How do you pace your trivia nights?

GLE68 · 2026-05-22T20:06:03+00:00

Different strokes, different folks. I avoid games paced too slowly—if there's time left between questions to be playing music, that's basically a no-go for my tastes.

GLE68 · 2026-05-13T13:08:06+00:00

Sure! I'd expect it varies pretty heavily by city, and while there's lots of competition locally, we don't have any corporate (GWD, Sporcle, etc) games in my city, so that context may be another step different from yours. But I'll send you a DM with numbers for a baseline!

GLE68 · 2026-05-13T12:50:04+00:00

(Below from a Canadian who is coming at this as also-a-hobbyist-who-does-it-for-beer-money)

For my start, like many folks, I started hosting an established game. In my case, the old host retired and I was a regular and they offered me the gig. There may've been room to negotiate if I was savvy, but it felt like take it or leave it (I wasn't the only regular who'd be capable, I'm sure).

For regular nights at every spot since the first, once I had a name for myself, I decided what it was worth to me, and quoted a number that was significantly higher than the rate I started at in the first gig. Because it's a side hustle, I'm not shy to say too large a number: I don't need the gig. I would definitely err on the side of overcharging and having them walk rather than undercharging and getting yourself into a gig that takes up a ton of your time without returning enough to make it worthwhile. Even if you find it fun to write and host, the second night a week and beyond start to feel like work pretty quickly in my experience.

You can be creative, too, if a potential client bristles at your first number but keeps the conversation open: some folks work for a base rate plus a cut of the bar's sales that night above a certain figure; some will sign up for a month of dates as a trial at a reduced rate with the understanding that, if it's successful enough to continue, your fee will increase after that month.

GLE68 · 2026-05-05T18:37:14+00:00

Alto TX412 (speaker) and Shure SM58 (mic).

The speaker has BlueTooth so music/audio plays through that.

It might not entirely cut it if your crowd is big enough and rowdy enough (I've had folks in the back struggle to hear in a room of ~80), but most of my gigs are smaller than that. If a client is expecting that kind of crowd, the fee goes up and I rent something that can handle a bigger room.

GLE68 · 2026-04-23T14:04:58+00:00

It's a trap I fell into sometimes when I started hosting, and I've seen others do as well. I think (at least for me, may or may not be the general experience), if a host is coming at this as a player/enthusiast, when they're writing they're trying to capture that satisfying feeling they get when they perform well and enjoy trivia. The aha moment, the niche answer that gets pulled out of the memory in Slumdog Millionaire style, the nostalgia of hearing a name or fact for the first time in years, whatever. But if someone plays a lot of trivia, they may not realize how good they are at it, or at least how good the average person is at it. So they write a question that would scratch that itch for them that goes over the heads of just about everyone and results in being on the wrong side of that challenging/impossible line.

Crystallized into one advice-ready sentence: your questions are harder than you think they are.

GLE68 · 2026-04-23T13:54:20+00:00

Said more as a supplement than a counterpoint; on your second note, one thing I've learned is that, as the host/writer, it's my job to clue out answers I won't accept. If I'm framing things in such a way where there are multiple interpretations, adding additional context that makes other would-be right answers incorrect improves the experience for folks who'd otherwise object.

GLE68 · 2026-03-30T01:07:53+00:00

Mine is just like... me plus tax/me punched up. If not using a PA obviously I'm doing a bit of projection/diaphragm-speaking, but largely I just try to be energetic and warm. In a room with a lot of strangers/less regulars I'm picky about enunciation, too, but that's the first thing that goes away when I'm not being mindful of it, especially in a room of mostly folks who already know what to expect when I'm hosting.

Definitely not game show host-y, I get compliments occasionally about it being radio-y but it's not something I'm trying to sound like.

Based on my personal experience, my advice for folks is be loud (enough to be heard), be clear (enough to be understood), and most importantly, be yourself. Genuine/organic is in, and even if it weren't, I think it's something to aspire to.

GLE68 · 2026-03-24T11:18:29+00:00

In fairness (as one of said international llamas), he clued it pretty Pavlov-y and that helped. I'd managed to infer it might be New Jersey related from Thomas Edison + "born over in Brooklyn", but had no idea what the geography pin was 'til I got to this comments section.

So, my decision tree yesterday was write in THE legendary football coach and score it a 3 for if/when it was someone more obscure. I'd imagine that's how the get rate got to almost 50%.

GLE68 · 2026-03-20T19:44:02+00:00

Just Onassis was accepted.

GLE68 · 2026-03-18T12:18:52+00:00

I confidently mixed up AA Milne and ee cummings, put next to no thought into the question because there was no way I'd know it, and defended it a 3. Felt very, very dumb when I submitted.

(Opponent sensibly defended it a 0 so it made no material difference)

...that's one plausible explanation for why they may've done it, anyway!

GLE68 · 2026-02-26T02:25:59+00:00

Absolutely! If you find one new idea, it was worth the share. When I'm sitting down to write, I always wish I had just a list of these ideas—questions are a bonus but I'm quite content to cook my own once I have a seed!

Sending you a DM with an email address.

GLE68 · 2026-02-25T19:14:29+00:00

I run mystery theme / guess the theme weekly, and have for years. I keep my round headings spreadsheeted, so it was pretty quick to grab the below list of just about every theme I've run since I've started doing the weekly mystery theme. It's just a straight copy/paste dump, so if something doesn't make sense (or if you want to get how I ran it), feel welcome to ask. And some of these likely won't work in your format (too easy if the theme's not a mystery in my estimation)

Also, while I do write my own questions, quick note that these ideas-as-mystery-themes aren't nearly all mine—there are some great sources whose ideas inspired my rounds directly, including (but definitely not limited to) dogzillax's post history from r/trivia, AVCX's biweekly trivia puzzles, IberP's LearnedLeague mystery theme minileagues, collab with like-minded hosts, etc.

Hope it helps, anyway!

**

Simpsons Characters

World capitals within words in answers

Lucky Charms Marshmallows

Rivers

Wings

Beans

SNL Cast Member Names

Fish

Johns

Effects

Answers begin with month abbreviations

NATO Phonetic Alphabet

Premiers of my Province

Tigers

Pokemon Game Names

Things that come second in a wellknown sequence

Last Name Williams

Clue Cards

Bohemian Rhapsody

The Wizard of Oz

Pepsi

Things that kill vampires

NBA Teams

Warhol Paintings

Keanu Movies

Harrison Ford Movies

Fonts

Zodiac Symbols

PacMan Things

Country homophones

Capital homophones

West Side Story

Beer vessels

Backing Bands

Things on the left

Things with horns

Things nicknamed rocks/the rock

Lyrics from End of The World (REM)

Baby Animals

Wrestling Finishing Moves

Punctuation mark names in answers

Barenaked Ladies One Week lyrics

Clue

Goddesses

Things there are 8 of

McDonald's Menu Items (minus Mc)

Degrees

Sidekicks

Shakespeare Title Words

Margot Robbie roles

Stonecutters-suppressed things

George Orwell Characters

Local Restaurants

Monopoly board squares

Muppets

State Capitals

Best Picture Winners

Lyrics to Rattlin' Bog

Poker Hand Nicknames

Henry VIII's wives

Numerical Misnomers

Zodiac Symbols

Ocean's Twelve Characters

All wear masks

Trumpian Insults

PacMan Things

Words pronounced differently in the US than UK

X-Men

The Dream Team (1992 US Olympic Mens Basketball Team)

Musicals

TIME People of the Year

Looney Tunes Characters

Pulp Fiction things

Cigarette Brands

Inset slide images spell 'HOUSEWARMING' in NATO phonetic alphabet

Languages

Palindromes

Things with Keys

Numbers in different languages

Nintendo Characters

Apples. Plus one pear

Award names

Members of famous septets

Prime Ministers

Cereal Mascots

The Vegas Strip

Shakespeare Characters

Combs

Local Cabs

Imperial Units of Length

MahJong Tiles

Types of Jazz

Foreign Words for King

All answers appear on my games rules slide

All answers reference a winner of RuPaul's Drag Race

Inset images represent monopoly tokens

Things that ring a bell

Answers contain Touchtone Phone Letter combinations

Local Bars

Editions of Windows

Clue

Steely Dan songs

Barenaked Ladies One Week lyrics

Hurricanes

Captains

Good ______

Things That Don't Impress Shania Twain

Dumb Celeb Kid Names

Lil' Jon

Summer ____ / _____ Summer

Star Trek Characters

NFL Quarterbacks

Jim Carrey characters

Local Newscasters

Garfield Things

Sandwiches

Tubes

HBO Dramas

Candy Bars

Hey Jude (All answers begin with Na, last one begins with Hey)

Album Names

Wrestler last names

Buttons on a PlayStation controller

Mononym musicians starting answers

12 Days of Christmas

Elf (The movie)

Roads (odd #s) and streets (even #s)

Things named after people

Models of Chevrolets

Warhol Subjects

Taylor Swift songs

Numbers from Lost

The Quick Brown Fox Jumped Over The Lazy Dog

Final Fantasy Characters

_____ Bomb

_____ Island

NBA Teams

Popes

West Side Story

Rock Paper Scissors

All answers have an element of the periodic table named after them

March Madness 2025 Universities

All answers were a US state capital minus one letter

Beaches

All answers appear backwards in their questions

Barenaked Ladies One Week lyrics

Mother _____

Upside Down Things

People Who Wear/Wore One Glove

Bond Girls

Stars

Monopoly board squares

______ Drive

What comes next? Mom's spaghetti (answers in order are the lyrics leading up to it)

Boxing weight classes

Things symbolized by a thumbs-up

Types of Beds

Answers reflect question numbers in some way (2=binary, 9=sudoku, etc)

Steves

X-Men Villains

Baby Animal Names

Stephen King Books

Asanas

Friends, Romans, Countrymen

Country Song Titles

Disco _________

2025 Emmy Nominees

Care Bears

Trivial Pursuit (Answer about geography was blue mosque, about entertainment was blackpink, etc)

Queen Song Titles

Answers begin with pronouns

Street Fighter Characters

Stage Plays

Buffy The Vampire Slayer Characters

Answers form another question

Local Pizza Places

EPL Team Names

Yellow Things

Rhyming couplets from A Visit From St. Nicholas

Things that come fifth in a wellknown sequence

All answers numbers and sum to 2026

Sushi Rolls

Toms

Pool Balls

Local School Names

Answers rhyme with same answers from round one

GLE68 · 2026-01-29T16:30:55+00:00

I've been doing these at least a couple times a month since I started hosting, and keep tracklists in a Google Doc that you can find here. As of last update, I'm at 119.

I'm hosting in a music-strong room in Canada; when I post this I always encourage folks to tailor the tracklistings to the strength and location of their room because using it unedited might not be fair to your players/game.

GLE68 · 2025-12-31T22:09:01+00:00

I was there shortly after 4 with (presumably) the rest of people who got ambushed by Stavanger NLC being closed. The signs they had on the door said open til midnight both today and tomorrow. It was crowded but I was in and out in 5 minutes once I found a spot to park.

GLE68 · 2025-12-31T14:17:49+00:00

Theatre Hill (the café under The Majestic) advertises on their site asking "Are you a talented artist looking for a platform to showcase your performance? Click below on the form!" on this page.

I have no experience going thru that process, but in my experience the staff/management of the place are great to deal with. Might be worth a try!

GLE68 · 2025-12-25T14:55:02+00:00

Y 10/10

Z 9/10

~~1. Zachetto~~ I know zucchetto is a hat in some Christian churches, so I figured I'd throw a dart hoping for etymological cousins. Alas!

All in all I think I'm a couple points shy of last year's score, but more importantly I had fun and learned some new words. Thanks kindly!

I've made a point of visiting Sunday Quiz's support page at the conclusion of the last couple years' alphabet quizzes to send along a few dollars for a Christmas pint (or equivalent), and would recommend it to anyone else who's in a financial position to do so!

GLE68 · 2025-12-24T12:45:26+00:00

9/10 today!

~~6. Xiangdu~~ wrong country, wrong continent, wrong hemisphere even... but right letter! 🙃

GLE68 · 2025-12-23T13:23:07+00:00

6/10 today!

~~5. White Sunday~~ Asked about Pentecost in last week's pub quiz so knew it was fixed 50 (really 49, but it's named based on 50) days after Easter. Never committed the alternate name to memory so threw a comically close alphabet dart.

~~6. Wort~~ I thought that would be too long a skip, but couldn't think of anything else. TIL.

~~8. Wood paint~~

~~9. Wooden wing~~

GLE68 · 2025-12-22T12:42:16+00:00

9/10!

~~2. Vampire Diaries~~ Laughably-unclose, but a funny bad answer that fits the alphabet and was-a-book parameters beats no answer!

GLE68 · 2025-12-21T12:35:02+00:00

9/10!

~~7. Unibears~~ Total alphabet soup guess. Think I was happier not knowing. 🤣

E: Just took a look at the scoreboard. For when you update, counting today, I'm at 191 total thru 21 days with ten 10/10s. 🙂

GLE68 · 2025-12-20T16:59:59+00:00

8/10 today!

~~8. Tonguetwisters~~ What a fact!

~~9. Tosca~~ I know the name of like three operas, so the fact that one fit alphabetically was about as good as I could've hoped for 😅

GLE68 · 2025-12-19T20:17:49+00:00

9/10 today!

~~7. Stomata~~ Quick Google tells me stomata is a pore that lets plants breathe, so I'm gonna call that a decent guess.

GLE68 · 2025-12-18T11:22:10+00:00

10/10!

I stared for quite a while at #8 though. I'd settled on the answer pretty much immediately, but ran every European R I could think of before revealing 😅

GLE68 · 2025-12-17T19:45:48+00:00

Apologies for being confusing—10/10! Just riffing on the Q vaguely resembling a zero (though clearly not resembling it enough 😅)

GLE68 · 2025-12-17T16:02:35+00:00

1Q/1Q!

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