Round & Revel / trivia
The Bright Table
Pool what you know. Back one bright answer. Let every voice have a turn.
Planning estimate only. This edition has not had a live group playtest.
What you need
24 question cards; Separate host answer guide; Four blank answer sheets and a pen per team; One score sheet and a pen for the host; A timer
How to play
The idea
Three teams tackle the same 24 questions across four rounds. Every round, each team marks one answer as its Spark: a correct Spark earns more, but a wrong one costs a point. The highest total wins. No specialist knowledge is required to take part; questions range from familiar facts to trickier discoveries.
Set the table
Choose one host, who reads questions, keeps time and judges answers without competing. Divide everyone else into three teams as evenly as possible, with sizes differing by no more than one. With four people total, the three contestants play individually. With twelve, the teams have four, four and three players. Keep the host for the whole game so nobody gains advance knowledge from the answer guide.
The host keeps all question cards and the separate answer guide out of players' view. Cutting the cards is optional: the host may read from the printed pages. Give each team four blank sheets and a pen. Write the team name and the six question IDs for that round on each sheet. Make a host score sheet with three team rows and columns for rounds 1–4, total points and total correct answers. Start every total at zero.
Four rounds, four subjects
Play the cards in order. Round 1, Out in the world: T01–T06. Round 2, Living things: T07–T12. Round 3, Made and imagined: T13–T18. Round 4, Sky and science: T19–T24. At the start of each round, choose a different team member as captain if possible. The captain writes the final answers and settles any disagreement within the team. A solo contestant keeps that role.
Think, talk, write
The host reads each question aloud twice, then starts a 40-second timer. Think quietly for the first 10 seconds, then discuss for the remaining 30. The captain writes one final answer beside the matching ID. Teams may pass by leaving a line blank. Keep discussion quiet enough not to help the other teams; do not call answers across the room. The host may repeat the question but gives no extra clues. No internet searches, reference books or outside help during play.
Choose your Spark
After all six questions, give teams 30 seconds to review their answers. They may revise anything from the current round and must draw a star beside exactly one answer they want to back. When time ends, hand the sheet to the host; no more changes are allowed. If a sheet has no star or more than one star, the host uses its lowest-numbered answered question as the Spark. If all six are blank, the lowest-numbered question is the Spark.
Reveal and score
The host collects all three sheets before reading the six answers. An ordinary correct answer earns 1 point; an ordinary wrong or blank answer earns 0. A correct Spark earns 3 points total, replacing its usual 1 point. A wrong or blank Spark scores minus 1. Each round can therefore score from minus 1 to 8, and totals may go below zero. Example: four correct answers, including the Spark, earn 6 points: three ordinary points plus three Spark points.
Record each team's round points and number of correct answers. A correct Spark counts as one correct answer for this second tally. Return the sheets and announce the running scores before starting the next round.
Keep judging generous and consistent
Accept recognizable spelling, ordinary abbreviations and the alternatives listed in the host guide. Exact spelling is never required. A list of conflicting guesses is wrong, even if one is correct. The host's ruling applies equally to all teams. If an answer is genuinely disputed, check the matching source after the round. If the wording is defective or an answer was accidentally revealed early, void that question for everyone: it earns 0, contributes nothing to the correct-answer tally, and any Spark on it also earns 0 with no replacement.
Finish and replay
After T24 is scored, add the four round scores. The team with the most points wins. If teams tie, compare their total number of correct answers across the game, ignoring Spark weighting. If they still tie, they share the win. The normal maximum is 32 points.
Keep the cards and play with a new group, or swap teams and host for a friendly memory rematch. The same 24 questions will be familiar on replay, so changing their order does not create a fresh quiz. For a shorter first session, agree before starting to play any two complete rounds; use the same scoring and tie rules, with a normal maximum of 16 points.
Printable play cards
Print single-sided at 100%. Cut along the borders and follow the setup instructions.
Machu Picchu is in which South American country?
Which ocean is the largest on Earth by surface area?
The ancient rock-cut city of Petra is in which present-day country?
Which London district is home to the Royal Observatory and the historic Prime Meridian line?
In which Indian city would you find the Taj Mahal?
The Great Barrier Reef lies off the northeastern coast of which country?
How many hearts does an octopus have?
During photosynthesis, which gas do plants take in from the air to make sugars?
Platypuses and echidnas belong to which group of egg-laying mammals?
What is the tallest living land animal?
Emperor penguins are native to which continent?
The beans used to make chocolate come from which tropical tree?
Who painted The Starry Night in 1889?
Who wrote the novel Pride and Prejudice?
How many keys does a standard modern piano have, counting black and white keys together?
What is the Japanese art of folding paper into shapes called?
Which numbered Beethoven symphony includes his setting of Ode to Joy?
Leonardo da Vinci painted the Mona Lisa on which support: canvas, wood or copper?
Which planet is the hottest in our solar system?
What is the chemical symbol for gold?
In which year did Apollo 11 make the first crewed Moon landing?
What two-word term describes DNA's familiar twisted, two-stranded structure?
What is the SI unit of electric current?
Which planet in our solar system has an average density lower than that of liquid water?
Host only: open answers and hosting notes (spoilers)
Keep this closed if you are playing. This section is excluded from the normal browser printout.
T01
Peru.
T02
The Pacific Ocean. Accept Pacific.
T03
Jordan. Accept the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.
T04
Greenwich. The question specifies the historic line at the Royal Observatory; it is not asking about the modern geodetic reference meridian.
T05
Agra. India alone is not sufficient: the question asks for the city.
T06
Australia.
T07
Three. Two send blood through the gills; the third sends oxygenated blood around the body.
T08
Carbon dioxide. Accept CO2. Oxygen is released during photosynthesis, rather than being the gas asked for here.
T09
Monotremes. Accept Monotremata or the singular monotreme.
T10
The giraffe. Accept giraffes; no species name is required.
T11
Antarctica. Accept the Antarctic continent. The Arctic is incorrect.
T12
The cacao tree. Accept cocoa tree, cacao, cocoa or Theobroma cacao.
T13
Vincent van Gogh. Accept van Gogh.
T14
Jane Austen. Accept Austen, including a recognizable misspelling such as Austin.
T15
88. This is the standard modern keyboard; some specialist instruments have extra keys.
T16
Origami.
T17
Symphony No. 9. Accept 9, Ninth or Beethoven's Ninth.
T18
Wood. Accept poplar, poplar panel or wooden panel. Poplar is the specific wood, but it is not required.
T19
Venus.
T20
Au. Accept AU or au for this spoken party quiz; conventional chemical notation is Au. Gold or aurum alone is insufficient because the question asks for the symbol.
T21
1969. Accept '69 if the intended century is clear. Apollo 11's lunar module landed on 20 July 1969.
T22
Double helix. Accept double-helical structure. Helix alone does not supply the requested two-word term.
T23
The ampere. Accept amp, amps, amperes or the unit symbol A. Volt and watt are different units.
T24
Saturn. The comparison is with the planet's average density, not every individual layer inside it.
Fact-check sources / 2026-10-12
- T01: UNESCO World Heritage Centre — Historic Sanctuary of Machu Picchu
- T02: NOAA — What is the largest ocean basin on Earth?
- T03: UNESCO World Heritage Centre — Petra
- T04: Royal Museums Greenwich — Stand on the Prime Meridian Line
- T05: UNESCO World Heritage Centre — Taj Mahal
- T06: UNESCO World Heritage Centre — Great Barrier Reef
- T07: Smithsonian Ocean — Octopuses, Squids, and Relatives, Circulatory System
- T08: NASA Earth Observatory — The Carbon Cycle
- T09: San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance — Platypus
- T10: San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance — Giraffe
- T11: Australian Antarctic Program — Emperor penguin, Distribution and abundance
- T12: Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew — From bean to bar: How to make chocolate
- T13: Museum of Modern Art — Vincent van Gogh, The Starry Night, 1889
- T14: Jane Austen's House — Jane Austen
- T15: Yamaha Musical Instrument Guide — Why Can't There Be More Than 88 Keys on a Piano?
- T16: Web Japan, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan — The History of Origami
- T17: Carnegie Hall — All Together: A Global Ode to Joy
- T18: Musée du Louvre — From the Mona Lisa to The Wedding Feast at Cana
- T19: NASA Science — Venus Facts
- T20: Royal Society of Chemistry — Gold, element 79
- T21: NASA — Apollo 11 Mission Overview
- T22: National Human Genome Research Institute — Deoxyribonucleic Acid (DNA) Fact Sheet
- T23: International Bureau of Weights and Measures (BIPM) — SI base unit: ampere
- T24: NASA Science — Saturn Facts
Original Round & Revel game text. Edition 1 / October 2026. Reuse the printed cards for future gatherings.