Original
Outlier
Say something true that nobody would expect, and bet that it counts.
'Things that are orange: a flight recorder.' Counts. 5 points, doubled.
Rules and scoring: OutlierGame night finally gets a referee.
Zebra is a small device that sits in the middle of the table, listens to the game, and makes the calls: what counts, what’s clever, what’s a stretch, and who’s ahead. It runs entirely on the device. Nobody has to be the judge.
Fourteen classics with the arguments taken out. Seventeen new games that only work with a judge in the room. Fourteen ways to play trivia.
Example round Categories+
An animal that starts with T
+5
Counts
Small primate from Southeast Asia. Capped at 5.
Said at about 2 in 100 tables. 5.6 bits of surprise.
Pick an answer to hear the call. Points are bits of surprise: one point each time the odds of someone saying it halve, capped at 5. Frequencies in this example are illustrative.
Categories+Tapir. Counts. Rare enough to pay: 4 points.Survey Says'The fridge.' Number 2 on the board: 31 of 100.Codenames, refereed'Ocean, 3' is legal. It sits closer to the assassin than to your third word.Taboo, strictlyBuzz. 'Fishy' is a form of 'fish.'Just One, no arguments'Prince' and 'princess' cancel. Same word family.Five Seconds, fairThree in 4.2 seconds. The third one, 'Uranus,' counts.Balderdash, with a ringerYour definition matches the real one closely enough. 3 points, no bluff.Apples to Apples, in characterAs the golden retriever: 'Tennis balls' wins. Obviously.Trivia, handicapped'Some Roman emperor' is too broad. 'Nero' was right.Werewolf, no moderatorThe village wakes. One seat is empty.BindingOn the record: Maya owes Jonah two wheat. Due now.Wavelength, any size'Hot dog' on sandwich-to-not-a-sandwich: the crowd puts it at 38.Draw & ActFlag: that's a letter A inside the drawing.AlibiContradiction: one said the diner, the other said the car.Quiz Night, gradedTable 6 wrote 'Chaikovsky.' Accepted: it can only mean Tchaikovsky.BuzzSeat 2, by a hair. Go.List Rush38 of 50. Still missing: Delaware, Vermont, and 10 more.Connection WallGroup found. 'Famous ships' is too broad; the link was ships that sank.Fake OutYour fake is actually true. Write another.
Outlier'Things that are orange: a flight recorder.' Counts. 5 points, doubled.Secret Rule'A lighthouse': yes. 'A cactus': no.Dumb It DownBuzz: 'atmosphere' isn't on the list. Try 'the air up high.'HijackFlag: the story was on a boat. Nobody mentioned a volcano.Missing Link'Pickle to brine' holds at 91. 'Brine to Napoleon' breaks at 12.GhostwriterA breakfast review as a hardboiled detective: 91% detective.ScavengeA flip phone for 'most 2009.' Strong fit.Who's the CrowdTop answer for 'something you'd bring to a party': a fondue set. 41 of 100.Close Call'Harbor': 64. 'Lighthouse': 88.Mind Meld'Ocean' and 'wave': 82. Next, think in between.Flag on the PlayFlag: straw man. She said 'fewer.' You answered 'none.'Trap WordsPoint to Sam. Jonah said 'avocado.'Yes, AndBlock. The scene was a hospital; 'this is a bakery' denied it.BarsFour-syllable rhyme in bar 3. On topic.Technically Correct'A rich girl throws expensive jewelry into the sea.' True of Titanic. Guessed in 40 seconds.Reverse EngineerThe hidden prompt was 'things you lose in a couch.' Your guess scores 84.Cross-ExaminationObjection. Earlier: 'I was alone.' Now: 'we left at nine.'ConfidentWrong at 99%. That's −56.Order of Magnitude300 against 193. 4 points.Stump the TableFair question. 3 of 6 got it: 3 points to the author.Side BetsGrandpa on Motown opens at 64%. The table bought it up to 81%.Points GainedMaya had a 22% chance on that one. +0.78.Show Your WorkWhy is the sky blue? 'Blue light scatters more' earns 2 of 3. Missing: why it does.Fact or FakeNumber 2 was the fake. Octopuses really do have three hearts.House LoreWhose first job was at a car wash? Two of you said Sam. It was Priya.The Daily Five4 of 5 today. You beat your predicted score by 1.3.
Most party games are built around a missing judge.
Look closely at the rules of the classics and you find workarounds for one problem: nobody at the table can score fairly, quickly, and without an answer key. Take that problem away and the workarounds become optional.
The workaround: Scattergories only rewards answers nobody else at the table wrote, because no one can score cleverness.
What a judge makes possible: Score every answer by how unlikely it was, so tarsier beats tiger even if nobody else said either.
The workaround: Apples to Apples hands judging to a rotating player, because there's no neutral one.
What a judge makes possible: A neutral judge with a declared taste you can play to, and a reason for every pick.
The workaround: Family Feud needs a survey of real people, run long before the game.
What a judge makes possible: Survey any crowd about any question on the spot: 100 nurses, 100 kids, 100 people in 1985.
The workaround: Werewolf makes one friend sit out and run the night as moderator.
What a judge makes possible: Everyone plays. The device deals roles, runs the night, and never gives anything away.
The workaround: Taboo and Codenames run on the honor system and a lot of arguing.
What a judge makes possible: Every clue is checked the moment it's said, including the sneaky forms of a banned word.
There’s a second unlock. Every Zebra runs the same frozen judge, so a score in one living room means the same thing in every other. Games that were always too subjective for rankings can finally have leaderboards.
One small thing in the middle of the table.
About the size of a coaster. It replaces the scorepad, the timer, the rulebook, and the friend who always ends up arguing about what counts.
- 1Top glass and round displayThe call, the points, the reason
- 2Light ringLit only while it’s listening
- 3Microphone boardFour mics, beamforming, seat detection
- 4Compute boardNeural processor running the judge model
- 5SpeakerReads calls aloud, keeps time
- 6BatterySized for a long game night
- 7Striped enclosureThe band is the speaker grille
- 8Base with NFC coilReads seat tokens and game cards
Hears the whole table
Four microphones pick up everyone and tell which seat each voice came from.
Shows and says every call
A round display and a speaker give the ruling and the reason. The ring lights whenever it's listening.
Knows who's playing
Tap a seat token to join. Tap it again for private moves, like voting at night in Werewolf.
Takes challenges
Tap the top to challenge a call before it locks.
Runs offline
Speech recognition, judging and scoring all happen on the device. No account, no connection.
Sees, if you want it to
An optional camera clip-on for drawing and scavenger games, with a physical shutter.
14Classics, with the arguments taken out
17Originals that need a judge to exist
14Ways to play trivia
11Kinds of call, the same on every Zebra
A round, start to finish.
- 1DealZebra reads the prompt aloud, or you draw it from a card.
- 2AnswerSay your answer out loud, or lock it in with a tap so nobody can copy.
- 3HearIt turns speech into text and knows which seat said it.
- 4RuleIt makes the call: points plus a reason in under 12 words.
- 5ChallengeAnyone can tap to challenge in the next few seconds.
- 6ScorePoints post, the ledger updates, and the next prompt comes up.
Every game is built from the same eleven kinds of call, from “does this count” to “does this contradict what you said earlier.”
See all eleven calls and the math behind themTrivia, judged properly.
Free answers instead of multiple choice. “Which Roosevelt?” asked instead of guessed. Scoring that rewards knowing how sure you are, or how close you got. And a quiz night where the host never grades another slip.
“Roosevelt”Which one? Two presidents fit.Ask
“Frankin Rosevelt”Misspelled, but it can only mean one person.Accepted
“Teddy Roosevelt”Wrong Roosevelt. Theodore left office in 1909.Wrong
False, 99% sureConfidently wrong costs the most.−56
400 for 193Off by about double. Close counts.+3
Original
Secret Rule
The judge secretly likes some things and not others. Work out why.
'A lighthouse': yes. 'A cactus': no.
Rules and scoring: Secret RuleClassic, retrofitted
Survey Says
Any question, any crowd, surveyed on the spot.
'The fridge.' Number 2 on the board, 31 of 100.
Rules and scoring: Survey SaysOriginal
Flag on the Play
Quick debates where bad arguments draw a flag.
Flag: straw man. She said 'fewer.' You answered 'none.'
Rules and scoring: Flag on the PlayOriginal
Missing Link
Get from pickle to Napoleon in as few steps as the judge will allow.
'Pickle to brine' holds at 91. 'Brine to Napoleon' breaks at 12.
Rules and scoring: Missing LinkClassic, retrofitted
Werewolf, no moderator
Everyone plays. The device runs the night.
The village wakes. One seat is empty.
Rules and scoring: Werewolf, no moderatorFair enough to argue with.
Every call comes with a reason. The same answer always gets the same call. Anyone can challenge, and hidden rules are sealed at the start so nobody can claim the judge moved the goalposts.
Read the fair play rulesEverything stays on the table.
Zebra listens only during a game, and only while the ring is lit. Speech is turned into text and thrown away as it goes. Nothing leaves the device unless you choose to share a scoresheet.
How privacy worksThe Daily.
One prompt a day for every Zebra in the world, judged by the same model. Play it alone in a minute or with the table after dinner, then see where your answers landed against everyone else’s.
It’s the reason to take Zebra off the shelf on a Tuesday.
The DailyThursday, September 24
Things that are orange
Traffic cone1
Koi3
A flight recorder5
Your score9
Sample result. Rankings compare every table that played today’s prompt.