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1 About

At Camp K in 2000 I made up four games that all belonged to a family of hide-and-seek games. I gave it the code name bucket fishing. The original game came from an activity class that Tracker and I had during Pirate Week. We used toys and play structures such as action figures and sand castles with twigs and old man's beard. The next summer Polliwog, Quan, and I adapted those rules for people during a cookout at the Outpost. We intended it to replace the existing, local version of kick-the-can and gave it a name after a popular video game. But I quickly realized that in order to truly keep in the spirit of stealth, I needed to give it a new name that I could write down in plain text. Hence forth, all my create-some-fun sessions would have the words "bucket fishing".

1.1 Mines Mode

In mines, players needed to get from point A to B and then take the MacGuffin back to A. Or just get to B to disarm the it-person for shorter games. The it-person would mark places where if someone stepped they would lose and go back to the beginning.

1.2 Turret Mode

In this version, players needed to get from point A to B. Usually we played this in the open field hiding in plain sight. The it-person lies down on the ground so even the slightest hill or tall grass can give players some cover. The it-person closes their eyes and yells out "Shields down!" to signal to the players they can move around in the open. After closing their eyes, the it-person counts down "Five, four, three, two, one, shields up!" and then opens their eyes back up. The it-person calls out anyone they can see. With smaller groups they must say the person's name. Otherwise just a description such as "You in the red hat!" calls the player out. In harder games, anyone they can hear.

1.2.1 Variations