Counselor Hunt – Phobias Edition

I’m a fan of scavenger and treasure hunts at summer camp. I especially love counselor hunts. Here is a version that I had not heard of before but sounds really fun. Thanks to Kendra Freeland for sharing this idea.

Counselor hunts are camp-wide games where the counselors hide and the campers try to find them and then bring them back to base for points. This version is called Phobias.

The Intro

The camp counselors have all been exposed to a strange disease that makes them fearful. (Or you can say they have been fed a magic potion, bit by a radioactive spider, etc.)

The director has developed an antidote.

The campers need to bring the staff to the program director to receive the antidote. (Skittles are a great antidote to give the staff. It can also be a “serum” made of something yummy.) 

The Phobias

Each counselor (or other staff member) starts by coming up with a random phobia that will make it difficult for the campers to come near them, talk to them, or bring them to the main base of the game.

Here are a few examples of phobias to try:

• Fear of the Dark
• Fear of the Light
• Fear of the Ground
• Fear of Speaking
• Fear of Groups Larger than 4
• Fear of Hoods
• Fear of Hats
• Fear of Open-Toed Shoes
• Fear of a Certain Color
• Fear of a Certain Word
• Fear of Walking
• Fear of Trees
• Fear of Grass, Gravel, Dirt, Pavement…
• Fear of Other Adults
• Fear of Water
• Fear of Being Away from Water

The Rules

1. The campers are given boundaries and instructions while the staff ‘hide’.
2. Campers cannot touch the staff. They must escort them back to base without triggering their phobia.
3. Staff must willingly go with a group unless their phobia is triggered.
4. Campers cannot be alone. They must be in groups (of three, four, etc.). If a camper is caught on their own, their team will lose points.
5. Groups may team up and share the points if they successfully get the counselor back to the base.
6. Sabotaging another group is not permitted and will result in point deductions. For example, if a counselor is walking with a group back to base and another group knows that the counselor has a fear of the word “camp”, they cannot start shouting “Camp!” since that would result in the counselor running away.
7. In order to receive the points, groups must bring the staff right to the point recorder and tell them (correctly) what the staff member is afraid of.

Additional rules I like to add for counselor hunts are:

• If you hear one whistle blast, that means you have 3 minutes to return to base.
• If you hear two whistle blasts, it means you have 1 minute to return to base. 
• Points will be deducted for anyone that returns to base late.

The Hunt

While campers are getting their instructions, the staff go and wander around the camp. They can hide but should be fairly easy to find (hiding is not the point of the game). 

Remember, the goal of the game is to find the staff and get them back to the main base, where someone (program director, head counselor, etc) will mark off points for each counselor a team brings back.

Campers will need to use trial and error and deductive reasoning to figure out the counselor’s phobias. For example, a group of 3 boys and 3 girls come up to a counselor. She screams and runs away. The group sends just the three boys to the counselor. Again she screams and runs away. The group sends the three girls up to the counselor, and she is fine. These campers can reasonably deduce that the counselor is afraid of boys.

Depending on your staff numbers and timeline for the game, staff can go back out with a new phobia after being found and brought to the main base.

This is a camp-wide game that is a lot of fun for both the campers and the staff. Have you done any neat versions of a counselor hunt? Let me know in the comments.