Tag is one chaser, called “it,” trying to touch everyone else, and whoever gets tagged becomes it. Each variation changes one rule: what happens when you’re tagged (freeze, join the blob, turn into a zombie), how you tag (step on a shadow, pull a flag, shine a flashlight) or how you get safe (crouch and name a TV show, touch a color). Here are 12 ways to play and who each one suits.
You need two or more kids, an open patch of grass with clear boundaries and a light touch. A few versions add cones, a bandana per player or a flashlight.
On this page
How to Play Basic Tag
- Mark the boundaries with cones, away from the street, the driveway and the swing set, as in the diagram at the top.
- Pick who’s it with a counting-out rhyme like “eeny, meeny, miny, moe” or rock paper scissors.
- It counts to 10 while everyone scatters.
- It chases and tags someone with a light touch on the upper back, shoulder or arm.
- The tagged player is the new it.
Two common add-ons: a base (also called home or “gool”) where nobody can be tagged, and “no tag-backs,” so you can’t tag the player who just tagged you. I’d cap base time at a slow count of five, or someone camps there all afternoon.
12 Tag Game Variations
Ages come from recess programs like Playworks and the Toy Association’s Genius of Play, or are my own call where they give none.
| Variation | Ages | Players |
|---|---|---|
| Freeze tag | 3+ | Any number |
| Tunnel tag | 4+ | 5+ |
| TV tag | 4+ | 4+ |
| Shadow tag | 4+ | 2+ |
| Blob tag | 6+ | 10+ |
| Zombie tag | 5+ | 6+ |
| Everybody’s it | 6+ | 10+ |
| Band-Aid tag | 6+ | 10+ |
| Color tag | 4+ | 4+ |
| Pac-Man tag | 6+ | 4+ |
| Flag tag | 6+ | 10+ |
| Flashlight tag | 8+ | 4+ |
1. Freeze Tag
Tagged players freeze in place until a free player unfreezes them. Playworks, the recess nonprofit, uses two taggers and unfreezes with a double high five.
Nobody can be tagged during an unfreeze, and taggers can’t hover beside a frozen player. It’s the easiest variation for preschoolers.
2. Tunnel Tag (Stuck in the Mud)
Freeze tag with one change: frozen players stand with their feet apart, and a teammate unfreezes them by crawling through their legs from the front. Some kids call it stuck in the mud. Play it on grass, and if the crawling is the favorite part, build a backyard obstacle course around it next.
3. TV Tag
When it closes in, crouch and shout the name of a TV show to be safe for 5 seconds, and it has to chase someone else. Each show counts once per game: repeat one, or get tagged first, and you’re it. For younger kids, play squat tag, where squatting keeps you safe until a teammate taps you back up.
4. Shadow Tag
It tags by stepping on your shadow instead of touching you. Play on a sunny morning or late afternoon, when shadows are longest.
At noon there’s hardly any shadow to step on. It’s the one version where nobody gets touched at all.
5. Blob Tag
Two players link elbows to form the Blob and chase together. Each player they tag links on, and at four the Blob splits into two Blobs of two.
Anyone who runs out of bounds joins the nearest Blob. In chain tag, the chain never splits, and only the two ends can tag.
6. Zombie Tag
Start with two zombies (more for a big group) who walk with their arms straight out and tag gently. Anyone they tag becomes a zombie too.
When everyone is a zombie, start over with two new ones. Walking zombies are easy for little kids to dodge, and the game fits Halloween week.
7. Everybody’s It
Everyone is it. Each player counts how many people they tag in a 3-minute round, and nobody freezes. Playworks keeps the area small so everyone keeps moving, and a player who runs out of bounds starts their count over at zero.
8. Band-Aid Tag
Everyone is it again, but a tag leaves a bandage: you hold one hand on the spot where you were tagged. A second tag takes your other hand.
A third sends you to a “care zone” outside the boundary for five jumping jacks before you rejoin. Tags go only on the shoulder, upper arm or upper back, so the bandages are easy to hold.
9. Color Tag
In Japan this is iro oni, the color ogre. It calls out a color, and everyone races to touch something that color to be safe.
It waits a short count, 10 seconds at most, before chasing. In a backyard, I’d set out colored cones, buckets or chalk circles as the colors, so nobody sprints for the swing set.
10. Pac-Man Tag
Everyone, taggers included, moves only along lines on the ground, with no jumping between lines. A tagged player sits down on the line and becomes a wall that runners can’t pass.
My dad built me a backyard basketball court when I was a kid, and a court’s lines make a ready-made board. On a patio, chalk a grid instead.
11. Flag Tag
Each player tucks a flag into a waistband with at least three-quarters of it showing. A pulled flag goes on the ground, where it’s off-limits, and its owner kneels until they grab a passing runner’s flag.
No guarding your flag with your hands. Playworks runs it with 10 or more kids on a basketball-court-size space (a high school court is 84 by 50 feet). A bandana works as a flag.
12. Flashlight Tag
An after-dark game: it tags by catching players in the flashlight beam. I’d add two house rules: it has to call out the name of the player in the beam, and the beam goes on bodies, not faces. Walk the yard in daylight first, and have an adult outside.
Two close cousins: sharks and minnows, where runners cross the field while the sharks tag them, and manhunt, which mixes hide-and-seek with tag and is often played at night.
Tag Safety Tips
- Teach the tag first. Playworks coaches show a safe tag before the game: a light touch on the upper back, shoulders or arms, never hard contact that could knock someone down. University of Oregon PE lessons use a two-finger tag on the back.
- Set boundaries with cones. Playworks uses cones or painted lines to cut down on collisions. Keep them away from roads and driveways, the same advice the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) gives for a home play area.
- Keep tag out of the swing set’s use zone. The CPSC home playground handbook says kids get hurt running between pieces of play equipment and being hit by moving swings. It calls for at least 6 feet of space around each piece, and in front of and behind swings, twice the height of the top bar: 16 feet each way for an 8-foot bar. My swing set clearance guide shows how to measure it.
- Leave the trampoline out. The American Academy of Pediatrics says only one child should jump at a time.
- Check the ground. Clear toys and hoses, and look for the hazards CPSC lists around play areas: tree stumps, roots, large rocks and bricks. In the fall, rake up wet leaves, because they’re slick.
- Slow it down for mixed ages. Playworks swaps running for skipping, hopping or walking. With two kids of different ages, I’d have the older one hop while the younger one runs.
One house rule I’d add to every version: if someone falls, the game stops until they’re back up.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many people do you need to play tag?
Two is enough for basic tag or shadow tag. Blob, Band-Aid, everybody’s it and flag tag work best with 10 or more, the group size Playworks writes them for. With 4 or 5 kids, freeze tag and TV tag hold up well.
How do you decide who is it?
Counting-out rhymes and rock paper scissors are the classic ways. Or everyone puts a foot in a circle, and the last one to pull out is it. After that, the last player tagged is usually it.
What does “no tag-backs” mean?
You can’t tag the person who just tagged you. Some groups make the new it wait a few seconds instead. Either way, it stops two kids from trading tags while everyone else stands around.
Final Thoughts
Start with freeze tag for little kids, blob or flag tag for a party-size group and shadow tag on a sunny fall afternoon. Set out the cones and practice the tag before anyone runs.
Next, read my capture the flag variations for the team version of tag.
Please be careful and use at your own risk
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