How to construct good questions for outdoor team building games and scavenger hunts? 6 tips

“It all starts with a well-proposed question,” admitted one game instructor after playing a test game in Tallinn Old Town. “How do you ask a ‘fact’ question so that it is still a challenge to the mind?”…  Imagine if you had a bunch of awesome new questions to impress players and use in your different games.

We came up with a few tips and examples to create such questions.  Ideas to ask questions more interesting ways and, in some cases, to encourage them be answered in a creative way. And by the way, it is super hard to find clever questions to surprise game instructors who conduct outdoor team building games every week! : )

TIP 1. Confuse players by having multiple right answers.
“GPS was  originally run with 24 satellites. It became fully operational in 1995. Who is commonly credited for inventing it?” Mark all correct answers!”

1 Bradford Parkinson
2 Roger L. Easton
3 Ivan A. Getting
4 Shane B. Dawson

TIP 2. Include questions involving pictures.
With analog methods known as “print out and stick to tree/wall”. With smart devices, adding pictures or a Youtube video and weblinks is a bit easier and more environment-friendly. Include optical illusions, famous paintings, historical figures.

In smart device games questions pop open when players reach the location. Or let them open a question without going to the point at all (in strategy games it means saving time but losing points).

“How many “tigers” are in the picture?” Write the answer as a number.”
“Hint: There is more than 1.”

Original painting by American wildlife artist Rusty Rust.

TIP 3. Let people give answers in “out of the box” ways
Make giving an answer an extra effort (by calculation, word scramble). After all, the core idea of playing games is to shake the brain into a different regime!

“Count it up! How many people you need to get 10 little toes?”
A 2 x 2,5
B 2 x 3
C 3 x 1,5

“What is the nearest planet to Earth in our solar system ?”
A) UJPIERT
B) RANUSU
C) OTULP 

Change answering time to ‘creative outlet’ time. Most this type of questions are used in photo hunts but why not use photos to bring excitement in between text answers?  Ask participants to use their camera or tablet and take a photo as an answer.
“Take a photo of your team acting out a scene from Braveheart…. next to the nearest fountain. Show your courage!”

TIP 4. Propose questions that involve exercises with your whole team.
Try it out! Four people:
Tallest, Tall, Short and Shortest.
Tallest puts hand on Shortest knee.
Short grabs Tallest left hand.
Tall leans same leg’s knee against the Shortest’s left knee that doesn’t have a hand on it and grabs Short’s same hand with opposite hand. How many right hands are left free?

TIP 5. Let people interact with surroundings
Location-based questions are an excellent way to encourage players to look at details in the surroundings. Ask something about specific objects:

“Count it up! How many different domestic animals are in the top of pillars of the building you are standing next to? Write the answer to the answer field.”

“You are standing next to a big oak tree. In Greek mythology oak was  sacred to:
A. Hera
B.  Zeus
C. Apollo

TIP 6. Let people get to know each other and overcome the awkwardness
Great questions encourage interaction with other people and team members in real life:

“Count it up. How many of your team members have dogs, how many cats? Snap a photo of cat owners on the left and dog owners on the right!” 

Also it is a good idea to add remarks to questions for encouraging less active team members to participate! There are a few tips on that in a previous blog post about Engaging all team members.

As setting up, conducting and wrapping up the game you create with Loquiz is easy, we hope you have more time for thinking and creating fun questions for scavenger and treasure hunts.