Content Is King.

The key difference between a trivia night that lasts for years and one that fizzles out after a few months is content. Not everybody is great at writing trivia content, but I am! It’s a skill I’ve been practicing since 2010.

The trivia teams that come back week after week and year after year come back for questions, categories, and games that are: 

  • Factually and grammatically correct

  • Objective

  • Creative

  • Thought-provoking

  • Relevant to the world around us

  • Not too obvious or too obscure

Content Is My Passion.

The Trivium Style

The Trivium style has been refined by more than a decade of writing trivia questions, observing how they go with my own live audiences, and editing them to make them better.

All these years of personal experience have given me a pretty solid understanding of what people generally know and don’t know, of what interests them and what doesn’t.

Trivium has improved over time and will always continue to do so. I’m not going anywhere.

The process…

I’ve come to experience the world through a special lens I call my “trivia goggles” and am constantly inspired by the things I see, read, hear, taste, touch, smell, and feel. I’m on the job at all times, absorbing random information and finding ways to work it into interesting trivia questions and categories— it’s my super power!

There are hundreds of trivia game shows, websites, apps, podcasts, email lists, etc. and yes, I subscribe to all of them for inspiration! My craft is mining through all that noise and condensing the good stuff into plug-and-play trivia games written specifically for weekly trivia nights in American eating and drinking establishments.

Trivium categories stay relevant to the world around us. In October, there are categories about ghosts and scary movies. Every four years during the World Cup, we talk FIFA. When a legend like David Bowie leaves this earth, we honor them with a round.

Trivium games are designed to offer a little something for everyone on the team— the sports fan, the history buff, the world traveler, the science nerd, the music junkie, the pop culture diva, etc. An average score of 7 out of 10 is what I strive for.

What works for you works for me.

The Trivium game consists of four categories each week, has its own special scoring system, and is designed to last for two hours. You can play the game exactly as it comes or use it as a basic framework and put your own spin on it.

  • Want to call it something besides Trivium? Go for it.

  • Prefer to use your own scoring system? Be my guest.

  • Want to use a condensed version of the game or add your own bonus questions to it? Please do!

With Trivium, you’re not required to follow my exact program or be part of a larger program. You don’t have to download any apps, tag me in photos, or send in your scores to be posted on my website. Trivium is a simple, effective system that’s flexible and easy-to-use!

Let’s Play

Not all trivia is created equal and there’s a lot of cringeworthy trivia out there. Below are examples of trivia questions and better trivia questions, meant to paint a picture of what distinguishes well-written and answerable trivia questions from basic questions in which the answer is overly obvious, obscure, and/or ambiguous. The very best trivia questions include qualifiers, eliminate confusion, provide information that leads players to answers, teach people things, and stimulate conversation.  At the very minimum, trivia questions must be written such that there is only one possible answer. 

QUESTION:

In 2005, the Expos moved to what city?

BETTER QUESTION:

In 2005, the Montreal Expos relocated to become what franchise that won their first World Series in 2019? 

  • Washington Nationals


QUESTION:

What’s the capital of Texas?

BETTER QUESTION:

There’s a statue of Willie Nelson in what city that’s the southernmost state capital in the lower 48? 

  • Austin


QUESTION:

What 2006 book popularized the “law of attraction”?

BETTER QUESTION:

What movie, and subsequent book, both written by Rhonda Byrne and released in 2006, popularized the “law of attraction”? 

  • The Secret


QUESTION:

What 1999 Kevin Costner movie was based on a book?

BETTER QUESTION:

What 1999 Kevin Costner movie was based on a book and shares its name with a 1979 song by The Police? 

  • Message in a Bottle


QUESTION:

The westernmost point in Europe lies in what country?

BETTER QUESTION:

The westernmost point in Europe lies in what Iberian Peninsula country?

  • Portugal


QUESTION:

What’s the atomic number of oxygen?

BETTER QUESTION:

What’s both the atomic number of oxygen and the number of states that border Tennessee?

  • Eight


QUESTION:

What game took the internet by storm in 2022?

BETTER QUESTION:

Players have six chances to guess the five letter word-of-the-day in what game that took the internet by storm in 2022?

  • Wordle

Real Talk

The entire point of outsourcing your trivia content to me is saving time and feeling confident about the questions and answers you’re presenting. My intention is always to write questions that have a single, inarguable answer, so that you (or your host) aren’t dealing with frustrating discrepancies from the audience. I’ve developed a good knack for this skill, and have high standards for myself and Trivium, but in all honesty, I do make misteaks mistakes here and there. Perfection is futile, but you can trust that I’m always doing my best to prevent errors and provide accurate and unambiguous content.

Start Your Own Trivia Night

Present intelligent trivia content in your venue and to your audience without having to spend hours and hours every week writing questions.