First Half

Game. On. 

The clock has flipped to a round number that matches the one on the posters. It is time for you to wipe your sweaty palms on your slacks and grab that mic like you mean it. It's go time. It's game time.

It's time for the second of the Three Speeches. 

Hop on to that hot mic and say [at least the bold part of] the following:

SPEECH 2: Welcome + Rules

Good evening, everyone, and welcome to trivia with Trivia Mafia! My name is [TIMBERLY] and I'm thrilled by your life choices, which include being here tonight. I'm going to guide you through eight rounds of trivia in under two hours, complete with a break at half time. We'll laugh, we'll cry, we'll hurl.

We do have some rules for playing trivia with Trivia Mafia: 
Rule #1: Please do not shout out answers. Instead, whisper the answer (softly and sensuously) to your teammates and type it into your app. Hit the red "Submit" button. It will change from red to black. That's how you know you've done it correctly. You can swipe back and forth to look at previous questions. You can change your answers as many times as you like, but be sure to hit "submit" every time you change it, or it won't go through.
Rule #2: Teams should be eight people or fewer. We dock one point per bonus brain at the end of the game - that's the penalty for being popular. 
And Rule #3: Our Most Important Rule: Use Your Noodle, Not Your Google. We ask you to use the internet to submit your answers, but please don't use it to find them. The honor system will be strictly enforced. Just don't cheat. That's all we ask.

In addition to honor, we are playing for prizes tonight! We have a [TOP PRIZE] for our first place team. A [NEXT PRIZE] for our 2nd place team, and a [THIRD PRIZE] for [WHATEVER THIRD PRIZE IS FOR]. 
On to the questions! We start with Question One of Round One, because it's at the beginning... 

Notes on the Rules:

Shouting in a bar or taproom can sometimes be part of a fun atmosphere, but when it's trivia answers, it frequently comes from people who are not, in fact, playing. It's annoying. You can use the line, "I don't yell at you when you're at work, so please don't yell at me." You can talk to them directly off-mic. Or you say, if they know so much, why aren't they playing? You'll find more options for managing hecklers in the FAQ section, but it's always valuable to remind people to behave up front.

As to team size - in general, use your best judgement. We have set eight as the limit for regular trivia (and six players per team for theme trivia); for every person over the limit, the team is docked one point. The point comes off of the final score (after you lock Round 8). Some sites' owner/managers will encourage large teams, and some prefer smaller teams. Since the prize value is the same no matter how many players, you can follow the guidance of the staff at the site.
You'll also want to be judicious about children - unless it's "Bluey" trivia, young humans who can get discount meals (i.e. 12 and under) probably shouldn't count against team totals. However, when a group of adults is pointing to the ninth person at the end and saying, "Oh, they're not really playing," you should still count that person (and dock a point) because of how it appears to other teams.

Remember: The appearance of fairness counts as much as the enforcement of your wise and level judgment.

Looking up answers: We ask people to use the internet to enter their answers, not to search them up! The game is much more fun when it's a conversation between teammates, and the results are more satisfying when they came from folks' own heads. Emphasize the value in being honest, and remind them that Googling is cheating, cheaters get indigestion, if you have to cheat to get a $20 gift card for beer you should examine your soul, etc etc. Go here for more thoughts on how to handle cheating.

Round 1

Round 1 is the first round that you will read on the mic. It is always General Knowledge, so you can dive right in to the first question after the Rules. Give about 11-ish minute between each question,question, and about 2-32 minutes between each round.

Read each question twice, revealing the question in the app after you read it the first time, and finish by saying "That was Question X of Round Y."
Slow down on your second read to really emphasize the thing they're supposed to identify, as in, "What style of trousers [PAUSE] were designed for sailors to use as emergency floatation devices, although Sonny and Cher probably weren’t wearing military-grade ones?" 

Round

4

Round 4 is always a ten-image round. (Every other round is only five questions/songs/images.) It is automatically revealed in the app when you start the game (unless you toggle that off, so that you control when it is revealed.) During Round 1, you’ll want to makebe sure to point out that Round 4 is an Image Round,Round, and theyteams have until the end of the first half to complete it! ItEven isif it's already revealed in the app, but you’ll still want to read the title and description. (If

you’re

You can introduce Round 4 before the start of Round 1; or, you can introduce it by tying it to Question 4 and saying, 

Speaking of fours - click on penthat '4' at the top of your screen to go through Round 4! It's called [CLEVER THEME TITLE] - [CLEVER ROUND DESCRIPTION]. Make sure you identify all ten of them before the end of Round 3, which is also the end of the first half! And if you're not sure, just make a guess - a blank is always wrong.

Remind players throughout the first half to complete this round, and paper, it’speek at atheir uniquesubmissions URLto providedsee if there are teams who have overlooked it (or only done one). You can say reminders at Question 4 of Rounds 2 and 3, or in the Host Email, at triviamafia.com/XXX withbetween the lastrounds three- characterswhatever changingfeels fornatural. each

block

Rounds of2 questionsand during3

the week.)

• For subsequent rounds, read the name of the round and the full description (starting withbefore Roundreading 2).the first question of that round. Repeat the description or theme before you read question three or four, just to nudge them, as in, "this is Question 4 in our Light Things round" or "remember, every answer will include 'apt' somewhere in it!"

  • There may be an example; players can see the description in the app but not examples! That’s the only time they’re allowed to shout out answers, which can be fun.

  Be sure to remind teams about completing Round 4 between questions. You can do it after every question 5, or before every question 4, whatever works for you - just as long as they get several reminders.

• Thank the Staff

  At least twice in every game, you should give a shout-out to the staff working that night. It can be a general "Let's take a minute to thank the great staff here tonight, woo!" It can be a more pointed, "Please put down whatever is in your hands and put your hands together to thank the people working so hard to bring you the finest foods and beverages in all the land - Daphne behind the bar! Fred up front! Velma on the floor! Shaggy and Scooby in the back!"

  Making a note of their names not only makes that thank you more personal, it also helps you build a relationship with them! They are also serving you, to a degree, but they are also the closest thing you have to coworkers in the moment. Ally with them. Most of the time, they're good people. 

  Table Touches

  A "table touch" is when you put your fingers on to the hard, flat surface that is supported on legs and allows a person to rest their arm, drink, and phone. It is, more importantly, when you check in with your teams. 

  The goal is to talk to every team at least once per half. Starting by the middle of Round 2 and definitely by Round 3, you should stop by and ask, "How's it going? Do you need any clarifications, or other support?" Maybe their app is glitching, maybe they'll say, "yeah, can you give us the answers?" and you'll laugh with them as if it is an original joke. If they say everything is fine, great, that's good, you can leave them alone. OR - you could ask what brought them in that night. Ask if they'd recommend the beer they're drinking. Ask for the story on their team name. It should take less than a minute (after all, that's all the time you have between questions), but showing a little curiosity is great for building that community. And it pays off if you ever have to navigate a kerfuffle over question disputes, accusations of cheating, or other bull***t. 

  :awooga: Lockdown warning! 

  Once you get through the last question of Round 3, let them know that it’s the end of the first halfhalf! ! Give them about 2-3 minutes to finish submitting all their answers for the first FOUR rounds,rounds, and tell them you’ll be locking the rounds for grading (i.e. “you have three minutes, which on my clock means we’ll lock it up at 7:48”41”). Take a final lap to check to see if teams have any last requests for clarifications or wee little nudges. Then at that time,time you said you would, announce that you are locking the roundsrounds, (orand askactually them to bring up their answer sheets). This islock the Intermission, so it’s a great time to nudge people to order another drink/food item.

• After you finish scoring (and hand back the sheets, if needed), read the answers to Rounds 1 thru 4. You can truncate the questions on this reread.
  • For example, the question, "In Australia and the United Kingdom, they call something that you might find at a construction site or a music festival a 'thunder box.' In the U.S., it is most commonly known as what?" becomes, "In Australia and the UK, they call it a thunder box - but it's known in the US as a Port-a-Potty!"
• Update the Leaderboard in the app, and ask teams if they have any quibbles, concerns, or corrections that need to be addressed. Give them a minute or two to review the credit they were given! Then congratulate the team that is currently in first place, and roll on into Round 5.

The halfway point is a good time to count how many teams are playing and estimate the average team size (which you need to know for the Host Feedback). If there are teams that joined in the app but didn't submit more than one round of answers, you shouldn't count them.rounds.

• Before you start Round 5, be sure to mention the Mega Round. Some hosts do the full explanation at the top of the second half, some just tease it and do a full explanation around Round 7. Just make sure you do dedicate time to explaining it clearly, and give several reminders!

SAMPLENext: SCRIPT: 

Don’t forget to give yourself extra points by assigning a Mega Round. You can choose Round 5, 6, 7, or 8 to be your Mega Round. Here’s how that works: Pick the round you feel the best about, the one where you know you got the most correct answers. Then go to the Mega Round section in the app, select that round number, and assign 5 points to the answer you’re most confident about. Your next best answer, give 4 points. And so on, down to 1 point for the answer you’re least confident about. That’s 15 points total if you ace your Mega Round. Let me know if you are confused! If you don’t assign a Mega Round, you can’t win, because Math.

• Round 6 is a Lightning Round.Intermission This just means you read it faster. Instead of reading one question every minute or two, introduce the round name and description, and then read all five questions in a row. Reveal them in the app, then repeat all five questions (they’re usually single words or short phrases) and give the teams a slightly longer break (maybe 4 minutes) to work on it before moving on to Round 7. Some hosts like to hide these questions after that break, to increase the difficulty, but that’s dealer’s choice (and not necessary).
• The Sound Round happens at Round 7. Don’t forget to tell people the theme of the Sound Round before you play the songs. Follow along with the song-snippets, and tell people which number they’re listening to (i.e. “That was #1, here it comes again... That was #2, here comes #3...”). The sound round is one continuous mp3 with breaks built in, so you can just hit “play” and let it run to the end, or you can manually pause to make the breaks longer. Each clip plays twice.

  • Some locations CAN’T run the Sound Round. It’s possible that the tech setup doesn’t allow it, but in many cases, it’s because the venue doesn’t have the licensing for it. If copyrighted music is used for an event that the customer is paying for in their space, typically they need to have BMI/ASCAP/SESAC licensing for it. If Trivia Mafia plays music as an explicit part of the game, then they can be fined by those litigious organizations working to protect musicians licensing rights. If the ICOE says No Sound Round, please don’t ever play the sound round, even if you think you could make it work technically.

  • Those locations have a second image round instead. This automatically appears as Round 7 in the app when Sound Round is toggled off at the point when you were setting up the game, or as a second unique URL for locations using paper (just like Round 4). We recommend introducing it after Round 6, and revealing the images one at a time with just 20-30 seconds between each. 

• At least twice during the night, lead a round of applause for the bartenders and servers, and remind everyone to tip them generously for all their hard work. Get to know the staff personally (they’re your greatest allies during a trivia night) and introduce them to the players over the microphone. They love that.
• Near the end of the night, remind everyone to visit TriviaMafia.com, where they can sign up for the email newsletter “The Morning Rounds.” That has fun facts from our Editorial team, five free questions, and info on our schedule each day, and hints on the rounds at the very bottom. (It’s also a good idea for you, the host, to sign up to receive the newsletter, because it’s so good.) Winning teams can also see their pictures appear on the landing page for the location.