decision. Pull out this book, start asking questions, try to stump each other. Now you have something to do without having to make a decision. Just ask the one-pointers, and see how far you can get without getting one wrong. Ask them in order and see which difficulty is the first one you miss. Read the fill-in-the-blank round out loud and see which friend can get the most answers right. There are lots of ways to use this book sitting around on a Saturday night. Just open it up and go!
A PERSON WHO OWNS A BUSINESS WITH A WAITING ROOM
After years of study, schooling, and a mountain of student debt, you are now a dentist, doctor, physical therapist, ocularist (BONUS FACT: an ocularist is someone who makes glass eyes), etc. Now, your problem is, you are massively successful and have a waiting room full of people who want your services. What to do with all those people who are growing to dislike you because of how long you keep them waiting? Solution: Put this book in your waiting room. Everyone loves trivia and everyone loves knowing something that other people don’t. You can now provide that to people for the very affordable cost of this book! Grab a few of these and put them on every flat surface in your waiting room. People will be so engrossed that they will forget about how long you have kept them waiting. Even better, they will share their newly learned facts with you while you examine them, so you will get smarter without ever having to read anything. After all your study, who wants to read any more?
A PERSON WHO IS A CHARITABLE INDIVIDUAL
You are an amazing person. The downside of hosting trivia for a living is that we don’t make the big bucks. But you… You are incredible. You bought this book just to make us happy and put a few bucks in our pocket. It works great to balance a lopsided coffee table. If you buy ten of them, you can use them as a step stool. A couple of pages in
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this book are probably blank and you could use them to take notes on something. It doesn’t matter. You’re awesome. Thanks.
Regardless of how you use this book, you will have a fun time with it. We had fun writing it. No matter how you use it, enjoy!
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How to Play
The Three Rules
No electronic devices! We want to know what you know, not what the internet tells you is true.
No shouting-out of answers. If you see someone doing this who isn’t playing, invite them to form a team of their own if they are so smart.
Your host doesn’t make the questions, but does make the rules. If you have an issue with a question, email [email protected], and the appropriate person will be flogged.
Team Size
We have a very strict team size limit. Your team is allowed to have up to 35 players.
Yup, you read that right…only 35 players. Try not to go over.
Game Play
City Trivia game play consists of 5 rounds of questions with 4 bonus rounds in between. Questions are progressive and increase in difficulty and value during each round from 1 to 10 points. At the end of each round is a bonus question that uses a wager system. After hearing the question, circle the number of points you want to wager. At the end of a round, you will take that round’s answer sheets to the host for scoring. You can then pick up a worksheet round to gain additional points while the host is scoring the round. Rinse and repeat.
Bonus Rounds
Puzzle Round: Usually some sort of riddle or game that has to be worked out.
Picture Round: Requires you to identify ten pictures based on a theme.
Fill-in-the-Blank Round: Exactly what it sounds like.
Music Round: Identify the title and artist for ten different songs and then, as a bonus, the theme of all ten songs.
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Scoring
Question rounds: Question 1 is worth one point, Question 2 is worth two points… Get it? This means that each question round has a maximum score of 55 points.
Worksheet rounds: A perfect score on any of the worksheet rounds is usually twenty points. This means that if there are ten pictures or ten fill-in-the-blanks, then each one is worth two points.
Incorrect answers: If you have no idea of the answer to the question, then take a guess. Incorrect guesses cannot hurt you in the first ten questions of a round.
Bonus question: If you get the bonus question correct, then we add the points you wagered to your score. But, if you get the bonus question wrong, then the wager is subtracted from your score. (This is the only time when you can lose points.)
Bonus points: Hosts have the discretion of opening their magic coat of bonus points and handing them out as they see fit. For example: Making your host laugh at your stupid guesses can gain you bonus points.
Note: Since hosts can give bonus points arbitrarily, they count only for nightly scores and are not applied to tournament scores.
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How to Be a Host
Being a host is easy.
Talk out loud or on the microphone just like you would talk to a friend. Be congenial and upbeat. Everyone is there to have fun, including you. Make sure that you convey all of the needed information. Who you are, what you are doing, what the format of the game is, and remind people to have fun. That’s why they are there.
Speak clearly and repeat each question. You have all of the questions and answers ahead of time. If there is a word you don’t know, and we tried to provide you with phonetic pronunciation for all of them, look it up beforehand. If you make a mistake, no big deal, just laugh along with everyone else.
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How the Game Is Played
Format and Timing
There are nine rounds of trivia per game. Five rounds of questions and four bonus rounds of Puzzle, Picture, Fill-in-the-Blank, and Music rounds.
Once you begin asking the questions in round number one, make sure you repeat each question twice. Leave a few seconds in between each of the first few questions. They are designed to be easy and most teams will not need too much time to answer them. Questions 1–5 should take a total of about 2.5 minutes to ask. Leave thirty seconds to a minute in between questions 6–11. These questions are designed to be harder and teams will likely huddle together to debate possible answers. When you have finished, set a deadline (2 or 3 minutes) for teams to complete the round. When a team turns in the first round, give them a copy of the Puzzle round. Begin scoring the answer sheets as soon as you get them. It is up to you whether or not you accept an answer that is close, but remember, you have to deal with the consequences. Once all of the Round One answer sheets have been collected, set a deadline for the Puzzle round (again, 2–3 minutes). Ideally, you should finish scoring all of the Round One answer sheets around the time teams start turning in their Puzzle rounds. Score the Puzzle rounds as soon as you can. When you have finished scoring the Puzzle rounds, add up all of the total score of each team.
Once all Round One and Puzzle rounds have been scored and entered, read off all of the answers to Round
