Run Outs

For 5 or more players

How do you play Run Outs?

These are the rules of playing Run Outs.

One person, known as 'the guard', stands next to a lamp post called the 'home base'.
The rest of the group 'run out' while the guard closes their eyes and counts to 50.
The guard has to spot people and touch them before anyone can touch the home base.
Any person that is touched by the guard is out and cannot help others.
Anyone who makes it to Home Base can help the others by distracting the guard.

Other Rules

Forty Fourth
You had to catch people by touching 'base' and saying 'forty fourth see then the persons name'. the winners touched 'base' without being caught.
Posted by Steve Browne

Sticky Glue
We played a similar game called Sticky Glue, where once you were caught you had to stand still until someone who was still free could touch you and release you.

dub dub
dub dub in
Because this is what you had to shout when you reached the home base. Alternatively you could shout "God save all" which freed everyone caught before you. The first person to be caught that wasn't freed was the next catcher.
Posted by Tim

mob mob
The guard or chaser looks for people and when they spot them runs back to the post and shouts loudly "mob mob the persons name 1 2 3" at the same time the person who has been spotted can try to get to the post first and shout "save myself 1 2 3"

Posted by Kurtis

Other Names

Runouts
Forty Fourth - Posted by Steve Browne
Sticky Glue
dub dub - Posted by Tim
dub dub in - Posted by Tim
mob mob - Posted by Kurtis
dub dub bin - Posted by Fran
dub dub bench - Posted by Fran

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Red Rover

Comment 6

fran

2022-02-02 17:06:49

we'd call it dub dub bin (because the bases would be bins), but there weren't many bins in good places on the playground so we started playing dub dub bench instead

Patricia

2013-05-09 18:56:45

Here in Northern Ireland we played a similar game. We called it "Red Lights".
One child stood at the lamp post with their back to everyone else. Counting one, two, three Red Lights and turning with speed. Meanwhile, when his back was turned towards us, we were moving towards him, stopping before he turned around crying Red Lights. If we moved at all we were "out" and the last person not caught out took over as the "Red Light". We would return to the game when it was getting dark as the street lights came on giving us more time to play. Fond memories of great fun that cost nothing and provided exercise and fresh air.

Marcus

2011-11-02 12:24:58

Something simular to the other comments. We called this "Forty Forty". Standing by a lamp post you hid your eyes and counted to forty while everyone hid. You then had to search for others and when you spotted someone you had to race back to the post and say "Firty Forty I see xxxxxx". They had to then stand by the lamp post. If you got to the lamp post before the searcher you would say "Forty Forty In" and was one of the winners. There was no way to "release" people though.

Adrian Rogers

2010-05-24 07:49:50

As kids, we used to play run outs. However, it wasn't played as above, it was played like Hide and Seek over a number of streets. So we defined the borders, and no one was to hide outside of those borders. Simply, when you were found you went back to Home Base. A game played like this with say, three streets as the borders, could take a couple of hours. Looking back on it, it was most enjoyable.

Jason

2009-05-28 14:02:34

We had a similar game to this called Kick the can. The rules were the same but if any of the fugatives could reach the can and kick it all the prisoners were released and the kicker was safe.

Tim

2008-12-17 15:53:23

We called this "dub dub" or "dub dub in". Because this is what you had to shout when you reached the home base. Alternatively you could shout "God save all" which freed everyone caught before you. The first person to be caught that wasn't freed was the next catcher.

Great site by the way!

Run Outs

How do you play Run Outs?

Other Rules

Other Names

Red Rover

Star Tag

Comment 6

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