The Ultimate Guide To Hosting A Trivia Night House Party
Turn up the temperature of your home hosting endeavour by putting together a cut-throat, fight to the finish trivia night! An evening of questions and quizzes, rapid fires and buzzer rounds is an utter riot thoroughly enjoyed during the holiday season. A trivia night is basically a gathering where guests participate in a question-answer quiz and the winner goes home with a prize. Undoubtedly, such evenings can get ultra competitive, so bar trivia or trivia nights are definitely intense affairs!
If you plan to host a trivia night at home, get equipped with a kicking theme and an equally interesting set of questions. The format of the questions can be free ranging so the evening doesn’t feel too monotonous. You can choose to play an old-fashioned pen and paper quiz or simply use tablets and smartphones to record your responses.
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On trivia nights, make sure you organise ample food and drink too — all that excitement is bound to make your guests ravenous. If you settle on a theme for the trivia contest, you can in fact design a menu to complement the quiz. Our recommendation? Keep a bottle of Johnnie Walker Black Label and of Tanqueray No. Ten Gin handy for guests to sip.
Read on for a quick guide on how to compile trivia questions, divide your guests into teams and plan a flawless competition:
Fix A Topic
Let’s be honest, not everyone is a fan of answering general knowledge questions in a trivia contest! Guests are always eager to take on a trivia challenge around their interests and hobbies so one way to host trivia night is to fix a topic. This can be anything like sci-fi or Bollywood or classic movies and books, sports and even mathematics! A topic that interests all will make things more interesting and heated and everyone will get into the mode of playing to win.
Source Questions
When you source questions, look up challenges on trivia apps which have a detailed format with several rounds and tie breakers to give your competition a structure. There are some online trivia databases too and quiz apps which might cater to your specific needs. Since trivia nights began as activities to attract more customers in bars and pubs on weekdays, their websites also have archived quizzes which you can borrow! Make sure the difficulty level increases at every level to keep guests on their toes.
Draw Up Teams
Pick straws, throw chits or draw cards to form teams for trivia night. While playing host and quizmaster, make sure there is no cheating! Divide your guests into teams depending on the number and create ample space in your drawing room for them to congregate and discuss their strategy. Have a back-up plan just in case teams are uneven, to ensure there is no partiality!
Start With A Warm-Up Round
To get guests warmed up for the quiz, start with some small zingers or a quick stand-up so they can settle-in and get ready to play. You can also begin the trivia contest with a trial round so that the teams get a hang of the game.
Offer Interesting Prizes
A trivia contest would be terribly disenchanting if you don’t offer good enough prizes! Show your guests beforehand what they can stand to win. During festive season, this can be gift vouchers, customised gift baskets or a bottle of premium wine. But the prize has to be worthy enough to fight for!
Wrapping Up…
A trivia night is about raising the roof of your house party with a bit of competitive fun. Source questions cleverly and raise the challenge at every round to make sure the players are always alert. Offer interesting prizes for the winning team to make the play worth their while!
