The everyday blog of Richard Bartle.
6:31am on Wednesday, 20th April, 2005:
Anecdote
In 2002, I was invited to come up with 3 trivia game show ideas at very short notice, which I duly did. None of them were used (of course), but here they are anyway for your edification and delight:
1) Stacks of Money
Basic format:
Knockout. You start with (say) 9 players, and each round one player is eliminated. The money racked up goes into a general kitty that all goes to the winner.
Round format:
There are 5 trivia questions, ranked 1 to 5 (or £10 to £50, £100 to £500, whatever the show's budget can handle). Players take it in turn to answer. Whatever question they answer scores that amount of money. The lower-ranked questions shift up a rank and a new question comes in at #1. Each round lasts 50 seconds plus 10 seconds per remaining player. The player who scores the lowest money in that round is eliminated. If more than one player scored the lowest, then the last one to have spoken is eliminated.
USP:
When there are 5 or fewer players remaining, players are allowed to communicate with each other during the answering round. Whether they choose to help or hinder the opposition is up to them...
Example:
Nearing the end of a round in which four players remain.
The stack shows:
£100 What is the capital city of Slovenia?
£200 What year did Winston Churchill die?
£300 In what game is there a community chest?
£400 Which planet is named afer the Greek god of the sky?
£500 What is the chemical symbol for tin?
Player #1: "300, Monopoly"
Compere: "Correct"
Player #1's score rises by £300.
The stack shows:
£100 For what is Elio Fiorucci best known?
£200 What is the capital city of Slovenia?
£300 What year did Winston Churchill die?
£400 Which planet is named afer the Greek god of the sky?
£500 What is the chemical symbol for tin?
Player #2: "400, Neptune"
Player #4: "No! Neptune was the god of the sea!"
Player #2: "Are you sure?"
Player #3: "It's Uranus"
Player #2: "Uranus?"
Player #3: "Yes, Uranus!"
Player #2: "OK, 400, Uranus"
Compere: "Correct"
Player #2's score rises by £400.
The stack shows:
£100 In which city were the world Karate championships first held?
£200 For what is Elio Fiorucci best known?
£300 What is the capital city of Slovenia?
£400 What year did Winston Churchill die?
£500 What is the chemical symbol for tin?
Player #3: "500, Sn"
Player #2: "I think it's — "
Player #3: (forcefully) "500, Sn"
Compere: "Correct"
Player #3's score rises by £500.
The stack shows:
£100 In which country is the world's deepest cave?
£200 In which city were the world Karate championships first held?
£300 For what is Elio Fiorucci best known?
£400 What is the capital city of Slovenia?
£500 What year did Winston Churchill die?
Player #4: "400, Bratislava"
Player #3: (smirks, but doesn't say anything)
Compere: "Incorrect. The correct answer is Ljubljana"
Player #4's score doesn't change.
The stack shows:
£100 After which scientist is the SI unit of pressure named?
£200 In which country is the world's deepest cave?
£300 In which city were the world Karate championships first held?
£400 For what is Elio Fiorucci best known?
£500 What year did Winston Churchill die?
BONG!
Compere: "So, at the end of that round, Kerry stacked £900, Mike stacked £700, Julia stacked £1,200 and, oh dear, Pete only stacked £400. So that's another £3,200 into the kitty, making a running total of £17,800. Sadly, Pete won't be seeing any of that, will you, Pete? So, on to round 7, with three of you remaining..."
Caveat:
This one isn't going to work on radio...
2) Cash Stash
Basic format:
Standard round-by-round trivia quiz for (say) 5 players. Questions are worth a fixed amount (in money) per round, increasing for later rounds as they ostensibly get harder. Players keep their totals independent of each other. After a fixed number of rounds, the top two players go head to head (a tie-breaker question is used in the event of a draw). The prize for winning the head-to-head is an additional amount of money, the stash (which initially contains a large, fixed sum).
Round format:
Timed rounds during which players take it in turns to answer questions. If someone answers incorrectly, other contestants can buzz in to try give the right answer.
USP:
Before the show, each contestant is asked to produce a list of 20 trivia questions. One contestant, selected at random, gets their questions inserted into the general question set. At the end of each round, the player(s) with the lowest overall score has to guess which of the contestants is the one with their questions stashed in the question set. The other players do not see this guess, but the audience does. If the player guesses wrongly, the stash is increased by an amount equal to the score of the highest player. If they guess right (or knew anyway from an earlier guess or because those are their questions), their own score is increased to that of the highest player and the stash remains unchanged.
Option:
The questions in the head-to-head come from the pre-game questions provided by the players who did not make it to the head-to-head (excluding those whose questions have already been asked). These players get bonus cash for each of their questions that the two in the head-to-head get correct (that's CORRECT, ie. not incorrect).
Example:
Round 1 questions asked.
Scores at end of round 1:
Player #1: £300
Player #2: £900
Player #3: £700
Player #4: £500
Player #5: £700
Stash: £1,000
Player #3 guesses that player #2 is the stasher, but is wrong. The stash increases to £1,900.
Round 2 questions asked.
Scores at end of round 2:
Player #1: £900
Player #2: £1,600
Player #3: £1,500
Player #4: £900
Player #5: £2,000
Stash: £1,900
Players #1 and #4 both get to guess. Player #1 guesses at player #2 (wrong) and player #4 guesses at player #5 (right). The stash increases to £3,900 (because player #1 was wrong) and player #4's score rises to £2,000 (because player #4 was right).
Round 3 questions asked.
Scores at end of round 3:
Player #1: £1,600
Player #2: £2,300
Player #3: £2,400
Player #4: £2,600
Player #5: £2,800
Stash: £3,900
Player #1 guesses at player #3. He has a shrewd idea that it's actually player #5, but decides to try remain last in the hope of leap-frogging everyone else in the final round. The stash increases to £5,700.
Round 4 questions asked.
Scores at end of round 4:
Player #1: £2,200
Player #2: £3,100
Player #3: £3,400
Player #4: £3,000
Player #5: £3,700
Stash: £5,700
Player #1 guesses that player #5 is the stasher, and is correct. This puts player #1's score at £3,700. Player #1 and player #5 go to the head-to-head round.
3) Gunfire
Basic format:
Knockout. You start with 16 players, and each round half of them are eliminated.
Round format:
Players are asked questions in turn. When they have answered 2 questions correctly, they are through to the next round. When half the players have got through, the round ends and the rest are eliminated. The next round, players have to get twice as many questions right to make it through.
USP:
In the second round (8 players), players are asked their question and can either answer or shoot it at someone else. If that second person gets the answer correct, both of them score for it. In the third round (4 players) the second person can also shoot it to someone if they want. Only the person who answers correctly and the person who last shot get the point. The final round (2 players) doesn't have shooting. First to 16 correct answers wins.
Example:
8 players have made it to round 2. The first 4 to get 4 answers correct go through to round 3.
Compere: "Alex: how many laws of motion are attributed to Newton?"
Alex: "3"
Compere: "Correct. [Alex scores 1] Brian: in which city were the 1896 Olympic games held?"
Brian: "Paris"
Compere: "Incorrect. They were held in Athens. Charlotte: what is the capital city of Vietnam?"
Charlotte: "Shoot Eric"
Eric: "Hanoi"
Compere: "Correct. [Charlotte and Eric both score 1] Delia: in which US state is the city of El Paso?"
Delia: "Shoot Frances"
Frances: (aghast) "New Mexico?"
Compere: "The correct answer is Texas. Eric: Moth, Adzuki and Yard Long are all types of what?"
Eric: "Beans."
Compere: "Correct. [Eric scores 1, making a total of 2] Frances: ..."
etc.
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Copyright © 2005 Richard Bartle (richard@mud.co.uk).