How to Write Great Trivia Night Pub Quiz Questions

We believe a pub quiz trivia night should be a good excuse for friends to get together, share a round of drinks (if so inclined), and match wits with other players. To this end, we try to provide our players with games that encourage discussion, laughter, and friendly competition.

After all, the point of trivia is to keep the players coming back to the venue, and if they have fun, they will return. To create a game that does this, we’ve developed five points on how to write great trivia night pub quiz questions:

1. Questions Should Be Neither Too Hard Nor Too Easy

Questions that are too hard will frustrate the players; on the other hand, questions that are too easy will bore them. In either case, the chance of getting return players goes down.

Finding the appropriate balance is perhaps the most difficult aspect of writing questions; receiving feedback from players and other hosts is the best way to find a good balance (so, be open to feedback).

Bear in mind that questions you think are easy (because you have a great deal of knowledge on the topic) may not seem easy to your players (we’ve also found the reverse to be true—questions we think will be on the tough side are actually easy).

If you are the only person writing questions for your game, be sure to bounce the questions off of friends and family members to gauge the difficulty level.

Also, know that your question writing strategies and sensibilities will change over time. The first few quizzes we wrote were far too hard; we quickly came to see the importance of balancing the difficulty of our questions.

2. Questions Should Be Written to Be Read Aloud

To this end, clarity is of extreme importance. One simple step toward clarity is to make your questions as concise as possible (while including the necessary information for players to have a chance at answering them correctly).

You want to limit, to the best of your ability, the number of players who ask, “What is that question asking for?” Conciseness and clarity are important even if you are displaying the questions on a screen.

Front-Loading the Answer

A trick we have found to make questions easier to follow is to “front load” the answers we are looking for.

Backloaded question (less clear): “Donny Dunn is a bartender who wants to be a comedian on what acclaimed dramedy?”

In this example, the answer we are looking for (“what acclaimed dramedy”) is at the end of the question. Players who aren’t paying very close attention might ask, “Are you looking for who plays Donny Dunn?”

Front-loaded question (clearer): “What acclaimed dramedy features a bartender named Donny Dunn who dreams of becoming a comedian?”

Writing the question this way lets the players clearly know that you are asking for the title of the show. We4 also suggest reading the first part of the question (“What acclaimed dramedy”) twice so that players have a chance to quiet down and so they are clear on the answer you are looking for.

3. Questions Should Invite Conversation

While there will always be some “you know it or you don’t” questions in trivia games, we try to keep them to a minimum. A good question allows players to work their way toward the answer, or at least to a logical guess.

Here are some examples of the types of questions we include in our games with the hope of sparking conversation:

Example 1

Q: Which character, who is part of a long-running movie franchise, is the only character to appear on the American Film Institute’s list of the 50 greatest movie heroes and the AFI list of 50 greatest villains? A: The Terminator

In this instance, we are encouraging players to think of all the movie franchises they can, along with the characters who might have transformed from villain to hero during the course of the franchise.

Example 2 (2-Point Question)

Q: Which two state quarters honor the first flight by the Wright Brothers? A: North Carolina and Ohio

When we ask a multi-point question, one answer is usually obvious, while the second is more of a challenge. In this example, most players will remember that the Wright Brothers’ famous flight took place in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, but fewer will remember that the brothers came from Ohio.

Example 3 (2-Point Feud Question)

Q: Of U.S. states whose names begin with a vowel, which is the most populous?

A:

1. Illinois

2. Ohio

3. Arizona

4. Indiana

5. Alabama

“Feud Questions” are based on a list. Since teams can only write down one answer, it encourages group discussion. We give two points for the number one answer on the list and one point for any of the others in the top five.

4. Questions Should Appeal to a Wide Range of Players

We always aim to write games in which each player can say, at least once during the game, “That question was written for me.”

This means including a wide range of topics. For example, in a recent game, our 35 questions included questions about:

• A movie from the 1950s

• A sports story from the past weekend

• South American geography

• Cooking ingredients

• Video games

On Themed Games

While some game providers prefer themed games (or three themed rounds), we have found that themed games don’t lead to the best chance of return players. Some players might like a round of questions about South Park, but others will say, “Nah, I’ve never seen that show, so I’ll skip that night." This is why all of our games include a wide variety of questions ranging from ancient history to what we read in the newspaper that morning (with sports, television, film, literature, science, and pop culture in between).

• If you want to include themed games, we suggest making them one-off games on a different night of the week (i.e., if your regular trivia night is Tuesdays, host your “Harry Potter Themed Trivia Night” on a Thursday).

• If you are intent on going with themed rounds for your weekly games, we suggest trying five rounds of 5-6 questions each on five topics that will appeal to a wide range of players.

Remember: The point of a trivia night is to keep people coming back week after week. 

5. Questions Should Be Family-Friendly

Family-friendly doesn’t mean “for kids.” It simply means parents shouldn’t feel uncomfortable bringing their children to the venue.

Our rule of thumb:

• Occasional PG is fine.

• Avoid R-rated content unless your venue specifically requests an adults-only theme.

This keeps your trivia night inclusive and welcoming to more players, increasing long-term attendance.

Final Tip: NEVER make the game a competition between the host and the audience!

We’ve experienced games in which the host seems to think of the evening as a session of “I’m smarter than you,” and then proceeds to ask questions that they know the answer to, but nobody else does (i.e., obscure questions about Star Wars, or some niche aspect of history). We always walk out of games like this (and most of the other players do not return for a second go-around). A contentious atmosphere leads to arguments, anger, and fewer return players.

In summary, a good pub quiz:

• Encourages fun

• Builds friendly competition between teams

• Avoids tension between host and players

• Creates an environment people want to revisit

  
  

If you are a trivia night pub quiz host or quiz writer, please let us know your thoughts about our five points on how to write great trivia night pub quiz questions in the comments section.

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