Grog

4 shiney stars

GROG is a very active, play after dark game.

You also need a building that is conducive to running and hiding. The only equipment you need is a flashlight. Here is how the game is played. One person is the Game Captain and is in charge of overseeing the game.

Prior to the game, the Game Captain (GC) needs to go thru the play area. In our church, we go around and turn on various Sunday School classroom lights. The doors to these rooms are closed, and those rooms are off limits. (We have classroom doors with windows, so the light shines out into the hall, giving us enough light to play. If this does not work for your play area, you need to figure out how to have a low level of light.)

The GC takes the flashlight apart into at least 3 pieces - the barrel, the battery, and the lens - and hides these pieces throughout the play area. Since the environment is somewhat dark, we tend to hide them in places that are not too very hard to find.

Once that is done, the GC goes back to the group and selects the GROG. The GROG is a creature of the dark, and goes into the dim play area to hide.

The GROG's goal is to tag the other players, like freeze tag, and renders them inactive. The GROG is trying to capture all the players. There is no base. If the frozen player is tagged, they can become active players again.

The players' objective is to find the flashlight and assemble it. Only the light of the flashlight will put an end to the GROG's existence. Once the players find the pieces of the flashlight and get it working, they go on a GROG hunt. Shining the light on the GROG, or freezing all the players, ends the game.

NOTES: If you have a large group, divide them into a couple of groups by age and size. You don't want the big guys tearing down a hallway and crashing into a little guy. Also, warn the players not to run "all out" for the same reason. We encourage the players not to talk, etc., when they are frozen.

Submitted by: FT



Features
  • Free / Low Cost
  • Night
Objectives
  • Ice breaker
  • Team Building Teamwork
Space
  • Indoor
  • Large area
  • Outdoor
Age
  • Primary or Elementary School
  • Teens (Age 12-15)
  • Teens (Age 16-18)

Group Size
  • Small Groups (1-9 people)
  • Medium (10-29 people)

Duration
  • Medium (11-29 mins)
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Comments

We've played this in youth group several times... the kids love it--but one of our kids broke his ankle last week. Enjoy, but warn them to be careful!

- Andrew (16 Nov 2008)

This is a great game. If the group is a little larger, have the first person to be tagged by the grog join him/her on the grog side.
- -Foster (31 Dec 2008)

My youth group always wanted to play this game. They had a blast!!
- T Wright (19 Feb 2009)

We played this with 40 youth- what a great game-they all loved it.They begged to play it again and again, this is a group that doesn't always want to paricipate.Great spiritual emphasis can be made with it too.Thnx
- Wendy (20 Feb 2009)

our youth group really has a hard time finding new games we all enjoy. we find our favorite are games like hide n seek or sardines. this game is perfect for us.
- meredith (22 Feb 2009)

Our youth group has a blast playing this game, but you do have to be careful. We had one twisted ankle and another to run into the drinking fountin. All are ok and want to play again!!
- Greg (1 Apr 2009)

I played this game at my youth group and i had a blast!!! i think its like the best game ever! im a teen so i highly recommend it to anyone!!
- ?? (18 Oct 2009)

great game, been playing it for years...A good alternative and to make it go faster is to keep the flashlight in one piece, that way you can play more games,
- Jon (28 Oct 2009)

our youth group plays this at every lock in but we spend lik hours before making it so that its pitch black, not a single thing of light in the room. also the grog whispers into ur ear i am the grog and ur dead and the person cant become alive again.
- chris (17 Dec 2009)

we play this game, but we call it Gorgon. When the Gorgon tags a person (by shining a red laser beam on the person) they must go to jail and in order to get out they sing a song, repeat a verse, or eat something hot etc. We have hall monitors and all doors are taped open so they don't run into closed doors. we've had accidents too. we put glo sticks on the stairs, and gorgons can't run.
- frank (24 Feb 2010)

We call this game Gorgon too. We love it. weve also played it in a park with the pieces hidden and the grogon being blindfolded. It was interesting. One of the leaders had to go with the gorgon to make sure they do not get hurt.
- Elan (14 May 2010)

I am in 7th grade, and we will occasionally play this in youth group. We have an hour, with two buildings and 5 floors in total. The Grog wears a devil costume, and we have a guardian angel, who is the only one who can unfreeze someone.
- anonymous (21 Jan 2012)

We played this game 2 weeks ago! All the teens participated and everyone loved the game! Im sure we will be playing it agian in the future!!!
- Rebecca (13 Mar 2012)

This is sooooo fun! We played this a few weeks ago at my youth group church retreat! Haha me and my friends were frozen for the whole game cause everybody else was running around looking for the flashlight parts! We also played Manhunt and Capture the Flag too!
- Amy (28 Mar 2012)

We played this at my church lock-in we got rug burns pushed into bulletin boards tumbling over people but we played at midnight and all the lights were off and we hid the 3 batteries instead of taking the whole thing apart! and it took us like 10 minutes to put the batteries in because we couldn't figure out the way the spring goes!  Make sure eveyone knows how to put the flashlight back together correctly!  Great game!!!
- Emma (16 Jun 2012)

My YG played this except no one knew who the grog was and it had to be completely dark. and, when the grog tagged you, you had to scream as loud as possible. only the staff could revive you, and then only if they wanted to.
- KJ (1 Jul 2012)

Grog has become a favorite at our youth group, we play it at least once a month. If we let the kids decide they would play it everyweek. We through a variation or two in now and again to keep it fresh, but as is, grog is a FANTASTIC game! It does get crazy though, we've had a few head on collisions in the dark, and even accidently set off the fire alarms a couple times as kids run into the walls.
- SV (18 Sep 2012)

I love this game it is so fun when the pasters anounce that we r playing it every goes crazing
- samantha (26 Feb 2013)

VERY nice game. It really improves teamwork. Just read about it and can't wait to play.
- GameSeeker (21 Oct 2013)

I love the game so much for the teaching it gives.
- Philips Ade-Philips (13 Aug 2015)

We threw it in for the first time as a break from a service workshop after dark. We had no idea it would be so successful! We've since played a couple more times after requests from the youth.
We play with a nurse who is the only person that can "heal" tagged players. She carries a stuffed sock which, once during the game, she can throw at the grog to freeze it for 10 seconds and run away. This is because in this version, if the nurse is tagged, no one else can be saved, and tagged players have to wait out the game in the main room! They enjoy this version, in spite of sometimes losing the nurse.
Ground rules have also been important, but so far no injuries.
- Marcar (23 Oct 2015)

This was one of the first games we ever played with our new Youth Pastor and we loved every minute of it. At our church, we let people work in teams and sometimes we have more than one grog. Trust me, when we're playing it there is never a dull moment.
- Caysee Diehl (28 Dec 2015)

We play this game all the time. My kids love it. We had to come up with a daytime variation which i wanted to share.

We chose three grogs for about 25 kids. We assigned each grog a color. The grog could only be frozen by his 1 corresponding colored ball which was hidden in the play area. Grogs could unfreeze each other. I still like the after darl version better but this one proved effective when u just cant eliminate daylight.
- Jennifer (14 Apr 2016)

This was a good game. However, the flashlight broke before they could assemble it. Make sure you have a sturdy flashlight that won't break!
- Elizabeth (8 Jun 2016)

This has become my youth group's absolute favorite game. We play it 2-3 times a year and have a huge turnout! I've since added and changed some of the rules to make it more unique, fun, and challenging!
- Scott (6 Sep 2018)

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