Invisible Rope
Two teams, one rope that isn't there. It only works if everybody sells it.
Two teams mime a tug of war with a rope that does not exist, and the whole thing lives or dies on whether they commit together. When one team decides to lose dramatically it is genuinely funny; when they cannot agree who won, that argument is more interesting than the game.
Two teams, facing each other. There's a rope between you. There isn't, but there is. Pick it up. When I say pull, you pull — and you have to move together, because the rope is only real if all of you agree where it is.
A room needs a big physical release and there is floor space, or you want a competitive thing with no equipment at all.
Props: None
Run this when…
If none of these is your room, pick another.An outdoor or large-room session
Before anything about team coordination
A group who need a loud two minutes
How to run it
Written to be glanced at mid-room, not memorised.
- Split into two teams and line them up facing each other with a clear gap between.
- Everyone picks up the rope. Give them a moment to agree how high it is.
- Call pull. Both teams pull, and the whole line has to move together.
- Call slack, and both teams wobble on the spot. Call pull again.
- Let it build for a minute, then tell one team quietly to lose spectacularly — on their feet.
- Ask the room who actually won. There is no answer and the argument is the fun.
Running it well
Only the host sees these. Participants never do.
- Make them agree where the rope is before anybody pulls. A team holding a rope at four different heights looks like a team miming badly, and it never recovers.
- Whispering to one team to lose is what turns this from a mime into a moment. Pick the team with the biggest personality in it.
- Call slack at least once. The wobble when the rope goes loose is the funniest thing in the activity and nobody expects it.
Watch out for
Space, safety and the traps worth knowing before you start.
- Nobody goes to the floor — the cards say wobble, not fall. Clear the space behind both lines anyway, and say no actual pulling on each other.
- It needs a clear floor and a few metres. In a tight room, run it seated with arms only.
Seated version
“Everybody stand up” is not a neutral instruction. Offer this alongside, not instead.
Both teams stay in their chairs and pull with arms and upper body only. It reads just as well and needs no floor space at all.
Run it yourself
Free for thirty days, no card. Put it on the projector and step through it — nobody in the room needs a phone.
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- Where
- Needs a room
- Props
- None
- Big screen
- Required
- Teams
- Individual only