Merchants and pirates

Merchants and pirates is an active game for any number of participants (10 or more). The participants need to be able to run quickly, but also need to coordinate in their teams.

Equipment
You don't need any equipment.

Procedure
Two players are selected to be the pirates, the rest of the players are merchants. Both groups start at opposing ends of the playing field.

After the starting signal, both groups run from their end of the playing field to the other. The pirates have to try and tag the merchants. To tag them, they have to grab a player and move him to the pirate's side of the playing field. All merchants tagged this way become pirates in the next round. Then, a new round starts, and again the merchants try to reach to other end of the playing field without being captured by the pirates. The last (two) remaining merchants start a new game as new pirates.

Ensure to define a level of "force" that may be applied by the pirates to capture (and by the merchants to defend). Nobody should get hurt during the game, so, obviously, biting, hitting, and other forms of excessive force are not permitted.

Räuber und Kaufleute