Pub Quiz Equipment Checklist - What You Need

A great quiz night does not need a lot of kit - it needs the right kit. Most hosts either overspend at the start or, worse, discover halfway through that they are short on pens for half the room. This is everything you will actually need, split honestly into the things you cannot run without and the things that simply raise the bar.

The absolute essentials

This is the minimum that gets a quiz off the ground. If you have these five things, you can start - everything else is a bonus.

A question pack - the heart of the whole night. You need questions grouped into rounds, with clear answers and thought-out difficulty. A good pack has 5-7 rounds of 8-10 questions, a mix of categories, and a difficulty spread so nobody drops out after round one and nobody gets bored.
Printable answer sheets - the paper a team writes its answers on and hands in to be marked. It is a humble thing and one of the most commonly forgotten. Print a few more than the number of teams you expect.
Pens - two per table, because one will always run dry or vanish. They are the cheapest item on the list and the one most often left at home.
Your voice or a PA system - in a small, quiet room you and a strong voice will do. In a noisy pub with 60 people you will need a mic. More on sound in a moment.
A way to keep score - it can be a sheet of paper, an app on your phone, or a board. What matters is that you can give the standings quickly after every round.

If you are just starting out and want the full picture of the process rather than only the gear, begin with the guide on how to host your first pub quiz - it walks you through building a night from idea to announcing the winners.

The question pack - why it matters most

You can own the best microphone and the prettiest prizes, but if the questions are dull, too easy, or all from one subject, people will not come back next week. A good pack is a deliberate mix: general knowledge, pop culture, geography, music, sport, plus at least one round that surprises people.

The hallmarks of a pack that works:

Themed rounds - easier to host and easier to play when questions are grouped.
Graded difficulty - a few questions everyone can answer, a few for the experts, most somewhere in between.
Unambiguous answers - nothing ruins a night faster than an argument over whether a team's answer "counts".
Matching sheets included - the best pack arrives with answer sheets that line up, so you are not building them by hand.

This is where the biggest time saving hides. Instead of spending hours hunting for questions online and retyping them into a document, you can get a complete pack - questions plus matching printable sheets - ready to print.

Answer sheets

An answer sheet is the page where a team writes its name and its answers, numbered to match the questions. It sounds trivial, but a good sheet speeds up marking a great deal - the answer numbers line up with the question numbers, there is room for the team name, and a box for the running total.

Print sheets with a margin to spare. Teams grow, someone wrecks a sheet, latecomers turn up. Better to be ten over than one short. If you want to see what a proper sheet looks like and grab a ready-made one, have a look at the post on pub quiz answer sheet templates.

A small tip from experience: if you run a picture round, give it its own sheet or a printed grid of images. Mixing pictures and text on one page usually ends in chaos.

Sound and microphone

This is the line item where it is easiest to overspend and easiest to neglect. The rule is simple: the more people and the louder the venue, the more you need a PA.

Up to 20-25 people in a quiet room - your voice is enough. Stand where everyone can see you, speak slowly, and read every question twice.
30-60 people or a busy pub - you need a mic and a speaker. Many venues already have their own PA, so ask the staff before you buy anything.
Over 60 people - good sound stops being optional. A wireless mic gives you the freedom to move between tables.

The most common mistake is questions read too quietly. If teams keep asking "what was the last one?", you lose pace and patience. Better a touch too loud than too quiet.

A scoreboard

People play for the buzz, and the buzz is driven by a visible ranking. You do not need anything fancy - what matters is showing who is leading after each round.

Options from simplest to most impressive:

Paper and a marker - a classic, always works, zero technology.
A sheet on your phone or laptop - quick to total, easy to fix a slip.
A projector with a table - if the venue has a screen, displaying the ranking looks the part and lifts the mood.

Do not keep the scores secret until the end. Revealing the standings after every round builds tension and makes the final round genuinely matter.

Prizes

A prize does not have to be expensive - it has to be worth fighting for. Venue-tied prizes work best: a voucher for the next visit, a round of drinks for the winning team, a plate of nibbles. It costs the pub very little and gives a concrete reason to come back next week.

A simple rule also works: a prize for first place plus a small wooden-spoon gift for last. The laughter over a "prize for coming last" can loosen the room more than the main win.

Projector and picture round - nice to have

A projector is not essential, but it opens the door to things you cannot do on voice alone: a picture round, music clips, a displayed scoreboard. If the venue has a screen or a TV with HDMI, it is worth using.

The most popular use is a picture round - identifying logos, flags, landmarks, or faces. It works brilliantly because it changes the rhythm of the night and engages people visually. We cover how to build one, step by step, in the post on how to make a picture round.

A checklist before you leave the house

A quick recap to tick off before every night:

Printed question pack with answers (for you)
Answer sheets - with spares
Pens - twice as many as you think
Mic and speaker (for bigger venues)
A way to keep score
A prize for the winners
Optional: projector and picture-round materials

FAQ

How many pens do I need for a pub quiz?

Count two per table plus a handful of spares. For eight teams that is around 18-20. Pens vanish and run dry more often than you would expect, and a missing pen quietly chips away at how professional the night feels.

Do I need a microphone?

It depends on the size of the group and the noise in the venue. Up to about 25 people in a quiet room, your voice is enough. Above that, or in a busy pub, a mic and speaker are practically essential to keep the pace.

Do I have to have a projector?

No. A projector is purely a nice-to-have - it helps with a picture round, music clips, and showing scores. You can run a full, satisfying quiz without one, on voice and printed materials alone.

Where do I get printable answer sheets?

You can make them yourself in a word processor, but it is quicker and tidier to download ready-made ones. The best option is a pack that arrives with matching sheets already, so the answer numbers line up with the question numbers.

Don't want to write questions by hand or build sheets in Word? Build the whole pack in RoundKit - free, in two minutes. You get the questions and matching printable answer sheets ready to print, so the only thing left to worry about is the pens.