How to run a quiz night
From an empty screen to a room full of teams. Sixteen steps, most of them one click.
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Generate a pack, or open one you already have
Tell Create what the night should be about and it writes the rounds, questions, answers and points. Everything it writes is yours to edit afterwards — nothing is fixed.
Add your own pictures, if you want a picture round
The wizard writes text — it does not make pictures, music or video. For a picture round, put your own image on any question with Add image in the pack editor — a JPEG or PNG of up to 2 MB — and it then shows on the printed sheets, your host screen and every team's phone. Your own photos work best: the pub, the regulars, the high street. Location and camera details are stripped from a phone photo when it is uploaded.
Print the sheets
Print preview in the pack editor gives you three things to print: the presenter script to read from, answer sheets for the teams, and a question sheet. Print them before the night — this is the part that needs a printer, not a phone. The printed sheets can only print Western European letters for now: English, French, German, Spanish and the like. Other letters — a Polish ł or a Czech ř — and other alphabets, such as Greek or Cyrillic, do not print correctly yet, although they show properly on your screen and on the teams' phones.
Start the live session — on the device you will run the quiz from
Start live session opens your host screen and puts the key to it in that browser. Open the same session anywhere else and it will ask you to paste the host key, which is what stops a team opening the host screen and reading the answers. So start it on the laptop or tablet you will actually stand behind.
Get the teams in
Your host screen shows a five-character code and a QR code. Read the code out, write it on a board, or let teams scan. The code never contains O, I, 1 or 0, so there is nothing to misread across a noisy room.
Teams join from their own phones
They go to triviafoundry.com/play — the Join link in the menu — and type the code and a team name. No account, no app, no sign-up. One phone per team is enough; that is the phone they answer on all night. If a phone drops off during the night, see what to do when a team's phone loses its connection.
Add paper teams, if some tables play on paper
A table writing on the printed answer sheets can still be on the scoreboard. Before you press Start quiz, use Add paper team and type the table's name: the button is only there while teams are joining. You type its total for each round when you check the marks.
Put the game on a TV, if the room has one
On your host screen, open Menu and press Open TV display under TV display. It opens a page for the room in a new tab: move it to the screen the room can see. On a laptop, use Extend, not Mirror, and cast a tab, not your screen, or the room will see the answers. While teams join, the TV shows the join address, the code and a QR code. During a round it shows the current question, or every question asked so far if you choose All questions so far under TV shows. It never shows an answer before you reveal it.
Start the quiz
Once at least one team is in, Start quiz opens round 1 with its first question. Teams who turn up late can still join; a team that joins after a round has closed plays from the next round.
Ask the round's questions
Read each question out. Ask next question puts the next one up on the TV and on every team's phone. A team's phone keeps every question asked so far in the round, and the team can change its answers, up to five times a question, until you close the round. Your screen shows how many phone teams have answered the current question. If you want a time limit, Start countdown offers 1, 2, 3 or 5 minutes. It is a reminder only: answers stay open until you close the round, and the countdown stops when you ask the next question.
Close the round
Once every question in the round has been asked, Close round… asks you to confirm. After Yes, close the round, teams can no longer change their answers.
Check the marks
Every phone team's answers are marked automatically against the answer key and listed on your screen, with a tick or a cross. A spelling that should have counted, a right answer typed the long way round: tap the mark to change it and the scores follow. Below the marks, type the round total for each paper team, or a total that replaces a phone team's. The room sees none of this. You are the quizmaster; the software is not.
Reveal the answers
Reveal next answer shows one answer at a time on the TV and on the phones, where each team sees its own mark. Reveal all shows the rest of the round at once. Type every paper team's total before you move on: Reveal all and Finish quiz… remind you if one is missing, Reveal next answer does not, and a round's totals cannot be changed from your screen once you press Next round. A round counts on the scoreboard once every answer in it is revealed.
Show the scoreboard, then the next round
Show scoreboard puts the standings on the TV and on the phones, and Hide scoreboard takes them down. Next round takes the scoreboard down too and opens the next round with its first question, and you ask, close, mark and reveal it the same way.
Finish on the scoreboard
After the last round is revealed, Finish quiz… asks you to confirm. Then the final standings go up on every screen, ties and all. The pack stays in your list, ready to run again next week.
How to write a good brief
- Say how many rounds, and how many questions in each.
- Give each round a topic.
- Say who is playing and how hard it should be: “friends in a pub, medium”, “families with kids, easy”.
- Say the language, if it isn’t English.
- Say anything to avoid.
For example
- 5 rounds of 10 questions for adults in a pub, medium difficulty: 80s music, world geography, famous film quotes, science, general knowledge.
- 3 rounds of 8 questions in Hebrew: Israeli history, Israeli pop music, food.
- 1 round of 10 easy questions about animals for a family quiz night with children aged 8–12.
What you need on the night
- One laptop or tablet for you, with the session already open.
- A phone per team. Nothing installed, nothing signed up for.
- Printed sheets, if you want teams writing rather than tapping.
- A screen for the room is optional — everything a team needs is already on the phone in their hand.