by L Wiles - 2008-08-01
1-2-3 Shoot is a simple and easy game played by extending some number of fingers. 1-2-3 Shoot is most often used as a way to pick a player to be IT for other games, but it can be a fun game to play on it's own, especially if you are traveling.
The basic rules to 1-2-3 Shoot are simple. To start all players stand in a circle facing inwards (like a foot ball huddle). Each player makes a fist while all players count in unison, "one, two, three, shoot" (usually you move your fist up and down to the rhythm of your counting). On "shoot", each player extends either 1 finger or 2 fingers (or optionally from 1 to 4 fingers).
To determine the winner(s) of a round of 1-2-3 Shoot you count up the total number of fingers extended. If the total number of fingers is odd then all players who have an odd number of fingers extended play the next round while the players who have an even number of fingers extended are eliminated.
For example, in a group of 6 players the following number of fingers are extended: 2,3,4,1,3,1. This totals 14 which is an even number. All players with an even number of fingers extended stay to play for the next round of 1-2-3 Shoot. In this example that would be the two players that had 2 or 4 fingers extended. The four players with 1 or 3 fingers extended are eliminated. Play continues in the same way until all but one player is eliminated. That player wins.
There are a few variations on 1-2-3 Shoot (decide before you start playing which rules you will play by).
If you are playing 1-2-3 Shoot with many players you may like this variation. The winner(s) of a round of 1-2-3 Shoot are either the players who have an odd number of fingers extended or the players who have an even number of fingers extended. Even or odd is decided based on the number of players who have even or odd fingers extended. For example, in a group of 10 players 6 players have an odd number of fingers (1,3,3,1,1,1) extended and 4 players have an even number of fingers (2,2,4,2) extended. In this example all of the 4 players with an even number of fingers extended would be eliminated while the 6 players with an odd number of fingers extended would continue on to the next round. If a round ties between even and odd you simply move on to the next round with no eliminations. Play continues in the same way until you get to the last two players. For the last two players you can either play by the standard rules of 1-2-3 Shoot, or you can play one round of Rock-Paper-Scissors as a tie breaker.
1-2-3 Shoot is often used to pick IT for many other games. A common variation of 1-2-3 Shoot is basically reverse of the above version and is used primarily for choosing IT . The winner(s) of a round of 1-2-3 Shoot are either the players who have an odd number of fingers extended or the players who have an even number of fingers extended. Even or odd is decided based on the number of players who have even or odd fingers extended - same as the first example. However, in this version the players who match with the largest group are eliminated and the players who match with the lesser group continue on in play. For example, in a group of 10 players 6 players have an odd number of fingers (1,3,3,1,1,1) extended and 4 players have an even number of fingers (2,2,4,2) extended. In this example all of the 4 players with an even number of fingers extended would be go on to play the next round and the 6 players with an odd number of fingers extended would be eliminated.
1-2-3 Shoot is often used to pick IT for many other games. The simplest method of choosing is with 1-2-3 Shoot is to play by the standard rules, the player who wins is “IT”. However, in many games “IT” is not desirable so you can modify 1-2-3 Shoot so that the “winners” of a round are eliminated and the “losers” continue on in play until only one player is left and that player is “IT”