Trivia that knows what you meant.
Free answers instead of multiple choice. Spelling forgiven, “which Roosevelt?” asked instead of guessed. And new ways to score: how sure you were, how close you got, and how far you beat your own odds.
Which president dedicated the Hoover Dam in 1935?
Pick what a player said.
Two presidents share that name. Say a first name.
Decided by: too broad. By voice it asks; on slips the house rule decides.
The answer key lists accepted names, answers that are too broad, and common wrong answers. The model only rules on what the key can’t settle.
Why trivia fits a judge.
Answers can be checked.
Unlike taste games, trivia has a right answer, so the judge’s job is matching, not opinion. It’s the easiest place to earn trust.
Grading is the bottleneck.
Anyone who has hosted a quiz night knows: half the host’s evening goes to squinting at slips and arguing about spelling.
Multiple choice is a workaround.
It exists because free answers are hard to grade. With a judge, you can ask a question the way you’d ask a friend.
The habit already exists.
People already play trivia every week at bars, at home and online. Zebra doesn’t have to invent the ritual.
What a judge adds to trivia.
The scoring mathFree answers, fairly matched
Aliases, misspellings and sound-alikes are accepted when they can only mean one thing.
“Be more specific”
When an answer fits two things, the judge asks instead of guessing, or applies the house rule on paper slips.
Difficulty that’s measured
A question’s difficulty comes from how real players did, not how hard the writer thought it was.
Scoring how sure you were
State your confidence and a proper scoring rule rewards honesty. Bluffing costs you on average.
Scoring how close you got
Number questions score the distance on a log scale, so close counts and wild guesses don’t.
Mixed ages, fair fight
Each player is scored against their own predicted chance, the way golf scores strokes gained.
Questions that don’t run out
The model writes questions from a verified fact bank. It never supplies the facts itself.
Leagues that mean something
Same questions, same judge, every venue. A rating earned in one bar means the same in the next.
Three places trivia happens.
At home
Game-night trivia for mixed ages and mixed moods: Points Gained, Confident, Buzz, and House Lore, where the questions are about the people at the table.
Home formatsAt the bar
Quiz night run by a human host and graded by Zebra, with standings on the TV and a league table across every venue on the network.
How quiz night worksEverywhere
The Daily Five: five questions a day, the same for every Zebra, one from each difficulty band, ranked worldwide by points gained.
The Daily FiveThe case for starting with trivia.
Trivia could be the first market instead of home game night. Here’s the honest version of that argument.
For
Answers are checkable, so judge accuracy can be measured from day one.
Venues pay weekly and give feedback weekly, dozens of teams at a time.
The pain is obvious: grading, disputes, and writing fresh questions.
Leagues give teams a reason to come back every week.
Play data calibrates question difficulty fast.
Against
It’s crowded: Kahoot, Jackbox, app-based bar trivia services, and pub-quiz companies with loyal hosts.
Facts have to be right every time, so the question pipeline is the real product.
Bars are loud, and hosts are protective of their craft.
Trivia alone undersells what’s new about Zebra: the games only a judge can run.