On June 21, 2018, I hosted the first annual Chittenden County Manhunt Championship! It was a blasting success, and there will definitely be more to come, hence the word 'annual'. All participants were asked to bring a camera of some sort to film parts of their experience. Below is the final version of the video, which can be found on my youtube channel. Stay tuned, there may also be a winter games! If you'd like to do this yourself, I've posted the full rules below the video. let me know how it goes!
Please bring:
- A gopro/phone/anything that you can set to record the whole game from your perspective, fully charged and small enough to attach to yourself or hold without slowing you down.
- Something to tell time with (watch, phone)
- Long shirt and pants.
- Boots, because part of the game area is a semi-wetland meadow.
- Water bottle.
- A sandwich or some kind of lunch to eat before the game starts or while it starts. No food will be provided.
- A fighting spirit!!!!
Optional to bring:
- Small snacks/rations to eat while playing if you want.
- Knee pads/elbow pads, if you want.
- Gloves.
Do not bring:
- Camo gear of any kind, as not everybody has access to it and it provides an unfair advantage (dark or forest colored clothes are okay).
- Ropes or tools that would provide an advantage.
Gameplay rules:
- There are hiders, who hide, and seekers, who seek. Pretty straightforward.
- If a seeker catches a hider, that hider becomes a seeker and cannot change back.
- To catch a hider a seeker must not only see the hider but chase them down and tag them.
- If the seeker(s) see a hider, they must chase them.
- If they see two at a time and they diverge, well, pick one or split up.
- If a seeker is too tired to catch a hider or the hider has escaped, they can move on and look for others.
- Seekers can travel in groups of any size.
- A hider’s hiding spot is not fixed, they can move freely around the game area.
- If a hider who becomes a seeker knows the position of another hider they may not disclose that hider’s position to the other seekers or catch that hider themselves. It is up to the other seekers to find and catch that hider.
- (continuation) If that hider is found but escapes and re-hides, or re-hides without even having been found, the former rule does not apply.
Game start rules:
- The host (meeeeee) will give a tour of the boundaries.
- The seeker(s) will go inside of the house and wait for the signal to be allowed back out.
- The hiders will line up at the starting point, ready to sprint.
- When the signal is given, the hiders will sprint to their hiding spots, with an 8 minute time limit.
- After 8 minutes has passed, the seeker(s) will come to the starting point, and after 30 seconds of standing they will be released.
Safety/boundary rules:
- A hiding spot cannot exceed ten feet outside the marked boundary.
- If you are chasing or being chased towards or out of the boundary you may continue until you reach 15 feet outside the boundary at which point you must turn around or stop.
- The boundary rules are no different if water (the creek) is beyond the boundary.
- A hiding spot can be only 3 to 4 times your height off of the ground (tree climbing permitted).
- A hiding spot can only be your height below the ground (but remember no tools so good luck digging a hole).
- Don’t do anything stupid.
- There will be exceptions to some of the boundary rules, but not that last one.ppp
Game end rules:
- When only one hider is left all the seekers will return to the starting area and line up at the start
- The horn will be blown twice in short bursts, and the seekers will be released again.
- They will have ten minutes to hunt the last hider down.
- Log sheets (see below) will all be combined and points will be tallied
- If you witness or know of an emergency/injury please return to the starting point as quick as possible and the game end horn will be blown.
Boundaries (extra):
- The boundaries will include the meadow, the woods, and part of the yard, not the house.
- Some parts of the boundaries will be marked with pink flags.
Points/tournament format rules:
The starting seeker(s) will be given a pack of log sheets to hand out to new seekers when they are caught. On the log sheets they will record the following:
- Who has been caught.
- What time they were caught.
- Who caught them.
The hiders will also each receive a paper to record how many times they have escaped seekers.
Point rules:
- For every person caught, a seeker gets 2 points
- The first and second hiders caught will get 1 point, the third and fourth 2, ETC.
- For every time a hider has escaped a seeker in pursuit of them, they get an additional 2 points.
- If the last hider is caught during the final death round, they get 2 points added to their existing score, if they aren’t caught they get 5.
- Everybody will total their points that they got when they were both a hider and a seeker and whoever has the most gets: NOTHING. Pride, I don’t know.
- The hiders will have their own separate leaderboard, as will the seekers.