Bartok has written many procedural and scoring variations for this parlor game he invented. This description
concentrates on the basic game, with the variation that allows players to produce all the necessary content.
Dada Trivia is a game for at least twelve people divided into two teams. Before
the game begins the players write content on blank cards for two stockpiles used
in the game. The "subject" pile contains cards with categorical labels in singular
form, e.g. "City," "Beverage," "Television Show." The "predicate" pile contains
cards with descriptive words or phrases, e.g. "Tall," "Found in a kitchen," "Made
of wood." Content on cards should grammatically fit the form "WHAT ____ IS ____?"
where a subject is placed in the first blank and a predicate is placed in the second.
When the stockpiles are prepared, each team selects a representative for a round
of play. Three subject cards and three predicate cards are drawn. One representative
picks one of the three subjects and one of the three predicates and shows them to his
teammates. The representative and his teammates each independently think of an answer
to the question “What (subject) is (predicate)?” The other representative picks a
subject and predicate of the remaining two choices and he and his teammates perform
the same procedure. When all players have chosen answers for their respective
subject/predicate pairs, the first representative announces his answer. The first
team scores 1 point for every player whose answer matches the representative’s answer.
The second representative announces his answer and his team scores 2 points for every
match. A new round begins with newly elected representatives and three new subject
and predicate cards. The team whose representative chose second in the previous
round chooses first, and vice-versa.
When all players have had the opportunity to be the representative, a bonus round
may be played. A single, final subject/predicate pair is drawn and every player
writes down an answer. The answers are read in succession and players note if their
answer matches with any other player(s) on the same and/or opposing teams. The team
that has more players that made some kind of match earns 35 bonus points.
Dada Trivia was introduced by Bartok
