A variation called stealbase uses an object that may be either touched or stolen (as in capture the flag) to achieve victory.
Darebase is popular in many areas of the United States as a recess game and at summer camps in part because of its simplicity, flexibility, and capacity to accommodate players of varying age and ability, as well as its potential for rapid and dynamic play even when teams are evenly matched.
One of the earliest known references dates from the early 14th century, when King Edward III of England issued an order prohibiting "barres" from being played in the avenues of the Palace of Westminster.
[1] An early description of Prisoner's Base, entitled De Ludo Gjitûcum Chudûni, was written by Thomas Hyde who described it as a game from Mesopotamia.
[2] It was published in 1767 under the name Prison-Base and Prisoners Base in Gregory Sharpe's book Syntagma dissertationum quas olim Thomas Hyde S.T.P.
[2] In 1796, Hyde's playing rules have been extensively translated into German and published in Germany under the name Das Foppen und Fangen.
[3] John Byng, in a diary entry for 12 May 1794, refers to members of the Cheshire militia playing "their county game of prisoners bars which is a sport of mere agility, and speed and seemingly productive of quarrels: In my opinion it is far inferior to cricket, cudgel-playing and many other provincial sports.... For lightness and to prevent being touch'd by an adversary – they strip themselves almost naked.
"[4] Joseph Strutt, writing in 1801, makes clear that there were variant local versions:[1] About 1770, I saw a grand match at base played in the fields behind Montague House, now the British Museum, by twelve gentlemen of Cheshire against twelve of Derbyshire, for a considerable sum of money, which afforded much entertainment to the spectators.
The addition of the prisons occasions a considerable degree of variety in the pastime, and is frequently productive of much pleasantry.A correspondent writing to The Times in 1830 commented: "Until about 20 or 30 years ago, the fields around London, Marylebone-fields, the Long-fields, Spa-fields, &c., were alive with players at cricket, trap-ball, foot-ball, prisoners' base, and other healthful and inspiriting amusements.
G. R. Sims in 1906 described Chevy Chace as "a form of prisoners' base in which one unit of a 'side' is captured and held to ransom until a comrade rescues him".
Being able to cross the opposing team's base line affords a strong tactical advantage analogous to a flanking maneuver.
Other players, whose personal point-of-no-return is closer to their home base, naturally employ more defensive tactics such as guarding the line, the jail, or shadowing spies.
References to the game are found in a range of early modern English literary works, including those of Christopher Marlowe, Edmund Spenser, Richard Brome, and Michael Drayton.
[11] Marcel Proust refers to playing it on the Champs Elysées in Volume one of In Search of Lost Time.
[12] Dare-Base was the original title of the 1952 Nero Wolfe mystery novel, Prisoner's Base, by Rex Stout (1886–1975).
"The title on my manuscript was Dare-Base, from a game we played in Kansas when I was a boy," Stout told biographer John McAleer.