The game requires a seating area for the players (such as a flight of porch steps or a garden wall) which is designated the "Pie Shop" or "Bakery." Also required are a Goal distant from the seating area such as a tree, post or other object, and an expanse of lawn or field for a chase similar to the chase in the game of Tag.
One player is chosen Pieman, another Buyer, and the other players are Pies. The Buyer is sometimes designated Simple Simon following the Mother Goose rhyme:
Simple Simon met a pieman
Going to the fair;
Says Simple Simon to the pieman,
"Let me taste your ware."
To begin the game, the Buyer is sent to the Goal where he cannot see or hear the other players. The Pieman then names each Pie with a common pie filling such as Apple, Blueberry, Pumpkin, etc. When all the Pies have been named, the Pieman calls the Buyer to the Pie Shop.
The Buyer demands, "Pieman, Pieman, I would like a pie." The Pieman asks, "And what might that Pie be?" The Buyer then names a pie flavor such as Apple. If one of the Pies has been designated Apple, then he rushes from the Pie Shop to the Goal while the Buyer runs after him and attempts to tag him. Both the Pie and the Buyer must touch the Goal before running back to the Pie Shop. If the Pie returns to the Pie Shop without being tagged, he resumes his seat, and is renamed for another round. The chase may be complicated with dodging about lawn furniture, flower beds, clotheslines of drying laundry, or other obstacles in the path to and from the Goal.
Before the Buyer leaves the Pie Shop in pursuit of the Pie, he is required to pay the Pieman the price he asks for the Pie (such as 10 dollars). Payment is accomplished by slapping the Pieman's outstretched, up-turned palm, and counting aloud the required number of "dollars." Paying the Pieman gives slower, or smaller Pies a "head-start" against the Buyer.
Should the Pie be "tagged" during his flight to the Goal, he becomes the Buyer, the Buyer becomes a Pie, and play resumes in a similar manner.