okay so I’m on a board for a statewide College political group… to avoid a flame fest…let’s just say it’s the green/Republican/independent/Democratic/Communist party… sound good?
we have a retreat coming up. basically I have to plan some kind of team building for “getting to know you” exercise for the chapters around the state. we have plenty of room since its at a camp… about 30 people… and they really don’t know each other… they average about 21 years of age.
I don’t want to have a typical teambuilding or meeting game which everyone has played before… I want something unique…
originally we set this convention at a place which resembled a medieval castle. I thought that it would be perfect to do a murder mystery type event where the executive board members were the actors and the different chapters were teams who had to solve the mystery. however, that fell through…and now we are staying at a camp.
I hate camps.
that is not to say that we can’t still do a murder mystery event… but I have no script or prior experience. this could take place over the course of the night. usually,no one has given thought to do anything more than take a ride to the liquor store… I wanted to make this one a little more memorable… (we still have the option of the liquor store too.)
so, in your humble opinion, what would be a good activity? is the murder mystery idea feasible? any thoughts on that? does anyone possibly have a script? any help is appreciated…let me say that again because it’s important: ANY help is appreciated
Murder mystery scripts are readily available in party kits. Our local game store has a good selection. You can probably also order from Amazon if you don’t have that type of store nearby.
If the whole murder mystery thing falls through, you could do a scavenger hunt. Hide some strange stuff, it could be fun.
I don’t know if this is a lame over done party game, but I liked it when I played it.
Chairs in a circle (one less than the number of people present). The person in the middle says “calling all my neighbors who ________” inserting something about themselves. Calling all my neighbors who have blue eyes. Everyone with blue eyes gets up and rushes to find another chair. The one person left then has to call all his neighbors. It’s silly at first, and everyone is embarrassed, but the running around like fools loosens everyone up pretty quickly.
I’ve played that one before. We called it Train Wreck…we also had the rule that the person in the middle could randomly call “Train wreck!” and everyone had to get up and switch places. It’s a fun game. Make sure that people aren’t allowed to move to the seat directly next to them though, otherwise it’s to easy.
A murder mystery might be hard with thirty people. The only ones I’ve played involved eight to ten people, but there are probably ones out there for bigger groups.
My personal favorite get to know you game is a question ball. Just go to the dollar store and get an inflatable beach ball. Cover it with totally random questions. When it comes time to play, everyone stands in a circle and toss the ball around. When it comes to you, you say your name, look down at the ball, and answer the first question that you see. It sounds really lame, but I’ve played in different size groups (ranging from six to about thirty-five) with people of all different ages (again, ranging from six to about thirty-five) and it’s always been a hit. I think it works well because you can let it last as long as you want, or you can end it within five minutes if need be. Plus, unlike other question/answer/tell-us-about-yourself games, it’s not just going around in a circle telling people about yourself.
Once you’ve gotten to know each other a bit, try breaking the group up into two teams and playing some more physical games. The human knot usually works well. Just have everyone stand in a circle and join hands with people who aren’t their neighbor. They’ve just created a large human knot to untangle. First group done gets cool points. You can also see which group can pass an orange around a circle the quickest without using their hands. Slightly competive games that force people to work together for a common and slightly silly cause usually work well on getting people to know each other. I wouldn’t do them first though because very few people want to crawl between somebody’s legs (human knot game) if they don’t at least know the person’s name.
Good luck and have fun! Remember, if you go into thinking it’ll be lame and present that attitude to the group, they’ll think it’s lame too.
