Coloured pins and radiuses – team building city quest game ideas

In this blogpost you will find 2 game ideas that utilize colored pins for the game mechanics.

The custom pins can be used in a most basic way to  indicate visually what is going to happen in the location-a team task,a photo task, drinks/refreshments, that you have to go to indoor to answer next couple of questions. Or just to indicate different tasks with different colored pins in the locations. When the question opens, its background is the same color as the radius. In this supporting article you can read an tutorial how to utlize custom pins. 

Idea 1. Find a  pot of gold

Very much like the pots of gold at the end of the rainbow, guarded by leprechauns, you can create these in the Rogain game. Just create a question that has a higher reward than other questions/locations/tasks within the game. Let’s say other tasks give points on a scale from 1-10 but the pot of gold gives 50. The catch – location is not visible on a map.
Steps to implement in the game:

I) Make a question stating that there is a pot of gold hidden somewhere in a special location near the game area. It is the normal location on the map with no answer- question type. It can give points or quite the opposite, give 0 point for visiting. So only curious teams make an effort to visit the area.
You can give hints. Like in the example:
“Somewhere in this city block is a hidden pot of gold. That location gives you extra 50 points if you solve the riddle there. It is your decision if you go chasing the treasure at the end of the rainbow. How to find the pot? It is hidden between two motionless guys connected to some old time pop star and philosopher. When you arrive at the location the riddle opens up to solve.”

II) You think out a question for the pot of gold. Then assign no icon and set the pin radius invisible on the question. The question itself can be harder than the  rest of the tasks in the  game or a no answer type. 

 III) Set a location  for an invisible gold of pot visually according to the teaser questions riddle. In our example the pot of gold is set between the statues of Chopin and Confucius in a  small romantic park called Dichtergarten (the poets` garden) in Munich.

You can of course create random pots of gold which people might stumble upon as a surprise. But the fun adding mechanic is that people know there is a high reward location somewhere and the team has to decide whether to put time into finding the supposed pot of gold and answering the leprechaun`s tricky question or gathering smaller points giving locations.

Idea 2. Who loses less?

In life and business defying losses is sometimes inevitable. In this game type you build a game area covered with minus radiuses. 
At the beginning of the game there is one huge city covering area giving 1000 points as starters for every player.

What now happens, is that people have to choose their path to get to the finish. It is inevitable to lose some points and you have to go through minus areas. The winner is the one who loses less from the starting 1000 score. Time is pressuring the team to calculate quickly.

And what happens if during the game occasional plus areas appear? What  team does then- goes chasing these through additional minus areas or sticks to their route? It involves logic, math and decision making in critical moments.