Back in Grade 4 or so, we used to play a variation of the game at recess: instead of having teams, one person was It and thus was pitted against everybody else. As in classic tag, It could pass the torch to another person by touching them, and could then run like hell for the Base (we used a pole). Whoever was It when the last person made it to the Base would have to start the next round by counting while everyone ran and hid again.

An extra rule we used was the formation of human chains. A person could be home free simply by touching the hand of someone who was touching the Base. Another person could then touch that person's hand, and so on. I'm sure it looked interesting from afar once it got down to the last person, especially since we played with at least a dozen kids at a time.

Of course, there were always lurkers, who would cleverly wait near the Base until It was through counting, and immediately make a dash for it. Lurking, however, was considered extremely cheap-ass, and was justly frowned upon. Make up your own consequences.