EXPLORING PLANET X
A Wide Game
As with all wide games, this one should be judged carefully to be sure it is appropriate for the players. The skills tested can be changed to suit the players and the area; one or more stations can be eliminated to shorten the game.
To make adaptation easier, the equipment needed is listed under the heading for each stage of the game, from the “Landing Zone” through each station.
Method: A game for 15 to 32 players in up to 4 teams. Game leaders set up stations ahead of time. Teams of 5 to 8 players are formed and each team is given a :sealed orders” envelope containing the items described under “Landing Zone.” All teams meet at the Landing Zone and leave it at the same time. But each team starts its round of station visits at a different station. (Team No. 1 starts at Station 1 and goes on to Station 2, Team No. 2 starts at Station 2 and goes on to 3, etc.)
Game leaders are placed at each station to give instructions, test skills, and score team performance. As each team completes its round of the six stations, it returns to the starting point. When all teams arrive back at the starting point, team demonstrations are presented and winners are announced.
Scoring: 5 points could be awarded to the team that completes the course in the shortest time. A maximum of 5 points could be given for each project along the way. (A rating scale of 1 to 5 points would have to be developed for each project.) Some scoring suggestions for each station are given on the following pages. However, teams could be scored simply by checking off, punching, or putting a sticker on each teams’ score card as they complete the activities at each station.
Landing Zone
Equipment: A large manila envelope for each team, marked SEALED ORDERS, TEAM NO. ______. Each envelope contains the following items:
· A score card to be marked at each station
· A small notebook or several sheets of paper
· A package of 5 or 6 crayons
· A piece of white cloth, 10 inches square
· A directional compass
· A message to the team:
“Congratulations! You are among the first earth people to land on the mysterious Planet X! You have until ______o’clock to explore this planet, to record your findings for sharing on earth, to return to this spot safely and board your space ship. But before leaving your space ship, do the things listed on the back of this sheet.”
Activity: These are the things listed on the back of the team’s message sheet.
“1) As a team, design your own explorer’s flag. Put your design on the cloth in the envelope. Carry your flag with you.
2) As individual team members, empty your pockets and list everything you find. Next to each item on your lit, write down one way you might use it for comfort or survival if you lose your way on Planet X.
3) Look around you. Tell each other what you see as though you were describing this spot to someone who had never seen it.
“Now you are ready to go to Station No. _____ (this is the first of six stations to be visited). Proceed with caution. Happy exploring!”
Station No. 1 – Cosmic Crater
Equipment: A poster showing station name and number
3 six-foot lengths of clothes rope
3 triangular badges
A Red Cross Standard First Aid Textbook and other books on first aid like
Old Scout handbooks
Trail signs – stones, sticks, etc. – marking trail from Station 1 to Station 2
Activity: As a team arrives, its members are told that they are now at Cosmic Crater, a very dangerous spot. Only a minute ago, an explorer fell into the crater hole and must be rescued. The team is given a length of rope and asked to tie a bowline know in each end so that it can be used as a lifesaving line to rescue the unfortunate explorer – a game leader standing 4 to 6 feet away.
Scoring: The team can be scored according to the length of time taken to tie the knots correctly and to pull the explorer from the “hole.”
When the explorer is safely out of the crater, she complains of a hurt ankle. The team is given a triangular bandage to put on the ankle.
Scoring: Score according to time taken to apply correct bandage. The team may refer to the books to learn or review the correct technique.
Station No. 2 – Frozen Fissure
Equipment: A poster showing station name and number
Several fireplaces or fire rings with grills set up
Firewood stacked or available on site
Matches
Water
Fire bucket and broom
Coffee cans and pot holders
Coat or blanket
Activity: Team is greeted at the station by a shivering game leader dressed in a heavy coat or wrapped in a blanket. She explains that the team has arrived at Frozen Fissure, where the temperature never rises above freezing. If the team is to survive, they must quickly build a fire and cook something hot to eat. Team is given a coffee can containing “food” (water) and several matches; they are told where to get firewood. In the shortest time possible from the word “go,” the team must gather wood, lay and light a fire, boil the water, and put the fire out.
Scoring: Based on how long it takes the team to complete the task. A maximum time limit can be set, at the end of which the team must move on to the next station.
Station No. 3 – Vague Valley
Equipment: A poster showing station name and number
Blindfolds, enough for several teams
A paper mask
3 or 4 “feeling” objects, such as an orange, a milkweed pod, a square knot,
a salt shaker or an oak leaf
2 or 3 “sound” objects, such as a baby rattle, an egg beater, scissors or a
snapping spring
table or boxes
a large piece of cloth
compass directions from Station 3 to Station 4
Activity: All objects at this station are set up on boxes or on a table. They are covered with large pieces of cloth so that they cannot be seen by arriving teams. (Be prepared for more than one team at a time.)
The team is met by a game leader who wears a paper mask. She tells the team that they have arrived at Vague Valley, where everything is so shadowy and misty that explorers must depend on their sense of touch and hearing. Players sit around a table or on the ground. Each player is blindfolded and “feeling” objects are passed to each in turn. After each item has been felt by the entire team, it is hidden under the cloth. The team must confer and agree on what they think the object was. A similar procedure is used for “sound” objects.
Scoring: Based on the total number of correct guesses
Team is given verbal or compass directions to Station 4.
Station No. 4 – Silent Swamp
Equipment: A poster showing station name and number
A coded message (same message on 3 file cards)
Morse code key or poster with the key to any other code used
File card with “Your time is up, go to the next station” printed on it
Stranger’s costume
Activity: Team is met at this station by a person wearing a bizarre costume (the more ornate and complicated the costume, the better). Instead of speaking the stranger give the team a card. On the front of the card there is a coded message which, when deciphered, will read:
“I DO NOT SPEAK YOUR LANGUAGE. DESCRIBE ONE OF THE THINGS ON BACK OF CARD.”
The message may be written in Morse code, reverse writing, or any other code. The code key should be available somewhere nearby.
On the back of the card these 3 items are listed (not in code):
1. Food on earth
2. Your home town
3. A famous earth person
The team is on its own in deciding how to communicate with the stranger. They might write a coded message, pantomime, draw pictures, etc.
A time limit should be set for communication attempts. At the end of the allotted time, the team is shown the “Your time is up” card and instructions (verbal or compass) to get to Station 5.
Scoring: Points are earned according to the degree of ingenuity shown by team
Station No. 5 – Gravity Gap
Equipment: A poster showing station name and number
2 pieces of rope, each 6 to 8 feet long
4 stakes
2 knapsacks, each containing stones and a bag of candy
4 straight sticks or poles, each 4 to 5 feet long
1 roll of lashing twine
2 jackknives
Activity: A game leader stands by the station sign to greet the arriving team and welcome them to Gravity Gap. Some distance away are 2 long pieces of rope stretched on stakes about 1 foot high. The strings run parallel to each other and are approximately 6 feet apart. The area between the strings represents Gravity Gap.
The game leader explains that because the pull of gravity is so slight at this place on the planet, small objects or equipment can float away easily. “In fact,” she says, “a valuable explorer’s knapsack has already floated away and is now caught by a rock on the other side of the Gap.”
The team lines up on one side of the Gap. The team members themselves cannot step across or go around the Gap. To save the knapsack (it could contain food!), they are given the two four-foot poles and the ball of twine. On the word “go” they try to recover the knapsack and bring it back to their side of the Gap as quickly as possible.
Each team decides what method they will use. The two poles can be lashed together with sheer or round lashing to make one longer pole that will reach across the Gap; one end of the pole can be notched or wrapped with string to make pick-up easier. Some teams may try using only the string, with a piece of the wood tied to one end oto catch the knapsack.
Scoring: The team can be scored according to the length of time taken to retrieve the knapsack.
Station No. 6 – Memory Mountain
Equipment: A poster showing station name and number
Instruction message, printed in large letters
Large pad of drawing paper
Activity: No game leader is present at this station. On a tree or in some other prominent place there is a message that reads:
“WELCOME TO MEMORY MOUNTAIN
Good explores can recall
Most adventures . . . maybe all!
Put your memory to the test,
All together, do your best!”
The message continues with: “As a team:
1) Draw a picture of the silent stranger you met in Silent Swamp;
2) Draw a picture of the place where you received your sealed orders;
3) Go to the next station or, if this is your last station, return to the Landing Zone.”
Completion of Game
As teams arrive back at the starting place, the Landing Zone, pictures from Station No. 6 and score cards are collected by a game leader. Refreshments could be available, and each team might be asked to make up a song, poem, or a one-minute skit or story about their adventures on Planet X. When all teams return, skits, stories, songs, and poems can be shared, team flags are explained, and winners announced.