identifying his/her combination.
TIPS:
Since the combination on the cloth is the only way to stop an opposing player, everybody will try to read yours. So it is important to think up ways to hide our combination. You can run as fast as lightning or you can spin like a ballet dancer, but you can also embrace trees and rocks, hide behind bushes or slither on the ground.
IT IS FORBIDDEN TO:
Use force to read the combinations or to stop the other players
Cover the combination with the hands or with other objects that you can move and bring along (ex.: a little stone, a leaf, etc.,..)
Hug one of your teammates to cover your combinations
Just remember that Nature is your only ally in this game. Have fun with it!
https://pixabay.com/photos/people-children-nature-hug-tree-799521/