Tips & Tricks for Writing Rounds:
It is very easy to make up rounds that are too hard; it is almost impossible to create rounds that are too easy.

It requires a seasoned Question Setter (writer) to ensure that the better players in the league generally get seven out of ten questions right, on a consistent basis. It's not a lot of fun for a player to be constantly getting only two's and three's throughout a season. Each night will include an audio round, a current events round, and will end with a miscellaneous round.

Every TTL Player and QM can submit Question Rounds.

For each round that is submitted, a small remuneration of $12.00 is awarded to the writer (player/QM). If a player’s round is used in a night of play, the QM will answer for that player for the entire round and for that round will be an active player in that team.

Please Do Not:

Please do not create a set of questions in a subject on which you are an expert. What an insider may think is ridiculously easy will probably mystify the rest of the world. There is a world of difference between trivia and minutiae.

Trivia, which is what this game is all about, is the kind of thing that anyone with a good general knowledge has some chance of knowing or guessing; minutiae is material that only an expert would know.

By way of example: In the movie "The Godfather," there is a famous scene where the Don wishes to persuade a movie producer to cast a certain actor in an upcoming major project.

The trivia question that pops out easily from this might be: "What does the producer find in his bed one morning that convinces him to cooperate?" (the severed head of his prize racehorse).

A point of minutiae would be: "What was the name of the horse whose head was found in the producer's bed?" (Khartoum, if you're interested).

Types of Rounds:

The League Manager is responsible for collecting submitted Rounds and pulling 10 rounds for each Monday night of play. Thanks to Phil Rock.

Each night will include, among the ten rounds are three standards:
1. Audio always starts the night off with a boombox.
2. Current Event round is after the break.
3. Miscellaneous round to finish the night.

The seven remaining rounds are written by players and QMs and submitted to the above.

Audio Rounds:

Our games always include an audio round. It is the first round of the night!

These are usually, but not always, music-based and we have a member dedicated to submitting these rounds. If you really want to submit a music round please get in touch with Phil and he can advise your or put you in touch with our Music Round Setter.

The format of this round is a little different. A memory stick is supplied, pre-recorded with sound bites that are approximately thirty seconds long.

**Rules make this thirty seconds audio playtime part of the answering time, so that the player and team only have about thirty seconds left after the audio track is finished.

Quizmaster will pause the music between questions and will restart for each new question.

In music round it usually comes down to “Name the Song” or “Name the performer”, but creative minds can come up with other questions. Consider this a challenge!

Themes for Musical rounds:

Generally, it’s wise to stick to popular music from any genre and any era: Rock (by decade.. etc) Alternative, Indie, Folk, Blues whatever rocks the world. Jazz/Classical/Country can be a bit iffy, but there’s always a way to construct music rounds that work from a variety of genres/eras.

Some Music Themes:

Best of – Band, Singer, Era Broadway Musicals – there is a lot of ways of ways to phrase these. The Other Side of Love ( Unhappy love songs for Valentine’s day) Movie Soundtrack Didly-I-Die music for St Patrick’s day (The Irish get this joke.) Etc…

Other ideas for audio rounds:

Animal noises (identify the animal) Sing the next line of... (extra marks for tunefulness) Elevator music (quiet orchestral versions of standards) Covers (other people performing hit tunes) Bridges (instrumental passages from hit tunes) TV show themes

Current Events:

This round always occurs right after the half-time break.

This is another area where there is great range for the question setter. Even within the "good players should be able to score seven out of ten" limitation, there are a number of ways to go:

Be very straightforward and serious, and concentrate on the big events of the world's headlines for that week.

Be Quirky and bizarre, but do try to avoid tabloid material (With everyone’s Thanks!)

Disasters, awards, ceremonies, heads of state, election results, notable deaths, sports news, celebrity marriages and divorces, lawsuits, crimes, and so forth are all grist for the mill. This is a great area to bring in some local colour, by using events and news items our city and community.

There's nothing wrong with taking the everything approach. It is a lot easier to find Current Event questions from a variety of sources, and to look for weird and unusual pieces of news amongst the more compelling headlines; things that are funny, and will amuse the players when they hear the answer will help, to make up for the seriousness that Current Events elicit.

Caveat to Current Events:

Questions have to have been mentioned in a major newspaper online or flatsheet, TV or radio newscast within the previous weeks, so that everyone has some chance of having heard of them.

You can bring in local material nicely here, too.

If it ain’t recent, it’s history.

Examples of funny Current Events:

Question: A Brampton man, witness to a robbery, was asked by police if he had got the license number from the getaway car: He was able to give them much more than that; what did he give them? Answer: He gave them the actual license plate, which had fallen off the thief's car.

Question: Two residents of a Manitoba community were arraigned on assault charges last week after being involved in a brawl following a heated argument between them. What was it about the vocation of the two men that made this remarkable? Answer: They were both Trappist monks.

The Remaining 7 Rounds:

Rounds will be interspersed around the 1st Audio, 6th Current Events and 10th Miscellaneous rounds.

Questions can be about anything, anyone, any time, any place, any book, flick or play; Any night and any day; any-whoodle and anyhow. There is no theme off-limits -- assuming good taste, and the League Manager will decide, always, the measure of good taste.

Going over the usuals: History, Science, Geography, Economics, Politics, Religion, Entertainment, Flora , Fauna, Provinces, States, Countries, Weights and Measures, to name but a few. If questions are funny the night is funnier for it, but humour is not a requirement. Cryptic questions are a challenge, but when written well add even more to the competition and fun to the evening.

Examples of General Questions:

Example: A musical station Answer: Broadway

Local pubs Example: What pub is located at the intersection of Queen and Woodbine? Answer: Murphy's Law

Theatres Example: What theatre is located at 2236 Queen St. E? Answer: The Fox

Miscellaneous Round:

This is the last round of every Monday Night in Toronto Trivia Land.

*** The Miscellaneous Round works a little differently from other rounds.***

There are five categories in this round,with two questions in each.

The QM announces the categories before the round starts.

Each Player gets to pick from the remaining questions -- the first to play is the only one who will get a choice from all ten questions, the last has no choice at all, but some prefer that. No pressure.