Keypad Games

Description

The Keypad game is the best place to start when hosting SpeedQuizzing. It is the closest to a traditional pub quiz, as well as being great fun in the classroom or workplace. Many hosts find the Keypad game adequate for  all of their hosting needs. It’s easy to host and includes plenty of optional game variations to keep players interested and engaged.

The Keypad game features three different question formats: Multiple Choice, Letters and Numbers.

Multiple Choice

• Read a question from the laptop screen followed by anywhere between two and six multiple-choice options.
• Always include the corresponding letter when reading out the list of options. “A. London… B. New York..” rather than just saying “London…. NewYork..”
• The A,B,C,D,E,F layout means there is the flexibility to write questions with as few as two options, for instance A. True B. False… but also allows questions with up to six options.

Tip: It is advisable not to pre-warn players how many options a particular question will have to choose from. Instead you should simply stop reading at the end of the final option.

Letters

• Read a question from the laptop screen. Generally you will have explained the rules of a Letters question at the beginning of the round whereby players simply need to input the first letter of the answer, omitting ‘The’ in answers such as ‘The Lion King’ and always using a person’s first name, example “P” for ‘Sir Paul McCartney’.

Tip: Little reminders of this along the way can help, especially if new players join in mid-game.

Numbers

• Read a question from the laptop screen. A Numbers question could be a four-digit year question or a maths question or anything else where a number can be an answer such as the age of a celebrity or the number of players on a particular sports team. The main way that a numbers question differs from Multiple Choice or Letters is that players must press Enter to submit their answer.

Tip: Occasional reminders of this throughout a round can be a good thing.

How to load a Keypad round.

• With at least 2 devices connected to the host software in the teams list, click Load Questions on the Keypad section.
• Select a red SQQ Keypad file. A good starting point is the file which can be found in a folder called ‘Getting Started Rounds’ which contains three different types of Keypad questions mentioned above.

• Whilst on this Round Settings page, you will notice that the players handsets are rotating through a sequence of help screens for the three different types of question.



• Whilst this is happening you should click the game rules button. This is found near the bottom of the screen and will display some instructions for you to read out prior to starting the round.
• Once everyone understands the game, hit the blue Start round button.

You are now ready to read out one of the three types of question from the laptop screen.
Tip: Whilst this box is ticked, instructions will appear on the player’s device prior to each question. This can be unchecked once all players understand the game.

How to read a Keypad Question.

• From the moment you commence reading the question from the laptop screen, players can start inputting their answers. It’s important that they are aware that they DO NOT need to hear the whole question before submitting their answer.
• Once you’ve completely read out the question (including the Multiple choice options where applicable), hit the blue Start Timer button. This signifies that players have only 10 seconds remaining to submit their answer.

Tip: With a large noisy crowd it is advisable to repeat the question before clicking Start Timer. Also on a multiple choice question it is good practise to repeat the Multiple Choice options during the 10 second timer.

Tip: The question (and Multiple Choice options) can also be displayed on the optional Live Screen, but it’s advisable to wait until you’ve fully read the question (and options) from the laptop screen prior to displaying it on the Live Screen.

• At the end of the 10 seconds any devices which have not been touched will lock-out displaying a padlock.

Announcing the correct answer and results.

• Following the on screen instructions you will announce how many teams answered correctly.
• Then at the exact same time as pressing the blue button you should announce the correct answer. Syncing the pressing of the blue button with announcing the correct answer triggers a cheering sound effect. (Forgetting to press the blue button at this point, means that the cheering sound effect will play in isolation later, having a less than desired effect).

Tip: When instructed to click a blue button this can be done either on the host screen or using the Optional Quizmaster’s handset, or alternatively by using spacebar or number 5 on your computer keyboard as a shortcut.

• Announce the name of the team/device who were the fastest team to answer correctly. At the same time as this press the blue button again, which will play the corresponding team’s celebratory Buzzer ID sound.

Tip: On the rare occasion where no correct answers are submitted, these two aforementioned steps will not happen.

Picture Questions

Any of the three types of Keypad question can also include a picture which will be beamed to the players devices.

To try this….

• Locate a Picture Question in a Keypad round and announce “A picture question will be appearing on your device screens shortly, once it displays you must tap the picture to return to the Keypad in order to input your answer”.
• Now hit the Blue button to start sending the picture. During which time you can commence reading the accompanying text from the laptop screen. EG “Who is this guy?” or “In what year was this picture taken?”.

Tip: With a Multiple choice picture question, it generally makes most sense to read out the question whilst the picture is transferring, but then read the options out once the picture has appeared on the devices.

• Warning: The more devices you have connected the longer the picture will take to beam, allowing you more time to read out the question.

Go Wide and Evil Mode

Once you are familiar with the keypad game, you might want to spice things up a bit in later rounds. For instance, you might introduce Go Wide in Round 2 and Evil Mode in the final round.

Tip: Hitting the Game Rules button with Go Wide or Evil Mode enabled will adjust the rules (for you to read out to players) accordingly.

Go Wide

Go Wide gives players an extra decision-making step, whereby they have to decide how confident they are with their initial answer and whether they should choose to widen their chances of scoring points by submitting a second alternative answer. However, by Going Wide (submitting two answers) they forfeit half of the potential points on offer for answering this question correctly.
Although in a Numbers question the Go Wide scoring works the same as with Multiple Choice and Letters questions, it handles Go Wide slightly differently. Instead of opting to submit two answers instead of one, a player, after hitting enter, taps anywhere on the screen to widen their submitted answer by one number either side. For example, Going Wide on the year 2013 will additionally include the alternate answers 2012 and 2014. (Three answers for the price of one)
Note: It is possible to Go Wide and still win the Speed Bonus, even beating slower teams who haven’t Gone Wide.

Evil Mode

Evil Mode is easier to explain and understand than Go Wide and works great in the final Keypad round of your event.
Evil Mode again introduces a decision making gamble for players by giving them the option to play safe by not submitting an answer at all. This is because an incorrect answer will incur a penalty in the shape of minus points. Ouch!
So assuming the Round settings are set to 6 points for a correct answer plus 4 speed bonus points, with Evil Mode enabled, each time an incorrect answer is submitted that team will lose 6 points. If they do not submit an answer, they will neither win nor lose points.