# Metal Gear Solid Trivia

I made an MGS trivia game designed for participants who have little to no knowledge of the series.

Much like MGS itself, this game is constructed to have players wade through lots of confusing information to figure things out. Teams will need to flip through a large info packet to find the answers to the questions. The packet and questions have been written so that (with enough searching) all of the questions can be answered, even by teams with no MGS knowledge.

## Structure

During the game, there are:

1. Two "standard" questions
2. A "bonus" question (recite a Snake monologue in Snake's voice)
3. Two more standard questions
4. Another bonus question (karaoke Snake Eater)
5. Three more standard questions
6. A final bonus

## Materials

Download the materials here.

You can download:

- A packet composed of:
  - Several pages of hand-selected facts about characters and events in MGS
  - A page with two monologues from Solid Snake (used for Bonus 1)
  - A page defining the S3 Plan as the Selection for Societal Sanity (see Question 6 for more info about this)
- A presentation with questions designed to be answered with info from the packet
- Some materials for a web page involved in Question 6

## Tips for hosting

If you would like to use this material to run the game yourself, I have some notes below.

### Bonus 2

For Bonus 2, players had to karaoke Snake Eater. While this technically doesn't require knowledge outside of the packet, it might be difficult to karaoke a song you're not familiar with. To work around this, I had the teams negotiate with some of the people present who were familiar with the series but not participating to represent their team for the bonus.

I embedded the karaoke video in the presentation originally, but have removed it before uploading. It shouldn't be that difficult to find a video online.

### Question 6

Question 6 is probably the most complicated part of the game for both the host and the participants.

As you may be familiar with, Ocelot believes the S3 Plan stands for Solid Snake Simulation, but the reality is that it stands for Selection for Societal Sanity. I wanted this question to mimic the complexity of this plot point, so the packet the players receive gives the former (incorrect) definition, but I only took the latter definition as correct.

For the participants to find the correct definition, they were expected to search the envelopes I delivered the Bonus 1 monologues in (I gave a hint that answering the question would require searching everything I gave the teams, and also had the backup plan of texting the link to the participants in a group chat). Those envelopes contained not only the monologues, but a link to a web page. That web page contains a codec dialogue between Snake and Otacon where Otacon explains that an updated definition is hidden in the second floor bathroom of the building we were playing in. Then the participants would go look for the sheet and be able to give the correct answer.

The version I used is hosted here. If you don't have a second floor bathroom or just want to hide the sheets somewhere else, you might want to download this page, change the dialogue, and host it yourself.

### Spoilers

The packet and questions spoil significant plot points from MGS1 and 2. There are only minor spoilers for MGS3 and 4, and basically nothing from any of the other games, including MGS5 and Peace Walker.

I've written the packet and questions so that everything you're expected to know from playing the games in release order up through MGS2 is stated as a fact. For instance:

Spoiler!

I assert in the packet that Big Boss died in Zanzibarland, since that is what someone who has only played through MGS2 is supposed to believe at that point.

This shouldn't matter for the people unfamiliar with the series, but it may be good to note if you have familiar people so they don't go "well ackchyually…."

### Handling people familiar with MGS

This game is primarily designed for people who have never played MGS. In my opinion, most of the questions are easy enough for people who have played the games that they won't need the packet. If there are people present who are familiar with the series, I would recommend not putting them on a team with unfamiliar people, since it might make it too easy. When I ran this, the people familiar basically just watched the teams scramble. You could also have them keep their own score in their head for bragging rights.

### Setup

Here is how I set up the game:

1. Print the number of packets you think you'll need.
2. Split the two monologues on the Quotes page up and put them in separate envelopes. Also put links to the Question 6 web page on small slips of paper and put them in the envelopes. You will give these envelopes to teams for Bonus 1.
3. Hide the S3 pages.
4. Staple the remaining packet pages. Do not give the teams the Quotes page or the S3 pages.

### Making modifications

Obviously, if you want to change the questions asked, the info in the packet, or anything else about the game, feel free. However, you might want to make sure that the changes you make still allow every question to be answered by someone unfamiliar with the series.

### Some more notes

There are condensed instructions and notes on the first few slides of the presentation.

- There are no point values directly given anywhere for the questions. I just made them up on the spot based on how difficult I thought the question was. I think the point values I used were somewhere around:
  - Question 1: 10
  - Question 2: 10
  - Question 3: 15
  - Question 4: 20
  - Question 5: 25
  - Question 6: 30
  - Question 7: 30
- Question 2 is in there because 2001: A Space Odyssey is one of my favorite movies, and the people I was hosting for knew that. You might want to skip or change this question if you don't find it that interesting.
- When I hosted, the final bonus took longer than I anticipated. You might want to give teams hints on this question, and use your best judgment on other questions, as well.
- There was originally music from the games on most of these slides, but I've taken that out before uploading here. If you're curious or would like to re-incorporate the music I used:
  - "!" slide: alert sound
  - Title and intro slides: Encounter (MGS1)
  - Question 1: Introduction (MGS1)
  - Question 2: Intruder 2 (MGS1)
  - Bonus 1 - Life: Freedom to Decide (MGS2)
  - Bonus 1 - War: Love Theme (MGS4)
  - Question 3: Countdown to Disaster (MGS2)
  - Question 4: Deepthroat (Cupcakke)
  - Question 5: Cavern (MGS1)
  - Question 6: Arsenal's Guts (MGS2)
  - Question 7: Yell Dead Cell (MGS2)
  - Final Bonus: Main Theme (MGS1)