Pub quiz picture round ideas, and how to run one
The picture round is the one teams argue about longest. It is also the round that takes most work: finding twenty pictures, printing a sheet per team, and marking them all while the next round goes on.
Here are rounds that work, and a way to run one on the pub’s TV instead of on paper.
Rounds that always work
1.Flags
Start easy (Japan, Canada) and end with the ones nobody gets (Kiribati, Bhutan). A world flags pack is ready to go.
2.Logos
Brand logos with the name taken off. Everyone thinks they know them until they have to say which way the swoosh faces. Try famous brands or car badges.
3.Famous faces
Actors, footballers, presidents. Mix eras so every age on a team has their round.
4.Landmarks
Towers, bridges and squares from around the world. Harder than it sounds with the tourists cropped out.
5.Football club crests
For a sports crowd: club crests are a picture round the whole bar will have an opinion on.
6.Who painted it?
For the art historians in the corner. Famous paintings, name the painter.
Running it on the TV, not on paper
Put depixelate on the pub’s TV. Each picture starts as a few blocks and sharpens over ten seconds; teams answer from one phone each by tapping one of four options, and the scores add themselves up. Nothing to print, nothing to mark.
The earlier a team commits, the more the answer is worth, so the round has a tension a sheet of photos never does: somebody always goes at six blocks, and the room hears whether they were right.
A free game takes up to 30 phones, one per team. A bigger night, or one with your own pictures and your pub’s logo on the screen, is what Pro is for.
Tips from the quizmaster’s side
Keep a round to eight pictures: long enough to separate the teams, short enough that nobody goes to the bar mid-round.
Use the standings between pictures as a breather: read them out, tease the leaders, then go again.
Make one round local. A pack of photos of your own town — the high street, the church, the old football ground — takes ten minutes to build and is always the favourite.
