This page is just to detail the main types of round used in our Tolkien quizzes, to help give a better idea of the format the questions available online were originally used in.
Question Rounds
The CTS quizzes mostly have two teams, with the ordinary rules as follows:
- There are 8 questions in a round.
- Each team takes it in turns to be given a question.
- If the question is answered perfectly, the team scores two points; if they give a mostly correct answer, this is usually worth one point. If they fail to answer, or answer only partially correctly, the question may be passed to the other team, who score a maximum of one point if they can get the correct answer.
- Teams are given a set time in which to answer the question before it is passed to the other team, usually one minute: the opposing team then get a further five seconds in which to answer if the time runs out for the team whose question it was.
- A subset of these are quote completion rounds, where all the questions require the teams to give the next line or word in a quotation or piece of poetry.
List Rounds
List rounds are very simple; the aim is to, in one minute, list as many items in the given category as possible. The teams then take it in turns to read out answers. If one team can keep answering after the other has run out, they get a point for winning the round and an extra point for every additional answer they give (so if one side manages 8 answers and the other 12, the winners will gain 5 points, 1 for winning plus the difference).
If a team gains all the answers in a category, they get an additional bonus point.
Taboo Rounds
These take the form of a game of Taboo. The rules are that one member of the team (the "asker") is put in front of the rest and given a card, upon which is a list of words. The asker must get their team to guess the word on the card, without at any point using the word or any of a number of "taboo" words alongside it. The aim is to do this as quickly as possible; words may be skipped, forfeiting the available points for them. If a taboo word is spoken, then similarly the team may not gain any points for that word.
Scoring is done on a mixture of words and time - usually gaining 1 point for each answer gained correctly, and a further point for every ten seconds faster than the opposing team the round was completed in, rounding up.
Only Connect Rounds
Only Connect rounds take the form of a Round 1 question on the BBC quiz show "only connect". The aim is to guess the connection between four things or items. Only the first item in the list is revealed to begin with - if the connection is guessed correctly at this stage, the team gain 5 points. They may then ask for more of the items to be revealed - scoring 3 points for guessing correctly after the second item, 2 after the third, and 1 after the fourth. The team has a 40 second time limit to do this.