There are two ‘cops’ and one ‘jailor’. The rest of the people are ‘robbers’. The number of ‘cops’ and ‘jailors’ can vary depending on the number of players. One (or more) bases are used as the ‘jail’.

All robbers are given some designated time to go hide (60 seconds). After the appropriate hiding time, the cops go looking for the robbers.

The cops catch a robber by one of many methods (this is where the variations come into play). The robber may be tagged, life taken, hit with a light beam, person identified correctly, or combinations of these. When a robber is caught, they are taken a jail by the cop. Once in jail the robber must remain in contact with the jail.

If a robber can sneak up into jail without being caught an whilst touching with both hands shout “JAIL BREAK!”, then all who are in jail are FREE. The jailor must give everyone that was in jail and the breaker some time to get away (maybe 15 seconds).