Hide-and-Seek
The seeker counts at the home base while everyone hides, and after that it comes down to who reaches the base first — the one who was found or the one who found them.
Hide-and-seek rests on a single inequality: the hider knows where they are and the seeker does not. Everything else in the game exists to keep that inequality from growing too large.
Hence the base, the counting aloud and the seeker's duty not to stray far. Hence too the found player's right to race: a find settles nothing on its own, it still has to be carried through.
The base makes the game two-sided
Without a base, hide-and-seek would be a game of patience — who can sit still longest. The base turns it into a game of calculation: staying hidden is safe while the seeker is near, but the further they wander the better it pays to break cover and run for it yourself.
That is why those who have already played out their round call coded hints to the ones still hidden. One call means it is too early to come out; another means the seeker is far off and there is a chance.
The rules of hide-and-seek
Setting up
A counting rhyme picks the seeker. The players agree the boundaries beyond which nobody may hide, and the — a wall, a tree or a post.
The count
The seeker faces the base, shuts their eyes and counts aloud to an agreed number. Fifty is usual. Peeking is not allowed.
Having finished, they announce aloud that they are coming. Everyone hides while the count runs.
The search
The seeker searches the area but must not stray too far from the base: without that limit the game stalls.
On sighting a hider, they run for the base and — touch the base and say the name.
The hider's right
A hider may run for the base themselves: on noticing that they have been seen, or that the seeker has been drawn away.
Touch the base ahead of the seeker and they are not called in; they wait out the round to one side.
End of the round
The round ends when everyone has been found or has run in. The player called in first is the seeker for the next round.
Worth knowing
How far to count, how wide the boundaries run and who seeks next are all settled beforehand. Most commonly the first player called in takes over, but the rule that a seeker who called nobody in stays on for a second round is also found.
Glossary of terms
- Base
- The wall, tree or post the seeker counts at and which both sides later race for.
- Call in
- To reach the base ahead of the player found and say their name. Only this makes a find final.