Create and play an online pub quiz

Nine round types, from multiple choice to a music round

Every round plays differently, so the night keeps surprising people:

• Multiple choice: classic trivia questions with two to six options and a timer.
• Open question: players type the answer themselves, with room for one typo.
• Word association: a main word hides a set of sub-words; whoever types one first claims the word and the points.
• Estimation: enter a number, nobody is wrong; whoever gets closest scores the most.
• Music: audio clips on the host screen, answered as multiple choice or estimation.
• Which ones / not: a board of tiles around one subject; take turns picking a tile that matches the criterion, one miss and you're out. From ten players everyone plays at once on their own board.
• On the map: drop a pin on the map; whoever is closest as the crow flies scores the most points.
• Ranking: drag items into the right order, with a bonus if everything is correct.
• Top list: blindly guess one answer from a hidden ranking; the higher it sits, the more points.

What a quiz night looks like

An online pub quiz doesn't have to fill a whole evening. This run of show lands at just over an hour and keeps the pace up:

1. Arrivals (10 min): put the quiz on screen with the game code showing, so people join while the first drinks go around.
2. Round 1, multiple choice (± 15 min): start easy, so everyone has points straight away and the scoreboard comes alive.
3. Round 2, something livelier (± 15 min): a music round or word association. After a round of sitting still you want the room awake again.
4. Break (10 min): leave the standings up on the big screen. A room talks about that by itself.
5. Rounds 3 and 4 (± 25 min): this is where it can get harder. Alternate an estimation round with On the map or Which ones / not.
6. Finale (± 10 min): the final standings on the big screen, and the penalty wheel for whoever finishes last.

Remote, or together in one room?

"Online pub quiz" means one thing to some people: everyone at home behind their own screen. And another thing to everyone else: together on the couch, but without answer sheets and without tallying points by hand. Kwishetwel is built for the second, and the first works fine alongside it.

Some people not there in person? Then play the pub quiz remotely by sharing your host screen in a video call. Four things that keep it smooth:

1. Share your screen with audio included (Teams, Meet and Zoom all have a separate checkbox for it). Without that checkbox, the players at home miss the music round.
2. Put the game code in the call's chat too. Copying it off a shared screen goes wrong slightly more often than you'd think.
3. Have everyone open the quiz on their phone and the video call on a laptop or tablet. Two screens beats one screen you keep having to switch between.
4. Count on a second of delay on the video stream. So pick rounds where speed doesn't count, such as Estimation, On the map and Ranking, and be generous with the timer.

To be straight about it: the experience is made for people sitting together. The noise when someone jumps from fourth place to first simply lands better around one table than in eight small windows. If the whole group is remote it's still a good night, just a quieter one.