Paintball is played with a potentially limitless variety of rules and variations, all of which are specified before the game begins. The most basic of all game rules is that players must attempt to accomplish a goal without being tagged with paintballs. Generally paintball is divided into either its original incarnation woodsball, or the small arena-based and tournament de facto speedball. Amongst these paintball game types, variations of basic rules can be played.

Stock paintball

Stock Paintball is based on the original technology of the 1980s. A player uses a pump action paintball marker, which requires a pumping movement after each shot to reload, and must adhere to the following rules:

Basic variations

Tournament formats

Tournaments may be played with teams of various sizes. 20-man and 15-man tournaments were common on wooded fields in the 1980s, and professional paintball teams played 10-man for most of the 90's and into the new millennium Today, tournament paintball is dominated by 3-6 "small", 6-9 "med", and 9-12 member "large" formats. In most tournament formats, teams play a set of games against various opponents. Teams earn points for each game, with the most points awarded for capturing and hanging the flag, but some also awarded for opponents eliminated and teammates left alive at the end of the game.