CCI/Canada

Wide games are always such a fun part of the camp experience – I mean, how often do you get more than 20 kids (sometimes even hundreds!) together to play a giant, epic game?!

Our friends Dan and Amy at Camp Kadesh in Saskatchewan have been dreamin’ and schemin’ wide games for many years in their role as Program Directors. They’re super passionate about big group games and love to bring them to life! We are excited to get to share one of Dan and Amy’s games with the CCI/Canada family in this blog.

---

POKEMON GO

The mobile app/game became incredibly popular in 2016 and was successful largely because it reached an audience of all age categories; Pokemon, as a game or a tv show, has been loved by multiple generations. In this wide game, Pokemon comes to life as campers attempt to “catch ’em all” (the ” ’em” being staff dressed as various Pokemon!)

---

SUPPLIES

Each team of campers will need:

• 2 Pokeballs
  These are small red light plastic balls painted to look like Pokeballs. (Tip: They will get thrown at the Pokemon, so make sure they don’t hurt when you get hit by them!)
• 1 Towel
  Beach towel sized ideally.
• 1 Medic Disk
  Can really be made out of anything – in this case, they used Plastic bucket lids painted red with an X taped on it.
• 1 Pokedex 
  

  Example of Pokedex (click to enlarge)

  Printed sheet of paper that lists all of the types of Pokemon in categories (ie. Fire, Water, Grass, etc.)

Each “Pokemon” (staff member) will need:

• Epic Pokemon costume
  Whatever you want! Raid that dress up closet and get creative! In one game of Pokemon, three staff dressed up in brown and wrapped themselves together to become Dugtrio! Keep in mind that you may want to consider the costume’s mobility  factor (to run away from campers!)
• 1 Pool Noodle
  Pokemon use these to defend themselves.
• Pokemon Cards (quantity depends on number of campers)
  Each Pokemon carries these small slips of paper with them. When they’re caught by the campers, they give them a card to symbolize their capture. These cards are ultimately worth points.

---

OBJECT OF THE GAME

To catch ’em all! (Obviously.) But in seriousness, the object of the game is to be the group that ends up with the most points. Points are acquired in the following ways:

1. Capturing a Pokemon (different Pokemon are worth different point values)
2. Acquiring the cards of all of the Pokemon in a single category (ie. all grass Pokemon). Cards can be acquired by catching or by trading.
3. Acquiring the cards for EVERY Pokemon in the game.

---

RULES

How to catch a Pokemon:

• Campers travel as a cabin group. When they see a Pokemon, they can throw a Pokeball at it. If it hits the Pokemon, the Pokemon will freeze for 5 seconds.
• While a Pokemon is frozen, the campers must wrap their beach towel fully around the Pokemon to capture it.

   

  

  Camper attempts to capture a frozen Pokemon by wrapping it in a towel.

• If, however, the Pokemon hits any of the campers with a pool noodle, they become frozen. The only way they are able to be unfrozen is by being tagged with the Medic Disk.
• Pokemon cannot be captured while any member of the group is frozen. So whoever holds the Medic Disk must go around tagging those who got hit by the pool noodle. 
• Note: Pokemon can be caught by the same group MORE THAN ONCE. Ex. If Pidgey is worth 1 point, and a cabin catches the Pidgey 3 times, they would acquire 3 Pidgey cards. This would be worth 3 points at the end of the game.

Trading:

• Set up a “safe zone” where groups can come to trade cards with each other. Because they’re able to capture the same Pokemon more than once and there is an advantage to having all of one type and all of the Pokemon in the game, groups will likely want to trade with other groups to get them all registered in their Pokedex!

Bonus: 

• Release a “Legendary” Pokemon into the game! Make sure that this Pokemon is fairly elusive and is worth a decent amount of points if captured! 

At the end of the game:

• Have each group hand in their Pokedex and all of their Pokemon Cards. Tally each group’s points to determine the winner!

---

PHOTOS

Check out these fantastic photos of Pokemon Go in action!