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This page repeats and expands the rules and looks overwhelming. Players that follow the prompts will do fine. The purposes of this page are to explain all the rules, but it's not possible to create a rule for every situation, and the other purpose is to resolve conflicts before they start. This is a live game. Anything can happen.
The information is in the sections shown below in the Table of Contents:
In an attempt to get players to come and on time, subscribers to the notification mailing list get three completely random questions approximately two nights before a game. Players have until the game's start to rack their brains for the correct answers, especially by looking them up. Do not submit answers to the questions until game time. They will not count.
When the game officially starts, players will get an opportunity to submit their answers using one line per question in the order asked. Failure to submit answers in the proper order may result in longer processing time and incorrectly processed answers. It's important to have answers ready when arriving to the game, because the prompt appears suddenly after starting the game.
These questions and their answers will not appear in the channel at all. The answers will appear in the newsletter sent sometime after the game. Players will only know the number of points earned. If there's no game, the answers will not appear anywhere.
It's time to repeat and expand the important rules:
Game text appears in the following colors:
Examples of red text are questions and displaying puzzles. Each question will be different. A puzzle may change with each appearance, usually when players find letters in puzzles.
The host programmed the script to pause when sending out more than two lines of text. The goal is to prevent flooding; however, lag fluctuations may result in players receiving them all at once anyway and/or may be out of order. (Look up Internet flooding or IRC flooding for more information.)
This game uses voicing to indicate who has control. The player in control will have a plus next to their name. This is purely for show.
Players earn points solving scrambles, solving puzzles, and answering questions. The main goal of scrambles is to determine which player gets control; however, they can appear as questions. Usually, players will try to solve a puzzle while answering questions; however, players cannot answer a question and solve the puzzle at the same time. For example, a player cannot solve the puzzle during a question.
The game has a time limit of 60 minutes; however, the clock does not continuously run and stops frequently. The Clocks section has details about when they start and stop. The total estimated time is about four hours.
Most trivia games over IRC are bots with questions requiring answers that completely match. This frustrated the host when answers weren't correct for being one letter off or by missing a word that may not be necessary to get the correct answer, so the host created this game that uses both automation and a human that removes the complete matching requirement. The script will try to match scrambles and may try to match puzzle guesses, awarding bonus points when making a match. Another thing that differentiates this game from others over IRC is that players can choose the category and level of questions that allows a little customization. Players can choose only easy questions, only hard questions, or a combination of the two.
Before starting round one and after the pre-game questions, the first step in the game is to determine who gets control:
Additionally, having control allows players to choose if rounds two and four are different along with deciding what to do if the host makes a mistake. (See Host Mistakes below.)
The game plays in rounds that involves solving one hangman style puzzle with 10 minutes going on a puzzle clock. (See Clocks section.) The puzzle clock marks when focus will shift to solving the puzzle. The following lists the basic steps of play during a round:
Try to solve puzzles, guess letters, and make selections as fast as possible. Not only does this allow more questions and puzzles, but players will earn points for time remaining on the bonus clock. See the Clocks section.
The above list of steps is a normal round. If nothing else happens, the game would never end. The next two lists below talk about other events with the second list talking about what happens when a round finishes.
Ideally, games happen in one session. Because of the game's length, there is a minimum of one break once the game clock ticks below 30 minutes. Ideally, breaks occur in between rounds; however, breaks can occur at any of the following stopping points: A player selects the next category and level. A question completes and before awarding points earned.
Round two offers the player in control the choice of the following:
If the player chooses either Question Round or Puzzle Round, round four will be the other one. If the player chooses neither, rounds two and four will be regular rounds. If no player has control after finishing round one, the majority will decide (see Voting).
A puzzle round is solving as many puzzles as possible in 10 minutes. Here are the steps for the puzzle round:
During Puzzle Round, control determines who will guess the first letter, and it will only change when a player solves a puzzle. Revealing all the letters in a puzzle will not change who has control.
The puzzle clock expiring marks the last puzzle for the round. The round ends after finishing that puzzle.
A question round is answering as many questions as possible in 10 minutes and includes selecting categories and levels. Follow the steps in the Rounds section above but skip the letter guess opportunities.
The puzzle clock expiring marks the last question for the round, which ends after finishing that question.
If a round starts with less than 10 minutes on the game clock, it's the final puzzle and called the Grand Finale, which means a lengthier puzzle. Any player that solves this puzzle before the game clock expires will earn bonus points, and the rest of the game will be questions only until the game clock expires.
The game ends when the game clock expires and after finishing any question and puzzle in progress in that order. Whoever has the most points gets a bonus round. Some time after the game, the host sends a newsletter about the game and updates the stats page, including the high score lists. More details on the Statistics page.
The next sections expand things not discussed above.
It's difficult to balance between easy and hard questions. Also, difficulty cannot be an exact science, because one person may view a question as hard while another will view that same question as easy. The host tries to write questions that most people will be able to answer; it's just not possible for players to know the answer to every single question. The host includes difficult questions, because it's fascinating, not to brag about knowing something when others don't. Hopefully, players will get more questions correct than not, and they may even learn something or want to know more. That's why questions have sources.
This section talks about the categories, levels, and the four types of questions. Question formatting is on the Works Cited page.
Scrambles can appear as questions, which combine the rules for control picks and questions. See the Scrambles section for more details.
One important aspect about questions is that a question can override rules for that question only. For example, a question could ask for a first name or last name only, which overrides the full names rule.
It's possible the host can run out of questions for the selected category and level. If that happens, the player in control decides to increase the level by one, decrease the level by one, or change to random.
Choosing a category and a level involves the [!pick] <category> <level> command. (Notice that !pick is in brackets, which means it's optional. Do not include the brackets.) The player in control can just type the letter(s) shown in parentheses and then a level. For example, the player wants a level four question from the Book of Mormon. The command is [!pick] bm 4. (Notice that the command doesn't have any capital letters.)
This section deals with questions, starting with categories and levels. After that, some guidelines about trickery. Next, there are four types of questions: Multiple Answers, Educated Guess, both, and Bonus. Finally, the last section deals with bonus answers.
Here are the categories for the game with what to type to select that category appearing in parentheses:
The letters used to select the category appear in capitals here for clarity. In the game, however, use lower case letters to save time. Also, the only category that requires two letters is Book of Mormon. The script, however, will accept two letters for the other categories.
Categories in italics mean they can appear in the question itself regardless of the chosen category. Wild questions will not mention a category.
Brown text means they contain scrambles. Unlike regular questions, the scramble itself doesn't display the category.
Note: Wild and Random are separate categories. Wild has questions that do not fit elsewhere, and random chooses from any category. Wild and Bible categories, however, do not add bonus points.
Overall, each level is more difficult than the one before it. However, players may find levels one to three more difficult than levels four to eight, especially during the bonus round. Levels determine the type of question asked, not its point value. The following list describes the types of questions:
The number of questions for levels five through eight are low.
Some questions do not directly say how many answers it requires, which is why choosing the random level adds points.
For questions asking for dates, the number of dates determine its level. For example, if a question asks for the month, day, and year, the level is four; however, if a questions asks for two or even three full dates, the level will change to six and eight respectively. A question asking for more than one date will not mix requirements. For example, a question asking two dates will not require one date to be a full date while the other requires only the month and year.
This section deals with trickery. More often than not, questions have no intentional form of trickery; however, for those that do, it can get ridiculous. Since these are guidelines, players may still feel that a question is cruel in some form. (Probably because they weren't paying attention.) The goal is to get players to think and read the question. The host will not brag or boast when fooling players, because that's not nice; however, the host will congratulate players that don't fall for it. Also, it gets players to think. (Yes, thinking appears twice on purpose.) Here are some guidelines:
Sidebar: There will not be any questions regarding who became pope of the Catholic church after the first pope. That is outside the scope of this trivia game; however, there is a question about a convert to the Church that worked under three popes. It was fascinating. The last guideline above appeared because of that question.
Levels five through eight require two or three correct answers with the following differences:
Inspired by an old game show called Card Sharks with Bob Eubanks, these questions have numbers for answers. Not everyone remembers numbers. Creating this style of question eliminates multiple guessing and hopefully lowers the frustration of not knowing the answers.
These questions only occur on levels three, four, six, and eight. The following list explains the differences:
For example, one player answers three, a second player answers seven, and the correct answer is five. They're both two away, which is a tie. Both players get the points with the person posting first getting points for time remaining, control, and a letter guess opportunity. If both players put three, the player that posted first would get credit, because it's the same incorrect answer. Finally, if two players put three, and one other puts seven; the first player to put three will tie with the player that put seven, and the player that was first will get points for time remaining, control, and a letter guess opportunity.
Another example: A question asks for how long a king ruled. The implied unit of measurement is years, because the question won't say that it's looking for years and months. Three players post answers of three, 15 months, and 345 days. The correct answer is one year, one month. The second answer converts to one year and three months, and the last answer converts to about 11 months. Looking to see who is the closest, the third answer of 345 days is closest and would get the points. Players that don't include a unit of measure in this example go with years. In this example, if the player didn't include months or days, the host will assume the answer is in years, in which case the player that answered three will be closest.
Rules blend in the following ways:
For example, there's a three answer question with answers of 38, 44, and 35. Two players submitted answers: One player answered 25, 35, and 45. The second player answered 45, 30, and 50. Player One is the closest on two answers, and Player Two is the closest on one. (See Detailed Examples for further details, including why order matters.)
A bonus question will be the next question after the puzzle clock ticks below five minutes. When it's time for one, the script announces it seconds before displaying the question. Bonus questions differ from normal in that the player in control gets one line to answer the question. If the player gets the question right, play proceeds normally. If not, a free for all still occurs, and the player that got the first shot may submit more answers. In other words, the player in control gets one guess without having to worry about the other players. For multiple answer questions, the player getting the bonus question still gets credit for each correct answer when not getting them all.
Players, be careful here. The script will say who gets to answer, so it's important to pay attention. The host will ignore answers from other players. The player that can answer may steal the answer from the other player and get credit if correct; however, this does not take into consideration that the stealing player may already know the answer. The morality of stealing belongs to the players.
Occasionally, a question has two correct answers but count as one. If a player gives a bonus answer, that player will earn the indicated bonus in addition to the regular points.
For example, there's one question where the correct answer to a question is Elias, which is a different form of the prophet Elijah. If a player answers Elias, that player is correct. Players that answer Elijah will earn the indicated bonus in addition to the regular points. (To those that wonder what the question is, the only way to find out is to play. It may show up. Also, the use of Elias has many uses, so each appearance isn't necessarily talking about Elijah. See the "Elias" entry in the Bible Dictionary.)
Furthermore, some multiple answer questions will have bonus answers. (Remember that there will never be a question requiring more than three.) These are answers the host feels that players won't use. When a player uses those answers, the player will receive the bonus in addition to the regular points, even when not getting all correct answers for the question.
The two sections after this will talk about scrambles and puzzles. For this game, the word count decides which one they will be.
Here are some examples and what their official word count is:
The main objective for scrambles is to determine who gets control, but they can also appear as questions. The following are the rules that all scrambles have:
Regardless of how the scramble appears, the script will attempt to match answers. Player(s) that make a match will get bonus points.
The sections below will talk about how scrambles differ and when the script will attempt matches:
Example One: Player A solves the scramble first but misspells it, and Player B makes a match. Both players get points for solving the scramble, Player B gets bonus points for the match, but Player A will get control and points for time left on the clock.
Example Two: Player A solves the scramble first but misspells it and then makes a match on a future line before the host can verify it's correct. Player A will get control, the scramble's point value once, and a bonus for time remaining. Unfortunately, the player will get time remaining points based on the line that matches, because the script records time left on the clock when receiving a line of text.
Scrambles as questions blend rules for questions and control picks:
Puzzles in this game are hangman style phrases or complete sentences. The script uses asterisks for hidden letters but will display punctuation marks. The letters will not appear until players guess them, if the puzzle contains the letter guessed. Players cannot guess letters until answering a question correctly. Each round is solving a hangman style puzzle and has a category that will only appear in the channel once, but players can request it again at any time by typing !cat in the channel. For any that are curious, here are most of the categories:
Hymn indicates if it's in the current edition of the Church's official music book.
Most punctuation marks appear in puzzles: quotation marks, commas, periods, colons, semicolons, hyphens, apostrophes, slashes (used in song lyrics to mark the next line), and even an exclamation point. These marks will not appear in the puzzle spelled out.
Unlike scrambles, the script will not check all puzzle guesses for matches. The host couldn't get the script to recognize a guess on each line received. When it's time to submit puzzle guesses, players should type !puz before their guess to guarantee that the script will attempt to match the guess. Failure to start guesses with !puz may result in the script not attempting to make a match, and it will not count as a match. If it's not time to submit puzzle guesses, the script will ignore the guess, but the host may say it's not time to guess yet.
The script does two checks for matches: The first attempt occurs on the guess as is. If that doesn't match, the script then strips all the punctuation marks and tries to match again. If there's a match after removing the punctuation marks, the player receives less bonus points. If there's no match, the script will say there's no match and that the host may respond. The host will look it over if it looks like a guess and then respond.
Caution: Be careful when trying to match the puzzle. If there's one letter or one punctuation mark wrong or missing, the script will either not match the guess or find a spelling match instead of a complete match. Players have until the host finds a correct answer to submit corrections in an attempt to match their guesses. It's too late when the host finds a correct puzzle guess and awards the points manually.
Another Caution: Failure to use the !puz command may result in the script not attempting to match the guess. (This appears thrice, because it's important.)
Each puzzle has a point value that decreases with each letter guessed and revealed. Guessing vowels will also subtract points from the player's score if there are unrevealed consonants in the puzzle to discourage their use. This is a purchase instead of a penalty. The script tracks the number of consonants in the puzzle. When the number of consonants hit zero, a message appears once that says there are no more consonants. At that point, players can guess vowels at no cost to their score. However, the script doesn't track the number of vowels in a puzzle; therefore, players won't know when a puzzle runs out of vowels.
Players guess letters by typing [!guess] <letter> in the channel when prompted. (The brackets indicate that it's optional. The script assumes the next line received from the player in control is a guess and uses the first letter.)
The player that solves the puzzle first will get the point value of the puzzle and control. Because players do not have to correctly spell a puzzle, it's possible for two players to get points for solving the puzzle. When the script makes a match, it waits for the host to verify the player was first. Regardless, both players get points for solving the puzzle. The player making the match gets a bonus, and the player that was first gets control. This is the same as solving scrambles.
If the same player solves the puzzle and then matches another guess before the host can confirm it, the player will only get the puzzle's point value and bonus once.
If all the letters to the puzzle display, the round automatically ends. This route usually gets more points, but those points do not go to the player that revealed the last letter; the points go to the jackpot instead. There's the possibility that players cannot solve the puzzle until revealing the last letter.
A speed round shifts focus to solving the puzzle. These do not start until after a question if one is in progress, including the letter guess opportunity. When the script announces that one will begin, it will first remove voicing (+) from the player in control. The script goes down the nickname list, giving each player an opportunity to guess a letter, starting with the player in control and skipping idle players. The time to guess letters drops to 15 seconds. The goal is to go fast. The puzzle will only display again when a player finds a letter. Players can make guesses to the puzzle at any time. Speed round ends when solving the puzzle, when revealing all the letters, when the puzzle's value drops below 2,000, when players stop guessing, or when the buzzer sounds for a letter guess with only one player playing. The script will restore voicing to the player in control when finished.
Be careful here. If there's only one player, and the buzzer sounds for not guessing a letter, speed round ends, and the player has 90 seconds to submit as many guesses as possible to solve the puzzle. If the player doesn't solve the puzzle, the round ends with an unsolved puzzle.
Caution: The host can stop the speed round at any time when no one is guessing letters. If all the players are idling, the guessing automatically stops. The host then decides to end the round or game.
Players that don't talk in the channel for five minutes are idling. This clock is not game time and resets when the player says anything in the channel. The following happens to players that idle:
Important: For part one of questions, the host must receive idle players answers before deciding on the outcome of part one. If the host receives a correct answer after deciding that nobody got the answer right in part one, the idle player's answer will count as a part two correct answer.
The host wants players in the channel that play; however, the host will not kick people out of the channel for idling. The objective is to not reward players for idling; unfortunately, this has the added side effect of affecting other players' scores. Idle players can remove the idle mark by simply saying anything in the channel.
This section talks about the starting and stopping of the clocks used in the game from the host's computer. Because of lag, players may not see prompts in a timely matter, and it may cause messages to appear out of order. Unfortunately, the clock stops frequently, and the host doesn't know of any way to improve it without affecting the game. If anyone doesn't want to know these specifics, feel free to skip this section.
The game has four main clocks: game, puzzle, bonus, and one with the informal name of temp. The game clock starts at 60 minutes, and the puzzle clock starts at 10 minutes at the beginning of a round when the game clock is greater than 10 minutes. The temp clock is the time to answer questions, make selections, et cetera. Previous players compared the clock to a football game. When clocks start, the temp clock will always have time on it. The other three clocks will tick down when there's time on them.
The clocks start for the following events:
The game clock doesn't tick down when prompting players for answers to the pre-game questions.
The next set of lists indicate when the clock stops. For each set, it's the one that occurs first.
For speed rounds, the first list is when the clock starts, and the second list is when the clock stops.
The bonus clock rewards players for choosing and answering quickly, but players will not see this clock. Time goes on the bonus clock for each of the following events:
If the player is successful in performing the requested task, the player gets points per second left on the clock. When guessing letters, it does not matter if the guessed letter appears in the puzzle. If the buzzer sounds, the player gets nothing.
For questions, the player that gets the correct answer first will get points based on the bonus clock at the time of receiving the answer. Awarding it to all players will add extra time to display how many points the player earns, and it gives another incentive to be first.
The goal is to encourage players to pick up the pace, especially if a player is guessing repeated letters, either by not paying attention or wanting to stall for time.
This section covers errors and corrections for the times when the host makes a mistake. The game is live, so there's a possibility of unexpected outcomes, and the host will do everything possible to make sure things are correct, including making post-game corrections. Hopefully, errors do not affect the outcome of the game. The following list is some possible errors and their corrections:
The host will announce in the newsletter any corrections made post-game but will be unable to add time back to the clock.
Tossing a question involves adding time used back to the clock and adjusting the stats as if not asking the question. For multiple answer questions, players that got correct answers will still get credit for them. Unfortunately, it won't include the all answer bonus.
There will be times when the host puts things up to a vote to decide what to do. When needing a vote, the host will indicate the options, and each player will have 30 seconds to cast their vote on what to do. If there's a tie, the host will use the vote received first and ignore votes that did not tie. For example, there's a vote regarding round two: It can either be Question Round, Puzzle Round, or Neither. After casting the votes, there's a tie between Question Round and Neither. The vote the host receives first between Question Round and Neither will break the tie. (If the host receives a Puzzle Round vote first, the host will ignore it, because it didn't tie.)
Games without scores are less fun. There are no penalties for incorrect answers. Subtracting points when guessing vowels is to discourage their use and is, therefore, not a penalty. Think of it as buying them. Players will not get points for simply being in the channel; they must answer questions, solve scrambles, and solve puzzles. This is especially true for the jackpot, discussed later.
The script shows players' scores during play. Usually, when a player gets points, the score appears on the same line in parentheses. For questions, however, the script displays scores for all players that earned any points during the question, and it will do it once after displaying everything.
The next sections cover score bonuses, the bonus clock, questions, winning streaks, scrambles, puzzles, the jackpot, and detailed examples.
Players receive a bonus for having certain numbers in their scores:
It's possible to get both bonuses. (The host meant for these to be funny and to have some fun regarding superstition. Remember that 13 is a good number.) To avoid infinitely awarding them, however, this bonus occurs at the following times during the game:
The additional points for speed round is due to less time going on the clock. The goal of speed rounds is to go fast.
For questions, the points will go to the player that got the correct answer first.
Displayed point values are between 250 and 1,750 per correct answer in 10 point increments with the most common increment of 50. The more common maximum is 1,500 with one type of question being worth 1,750, making the maximum points for one question at 5,250 before bonuses. The level does not set its point value nor is there a number of points per level. The host sets point values based on criteria discussed later.
The following list shows all possible bonuses when dealing with questions:
Remember that the Scriptures category counts as random and will trigger the appropriate bonus.
Players get the correct spelling bonus when mentioned in an answer to a question and is per word. This is different from the bonus for matching puzzles and scrambles.
The following list shows point values for each level and are before any bonuses mentioned above:
Remember that these are guidelines with level of difficulty and number of choices as a factor. Of course, with any trivia-type games, it's mostly arbitrarily. Questions the host thinks are easy may be hard for some players and vise versa. The host doesn't like having a single point per correct answer.
Each level should be more difficult than the previous, which is why there's a huge point swing from level one to level eight. The difficulty goes up even more when players only get one guess.
Level one has two point values: 250 and 310. Questions the host feels are more difficult get the 310 value.
Level two starts at half the value of the non-choice version (level four) with four choices. The number of choices for this level is between three and five and will add or subtract 125 points. For example, the level four version of a question has a value of 1,500. The level two version with four choices will drop to 750 points. The three choice version will drop further to 630, but the five choice version will increase to 880. (Point values round to the nearest 10.) If the question is only available in a choice version, the host will estimate the value as if a no choice version exists and adjust accordingly.
Level three questions depends on the number of implied choices. If it's about four choices, the point value starts by adding half the value of the level two version. If it's greater than five, the point value will be equivalent to a level four question.
Level four questions are between 1,000 and 1,500 points based on difficulty and amount of information needed.
Levels five and seven usually match the equivalent level two. Adjusting for number of choices occurs by dividing the total number of choices by the total number of correct answers. Examples appear in the Detailed Examples section.
There are many level eight questions that have a total of four choices with either three of them or all four of them being correct. The point values for these questions are much lower than normal and is difficult to explain.
The host will determine the full point value of these questions based on the number in the answer requested and will start at 1,000. Points may adjust based on the likelihood of someone guessing it.
There are questions that ask for dates and will add an extra 250 points per element. For example, if the question asks for the year, it will start at 1,250, but if the question asks for the month, day, and year, the value will be the max of 1,750 and may change based on the host's perception of how likely the players can get them right.
Before asking these questions, the script will divide the points by 10 and then restore it if someone gets it right. For multiple answers, it displays the total points and breaks it down by number of correct answers and number of the closest answers.
Additionally, on multiple answer questions, the all answer bonus applies if the player is correct or close on all answers based on the points earned. For example, on a question requiring two answers, if a player gets one correct and closest on the other, the bonus will be the full value for the one and the reduced value for the other. If that question had an original value of 1,500 points, the player would earn 165 bonus points (1,500 divide by 10 = 150 + 1,500 = 1,650 X 10%).
The steps to calculate a scramble's value appear below:
Two examples appear in the Detailed Examples section.
Remember that if a scramble has more than one word, a player must solve all words to get credit. There's no partial credit for scrambles.
When used as control picks, points go to the first player that solves the word or phrase. Matching makes it possible for two players to get the points, one of which will get the bonus for matching.
When used as questions, who gets the points depends on which part. In part one, each player that solves the word or phrase gets the points; however, in part two, only the first player gets the points. Once again, matching in part two makes it possible for two players to get the points.
There are two kinds of winning streaks: overall and individual. Both kinds start giving a bonus at three and will continue until missing a question. The next topic talks about how educated guess questions affect those streaks.
This bonus is for players that are first in getting correct answers.
If a player that's not on a streak gets a correct answer first while a different player is on a streak, the new player gets the bonus for breaking the streak.
What the--? A bonus with a minus? Each game tracks a record for the longest streak, and this bonus is for breaking the record with an emphasis on breaking the record the fewest number of times. In other words, players get more points for breaking the record one time with a higher record instead of one at a time. Unfortunately, the bonus goes away if the record gets to about 20 due to a limitation of the formula.
Examples appear in the Detailed Examples section.
Individual Winning Streak: 50 X streak number
Each player can have their own winning streak, because more than one player can score points for each question.
When players are the closest in these questions, it counts as a correct answer, allowing streaks to continue.
Two and three answer questions are different, however. To continue a streak, a player must be close or correct for all required answers.
Examples: For a two answer question, a player gets the closest on one but not on the second. The player will get points for the one answer but will not continue the streak, because the player wasn't the closest on both.
If a player gets the closest on one and correct on the second, the player continues their streak, because the player was closest or correct for both answers.
Finally, for a three answer question, if a player is correct on one answer, the closest on another, but neither on the third; the player will lose any streaks in progress. However, the player still gets points for being the closest on one and full value for the correct answer.
This section begins with the starting value of puzzles before going into their scoring.
Puzzle values have a fixed element regardless of the puzzle's length, but the variable aspect is the letters in the puzzle. Calculating the starting value of a puzzle is below:
The maximum will vary based on each puzzle. It's impossible for players to get the maximum, because players cannot guess the puzzle until guessing a letter, and players cannot guess letters until getting a question correct.
An example appears in the Detailed Examples section.
The next sections talk about scoring when guessing letters, ending a puzzle, and solving the puzzle:
Here are the values for each letter, sorted alphabetically within each value:
Vowels are A, E, I, O, and U. The sometimes vowel Y is a consonant.
The values of consonants vary based on a guess of how often they appear with a minimum of 100 points. Vowels have an estimated rate of appearance, but for this game, they're a flat rate to make things easier.
Players earn points for each letter revealed in the puzzle, and the puzzle's value decreases. Bear in mind that the value decreases an additional 250 points for each letter guessed and another 1,500 for each vowel guessed, whether it's in the puzzle or not.
If a player guesses a vowel while the puzzle still has unrevealed consonants, the player must have 500 points, because guessing a vowel decrease a player's score. The player will still get points for each vowel revealed. (Why not subtract the difference between 500 and the points earned for each vowel revealed? The goal is to discourage their use; however, puzzles can be difficult to solve without them.)
Because of their importance when guessing vowels, here's a recap of how vowels affect scores, both the player and the puzzle:
When it comes to scoring, a puzzle ends in one of the following ways:
There are two ways to solve a puzzle: A player guesses the puzzle, or the puzzle displays every letter. Here's the scoring for a player solving a puzzle:
It is possible for two players to solve the puzzle with one player getting a bonus for matching their guess. This is possible by getting the puzzle correct without matching and then making a match before the host can verify that the non-matching guess is correct. No player will get double points for solving the puzzle.
It isn't possible to get the maximum bonus points regarding the clock bonuses, because a player cannot guess the puzzle until revealing a letter, and a player cannot guess a letter until getting a question correct.
The clock bonuses do not happen during Puzzle Round.
When revealing the puzzle, the following happens that differs from above:
The jackpot has two purposes: One, relieve some frustration of not knowing the answers to questions, scrambles, and puzzles. Two, give a reward for having more questions and puzzles. The jackpot solves the difficulty in determining which player gets those points.
When playing other trivia games over IRC, some have a jackpot, too, that usually increases with each incorrect question. The script awards it randomly, but if no one got that question correct, no one gets the jackpot. That is irritating. There is a guarantee that the script will award the jackpot at least once a game. However, there's no guarantee on the number of times a player gets it, but the goal is multiple times and before the value gets really high. ("Really high" doesn't have a formal number.)
The jackpot starts at 500 per player at time of reset, not including players that idle. It starts at 250 if all the players are idling. (This is slim, because the host will most likely stop the game first.) The value increases from the following events:
Italics in the above list means the script will add the points to the jackpot silently. This reduces the number of messages the script sends. When the script announces adding points to the jackpot, it will include the total of silent points added.
For educated guess questions, the only time points should go to the jackpot is for questions requiring two or three correct answers due to no player being correct or closest on all required answers.
There's no puzzle clock bonuses during Puzzle Round.
Revealing the entire puzzle gets more points, but the player receiving them will be random due to the points going to the jackpot. (This ignores the possibility that players may not know the puzzle until revealing the last letter.)
Awarding the jackpot is random by giving players entries when answering questions correct, solving puzzles, and solving scrambles. Idle players cannot get the jackpot. (It would be more frustrating to a participating player for an idle player to get the jackpot than the script not awarding it.)
Each entry involves random numbers. More on the number of entries in a moment. When starting the game or when resetting the jackpot after awarding it, the script chooses a random number between one and a secret maximum. For each entry, the script will choose another random number between one and a secret maximum. If the entry's random number matches the first random number, the player gets the jackpot. If the numbers don't match, the maximum decreases by one. If the maximum number drops below the first random number, the script will select a new first random number. The host does not know when the script will award it. (In fact, the host will only see the number of entries players earn.)
The number of entries players earn depend on the number of points scored for each activity with exponential bonus entries for higher numbers. A player that gets one 1,000 point question correct will earn more entries than another player getting four 250 point questions. Detailed examples on calculating the number of entries appear at the end of the Detailed Examples section below.
Players also earn bonus entries when the number of points added to the jackpot go above 10,000. Awarding the jackpot when the point value gets to a certain number removes the random aspect, and this just speeds up the process.
When solving scrambles and puzzles, the number of entries players earn stays the same regardless of the player being first. This is because the host doesn't want to adjust the script. However, for regular questions, the player that is first gets double entries, second place gets the regular number of entries, and third place and thereafter get half. Being first is not a guarantee to get the jackpot. For educated guess questions with more than one answer, each player that scores points get the same number of entries regardless of order.
The probabilities of getting the jackpot will not appear here. For each entry, the probability is one divided by the secret maximum number. The host doesn't know how to calculate the overall probability. In the short run, the probability will fluctuate drastically depending on the number of entries earned; in the long run, however, the probability will increase over time.
When the game ends, a player will get the jackpot. If a player solves the final puzzle, the player that was first will get it. If the players reveal the puzzle, the script will award it to a random player that isn't idling. If there's no final puzzle, the host will manually award it to the player in control. If no player is in control, go back to the last question answered correctly. The player that answered first will get it.
In an effort to ease the possible feeling of too much information or feeling overwhelmed, all detailed examples go here. To avoid confusion with duplicate headings, there are no subheadings.
The three tables below show points based on questions worth 880, 1500, and 1750 per answer:
| 2 | Total | 3 | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 880 | 175* | 1,935 | 530* | 3,170 |
| 1,500 | 300 | 3,300 | 900 | 5,400 |
| 1,750 | 350 | 2,100 | 1,050 | 6,300 |
* Rounded to the nearest five.
The points in the table below are per answer, because it's possible to not get a bonus answer for all required correct answers:
| 880 | 1,500 | 1,750 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20% | 175* | 300 | 350 |
| 25% | 220 | 375 | 440* |
* Rounded to the nearest five.
| # of Ans | Cat | Total | Level | Total | Both | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Percent | 5 | 10 | 20 | |||
| 880 | ||||||
| 1 | 40* | 920 | 90* | 970 | 180* | 1,060 |
| All Answer Bonus | N/A | |||||
| Jackpot | 460 | 485 | 530 | |||
| 2 | 90* | 1,850 | 180* | 1,940 | 350* | 2,110 |
| All Answer Bonus | 185 | 2,035 | 195** | 2,135 | 210** | 2,320 |
| Jackpot | 925 | 970 | 1,055 | |||
| 3 | 130* | 2,770 | 260 | 2,900 | 530 | 3,170 |
| All Answer Bonus | 555** | 3,325 | 580 | 3,480 | 635** | 3,805 |
| Jackpot | 1,385 | 1,450 | 1,585 | |||
| 1,500 | ||||||
| 1 | 80* | 1,580 | 150 | 1,650 | 300 | 1,800< |
| All Answer Bonus | N/A | |||||
| Jackpot | 790* | 825 | 900 | |||
| 2 | 150 | 3,150 | 300 | 3,300 | 600 | 3,600 |
| All Answer Bonus | 315 | 3,465 | 330 | 3,630 | 360 | 3,960 |
| Jackpot | 1,575 | 1,650 | 1,800 | |||
| 3 | 230* | 4,730 | 450 | 4,950 | 900 | 5,400 |
| All Answer Bonus | 945** | 5,670 | 990 | 5,940 | 1,080 | 6,480 |
| Jackpot | 2,365 | 2,475 | 2,700 | |||
| 1,750 | ||||||
| 1 | 90* | 1,840 | 180* | 1,930 | 350 | 2,100 |
| All Answer Bonus | N/A | |||||
| Jackpot | 920 | 965 | 1,050 | |||
| 2 | 180* | 3,680 | 350 | 3,850 | 700 | 4,200 |
| All Answer Bonus | 370* | 4,050 | 390* | 4,240 | 420 | 4,620 |
| Jackpot | 1,840 | 1,925 | 2,100 | |||
| 3 | 260* | 5,510 | 530* | 5,780 | 1,050 | 6,300 |
| All Answer Bonus | 1,100** | 6,610 | 1,155** | 6,935 | 1,260 | 7,560 |
| Jackpot | 2,755 | 2,890 | 3,150 | |||
Cat = Category
N/A = Not Applicable
* Rounded to the nearest 10.
** Rounded to the nearest five.
Not showing the bonus answer calculations.
Scramble example for "Russel M Nelson":
The table below shows the matching bonus before and after displaying the hint for a 880 point scramble with the third column indicating the points that go to the jackpot:
| Match | Total | Jackpot | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Before | 220 | 1,100 | 0 |
| After | 110 | 550 | 220 |
| Not Solved | 0 | 0 | 440 |
This next part talks about the outcome of an educated guess question with three answers and the two methods of processing the answers. The host can process multiple answer and educated guess answers in two ways: One, the host could put the highest number in a player's answer to the highest number in the answer, the smallest answer to the smallest number in the answer, and the remaining number to the middle. Two, the host could process them in order. Using the first method, the host will put each set of answers in order from smallest to largest. To hopefully make it easier to understand, the following table sorts and displays the answers for easier comparison:
| Correct | 35 | 38 | 44 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Player One | 25 | 35 | 45 |
| Player Two | 30 | 45 | 50 |
(Is this confusing yet? Don't worry, the host had difficulty processing the answers and had to write them down and then sort them.)
The bold numbers indicate the closest answer and who gets credit. Player One was the closest on two answers, and Player Two was the closest on one.
For method two, here's the data in a table to hopefully make it easier to understand:
| Correct | 38 | 44 | 35 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Player One | 25 | 35 | 45 |
| Player Two | 45 | 30 | 50 |
Once again, the bold numbers indicate the closest answer and who gets credit. Player One was the closest on two, and Player Two was the closest on one.
Fortunately, the two methods do not change the outcome where Player One got two, and Player Two got one. Method one, however, takes the longest to process. It took writing the answers down and putting them in a table to fully process it.
The following table shows examples of an overall streak with question numbers for rows and number of players for columns:
| Streak | 4 | Total | 5 | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4 | 1,100 (1) | 2,000 (2) | 1,400 (3) | 2,500 (4) |
| 5 | 1,300 (5) | 3,300 (6) | 1,600 (7) | 4,000 (8) |
(1) 200 X 4 = 800. 5 - 3 = 2 X 100 = 200. 2 - 1 = 1 X 100 = 100. 1 - 0 = 0. 800 + 200 + 100
(2) 1,100 + 900
(3) 200 X 4 = 800. 6 - 3 = 3 X 100 = 300. 3 - 1 = 2 X 100 = 200. 2 - 1 = 1 X 100 = 100. 1 - 1 = 0. 800 + 300 + 200 + 100
(4) 1,400 + 1,100
(5) 200 X 5 = 1,000. 5 - 3 = 2 X 100 = 200. 2 - 1 = 1 X 100 = 100. 1 - 1 = 0. 1,000 + 200 + 100
(6) 1,300 + 1,100 + 900
(7) 200 X 5 = 1,000. 6 - 3 = 3 X 100 = 300. 3 - 1 = 2 X 100 = 200. 2 - 1 = 1 X 100 = 100. 1 - 1 = 0. 1,000 + 300 + 200 + 100
(8) 1,600 + 1,300 + 1,100
When calculating the number of players bonus, notice that the calculation starts at one above the number of players. This is because the count includes the host.
Correct Spelling Bonus Example Using Deuteronomy:
The next table shows the bonus for breaking the overall record: The first column indicates if the record break is all at once or one number at a time; the second column shows the number of questions the player just got in a row; the third column was the previous record; and the fourth column is the bonus.
| New | Old | Bonus | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Once | 10 | 3 | 13,000 (1) |
| One at a Time | 10 | 3 | 9,100 (2) |
| Once | 8 | 5 | 5,200 (3) |
| Once | 20 | 19 | 0 (4) |
| Once | 20 | 3 | 32,000 (5) |
(1) 10 - 3 = 7 X 2000 = 14,000. 10 X 100 = 1,000. 14,000 - 1,000
(2) Formula's very long and won't appear here.
(3) 8 - 5 = 3 X 2,000 = 6,000. 8 X 100 = 800. 6,000 - 800
(4) 20 - 19 = 1 X 2,000 = 2,000. 20 X 100 = 2,000. 2,000 - 2,000
(5) 20 - 3 = 17 X 2,000 = 34,000. 20 X 100 = 2,000. 34,000 - 2,000
Individual streaks: A player that gets seven questions in a row will get 350 points (50 X 7) in addition to the bonuses for questions three to six that total 1,250 points (50 X 6 = 300. 50 X 5 = 250. 50 X 4 = 200. 50 X 3 = 150. 350 + 300 + 250 + 200 + 150).
Here's an example puzzle to determine initial point values: Moses did not put animals into an ark.
Emphasis added here. When seeing the puzzle during the game, the letters will be in all caps.
Using the same puzzle above, calculate the correct spelling bonus:
Finally, the next table shows the bonus points when a player solves a puzzle with three minutes left on the puzzle clock:
| Player | Jackpot | |
|---|---|---|
| Solving | 4,500 (1) | 500** |
| Revealing | 0 | 10,000 (2) |
(1) 60 X 3 = 180 X 25
(2) 5,000* + 500** + 4,500
* Use the puzzle's value if it's higher.
** The script will not specifically say when these points go to the jackpot.
To get the number of entries, divide the number of points the player earned by the following numbers based on activity and round to the nearest whole number:
| Questions | 100 |
|---|---|
| Puzzles | 1,000 |
| Scrambles | 100 |
The following table displays the number of entries earned, including bonuses, when scoring points for answering questions or solving scrambles:
| 250 | 6 |
|---|---|
| 500 | 15 |
| 1,000 | 55 |
| 2,000 | 210 |
| 4,050 | 861 |
| 4,500 | 1,035 |
Formulas too long to display here.
When solving puzzles, multiply the number in the left column by 10 to get the same number in the right column. A puzzle value of 20,000 is possible, but it would be a large puzzle. Puzzles aren't large enough to start at a value of 40,500 and 45,000.
Bonus scramble example: "The Melchizedek Priesthood and the Keys"
When the game officially ends, which is after the game clock expires and finishing any question and puzzle in progress in that order, the player with the highest score has a chance to play a bonus round to add more points:
The other thing that makes this a true bonus is that any question in the database is fair game, especially questions already used, same session or previous sessions. Ideally, questions that appeared in the same game shouldn't appear again in the bonus round. The only time that the host will toss a bonus question, however, is when a question repeats twice in a row, due to the host forgetting to choose a different question.
If the host goes the wrong direction when changing levels after a question, the player decides on whether to toss the question.
Having only one shot at an answer makes it more difficult than the normal game.
Here's the scoring for the bonus round and what changes from the regular game:
The script tracks how many questions a player gets right and how many questions are correct overall with an average point value per question that shows in the stats file for the game. More information on the stats page.
A note regarding educated guess questions and correct answers: In order for the answer to be correct, the player must be correct on all required answers. Being closest doesn't count. This is different from streaks.
Players that misbehave may result in a ban, a kick, or both. A ban happens before kicking. A ban prevents a player from talking in the channel until removed; however, the player cannot re-enter the channel if the player leaves the channel before the ban's removal. If the player waits out the ban, the player can continue playing the game and/or re-enter the channel. A kick/ban prevents that player from coming back into the channel, both temporary and permanent. A ban's timer is not dependent on the game clock and won't stop ticking. The following is the rules that can result in a timed ban, kick, or both:
Misbehavior during the bonus round is different:
This section is last, because it's only an option when there's only one player attending the game. Script testing inspired the host to offer to play. The host wrote most of the questions. Even though the host cannot possibly memorize every answer to a question written, it doesn't change the fact that the host has an advantage. This means the host has some rules to lower the advantage:
When playing full games to test the script, questions, and whatnot, the main goal is to usually look for bugs in the script. The full parameters of each test isn't really necessary, but the rules when the host plays is very similar. For scrambles and puzzles, the host rarely looks at the answer, because the host tries to match correct answers to test the matching feature of the script.
Additionally, the host makes mistakes during play, usually by not reading the question. That's why there's such an emphasis on reading the question and following the prompts.
Site © 2018-2024 by Jeremy Adderley. All graphics copyright respective owners, used by permission.
Background picture from BoxedArt.
Line and banner graphics obtained from Celine's Original GIF's.
I removed the links, because the sites do not exist anymore.
Game format and questions written by me are copyright 2017-2024 by Jeremy Adderley. Feel free to use the game's format and questions as long as no money exchanges hands. Please give credit. Questions written by others properly credited in the answers. Please send an e-mail to request permission and/or make payment(s) for their use when it involves money.
I do not talk about the questions with anyone that I feel may end up playing the game, especially my wife, whose name won't appear here for privacy reasons.
There are two mailing lists: newsletter and notify. They're separate just in case a person only wants one. The newsletter contains a summary of the game, the scores of everyone who played, corrections to scores, updates to the game, and a high score list. The notify list announces the time for the next game. Due to email sending quotas, the host will send the three random questions two days before the game session. Answering these three questions before the game officially starts will earn points.
There is a page on Facebook about the game, and I post when the next game will be and updates to the site/game.
There is no sharing of any information gathered with anyone, especially advertising networks. This site has no advertisements.
This site gathers the following information:
The host uses visitor information for statistical purposes only, email addresses only for sending emails to subscribers of the mailing list, and email statistics to track who views those emails.
If anyone objects to the gathering of this information, please stop visiting this website and possibly the entire Internet.