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The game involves answering trivia questions, solving puzzles hangman style, and the occasional word scramble. The game clock is set for 60 minutes and stops when not playing. The game ends when the game clock expires, and all puzzles are solved. Whoever has the most points when the game is finished gets a bonus round to increase their score even more. If a game ends early, unless due to technical difficulties, the game will not count as a full game, which prevents final scores from showing up in the multiple session high score list.
First, time to go over important rules that apply to the game in general and expand them:
The game is divided into rounds, but the rounds' length isn't set in stone. A round is one puzzle with ten minutes on a puzzle clock. The round ends when the puzzle is solved.
The game begins with a word scramble to see who gets control. A word or phrase is shown scrambled, and the first player to answer it correctly gets points and control to pick the first question. Note that each word is separately scrambled, not combined. If no one gets the word scramble, its point value is added to the jackpot, and questions will be picked entirely at random until someone gets control.
The player in control will be voiced, which adds a plus sign in front of the nickname in the nickname list. When control changes, a devoice and a voice will occur. The voicing is done for show, but there's a use for it in IRC, but those details are beyond the scope of this site and game. No one will be voiced if no one has control.
After the word scramble, a puzzle is chosen and displayed. The category to the puzzle is only shown once, but it can be seen again by typing !cat in the channel. The player in control can then pick the category and level for the first question. The level of a question is not its point value.
Once the category and level are chosen, a question is displayed. Based on the question's length in three second increments, a pause occurs to give players a chance to read the question. Answers that reach the host before the clock for the question starts will be ignored. Think of this as the host reading the question out loud with the buzzers locked. Questions require up to three correct answers, but the focus will be on one correct answer first. After the pause, players have 25 seconds to post one answer on one line. Whoever posts the correct answer on their one line gets points, but the player that answers it correct first gets control and an opportunity to guess a letter in the puzzle.
If no one gets it right on their one line, the point value cuts in half, and then a free for all occurs for 35 seconds, allowing players to post as many answers as possible one line at a time. The first player that posts the correct answer gets points and control. It has to be noted that a letter guess will not be given if the level is one or two. This is because players can easily get the correct answer by answering the other choices. Questions requiring more than one answer will be described later.
After the answer to the question is displayed and points are awarded, the player that got the answer right first gets an opportunity to guess a letter. If the letter is in the puzzle, points are awarded, and then the updated puzzle is shown. Players can then submit guesses until the next question is ready. If the letter guessed is not found, there's no opportunity given to guess the puzzle.
After the letter guess, whether or not letters are found, the player in control will be asked to pick the category and level of the next question. If no one got the question right, the letter guess is skipped, and then it moves to the player in control picking the next question's category and level.
This process repeats until the puzzle is solved, or the puzzle clock expires. When the puzzle clock expires, a speed round is done to solve the puzzle fast.
After the puzzle is solved, the next round begins by selecting another puzzle. The player that solved the last puzzle will be in control and will then get the chance to choose the category and level of the next question.
The process repeats until the game clock expires, and all puzzles are solved. Coming up is more details of different question types, puzzles, scoring, and the bonus round. Next up will be the categories and level of questions to choose from:
Questions come in categories. If players do not want to choose a category, just choose random using a question mark. Letters in parenthesis represent what is typed to choose that category when asked to pick. Questions that are not Wild questions will have the category shown in the question itself, even when the category is random. Here are the categories for the game:
Even though nine levels are shown, there is only eight. If players do not want to choose a level, choose random using a question mark. (Typing 9 for random will not work.) Levels will not be shown on random level questions, but the level could be figured out by the question itself if the question mentions it.
Now, it needs to be told that the levels only choose the type of question asked, not its point value. More about scoring later. The following lists the levels.
Next up are the rules for questions overriding rules, questions requiring two or three answers, educated guess questions, and bonus questions.
Some questions can override these rules, but it would be for the question only. One thing to know is that the question cannot ask for more than three answers. Some questions may not say the number of answers required, but one thing is for sure is that it can't be more than three answers. Bonus points are never awarded for extra information. Some questions may have more than one correct answer that doesn't change the level, but some answers will award extra points if used, and it will be shown in the answer.
Questions can require two or three correct answers. If there are more than three correct answers, only three will be asked for. Do not answer more than is requested, if shown. Extra answers will be ignored.
Levels five through eight require two and three correct answers. The total time goes up to 75 or 90 seconds. There is still two parts, but players can only post one line with the number of correct answers needed. The first part is 30 or 40 seconds. Lines after the first will be ignored and not count for partial credit. This first part awards points for each correct answer given but not all of them; however, those points will not be awarded until the end of the question. The host does not want to give hints to how many answers were correct.
The order for multiple answer questions do not matter; however, there are some that do. The most common one will be fill-in-the-blank questions. Correct answers are usually shown in the order they appear in the question or the source. Answers will say if order matters or how the host will interpret answers. Try to get into the habit of putting answers in the proper order, unless it's obvious that order does not matter.
If no one gets all correct answers, a free for all still occurs. Each set of answers must be on one line. Using multiple lines will result in it being marked wrong. It's the same thing for one answer questions. The first player to post all correct answers on one line will get full points and a letter guess opportunity. Remember that the host will not say how many are right at all during the question. It could take too much time, and it adds to the difficulty. (Don't worry. When script testing, it's frustrating to the host, who writes the questions.) For multiple answer questions, it's possible for the same player to get all answers correct in the second part and some right in the first part. Players will still get partial credit in addition to points for all correct answers in the second half.
Inspired by an old game show Card Sharks with Bob Eubanks, these questions will not have a free for all. It is believed that not many, if any, would know the correct answer. The point value of these questions are cut by one-fifth. A question will be asked, and each player gets one shot regarding an answer. If anybody gets the question right, five times the points will be awarded, and the player that posts first will get control and a letter guess opportunity. If no one gets it right, the player that's closest to the correct answer will get the points, control, and a letter guess opportunity. It doesn't matter if anyone goes over. If there's a tie, the player that posts first is the tiebreaker.
There are educated guess questions that involve two or three answers. This is where order can matter. It can also lead to misinterpretation. For example, a question can ask for the ages of three people. It's best to put the answers in order as asked in the question. If not, the host could apply the highest number to the answer that's the highest, and the lowest number to the lowest answer. Each correct answer is considered separate. To get control, one player must be closest and/or right for all answers. For example, a question that requires two answers could have a player closest to one answer but not so on the second. Further, one player could be closest to one and correct on the second, which would award points for the first answer and five times the points for the second. The second example results in a completely correct question, thus giving control and a letter guess opportunity.
Not to exceed one question per round, bonus questions may be issued. When it's time for one, it will be announced when the host goes to grab a question. (The formula is already programmed, and the host does not remember exactly how it works but has a guess. Either way, that formula will not be shown here.) Bonus questions differ from normal in that the player in control gets one line to answer the question. If another player posts an answer, it will be ignored, and the player in control can steal that answer and get the points. Why? The other player didn't follow directions. Mutliple answer questions still get partial credit if not completely correct. Educated guess questions will not be used as a bonus question. If the player gets the question right, play proceeds as normal. If not, a free for all still occurs, and the player that got the first shot can still submit more answers.
Finishing up the question section is how the questions are displayed plus the question rotation called "reusing". (If you don't care about that, just skip to the Puzzles section after a big green line in the middle.
The formatting of the questions will be explained. The category of the question is the first words followed by a colon. The wild category doesn't have a category shown. Multiple choice questions have the choices after the question. It's important to read the question and the choices before answering. Anything that is quoted from somewhere may not be shown here. The reason for this is to not give hints in finding the answer.
The answers have a format to help in what's needed for a correct answer, the source, and who wrote the question. The first part is the answer. Anything in parenthesis is not required to get it correct. Answers that are in complete sentences will have a period. Extra information will be shown in paranthesis after the answer. Sources for the question will be shown MLA style inside brackets ([]). Questions that are written by someone else will be shown in braces ({}) in MLA style, if applicable. This is to give credit for writing the question. Words, phrases, and lines that directly come from the source will have quotation marks.
Here are two sample questions:
New Testament: After visiting Zacharias to tell him they were having a son, who did Gabriel visit next? A) (the virgin) Mary, B) Elisabeth, or C) neither?
A: (The virgin) Mary [New Testament Stories, chapter 2, panel 1; Luke 1:26-27]
For that question, "the virgin" is not necessary to get the right answer when it's not multiple choice. The question has two sources. It's not fully in MLA format, but the gist is there. If any extra information about the question were included, it would be in parenthesis between Mary and the first source, usually in a complete sentence. Further, this is multiple choice, so the player can just use the letter instead.
The next example is a question written by someone else:
New Testament: How many sayings did Jesus say from the cross?
seven {#triviapoint}
This question is taken word for word from another source. The answer shows that it comes from "#triviapoint" without the quotes. The question is used in channel #triviapoint on DALnet. (By the way, the question is not in the mix, because the answer cannot be verified. It may need to be reworded.)
As the questions are used, they are marked as used and are removed from the rotation of questions to ask. When the used questions are reset, the scores will change based on if someone got it right in the first part. If it's a multiple choice question, the choices will be changed, or the question will be reworded. Changing the choices is to prevent memorization. Changing the points may cause the point values to go outside of the ranges shown in the scoring section below but never below 50 points or above 1,000 points.
That's all for the question rules. Next up are the puzzles.
Each round has a puzzle to be solved, and a category is displayed only when the puzzle is first displayed. However, players can see the category of the puzzle at any time by typing !cat in the channel. Each letter has a point value, which is shown in the scoring section; however, vowels will cost points. This is the only time points are subtracted.
The player that answers a question correctly first, whether it's in the first part or second part, will get an opportunity to guess a letter. That player types !guess <letter> in the channel. The script tracks what letters have been guessed, even ones that are in the puzzle. Players that attempt to guess a letter that has already been guessed will get an error message and told to try again. (This can also be used to allow that player extra time if a letter cannot be chosen.) If the letter is found, the puzzle is updated, points are awarded, and then players can submit guesses using the !puz <puzzle> command in the channel until the next question is ready. (Replace what's in brackets (<>) with the puzzle.) That player can then choose the category and level for the next question. Please know that using the command is not required, but it allows the script to check for a match. If no letter is found, then the next question's category and level are chosen.
The script tracks the number of consonants in the puzzle. When it hits zero, a message is shown that says there are no more consonants. At that point, vowels can be guessed at no cost. If vowels are guessed before, the player guessing the letter loses 250 points.
This may be annoying, but it needs to be stressed that the !puz command can earn bonus points. When a player uses that command, the script will try to match it. The actual puzzle has already been converted to uppercase letters, so the script will convert the guess to uppercase. This allows players to ignore capitalization. The script will compare the guess with the actual puzzle. If they match, the puzzle is solved, and the player will get bonus points for a match. However, if there's no match, the script will then strip punctuation marks from the guess and the actual puzzle to do another comparison. If it matches this time, the puzzle is solved with the player getting less bonus points. If not, the script will say it doesn't match and to wait for a manual response. The host will then look to see if it's correct and then award points manually. It's possible for two people to get points for solving the puzzle, and if that happens, one player got it through a match, and the second player got it right without a match. The player that matched will get bonus points.
The last round of the game is when the round starts with a game clock of less than ten minutes. If that puzzle is solved before the game clock expires, the game will continue with just questions until the game clock expires.
Finishing the puzzle section is the speed round.
When the puzzle clock or game clock expires, a speed round will be done to solve the puzzle fast. When it expires will depend on when the speed round starts. If the player in control is selecting the category and level for the next question, that will be canceled, the script will pause, and then the speed round starts. If it's during a word scramble, the speed round won't start until someone earns control, even if it means many word scrambles. If it's in the middle of a question or a letter guess opportunity, the speed round will start after the letter guess and a pause. Those letter guesses are earned.
A speed round will just go down the nickname list and giving them an opportunity to guess a letter. It starts with the player in control and will skip players that haven't talked in five minutes. Those players will be marked as idle, so it's assumed they're not playing. After a valid guess of a letter, the puzzle is updated if letters are found, and the next player in the list goes. Players can make guesses of the puzzle at any time. Speed round ends when the puzzle is solved, when all letters are revealed, players stop guessing, or the buzzer sounds for a letter guess with only one player playing.
Be careful here. If there's only one player, and the buzzer sounds for not picking a letter, speed round ends, and the player will have 60 seconds to submit as many guesses as possible. If the puzzle is not solved at that time, the round ends with no one solving the puzzle. If there are more than two players, the host can stop the speed round at any time if the host feels like no one is guessing letters. If all the players are marked as idle, the letter guessing, round, and/or game will end.
The next section is about losing control.
Control can only be taken when a player fails to pick a level and category for the next question, or the player leaves the channel. When it happens, a word scramble is done to see who gets control. If there is only one player remaining, questions will be completely at random until the player gets one correct, or the game will end with no score on the high score list. Even when two players are playing, a word scramble is done. Control is something to be earned.
This section covers scoring for questions, puzzles, word scramble, and the jackpot.
Remember that levels do not choose the question's point value. This is because some questions are easy; some are hard. Point values are displayed between 50 and 1,000 in 50 point increments, and the number shown is per correct answer. Choosing random for a level will increase the value of the question by 50. Educated guess questions will be an increase of 10 because of the value being cut by a fifth. It's possible to get 3,150 points in one question, not including the bonus of 790 (3,150 X 25%, rounded), but one hasn't been written yet. (That would be a very difficult question.)
Bonus for getting all correct answers to a question: 25% of total points, rounded to the nearest five. For example, if it is a level six question with a value of 400 points, 200 points would be added as a bonus (400 X 2 = 800 X 25% = 200) giving a total of 1,000 points for the question.
The following shows point values for each question level. Remember that these are guidelines. A guess on the level of difficulty is taken into consideration for each question's point value.
Correct Spelling Bonus: 300 points. This bonus is only issued when mentioned in an answer to a question. Very difficult words to spell are the ones that get the bonus. This bonus is per correctly spelled word. It would be difficult to base this bonus on the letters in the word. (Programming the script to base the points off of the word itself would take too much time to use during the game, ignoring the time it would take to program it.)
This bonus depends on the number of players playing and is awarded to the player that answers first and starts on the third question correct in a row.
More people playing makes it harder to get and keep a streak going, so that bonus goes up with each player. The bonus is awarded each question if the player continues to answer questions correctly.
For example, if four people are playing, and a player has just gotten the fifth correct answer in a row, a bonus of 800 points (4 - 2 = 2 X 100 = 200 + 1 X 100 = 300 + 100 X 5) is awarded. If five people are playing, the bonus goes up to 1,100 (5 - 2 = 3 X 100 = 300 + 2 X 100 = 500 + 1 X 100 = 600 + 100 X 5). If that same player gets the sixth correct answer, the bonus is 900 (4 - 2 = 2 X 100 = 200 + 1 X 100 = 300 + 100 X 6) for four players and 1,200 (5 - 2 = 3 X 100 = 300 + 2 X 100 = 500 + 1 X 100 = 600 + 100 X 6) for five players.
Caution: If people are in the channel and idling instead of playing, that player may be kicked out of the channel. Chances are, the player is not doing it on purpose to get a higher streak bonus, but that's the reason for this rule. Players will not be kicked out without warnings.
Breaking Winning Streak: 1,000. If a player is on a winning streak, and another player gets a correct answer, that player gets this bonus. This bonus is not affected by number of players playing.
Breaking the Streak Record: (New record - old record) X 2000 - New Record X 100.
What the--? A minus?! Yes, a minus. The objective of this bonus is to award players for breaking the longest streak record during the game. The idea is to award players more points for breaking the record one time with a higher record. If players break the record, let's say, by one at a time, the bonus is lower. This brings good news and bad news. Eventually, the bonus goes away if it's broken often.
Here's an example: Let's say a player gets 10 questions in a row with the old record being 3, the bonus is 13,000 points (10 - 3 = 7 X 2000 = 14,000 - 10 X 100). However, if the same player beats the record one question at a time, the total would be 9,100 points. (The formula is too long to show here.) If a player sets a record of 8 questions with the old record of five, the bonus is 5,200 points (8 - 5 = 3 X 2000 = 6,000 - 8 X 100).
The bonus goes away if the record is broken by one at 20 questions; however, if the old record is three, the bonus is 33,900 points. Since the game is ultimately timed, the probability of this happening is low, but it's mentioned just so that players are aware of it.
The values of puzzles are 3,000 minus 500 for each word in the puzzle but not below 1,000 points. Next, the value of each consonant is added. Each vowel that is in the puzzle adds 500 points, but the number is irrelevant. Having two A's and two E's adds 1,000 points, not 2,000.
Values of letters are as follows: HLMNRST = 50; BCDFGY = 100; JKPVW = 150; X = 250; QZ = 500; AEIOU = -250.
As letters are revealed, points are subtracted from its value. Remember that vowels will cost a total of 750 points: 250 from the player's score and 500 from the puzzle's value.
If vowels are guessed when there are no consonants in the puzzle, it costs nothing.
Solving the Puzzle: value of the puzzle.
Revealing the last letter in the puzzle: 5,000 to each player
Matching the entire puzzle that has punctuation marks: 750 points.
Matching the spelling of the puzzle: 300 points.
Each second left on puzzle clock: 5 points.
Each second left on game clock for final round: 10 points.
Each letter, except vowels, are the values of letters in puzzles divided by ten. Each word is 25 points, including small words. The final number is rounded to the nearest five.
Spelling the word or phrase correctly doubles the points earned.
The game has a jackpot that starts at 2,500 points and increases when a question isn't answered correctly, when a word scramble isn't solved, when a puzzle clock expires, and when a puzzle isn't solved. Further, when questions go to a free for all, and a player gets the question correct, the other half of the points are added to the jackpot, which is done as a delay to avoid flooding.
The jackpot is randomly awarded to players that give correct answers. The higher the points earned for the question, more chances are given. The odds improve with each time the jackpot isn't awarded. The exact formula will not be given here.
The jackpot is lost if it's not claimed when the game ends.
When the game officially ends, the player with the highest score has a chance to play a bonus round to add more points. Two minutes go on a clock. The player will answer questions until the clock expires. When a question is asked, the clock ticks until the player posts an answer. The player can take as much time as wanted to think of an answer. If the answer isn't known, just type pass or don't know. If the player gets the correct answer, points are awarded. Partial credit for having correct answers but not all are still issued. The winning streak bonus is still given without the extra people part, and it continues from the regular game if that player currently has one. The level of the questions starts at one and increase on a correct answer and decrease on an incorrect answer. The other thing that makes this a true bonus is that any question in the database can be asked during the bonus round, especially questions that are marked as used. The categories are completely at random. The round ends when the clock expires. Points earned in this round will be added to give a final score, and that score will go on the top players' list.
Players that misbehave can result in a ban and/or a kick out of the channel. A ban is usually done before kicking. Without kicking, a ban prevents a player from talking until it is removed. If the player waits out the ban, the player can continue playing the game. A kick/ban is used to prevent that player from coming back into the channel temporarily. The following is the rules that can result in a timed ban and/or kick.
Getting a ban/kick without a timer will result in any points earned to be thrown out. This is not something I want to do.
Site © 2018 by Jeremy Adderley. All graphics used are copyright respective owners and have given me indirect permission to use them as long as they are credited.
Background picture from BoxedArt.
Line and banner graphics obtained from Celine's Original GIF's. (The link no longer works.)
So far, all the questions have been written by me, so I'm adding a disclaimer that I do not talk about the questions with anyone that I feel may end up playing the game, especially my wife. This is so they can play, and other players don't feel those people have an edge over them.
There is a page on Facebook about the game, and I post when the next game will be and updates to the site/game.
E-mail addresses collected will only be used to send the newsletter and inform when the next game will occur. They will not be sold in any form. Any real names collected will not appear on this site, unless they contributed something that deserves credit, like sending me a question. The idea is to use nicknames for purposes of high scores and other information shown on the stats page.