A home quiz needs less preparation than people think and more structure than they expect. Four rounds, fixed teams and an agreed rule about phones will carry an evening further than any amount of clever question writing.
Four rounds, not six
A pub runs six rounds because it has a bar and two hours to fill. At home, four rounds of eight questions is closer to right – about an hour, which is roughly how long a room stays sharp after dinner. Pick four clearly different categories so nobody is weak in all of them. Music, geography, film and a picture round is a reliable spread.
Teams and phones
Teams of two or three. Individuals get exposed and go quiet; teams of five let people hide. Settle the phone question out loud before you start, and make it a rule rather than a hope. Phones in a pile in the middle of the table is the version that actually works.
Running it
Someone has to host, and that person does not play. Trying to both ask and answer ruins the round for everybody. Read each question twice. Mark each other’s sheets at the end of every round rather than saving it all for the end – it keeps the scores visible and the competition alive.
Write two more rounds than you need. Quizzes always run shorter than expected, and an evening that ends early because you ran out of questions is the one people remember badly.