How to host an online pub quiz for self-isolating friends?
March 28, 2020 8:14 AM Subscribe
I'm organising a 'pub quiz' get-together for me and some friends under lockdown, and I want to adapt it to make it more interactive and fun for individuals joining in from home, who won't be around a table as a team. Any ideas?
So I have plenty of friends who are single and/or childless, and we just can't get together to do the kinds of things we would normally do as a circle : countryside walks, dinners together, evenings in the pub.
We aren't gamers, but plenty of us enjoy a pub quiz so I'm going to host one online (inviting folks to join over Zoom or something like it), but the way it works is going to have to be different.
So in a normal pub quiz, a team are sitting round a table together and the questions (if chosen well) will trigger debate and conversation within that group, and a good time is had by all.
But online, with most participants calling in from home in ones or twos, those kinds of teams won't form naturally or easily; and a conventional quiz style would end up with me reading out questions and each participant quietly writing down the answers themselves, and nobody saying much. More like a school test, than the kind of lively session I want to get going!
So, any suggestions for how I should change the format to trigger more interaction:
To make it clear, I'm not really interested in:
So I have plenty of friends who are single and/or childless, and we just can't get together to do the kinds of things we would normally do as a circle : countryside walks, dinners together, evenings in the pub.
We aren't gamers, but plenty of us enjoy a pub quiz so I'm going to host one online (inviting folks to join over Zoom or something like it), but the way it works is going to have to be different.
So in a normal pub quiz, a team are sitting round a table together and the questions (if chosen well) will trigger debate and conversation within that group, and a good time is had by all.
But online, with most participants calling in from home in ones or twos, those kinds of teams won't form naturally or easily; and a conventional quiz style would end up with me reading out questions and each participant quietly writing down the answers themselves, and nobody saying much. More like a school test, than the kind of lively session I want to get going!
So, any suggestions for how I should change the format to trigger more interaction:
- conversation and bantter between the participants and the host
- and between all the participants together somehow
To make it clear, I'm not really interested in:
- Quizzing software; the ones I've seen are mostly a way of co-ordinating quizzes between team groups (which we aren't), or are just a way of avoiding the paperwork (which we won't mind doing ourselves)
- Conventional question suggestions (already got plenty)
- Tips to avoid cheating (that's not going to be a problem for us)
We used houseparty app. Everyone logged in. One person was trivia host and we all just discussed and then decided on our answer. So we worked as a team and the points didn't count. Was just a fun thing to do. The host wrote answers down and went over them at the end.
posted by Ftsqg at 9:19 AM on March 28, 2020
posted by Ftsqg at 9:19 AM on March 28, 2020
I've been doing a LOT of trivia type stuff online since this all started on Twitch. I've seen a few different ways it can work, but the easiest to set up is basically
- host streaming on Twitch, maybe with someone working as a "mod" to watch the live chat
- use their live chat or your own Discord channel
- teams submit using a Google form which populates a sheet which can then be scored
You can watch some of the old streams here. Alternately, if Twitch has too much of a learning curve, you could do this via Zoom with a Discord chat room or even Facebook live. But basically you can offer fun bonuses for people who can answer quicklike questions in the chat stream in addition to the usual trivia questions. And within the groups that I've done,, people can coordinate on teams in whatever ways they want (I've used Slack, Hangouts, even just SMS). Allowing teams to be a good size can encourage this. And then each team has a captain who can submit the answers for the team. Mixing it up with audio and visual rounds is always a good way to do things.
Last night they had a "tiebreaker" math puzzle which was basically impossible (involved doing simple math with numbers you only sort of knew like "The age of the Olsen twins times the age of Tom Hanks plus Michael Moore") but the person closest would be the winner in a tie-breaker. I thought this was a good way to keep it lively.
posted by jessamyn at 9:57 AM on March 28, 2020
- host streaming on Twitch, maybe with someone working as a "mod" to watch the live chat
- use their live chat or your own Discord channel
- teams submit using a Google form which populates a sheet which can then be scored
You can watch some of the old streams here. Alternately, if Twitch has too much of a learning curve, you could do this via Zoom with a Discord chat room or even Facebook live. But basically you can offer fun bonuses for people who can answer quicklike questions in the chat stream in addition to the usual trivia questions. And within the groups that I've done,, people can coordinate on teams in whatever ways they want (I've used Slack, Hangouts, even just SMS). Allowing teams to be a good size can encourage this. And then each team has a captain who can submit the answers for the team. Mixing it up with audio and visual rounds is always a good way to do things.
Last night they had a "tiebreaker" math puzzle which was basically impossible (involved doing simple math with numbers you only sort of knew like "The age of the Olsen twins times the age of Tom Hanks plus Michael Moore") but the person closest would be the winner in a tie-breaker. I thought this was a good way to keep it lively.
posted by jessamyn at 9:57 AM on March 28, 2020
I have a friend who set this up in google hangouts and it went pretty well. Questions were 5 rounds of 5 and there was time to chat as a group in between each round. We wrote answers in googledocs, one per team, and sent them in to the host to grade.
posted by ferret branca at 10:21 AM on March 28, 2020
posted by ferret branca at 10:21 AM on March 28, 2020
There are tons of free chat rooms, also facebook chat/messenger. team discussion doesn't have to be by voice.
posted by theora55 at 11:24 AM on March 28, 2020
posted by theora55 at 11:24 AM on March 28, 2020
Best answer: A friend just did this tonight.
The teams would chat either in person or via WhatsApp depending on proximity.
One person from each team submitted their answers via a google form for each round. This allowed for some variation in question types like multiple choice or checkbox.
He had a slide deck of questions and answers for each round. He did a screen share via zoom.
He also had a fancy thing to assist with scoring that an automation that ran over the answers. As well as his girlfriend double checking answers and adjusting scores.
He made use of the “mute everyone “ option as host during answer time.
It went really well and we’re all look forward to next time.
There were almost 30 people on a variety of teams from 2-6 people.
I’m a bit sleepy now but feel free to msg if you have any questions.
posted by affectionateborg at 3:51 PM on March 28, 2020 [1 favorite]
The teams would chat either in person or via WhatsApp depending on proximity.
One person from each team submitted their answers via a google form for each round. This allowed for some variation in question types like multiple choice or checkbox.
He had a slide deck of questions and answers for each round. He did a screen share via zoom.
He also had a fancy thing to assist with scoring that an automation that ran over the answers. As well as his girlfriend double checking answers and adjusting scores.
He made use of the “mute everyone “ option as host during answer time.
It went really well and we’re all look forward to next time.
There were almost 30 people on a variety of teams from 2-6 people.
I’m a bit sleepy now but feel free to msg if you have any questions.
posted by affectionateborg at 3:51 PM on March 28, 2020 [1 favorite]
Best answer: I haven't used it, but Zoom supports breakout rooms, and I think you can switch between the breakout rooms and the general meeting at any time. Would it work to give each team a breakout room? Give the question in the large room, then break out the teams to discuss their answers, then back to general meeting for answer giving/large group banter?
posted by natabat at 8:28 AM on March 30, 2020
posted by natabat at 8:28 AM on March 30, 2020
« Older Activate Android Alarm with ADB? | Should I be a DV haven in the time of the Corona... Newer »
This thread is closed to new comments.
In discord, you could each have your own voice channels but switch to the total channel for group time. Switch back into teams when teamwork needs to be done.
Or, you could layer on Skype or teams or Facebook chat or WebEx with your zoom chat, where everyone mutes zoom to talk with their friends in the other chat, then unmutes zoom to come together as a group. Would be a little tricky.
Discord would work best but wouldn't have video. So what I would recommend is that you do video over zoom, and mute it, and do voice over discord for private and public discussions.
posted by bbqturtle at 9:05 AM on March 28, 2020