Okay, there are 2,000 ninjas at this con – now what do we do?

Seriously, at last count 40% of convention attendees cosplay, and given Naruto's recent popularity 30% of all cosplayers are ninjas, so there are at least 2,000 ninjas at Otakon every year.  So what do 2,000 ninjas do?  They fight.  And how do 2,000 ninjas fight without blowing the convention center to smithereens?  They play CATCH THE BARREL.

CATCH THE BARREL is a simple competition game created to let masses of cosplayers roleplay competitively without bringing down the house.  It was originally developed for Naruto but it can also be used One Piece, Bleach, Fullmetal Alchemist or any other popular series.  It can be played at a convention, or, with some adjustment, it can e played at a club, camp or school, anywhere so long as all the participants agree to wear ninja headbands or some other identifying mark.  It is a long game, and can be played over the three days of a convention, or over a week or even longer.  It has been run officially at Anime Boston, and unofficially at several other conventions.  It is an easy to run unofficially since all it requires is some prizes and a single prop, but you should always try to get the permission of a convention before you run it, so their security team will be aware of it.

A triumphant Kakashi rests with his prize.

THE BARREL, the central prop, can be any medium-sized lightweight object that is large enough to be conspicuous but not big enough to be annoying to carry around.  For traditional Naruto CATCH THE BARREL you usually use a white plastic bucket with a purple rope around the middle and a carrying strap, but other objects can be used, such as a treasure chest for pirates, a mystical tome for alchemists, a great big prop sword for Bleach Shinigami, anything.  Whatever it is, it has to be something the characters would want to fight over.  It has to have some way to make it easy to carry, a flag sticking off that says, "CATCH THE BARREL" to make it easy to recognize, and it also has to have a lot of blank surface area to write on, and a set of mini-sharpies should be tied on.  And finally, it has to have a copy of the rules, though these should can also be handed out in leaflet form to any ninja (or other) interested in the game:

CATCH THE BARREL: This is an A-rank mission!  Somewhere in this convention hall someone has The Barrel, a white prop barrel with purple trim and a flag which says “Catch The Barrel”.  Your mission: retrieve The Barrel, keep it as long as possible, and deliver it to [time and place TBA].

How to play: When you find the ninja who has The Barrel you may Challenge him/her to one game of Rock/Paper/Scissors.  The winner keeps the barrel (ties play a tiebreaker match) and carries it until it is taken by another ninja.   After you lose a Challenge, you must wait 10 minutes for your Chakra to recover before you may Challenge again. When you first get The Barrel, write your name on the outside (badge name and cosplay character name).   After that, whenever you win a Challenge, put a tally mark next to your name.  When The Barrel is delivered to the finale, prizes will be given to the ninjas with the most tally marks by their names, and a “delivery prize” to the ninja who brings it in.

You must carry The Barrel so that it, and its flag, are easily visible.  You may not conceal or disguise The Barrel in any way, with one exception: starting one hour before the finale you may disguise the barrel however you like (short of damaging or altering it) to help you get past the hordes of ninjas around the photo station.  The first ninja to get the barrel within line-of-sight of the photo station officially wins the “delivery prize” – you may not challenge for the barrel after that. 

DO NOT wrestle, play-fight, run, chase each other or cause a disturbance in the convention.  DO NOT Challenge other ninjas inside showings, panels or other events.  KEEP THE BARREL IN THE HALLS: if you want to attend a showing or panel or leave the convention for a while, give The Barrel to another ninja before you do.  If you have trouble getting rid of The Barrel, or don’t want to keep it overnight Friday night, you may drop it off at the Cosplay Photo Station.  DO NOT OPEN THE BARREL or something very bad will happen to you.  DO NOT CHEAT!  Do not take The Barrel away and hide it, do not pass it back and forth among a small team of friends without letting anyone else have a turn. 

IF YOU CHEAT AND RUIN HIS FUN, OROCHIMARU WILL EAT YOU!
  

The Barrel, before and after its long journey.

That's it!  A simple game, but endless role-play fun as gangs of ninjas stalk a current victor waiting for their chakra to recover, and teachers and teammates turn on one another in the universal quest to catch their prize.  It's easy to recruit players online, or at the convention itself, since all you need to do is print out some rules sheets and hand them out to anyone you see cosplaying from the series in question.  At Anime Boston 2005, a Kakashi fled with The Barrel past hoards of wating ninjas and took shelter in an elevator, but as the doors were closing Sakura stuck her arm through and challenged him one last time.  He lost just as the doors shut, and had to ride the elevator up to the top and down again to return The Barrel to the victor.  In the end, Orochimaru arrived at the finale to deliver the prizes to find a crowd of more than 200 ninjas, and presented the delivery prize to a triumphant Rock Lee.   

Beware of temptation – a ninja never . 

You're all wondering inside The Barrel, aren't you?  That's up to whoever runs it, but it should be a different surprising thing every time.  Perhaps there is candy in The Barrel to reward ninjas for being curous.  Perhaps there are deadly snakes inside and a note saying, "If you open The Barrel you die," to punish ninjas for being curious.  Whatever it is, you won't find out until you dare to open it.

Variant game: Ninjas vs. Pirates!

At Otakon 2005 a variant game was played: Ninjas vs. Pirates!  Here Naruto and One Piece cosplayers competed against one another, with the addition of a second prop, The Chest as well as The Barrel, plus these simple extra rules, which can be adapted for a rivalry: 

CATCH THAT PRIZE!  When you spot someone carrying your team’s target (The Barrel for Ninjas, The Chest for Pirates) you may Challenge that person to one game of Rock/Paper/Scissors.  When the targets are delivered to Endgame, the single Ninja with the most tallies on The Barrel will receive the title of Otakon 2005 Hokage, and the Pirate with the most tallies on The Treasure Chest will be the Otakon 2005 Pirate King!

NINJAS VS. PIRATES!  In addition to getting your own target, it’s time to prove once and for all which are better, Ninjas or Pirates.  If you see a member of the opposing team carrying their target you may Challenge to take it.  Don’t bother to take it from members of your own side, only from the opposing team.  When you take the opposing team’s target from them, put a tally mark in the space marked for Opposing Team Captures.  Don’t write your name – this is a team effort.  Keep the captured target, Chest or Barrel, until a member of the opposing team defeats you at a Challenge and gets it back.  If you see a member of the opposing team carrying your prize, Challenge them to retrieve it and defend your side’s honor!  At the end game we will see which team has more captures, and learn once and for all whether Ninjas or Pirates reign at Otakon 2005!

Pirates triumph as Luffy secures both the chest and barrel at the same time. 

After the match, we asked the Otakon 2005 Pirate King Daniel Howard a.k.a. Monkey D. Luffy how he felt about the.  "My favorite moment? Definitely the battle on the third floor of the Convention Center. Six ninjas to every pirate. Who won in the end? Pirates don't rule the box office for nothing! That, or sitting down for three hours and going back and forth with a really awesome Kakashi cosplayer, who eventually won the Hokage title at the end of the weekend. A very honorable series of heated battles of Janken."   In the end the Ninjas won in 2005, but...  

That's all it takes.  The variations are endless: Ninjas vs. Alchemists.  Shinigami vs. Sailor Scouts.  Final Fantasy vs. Kingdom Hearts.  Three or more groups can compete simply by adding more props, one for each team.  That's all it takes, and endless combat antics await, so if you want to add a little extra spice to your next convention, or just play around on campus with your anime club friends,  you can't go wrong with CATCH THE BARREL!