LOL... For a while we played dodge by tossing a 12” square piece of Plexiglas at each other. Thinking back, I am shocked no one really got hurt more than bruises, welts and scrapes. I guess that helped us find our limits.
Plexiglas huh?...cool..
We lived in the country, so had to be creative too. There were the rowdy neighbor twins who would put on their dad’s welding helmets and have 50-yard-minimum wars with 22s using rat-shot. Around holidays, they would use Roman candles...but no helmets.
Once they watched an episode of Wagon Train and talked their little brother and sister into going into the playhouse their dad had built and pretend to be pioneers. Meanwhile, they put on warpaint(probably lead-based)and after wrapping a rag around their arrows and dipping them into kerosene and lighting them, shot the playhouse repeatedly while doing war-whoops in their underwear. They eventually caught it on fire and danced around whooping while the terrified little sister and brother ran screaming for mama.
They did spare their lives.
There’s much more, but it’s probably best not to post it since it involves dangerous things.