Discussion: Night-O theme ideas

I help put on orienteering meets in our local Boy Scout council. At a our Spring-O event we have a Night-O on Saturday. It has been suggested that we have a theme for the Night-O. Have you participated in a themed Night-O that you thought was fun?

If it is a score style course, most kids seem to like a Vampire O'. One or more kids are designated to be Vampires. The Vampire has no control card. If a vampire tags you, the vampire takes your control card and all of your points and you become the vampire. A vampire-free safe zone around the finish keeps vampires out of the immediate finish area, but they can lurk near controls if they desire. You may want to add a rule that competitors may not enter the safe zone more than 10 minutes before time expires unless they have collected all controls.

To reduce the risks of high speed pursuit, "tagging" can be accomplished using a Nerf football, or weather permitting, a SuperSoaker. We previously tried laser pointers, but their range is longer than desirable. Kids have suggested paintball, but safety equipment would be a complicating issue. A ratio of 1 vampire to 10-15 competitors seems to work well. The name can be changed to be seasonally or culturally appropriate, eg a "Scrooge-O" or "Grinch-O" near Christmastime.

That is a great idea. Thanks.

Maybe best to avoid the name Scrooge-O. There was a story several years back about a teacher who aurally parsed it with the hyphen in a different spot after asking students what they had done over the weekend.

Screw Joe?

That's what she thought she heard.

Grinch-O might be better?

Maybe remove the "-O" from any name.

Bbrke that really makes your name a lot harder to pronounce.