Trivia match 1

[The Might]

Well, finally we have our first trivia match here on the Downs, and the teams are:

Team 1:
Legate + Finduilas + Gwathagor + Rune
and
Team 2:
Gil + Lommy + Mac + Folwren

Rules:
I shall PM each of you the question at the same time, also I shall post it here in the thread.
From the time the PM was sent you have 48 hours to find an answer together with your teammates, and if possible also support it with a quote. It is not important when the answer is sent.

Each round a team may receive:

• 0 points for a wrong answer,
• 1 point for a correct answer, but no quote,
• 2 points for a correct answer and a correct quote.

Neither your answer nor your quote may be changed once you have decided upon one, so please make sure you all agree before.
However, should a team give an answer that is not the one I had in mind, but still answers my question, it will receive the points.

The answers are to be PMed to me with or without a supporting quote.

Each round I shall update the scores and post the answers that have been given, then send the new question.

This first trivia match shall have 5 rounds. If at the end of these rounds the teams have the same ammount of points, we shall have some sudden death rounds, where the first team that gets more points then the other wins.

Any problems, dissatisfactions, questions, other information are to be posted in this thread.


Ok, I have just sent the first question to everyone.
I hope all received the PMs.

Just for safety, I am posting here as well:

The bones of the answer are tough. What is the answer?

Good luck!

[The Might]

Both teams have answered correctly to the first question. Indeed the answer that I was looking for was the country around Helm's Deep, mainly the White Mountains. But as both teams have answered and provided a quote as well:

Macalaure:
The answer is:

The country of Rohan, more specifically that around Helm's Deep.


And the corresponding quote:

Quote:
Gimli stood leaning against the breastwork upon the wall. Legolas sat above on the parapet, fingering his bow, and peering out into the gloom.
'This is more to my liking,' said the dwarf, stamping on the stones. 'Ever my heart rises as we draw near the mountains. There is good rock here. This country has tough bones. I felt them in my feet as we came up from the dike. Give me a year and a hundred of my kin and I would make this a place that armies would break upon like water.'
~Lord of the Rings, Helm's Deep
AND

Legate:

The country around Helm's Deep. (arguable what exactly is meant by it) Supported by the quote:

Quote:
Originally Posted by Two Towers, Chapter 7: Helm's Deep
"This is more to my liking," said the dwarf, stamping on the stones. "Ever my heart rises as we draw near the mountains. There is good rock here. This country has tough bones."

As I said, it's arguable what exactly the Dwarf means (whether it's Rohan or - my personal opinion - the White Mountains, or just the spot around Helm's Deep), but that's the work for an exegete and for interpretation, and that belongs to the Books or somewhere else; but for our purposes, I think, the answer itself is enough.

Both teams have at this time 2 points. Congratulations.

However as at this point it is 3:20 in Germany and I just came back from a party (yes, I made it back safely) I shall post the new question tomorrow around noon.

[The Might]

Well, back online and here comes the second question:

Who was surprised at the questions raised by another's taunting?

[Gil-Galad]

Quick predicament

Folwren's PM box is full, he may be away from the computer for a couple days but just pointing it out that we will be unable to send messages to him

[The Might]

Well, hope that will change soon.
Though I think Folwren is as far as I know a she.

[Finduilas]

Folwren is a she, and we were gone all day, but she should get back on soon.

[Folwren]

Here I am. I have made some room in the inbox. So sorry.

-- Foley

[Folwren]

Alright...Now it's Lommy's turn for a full inbox. I just wanted to tell her that I am going to bed now and won't be up again until after the 48 hours is up, so I will not be sending in our answer... you see, it hasn't been decided on yet. So! Lommy - if you get this before time is up and you are the only one left to do so - send in the answer!

-- Folwren

[The Might]

Well, the correct answer was given by...Team 2 only and it was indeed Bilbo.

The quote provided is indeed the one I was seeking, meaning this:
"I don't know if it has occurred to you that, even if you could steal the gold bit by bit - a matter of a hundred years or so - you could not get it very far? not much use on the mountain-side? Not much use in the forest? Bless me! Had you never thought of the catch? A fourteenth share, I supposed, or something like it, those were the terms, eh? But what about delivery? What about cartage? What about armed guards and tolls?" And Smaug laughed aloud. He had a wicked and wily heart, and he knew his guesses were not far out, though he suspected that the Lake-men were at the back of the plans, and that most of the plunder was meant to stop there in the town by the shore that in his young days had been called Esgaroth.

Well done Team 2. Team 1, I am sorry but I can not accept Gandalf as an answer as he being surprised by the taunting is not clearly mentioned and I do not think he fits as an answer.

So the score is 4-2 and we still have 3 questions to go. So here's the 3rd one:
Of what do the oldest of songs sing?

PS: Finduilas you must empty your inbox.

[Legate of Amon Lanc]

"No! NO!"

*The sound of banging of a head against a computer*

Just so that you understand, THIS answer was among my favourite until I discarded it - from now - TWO DAYS AND THREE HOURS ago! Now I wonder, why did I? Why? I just cannot understand it, retrospectively.

[...] But there is the part where Smaug speaks about tolls and problems when taking the treasure back, which could be considered as both the questions and taunting, and Bilbo is surely surprised by it, but the question is if we could interpretate the riddle like that.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH

Sorry, but I just consider myself unbelievably stupid now

[Folwren]

"Relax. You're not in trouble yet."

Really, Legate, you don't have to hurt yourself over it. I just happened to stumble on it in some of the last minutes, so we were lucky and you were not. Okay...so you were unlucky...

Better luck next time.

-- Folwren

[The Might]

Well...

[The Might]

Again both teams have answered correctly, and provided the corresponding answer from the Silmarillion speaking of shadows and the legendary creatures encountered by the Elves at Cuivienen.

So the score is 4-6 at the moment in favour of Team 2.

Ok, so here is the fourth one:

Whose irritation could be discerned in naught but a facial feature?

From now on I've decided not to send any PMs any longer, since I guess it is enough if you log in you still would see that new stuff has been posted here.

[Thinlómien]

I have totally forgotten that this will affect my participation in this trivia match, but I will be with no internet access from Sunday afternoon til Wednesday afternoon (in Europe, I have no idea what time is that in the States), since I will be spending time in my summer cottage. So, if I've calculated correctly, this means I won't be able to be around when the last question is posed and answered... I'll be mentally supporting our team anyway...

[The Might]

Then again Team 1 might even the score and you could get the chance to help in the tie breaker questions.
Well...hope you'll have fun there...though I guess going there in October kinda makes it the autumn and summer cottage.

21 hours left.

[Thinlómien]

Then again Team 1 might even the score and you could get the chance to help in the tie breaker questions.

Nooooooooooo! Well, I'll either be confident that they don't, be confident that my team is better anyway or force Volo (who's my RL friend) to keep me informed... (That last suggestion wasn't very serious...)

Originally Posted by The Might

Well...hope you'll have fun there...though I guess going there in October kinda makes it the autumn and summer cottage.

Well yes, but there's no electricity (so no electric warming) so we're going to freeze most probably... (That's why it's called a summer cottage! )

*flees from the off-topic owl*

[Gil-Galad]

Unfortunately i'll be doing some training this weekend too so unless one of my officers brings a laptop and can get an internet source, i will also be away...

[Thinlómien]

Originally Posted by Gil-Galad

Unfortunately i'll be doing some training this weekend too so unless one of my officers brings a laptop and can get an internet source, i will also be away...

:S Fortunately we won't probably be away at the same time...

[Folwren]

Heh...our team has been halved. I hope you're not going anywhere, Mac.

[The Might]

Well, I shall post the last question sometime tomorrow around 15:00 CET, so you still have a bit of time on Sunday.

[Macalaure]

Half team, double honor.

Don't worry, I'll be around.

[Folwren]

Excellent, Mac. I will be, too, but how much good that will be...well, we'll see.

For now, we seriously need to concentrate on the current question.

-- Folwren

[Legate of Amon Lanc]

Well, don't worry, for our Rune has disappeared somewhere as well, we haven't seen him for two days... so it's not that much of a disbalance...

[Thinlómien]

I recalculated - seems I'm not going to miss anything expect the possible tie-breaker questions. (I just realised this was the fourth, not the third question. )

[The Might]

Well...I have good news, as least as I as a mod see it...we again have a tie:

4-4

The answer provided by Lommy for Team 2 is Shelop supported by:

Originally Posted by LotR, The Choices of Master Samwise
Disturbed as if out of some gloating dream by his small yell she turned slowly the dreadful malice of her glance upon him. But almost before she was aware that a fury was upon her greater than any she had known in countless years, the shining sword bit upon her foot and shore away the claw.

A good answer, though not what I was looking for since it is not made clear that only her facialy features expressed her irritation.

On the other side, Legate did give the answer I was looking for, namely the Druedain:

Their features were usually impassive, the most mobile being their wide mouths; and the movement of their wary eyes could not be observed save from close at hand for they were so black that the pupils could not be distinguished, but in anger they glowed red. (...) But they could be relentless enemies, and when once aroused their red wrath was slow to cool, though it showed no sign save light in their eyes; for they fought in silence and did not exult victory, not even over Orcs, the only creatures for whom their hatred was implacable.

As seen in the quote it was only their eyes that showed their anger (which actually also fits with irritation much better then malice) and this is also clearly stated.

So congrats Team 1 for closing the gap.

And here is question number 5, which could be the last one:

Someone was unwilling to give up because of the tradition in his country. Who is this person?

Good luck and again 48 hours, so until Sunday.

[Macalaure]

Shouldn't it be 6-6?

[The Might]

oh yes 6-6

[The Might]

And we have a winner:

*drumroll*...Team 1!

They provided the correct answer for the last question, Grimbold, together with this quote to support it:

Originally Posted by Unfinished Tales, The Battles of the Fords of Isen
Grimbold on the other hand was not willing to abandon the Fords. This was in part due to the tradition of Westfold in which he and Erkenbrand had been bred(...)

Very well done Team 1, Team 2 on the other hand did not send any PM so no points I'm afraid which makes the final score 8-6.


I hope you enjoyed the trivia match and I am looking forward to many more such matches in the future. Due to school I don't think I'll mod the next one or couple ones, but I'm sure one of you will manage to do it.

Also I'd like to use this opportunity to ask for a little feedback, maybe some ideas of how the game could be made more interesting.
I guess less time or more questions could be an idea, not sure what you think of that though.

[Legate of Amon Lanc]

Speaking for myself, that was a great game, sometimes too nerve-racking when one is jumping from one book to another, flicking over the pages, muttering to himself "it has to be here somewhere..." But some of the trivia were really interesting (like that one with Cuiviénen) and one could indeed learn something new here. Thanks to you, TM, for coming up with the very idea of this game and with these questions, it probably was not easy to come up with things like that. Thanks also to all the players, both from my team and the other team, for allowing this match to take place; to the people of our team also for their effort when looking for the answers and sharing the inspirating ideas on where to look.

As to what could be upgraded in the game, I think only that we could, for further games, realize Mac's idea and make two-people teams. I am not sure how it worked in the second team, but I believe this game could be completed with just two players on each team (of course if they were still present). Of course four people means more possible ideas, but there will be, I believe, better interaction just between two people and mainly, still every member seeks the answer for himself. And in that case, it does not make a difference whether the people are two or four.

[Finduilas]

Definitely two player teams would be more interactive. I had Ideas but my teammates were always thinking along the same lines as me, so I ended up not helping in the least.

I think it went well. I don't know if it would be possible to do it in less time, in many of the questions we were pushing the time limit, and because of RL issues, less time might be bad. I wasn't really around for this last question, not because I went anywhere, I just didn't have much time for the computer.

Thanks TM for hosting such a fun game!

[The Might]

Well, we could of course try that in the next match if there are any people interested.

[Macalaure]

Team 2 on the other hand did not send any PM

Ummm, yeah... our team coordination wasn't the best, I guess. I think I was the last to pm the others yesterday. I caught a flu around the end of last week and couldn't think much at all, so I just hoped that somebody else could still get online before the deadline. We didn't have an idea anyway (although, of course, in hindsight, it seems awfully obvious).

This was fun! Where can I sign up for the next?

Originally Posted by Legate

As to what could be upgraded in the game, I think only that we could, for further games, realize Mac's idea and make two-people teams. I am not sure how it worked in the second team, but I believe this game could be completed with just two players on each team (of course if they were still present). Of course four people means more possible ideas, but there will be, I believe, better interaction just between two people and mainly, still every member seeks the answer for himself. And in that case, it does not make a difference whether the people are two or four.

A problem was, that almost all the time at least one person's pm inbox was full. With smaller teams this should be less of a problem. I also think that the match would be even more exciting with more than two teams.

[The Might]

Ok, so there we have it.

For the next one we need a moderator firstly, and then all others sing up and once we have enough we can start.
We'll try the 2 member teams I guess.

So any other takers?
Also, any ideas about improvements for the rules?

PS: Don't want to say I said so, but I do remember posting that Inboxes should constantly be kept as empty as possible.

[Folwren]

I enjoyed myself, though I was of little help when the questions were from the UT.

One suggestion I have is to make certain that all contestants had read the books being quized on. I haven't read all of the UT, so that posed problems. Solutions to that problem is either drop a book if not all of the people had read it, or not allow anyone to join who has not read all four books.

It was fun. I won't be doing it again - life is stressful and I didn't have much time to think and look things up for the game, so I didn't do it justice.

-- Folwren

[The Might]

I guess it is sufficient if one in a team has read them.
Dropping HOME and maybe, maybe UT would be ok, but I am not even considering to participate in a game without LotR, The Hobbit or the Silmarillion.
The questions have to be after all a bit more difficult then the usual trivia stuff, and I wanted them to be difficult to answer.

[Folwren]

No...don't drop the LotR, Hobbit, or Silmarillion. You don't necessarily have to even drop the Unfinished Tales, I just said it would be best if all of them had read it.

It almost worked to have just one player know all the books, but it didn't quite. As you notice, the two questions that we did not get were both from Unfinished Tales - it was obviously our weekest point. For me, it was the only book I had not read, and I don't know about my fellow teammates, but there it is.

-- Folwren

[Legate of Amon Lanc]

Originally Posted by The Might

I guess it is sufficient if one in a team has read them.

I'd disagree at this point, TM. If some people have not read the book at all, they can stand on their head but they won't find the answer however much they try. It is kind of stupid to spend several hours in browsing different books just to realize in the end that you could not in any way find the right answer because it was not in any book you have.

On the other hand...

Originally Posted by The Might

Dropping HOME and maybe, maybe UT would be ok, but I am not even considering to participate in a game without LotR, The Hobbit or the Silmarillion.

My opinion on this is that even UT should stay It's just personal, though, but I believe most of the most interesting stuff is in there. Maybe we could make two kinds of games, depending on the current interest of players: a "non-UT" and an "UT" version; and we'd choose which version will be played depending on the current players.

As to the inboxes, I believe it's necessary to have at least five spaces free, that means at maximum fifteen messages in your inbox whenever you are leaving the Downs. (And with only two players in a team, the five spaces might suffice quite nicely.) Because in the four player teams, you need to count with at least three PMs coming from your teammates, and it may happen that someone else PMs to you at that moment, so... at least I did so and never had the problem (though sometimes it was close).

[The Might]

You should stop playing that confusing WW game, that only creates PMs that unnecessarily block incoming trivia PMs.

[Legate of Amon Lanc]

Originally Posted by The Might

You should stop playing that confusing WW game, that only creates PMs that unnecessarily block incoming trivia PMs.

There is no confusing WW game running now. The only game PM that came to me during the course of the Trivia match was from the Paper Telephone (and that was when there was just the last question remaining)

[Gil-Galad]

Originally Posted by Legate of Amon Lanc

There is no confusing WW game running now. The only game PM that came to me during the course of the Trivia match was from the Paper Telephone (and that was when there was just the last question remaining)

well i require 2 more players before i can even start my WW game...