The Underground Pass
The Underground Pass
A Fun Youth Group Game
Watch the Tutorial Video
The Underground Pass is a challenging team-building game that combines trial and error, memory, communication, and problem-solving
Overview
Ideal # of Participants: 4 to 40
Where to Play: Indoor
Age of Participants: Middle School / High School
Approximate Time to Play: 15 to 30 Minutes
Materials Needed: 64 Sheets of Paper, Answer Key (Linked Below)
How to Play The Underground Pass
Set Up the Underground Pass
There is a secret path to navigate through this array, and players will have to discover what that path is.
Divide your group into two teams, and lay out an 8×8 grid of paper on the floor for each team.
The player’s goal is to successfully cross from one side of the grid to the other by determining the only safe path.
Start Crossing the Grid
One person goes at a time, and they will randomly pick one of the 8 tiles in the first row.
If they are incorrect, they return to the back of their team’s line, and the next person gets to try a different tile.
If they are correct, now the team knows that the first step in the path is that tile.
From there, the player can choose any of the adjacent tiles, including diagonals.
Again, if they pick the correct tile, then they can keep going.
But as soon as they make a mistake, they return to the back of their line, and the next person starts from the beginning.
Now that person probably won’t have a very hard time remembering the safe path that the person before them navigated, but as the challenge goes on it gets more and more difficult to remember the correct order.
Use Trial and Error
Teams could simply make their way through the entire pass with random trial and error.
This works, but especially as you get further into the challenge, it takes a long time.
That’s where you give them another option.
Find the Answer Key
Somewhere far away from where you’re playing, like in a different part of the building, you should display the answer.
At any given point, teams are allowed to send one representative to the answer key at a time and take a look.
They can try to memorize as much of the path as they can to help their team, but they aren’t allowed to use their phones to take a picture.
This creates an interesting decision for the team. They can keep figuring out the path through trial and error, or they can send someone to study the answer and bring the information back.
The teams can go look at the answer key as many times as they want, and they can even send different people.
How this normally plays out is that the teams will use their trial-and-error method, make a little bit of progress, then the person who saw the answer key comes back and quickly helps the group move through the next 4 or 5 steps.
Then the team can decide whether to send someone back to the answer key again or continue figuring it out themselves.
The team that is able to successfully navigate to the end of the underground pass first wins.
Why The Underground Pass Works So Well
The Underground Pass is more than just a team-building youth group game. The challenge naturally creates a conversation about the difference between trying to figure things out on your own and having a plan to follow.
During a discussion at the end of the meeting, most people will agree that having a plan to follow made the execution of their task run a lot smoother.
Sure, teams still made progress with the random guess-and-check method, but it was the instructions from the people who saw the answer key that propelled the team forward the fastest.
Having a well-established plan is a key component of any endeavor you take on in your life.
If you float along and just let life happen to you, you’ll never be able to fulfill your true potential.
You can use this idea to lay out the importance of any plan that your group wants to establish.
For sports teams, it might be talking about why you have practices. For teachers, it could be about the importance of building good study habits.
Where I think this lesson really shines though is in a youth group setting.
God has laid out a perfect plan for each of us, giving us opportunities to use our strengths to glorify Him.
There are a million different directions that you can take your life, so how are you ever supposed to know which way to go?
The answer is in Proverbs; if you commit whatever you do to the LORD, He’ll make it clear for you what to do next.
Don’t be someone that just tries stuff at random. Commit yourself to God, allow Him to establish your plans, and then follow them.
Tips for Playing The Underground Pass
- Spread out the answer key. Put the answer key somewhere far enough away that students can’t simply glance at it from the playing area.
- Don’t allow phones. Students can study the answer key, but they shouldn’t be able to take a picture and bring the entire solution back with them.
- Make the answer key easy to read. The students who visit it need to be able to quickly understand and memorize several steps.
- Only allow one representative at a time. This keeps teams from sending everyone to the answer key at once.
- Let teams decide who goes. Different students may be better at remembering the path, which adds another layer of strategy to the game.
- Give students time to figure it out. The trial-and-error portion is important because it makes the value of having a plan much more obvious during the discussion afterward.
- Use the game as a lesson. Don’t skip the discussion at the end. The connection between the secret path and allowing God to establish our plans is what makes this activity especially useful for youth ministry.
Lesson Handout
Want to make this easy to share with your volunteers or students? Download the “The Underground Pass” Lesson Handout (PDF) below!
Where Games Meet God's Word...
Most leaders just look for games to play, but miss their true value. When used well, games help teach your lesson, because experiential learning is by far the most effective way to teach a lesson that sticks.
If you want to see this principle in action, check out Uplift, our FREE youth group lesson that is built for engagement. It contains a fun game, but then your students’ experience from the game ties into the Christ-centered message you’ll teach.
