Lots of new sets this week, and we've got every kind. Some are themed, some are conceptual, and some are straight-up hard. Pick your favourites.
Unibrowby Sander van der Hayden
Paleo mimirosaurusby Maitrey Deshpande
Etymologyby Ved Vineet
Brow Please Browby Abdul Raouf
19th-Century Artby Rithwick Kambil
Mixed Bag #19by Huang Yi
RON #2: Letter Replacementby Ruru Chowdhury
Animir #4by Aniket Khasgiwale
Hollywood #4by Vivek Tejuja
All these quizzes can be found in the Friendlies Drive. You can also use this Checklist to get a more concise listing of the 200+ quizzes released on B612 forums.
Pro-Tip: Click on the Checklist link, then click on File→Make a Copy and rename to something like “Bunty’s B612 Checklist” (assuming your name is Bunty). You can now use this list to keep track of which sets you’ve already played. It will even auto-update with new question sets that get released!
1. Unibrow by Sander van der Hayden
If you're only playing one set this week, make it this one. Sander's got a great idea for a quiz, and the execution is even better.
In his own words:
We've seen highbrow quizzes and lowbrow quizzes in the past, we've seen quizzes with both. But now we're trying something new: unibrow. What's this? You get two questions for the price of one. Each question will contain a highbrow and a lowbrow hint each leading to the same answer!
Each question in this set contains two separate routes that can get you to the answer. By design, one of those routes lies within a topic typically considered 'highbrow', while the other is decidedly 'lowbrow'. That's the intention anyway. In practice, it's just 32 questions with multiple ways of answering them, and you might not always be certain which of those two routes is the highbrow one. Maybe it's always the one you didn't get.
Spoiler Sample Question:
The first use of the word 'spoileralert' in media occured in Usenet newsgroups (a precessor of internet), when the death of which famous character in the movie Star Trek II : The Wrath of Khan (1982) was discussed ? If you don't know the answer yet, the man who wrote "Baby and Child Care" a book on parenting in 1946, advocating harshness, discipline, and ‘don't pick them up when they cry’, happens to share his name with this character.
Answer: Spock
2. Paleo mimirosaurus by Maitrey Deshpande
If Jurassic Park was your favourite movie growing up, or if you ever drew a stegosaurus in your margins, then I've made a hemi for you to take a quick journey back in time. Even if the question doesn't nudge you to take a shot, I hope the answer at least will make you go aha! (If nothing, the pictures alone will make it fun I hope.) The extinct past is closer than we often care to think.
An epic labour of love with massive scope and incredible trivia. Maitrey's first solo set (he previously co-wrote the Karnataka Mimir with Kiran Kalyan and Arpita Shetty) digs deep into an area that he's personally interested in. I went in expecting a dinosaur quiz but this was so much more than that. Amazing compilation of stories, and really appreciate the effort put in to present them nicely, rather than only asking questions. Made it feel like a much more grand experience ❤️
3. Etymology by Ved Vineet
They say a good question is one whose answer, when revealed, makes most of the audience go "Oh shit, should've got that". To make good questions therefore, you need content that is known to the participants, but doesn't exist at the absolute forefront of their minds. This definition means that etymology and nostalgia are two extremely safe bets if you want to quickly produce some quality quiz questions.
Ved's Etymology set makes full use of this fact. 32 questions in the set, and not a single one was an alien or obscure word. This is also a great set to play with quiz newbies, since the only prerequisite for playing an Etymology quiz is speaking a bit of the language the quiz is in.
4. Brow Please Brow by Abdul Raouf
In his own words:
I made this set for a few friends when MIMIRs were taking off originally and have tweaked it a bit now. It is definitely on the tougher side, based on the feedback from the initial run, but there won't be many answers you are hearing for the first time, I hope. It is a general set, and not decidedly high or low brow, I have tried to include some of the intermediate brow stuff that I personally like but get missed in high/low brow divide.
Don't be scared off by that description. Whenever a setter puts together their first general set, the result is inadvertently a reflection of their own current interests, and so the difficulty really comes down to how similar your own reading habits are to those of the QM. I had some very good luck in this regard, so the set seemed nice and easy to me. Try it out and let me know how you do.
5. 19th-century Art by Rithwick Kambil
That title is unfortunately all the description that was offered. It’s all that’s needed though, this is a deep dive into artists from that era. Brush up on your Wikipedia before diving in.
6. Mixed Bag #19 by Huang Yi
Huang's got a new Mixed Bag out, and it's got elements of House of Games! For those not familiar with House of Games, it's a Richard Osman quiz show that basically does what I call 'party quizzes', or quizzes that are so chill and lightweight (in terms of format and execution) that you could run them at a party and people wouldn't look at you strange.
Part of the appeal is that the questions are accessible (except for the ubiquitous UK focus), and part of Huang's style is that his sets are generally unforgiving. I'm curious to see how these contradictory traits will co-exist.
7. RON #2: Letter Replacement by Ruru Chowdhury
This is a late mention, but I'm adding it anyway cos this is one of my favourite sets in recent times.
It's a themed set: every question has two answers, one a modification of the other. Answers are frequently very simple (they have to be, to make letter replacements work) and so questions are very workable. Lots of head-slapping and "aiyyo" moments. Please add this quiz to your agenda for this week.
I would recommend:
Play this in teams if you have the time and people. 40+15 time controls. Will be a riot. Going to read a game like this myself tomorrow.
If playing solo, play with additional time on the pass, like 30+15. Nobody is cracking these questions in 5 seconds if they get a strategic quick pass.
8. Animir #4 by Aniket Khasgiwale
In his own words:
After a short gap, I am back with my 4th general set. No special theme - expect questions on a wide range of topics. Two quads on Australia as always.
If you’re wondering what that image is, I’m not sure either. But having played the set I suspect Aniket’s gotten an AI to generate an image using a few vague prompts from the question set itself. Fascinating idea, and still pretty spoiler-free.
