Infection (game)

Tag

A Dutch cartoon of children playing tag
Players	3 or more
Setup time	0 to 1 minutes
Playing time	No limit
Random chance	Low
Skill(s) required	Running, stalking, hiding, observation

Tag (also known as it, tig and many other names) is a playground game that involves two or more players chasing other players in an attempt to "tag" or touch them, usually with their hands. There are many variations; most forms have no teams, scores, or equipment. Usually when a person is tagged, the tagger says, "Tag, you're it".

A group of players (two or more) decide who is going to be "it", often using a counting-out game such as eeny, meeny, miny, moe. The player selected to be "it" then chases the others, attempting to get close enough to "tag" one of them (touching them with a hand) while the others try to escape. A tag makes the tagged player "it" - in some variations, the previous "it" is no longer "it" and the game can continue indefinitely while in others, both players remain "it" and the game ends when all players have become "it".

There are many variants which modify the rules for team play, or place restrictions on tagged players' behavior. A simple variation makes tag an elimination game, so those tagged drop out of play. Some variants have a rule preventing a player from tagging the person who has just tagged them (known as "no tags-back", "no returns", or "can't tag your master").

Players may be safe from being tagged under certain circumstances: if they are within a pre-determined area, off the ground, or when touching a particular structure. Traditional variants are Wood tag, Iron tag, and Stone tag, when a player is safe when touching the named material. This safe zone has been called a "gool", "ghoul", or "Dell", probably a corruption of "goal". The term "gool" was first recorded in print in Massachusetts in the 1870s, and is common in the northern states of the US. Variants include gould, goul, and ghoul, and alternatives include base and home. In the United Kingdom, the base is frequently known as "den". In much of Canada and parts of the northern United States, the state or home base of being immune from tagging is known as "times" or "T."

Players may also make themselves safe from being tagged by the use of a truce term.

Tag and other chasing games have been banned in some schools in the United Kingdom and United States due to concerns about injuries, complaints from children that it can lead to harassment and bullying, and that there is an aspect to the game that possesses an unhealthily predatory element to its nature. In 2008, a 10-year-old boy in Omaha, Nebraska died from brain injuries suffered from falling onto a metal pole while playing tag, and a school dinner lady in Dorset was left partially paralyzed after a 13-year-old boy playing tag ran into her in 2004. Her claim for damage was rejected by three Court of Appeal judges, who ruled that the boy had not broken any school rules by playing the game.