GroupGames
Messy Games

Paint War

Four teams, four colours of diluted paint and a paper life taped to every chest. Cover everyone else and protect your own.

Players
20–100
Ages
8+
Time
30 min
Prep
Lots
Equipment
5 items

What to bring

  • Water-based paint (1 per team, one colour per team, diluted)
  • Buckets (1 per team)
  • A4 paper (plenty, for lives)
  • Masking tape
  • Whistle
  • Balloons (3 per team, filled with sand, in each team's colour, optional)

Before the session

  • Ask the group in advance to wear old clothes and shoes that will be ruined
  • Set up one base per team with a leader to hand out fresh lives
  • Tape a paper life onto every player before you start
  • Arrange somewhere to hose off afterwards

How to play

Divide into four teams and give each a colour, a bucket of diluted water-based paint and something to spray it with such as a spray bottle or water pistol. Tape a sheet of white A4 paper to every player's front as their life, and put a leader on each base to swap a painted life for a fresh one. Give each team sand-filled balloons in their colour to steal, worth ten lives at the end. Blow the whistle, play for ten minutes, then blow it again and count the used lives. The colour on the most lives wins.

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