Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Capture the Flag

The game Capture the Flag has showed up in two books I've read recently. The thing that struck me about it was that both times, the participants had extraordinary powers. In Hero, by Perry Moore, it is a group of probationary superheroes; though they are supposed to be playing without using their powers, some of them use a little extra speed to get places. The other one is one of Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson books. I can't remember which one it was, but the half-divine campers of Camp Halfblood play a pretty harsh game of Capture the Flag complete with swords, armor, arrows, etc.

Do normal people play Capture the Flag, in real life or in books? Or is it just people with supernatural powers?

4 comments:

Doc Jen said...

I think you might be on to something. You rarely see supeheroes (teen or otherwise) playing Kick the Can, Spud, or Red Rover, do you? I have to admit, I'm not even sure how to play Capture the Flag, which certifies my all-too-mortal/ordinary joe status.

holdenj said...

It's the first Percy Jackson book, because that's the one I just read!

I, too, am unsure if I've ever played Capture the Flag. Maybe it's more like King of the Mountain because you're trying to attain a goal??

I could stretch out games of Mother, May I when my kids were little. We also played Captain, May I in Texas when we were kids--maybe another game (like Duck, Duck, _______)that is regionally named??

John G. said...

Capture the Flag is still played at Scout camp - at least on the Boy Scout - Cub Scout side of the aisle.

julienj said...

I don't know if anyone is going to come back to this post to see this, but A was just reading over my shoulder, saw the list of blog titles, and said, "Capture the Flag! We played that at camp!" So maybe I just went to the wrong camp.