Wie is de Mol tasks: 14 challenges for your own group

A mole game for your own group stands or falls with the challenges, and not with how exciting they are but with how much room they give the mole. A challenge the group simply passes or fails is a team task. A challenge only becomes a proper challenge when one person can make it fail unnoticed and the rest then have to work out who it went wrong with. Below are fourteen challenges in that style, with the set-up for each, what you need and exactly where the mole can strike without being noticed. It also covers how to assign the role, how to handle the pot and the jokers, and how the final quiz works.

How the game works

The core is simple. One participant is the mole and knows it, the rest don't. The group does challenges that earn money for a shared pot. The mole tries to hold that money back without being caught. After a number of challenges comes a quiz with questions about the mole, and whoever scores worst on it drops out. At the end two are left, and if the non-mole has it right, they win the pot.

What makes this work so well in your own group is the suspicion between challenges. During a challenge everybody is busy, but in the twenty minutes afterwards there's whispering in groups of two, and that's where the game really happens. So plan that time in. A half day with four challenges and plenty of breaks in between works better than six challenges back to back.

The set-up that works for us in practice for a half day: four challenges, two quiz moments with one person dropping out each, a pot that builds up to an amount worth the effort, and three jokers that can be earned along the way. How we set that up with scenery and hosts is described on the page about the mole game. This article is about the challenges themselves.

Choosing the mole and keeping it workable

This is the part where home-made mole games usually fall apart, and almost never because the challenges weren't good. You arrange four things in advance.

The assignment must not be visible anywhere. Sealed envelopes that everyone opens at the same moment, separately from each other, and then hands back stuck shut. One envelope contains the assignment, and the rest contain the same text with the message that you're not the mole. If you'd rather send the message in advance, you can do that too, and then on the day itself there's no moment at which anything can be seen.

The mole gets a budget, not an order to ruin everything. Write in the envelope: you may intervene once per challenge, and you may let at least one challenge succeed completely. That's the instruction that keeps the game playable. A mole who sabotages everything is found after two hours, and then the group spends another two hours playing without any tension.

Give the mole a credible reason to stand alone somewhere. Build a role into every challenge that sets one person apart: the person keeping time, the person who stays by the chest, the person filling in the form. If such a role is standard, nobody notices when the mole takes it. Without those roles the mole has to set themselves apart, and that's exactly what a group notices.

Make sure the hosts give nothing away. The biggest giveaway is the organiser: a glance, a brief hesitation when handing out an assignment, a remark that only makes sense if you know who it is. Agree that the hosts address all participants in exactly the same way, the mole included, and don't tell everyone, even within the organisation, who it is.

What makes a challenge suitable

A usable challenge has three properties. It has a group goal that is measurably hit or missed, it has a place where one person can cause delay or an error invisibly, and afterwards it can't be traced back to one culprit. That last one is the hardest. If the group can work out exactly who did which action after the challenge, the mole is found within five minutes and you can forget the rest of the day.

That's why chains, blindfolds, time pressure and simultaneity work so well. In a chain of eight people nobody knows where a number went wrong. Under time pressure being slow isn't suspicious. When four things happen at once, nobody watches everything. What doesn't work is a challenge where everyone takes a turn while the rest watch, because then the group sees every mistake and every delay.

All the challenges below are set up so that the pot can earn something and so that the mole has one point of attack per challenge. The point of attack is listed with each challenge, so you can put it in the mole's envelope. Of course, don't share those lines with the rest.

Challenges where the pot is at stake

1. The four codes

The group has to open a chest with a four-digit combination lock within twenty minutes. The four digits are hidden separately in four places in the area, with a clue at each digit about its position in the code. The group has to split up, because four places in twenty minutes isn't doable together.

• Set-up: four search spots, each with one digit and one position marker. Each code found earns €50 for the pot, and the open chest earns another €100 on top.
• What you need: a chest with a combination lock, four hidden cards, a map, a stopwatch.
• Room for the mole: go to the furthest spot, find the card and pass on the number one higher or lower. If the chest doesn't open, nobody knows which of the four digits was wrong.

2. The water chain

The group stands in a row twenty metres long and has to move water from a full tub to a measuring jug, using cups passed from hand to hand. There's a line on the measuring jug that has to be reached in seven minutes. For every twenty centilitres above the line, money is added.

• Set-up: two buckets, the rest pass on cups. The last person pours into the measuring jug and calls out the level. €25 per line reached, maximum €150.
• What you need: a tub of water, eight to ten plastic cups, a measuring jug with lines, a stopwatch, a place where it's fine to get wet.
• Room for the mole: stand in the middle of the row and spill a sip from each cup. That's perfectly normal when passing cups on, and ten sips is two lines fewer.

3. The group bid

The group gets ten knowledge questions and has to decide together, for each question, how much of the potential money they stake on it. For a correct answer the stake goes into the pot, for a wrong answer it comes off. The group has to agree on the stake, and that can only be done out loud.

• Set-up: ten questions, a stake of €10 to €50 per question, with €200 in play money in hand at the start. The final result goes one to one to the pot.
• What you need: ten questions with one indisputable answer, play money or chips, a sheet to track the stakes on.
• Room for the mole: for a question where you're sure of the answer, say you doubt it, and nudge the group towards a low stake. For a question where you know the answer is wrong, nudge towards a high stake. That's discussion, not sabotage, and it can't be pinned on you.

4. One at a time inside

Twenty objects lie on a table in a closed room. One participant at a time may go in, for thirty seconds, and afterwards the group has to complete the list outside. Every correct object earns money, every wrong object on the list costs money.

• Set-up: twenty objects, six turns of thirty seconds for six different people. €20 per correct object, €20 off per invented object.
• What you need: a separate room, twenty recognisable objects, a stopwatch, pen and paper for the group outside.
• Room for the mole: on your turn, name two objects that weren't there and say you're sure about them. The group puts them on the list and the deduction can't be attributed to one person, because nobody else has seen the whole table.

Challenges where information is the weapon

5. The blind route

Four participants walk an obstacle course blindfolded, guided by the rest of the group, who may only talk from a fixed spot. Five objects have to be collected from the course. Every touch of an obstacle costs time.

• Set-up: a course of about fifteen by fifteen metres, five objects, twelve minutes. €30 per object collected.
• What you need: four blindfolds, cones or other material for obstacles, five objects, a stopwatch, a whistle.
• Room for the mole: stand with the guides and shout something slightly different from the rest. When four people talk over each other, one deviating voice is just noise. If you're blindfolded yourself, you hesitate slightly too long at every step.

6. The message relay

A message of about thirty words with four numbers in it has to travel from start to finish through eight people in eight separate positions. Whispering is allowed, writing isn't. At the end the message is read out and compared with the original.

• Set-up: eight positions five metres apart, one pass-on per turn, no going back and forth. €25 per number that arrives correctly and €50 if the whole message is right.
• What you need: a written message, eight numbered spots, someone to check that nothing is written down.
• Room for the mole: change one number. In a chain of eight that can't be traced at all, because the whole group knows chains like this always go wrong. This is the purest sabotage there is.

7. The puzzle without discussion

The group gets a large puzzle or a model kit that has to be finished in twenty minutes, but no talking is allowed. Pointing is allowed, writing isn't. Halfway through, the hosts take two people away for a separate task, so the rest have to continue with fewer people.

• Set-up: a 300-piece puzzle or a construction with a building plan, twenty minutes, silence. €100 if completely finished, €40 if three quarters.
• What you need: the puzzle or building set, a table, a stopwatch, and a separate task for the two who are taken away.
• Room for the mole: put a few pieces in the wrong place and keep two pieces in your pocket. With no discussion, nobody can ask why you're doing something, and two missing pieces looks like an incomplete box.

8. The clue auction

The group has to solve a question for which they need clues. The clues can be bought with money from the pot, and the group has to decide together how many to buy. Some clues are valuable, others are worthless, and you only find out after buying.

• Set-up: eight clues at €25 each, three of which are needed for the answer. The right answer earns €250. Whatever the group doesn't spend stays in the pot.
• What you need: eight sealed envelopes with clues, a task with one answer, a sheet to note the spending.
• Room for the mole: consistently argue for buying more clues than necessary, on the grounds that certainty matters more. If the group goes along with that, the challenge costs more than it earns, and it was a joint decision.

Physical challenges where sabotage stays invisible

9. The tower that has to stay up

In fifteen minutes the group builds a tower from slats, planks or crates, which then has to stay standing for two minutes with a bucket of water on top. The height determines the amount. This is the challenge where the group gets in each other's way the most and where one loose connection goes unnoticed.

• Set-up: building material plus tape or rope, fifteen minutes of building, two minutes standing with weight. €30 per half metre reached.
• What you need: slats or crates, tape, rope, a bucket, a tape measure, a stopwatch.
• Room for the mole: make one connection just a bit too loose and offer to check it yourself. If the tower falls, it falls because of the weight and not because of you, and five people helped build it.

10. The key relay

There is one key and there are five padlocks in five places in the area, each with a card behind it. The key has to go from person to person and from lock to lock, and the group decides the route and the split themselves. Everything has to be done within twenty minutes.

• Set-up: five padlocks at five distances, one key, a route the group plans itself. €40 per card collected.
• What you need: five padlocks that fit the same key, five cards, a map, a stopwatch.
• Room for the mole: take the furthest lock and run the first stretch fast, so nobody doubts you, and then take it easy. The furthest stretch is exactly the stretch nobody sees.

11. The search field

Fifteen marked objects are hidden in a cordoned-off field. The group has fifteen minutes and may not search with more than three people in the same quadrant at once. Every object found has to be handed in at a central point.

• Set-up: a field in six quadrants, fifteen objects, fifteen minutes. €20 per object handed in, and a €50 bonus for all fifteen.
• What you need: cones to mark out the quadrants, fifteen small objects, a drop-off box, a stopwatch.
• Room for the mole: find an object and leave it in your coat pocket. In a field of fifteen, one object that isn't found goes unnoticed by everyone, and it costs the €50 bonus.

Challenges with an individual temptation

12. The suitcase of jokers

Participants walk one by one into a room where there's a choice: €50 for the pot, or a joker for yourself. Nobody sees what anyone else chooses, and at the end only the total is announced. So the group knows how much was chosen for the pot, but not by whom.

• Set-up: one room, one choice per person, one minute to decide. Only the final amount is read out, and the jokers stay secret until they're used.
• What you need: a separate room, joker cards, a closed box for the choices, someone who keeps track and keeps quiet.
• Room for the mole: choose the joker and then complain out loud about how low the amount is. This is the challenge where the mole takes free points, because the choice is secret by definition and everyone is under suspicion.

13. The offer from the hosts

At an unexpected moment one participant, in front of the whole group, receives an offer: either €100 from the pot for yourself, or an exemption from the next quiz. The group may talk about it but not decide. Who gets the offer is determined by chance, and you show that too.

• Set-up: draw a name from a bowl, read out the offer, give thirty seconds. It's a one-off moment, halfway through the day.
• What you need: a bowl of names, a written offer, an exemption card.
• Room for the mole: if you're drawn, take the exemption and explain that you didn't want to disadvantage the group. If someone else is drawn, steer them towards the money, so the group suspects them instead of you.

14. Double or nothing

The last challenge of the day. The group may stake half of the pot on one task they have to complete in five minutes. If it works, the stake doubles. If it doesn't, the stake is gone. The decision to take part has to be unanimous, and that conversation is half the work.

• Set-up: a task that is only just doable in five minutes, for example a construction or a series of ten targeted throws. The stake is half the pot, and the result is applied immediately.
• What you need: the materials for the final task, a stopwatch, and the pot total visible on a board.
• Room for the mole: vote to take part and then make sure the task just fails. In five minutes with the whole group on one task, one person who's late with one action is enough, and nobody is looking at who did what any more.

Jokers, exemptions and the pot

The pot is the engine of the game and so it has to be visible. Put the total on a board or flip chart and update it after every challenge, by hand, in front of the whole group. It's a small ritual and it does a lot: everybody sees what has been lost and starts working out who was there.

An amount that works for a group of ten: a maximum pot of about €1,000 in play money, of which a group playing well brings in half. Whether that play money turns into something real at the end is up to you. A €50 gift voucher for the winner works just as well as a large amount, because it's about winning and not about the money.

As for the jokers, keep things as simple as you possibly can:

• One joker is one extra correct answer in the quiz. No variations with half jokers or jokers that expire, because then you're explaining rules at every quiz.
• Jokers stay secret until the moment they're used. Have people hand them in on a slip of paper at the quiz rather than announcing them out loud. Anyone who announces a joker gives away their own position.
• An exemption skips one quiz entirely. Hand out one per game at most, because an exemption takes all the tension out of a quiz moment.
• Jokers can't be swapped or given away. As soon as they can be, negotiations start, and those cost half an hour.

The final quiz and the elimination procedure

The quiz is what holds the whole game together, and the set-up is simpler than people think. Twenty questions about the mole, each with a limited number of possible answers: is the mole a man or a woman, was the mole in the group on the blind route or with the people giving directions, did the mole have a role with the chest, and so on. Every participant fills in the same form under their own name.

You process the results by hand and it takes ten minutes, so plan that time in and have something else going on alongside it. You lay the twenty forms next to the correct answers and count each person's correct answers. Whoever has the lowest score is out. If scores are tied, you look at the time the form was handed in, so have everyone write their hand-in time on it. With a group of ten, you let two people drop out at different moments, so that three or four go through to the final.

Make the elimination moments a small ritual and keep it short. Names in an envelope, read out one by one to say who is through, and the person who drops out gets a role in the next challenge instead of a chair on the sidelines. Let them keep track of the time or manage the money, so they stay with the group all day and can watch without playing.

Five things that give the game away

1. A mole who makes everything fail. After two failed challenges, the group looks at who was close by in all three. Give the mole one intervention per challenge and the instruction to let at least one challenge succeed.
2. Challenges where everyone does something in turn. Then the whole group sees every mistake and every second of delay. Build in chains, simultaneous actions and blindfolds, and nothing can be traced back.
3. Game hosts who treat the mole differently. One look held too long or one task explained differently is enough. Agree that everyone is spoken to in the same way, and keep the number of people who know small.
4. Too little time between challenges. The suspecting happens in the breaks. Without that time, you have a series of team tasks and not a mole game. Leave twenty minutes between two challenges, even if it feels like lost time.
5. A quiz with open questions. Questions like who do you think the mole is give you one answer and no score. Work with twenty closed questions about traits and actions, and you get a ranking and a fair elimination.

Timing for a half day

• Arrival, briefing and assigning the role: twenty minutes. Envelopes are opened at your own spot, then handed in.
• Challenge 1, the four codes: thirty minutes including the briefing and updating the pot.
• Walking and discussion break: twenty minutes. This is where the suspecting happens, so plan it in and don't fill it up.
• Challenge 2, the message relay: twenty-five minutes.
• Quiz 1 and first elimination: thirty minutes, including marking by hand.
• Challenge 3, the blind route: thirty minutes.
• Challenge 4, double or nothing: twenty minutes, including the discussion about whether to risk it or not.
• Final quiz, results and the unmasking: thirty minutes.

That comes to about three and a quarter hours for a group of eight to twelve. If you want a full day, add two challenges and one quiz moment, and plan a lunch break in the middle. More than five hours in a row is too much for most groups, because suspecting is tiring in a way people don't expect.

Run it yourself or let us do it

Of all the game formats, this is the hardest one to run yourself, and that has little to do with materials. You can build the challenges above with whatever is in a shed. The problem is that as the organiser you can't play along, that you need someone to mark the quiz forms while you set up the next challenge, and that you have to keep covering for the mole all day without giving anything away.

Allow five to eight hours of preparation for a half day with four challenges: gathering the materials, writing the envelopes, coming up with twenty quiz questions that really produce a ranking, and working out the pot and the jokers. On the day itself you also need two people who don't take part, and three if there are more than twelve participants.

It also depends on group size. Up to about fourteen participants it's manageable. Above that you have to split the game into two parallel groups, each with its own mole, and then everything doubles: two sets of materials, two quiz markings, two pots. That's the point where organising it yourself costs more time than it gives back.

If you have us run it, we bring the challenges, the materials, the role allocation, the quiz marking and the hosting to your venue. We're based in Enschede, at Piet Heinstraat 12, and we work all over the Netherlands. We come up with and build everything we use ourselves, so challenges about your own organisation can be included. A compact version starts at €195 for the whole group, for roughly six to sixty participants. A more extensive game with set design, bespoke challenges and several rounds starts at €550, depending on group size. We price large projects on request, and via the quote page and you'll hear within one working day what it will cost for your group.

What you get from this

The fourteen challenges above are enough for a half day and for a full day. Pick four or six, and make sure every selection includes at least one chain, at least one challenge with a blindfold or silence, and at least one individual temptation. Those three formats are where the mole can work unseen.

Remember three things when allocating roles. Give the mole one intervention per challenge and the instruction to let at least one challenge succeed. Build a role into every challenge that legitimately sets someone apart, so the mole doesn't have to isolate themselves. And keep the number of people who know the name as small as possible, because the game hosts give away more than the mole does.

Work with twenty closed quiz questions, keep the pot visible on a board, and plan twenty minutes between challenges for discussion. If you're looking for other game formats where the group has to figure each other out, look at the murder mystery dinner or the overview of activities.