The translated title of this game might not sound like a lot of fun, but the game actually is. It is a German yard game that was one of my favorite games to play on the playground or schoolyard. At some point, we literally played it during every break, but it never got boring.
It is a variation of the game “Blind Man’s Buff” and therefore a tag game. It was played as early as 2000 years ago in Ancient Greece, and has widely been played in Europe and other parts of the world with similar rules. That is probably also the origin of the German version “Mensch auf Erden”, that I know and that I want to introduce to you here.
What do you need?
The game is played in a spacious area, such as outdoors or in a large room. You should have some elevated surfaces or furniture, like on a playground. Other then that, you don’t need any materials to play.
Who plays?
For a fun game of “Human on Earth” you would need at least 5-6 players but, as usual, the more the merrier.
How to play “Mensch auf Erden’- Human on Earth”?
In the beginning, you will have to designate one player as “It”. This player can’t open his or her eyes during the game. “It” gets whirled around a few times until the sense of orientation is lost. Now this player has to try to catch the others.
They have to try to stay of the ground, because “It” has the possibility to scream “Mensch auf Erden” or “Human on Earth”. If this sentence gets said when someone is on the ground, then the player that got caught being on the ground has to be “it”. Therefore, you need to be fast but quiet while running from one to another obstacle.
“It” can also scream “Ice” or “Summer”. “Ice” means that the person trying to catch the others is allowed to open his or her eyes for five seconds, figuring out his or her location as well as the one from the other players. They have to freeze for that period of time. When “Summer” is called, “It” can play for 10 seconds with open eyes.
In general, the goal of “it” is to catch the other players. He or she has to stay on the ground but can try to feel people on the climbing frames for example. They have to stand still while “it” tries to identify them by touch. If he or she does it right and names the tagged person, this person gets to be the next “it”.
Variations
Instead of switching the roles of the tagged person and the “it” immediately after someone gets tagged you can also play with points. “It” gets points for every player on the ground when shouting “Human on Earth” and also additional points when identifying someone by touch. The round is oven when all the players are tagged and the first person who was out gets to be “it” for the next round.
Trust me on this one and give the game a try, it is a lot of fun to play!
