Official Rules for Lightning Trials
Overview
In the Lightning Trials, each team demonstrates their book knowledge by answering questions while factoring in a changing mix of team members available to answer them.
Team members will:
• Answer questions about the books
• Earn points by providing the correct answers to the questions asked
• Feel the impact of greater/fewer team members available to answer questions
Lightning Trials - Set Up
1. Each team is placed in a group with three other teams.
2. Each team will take a position as Team A, B, C or D in the Lightning Trials formation shown below.
3. Each team is provided with a mat to stand on representing their Answer Zone.
4. Each team is provided with one Lightning Bolt.
5. Each team is provided with two Extra Life Tokens.
6. The judge stands in the center of the formation. He/she rotates to ask questions team by team in a clockwise manner.
About Lightning Trials
1. The Lightning Trials consist of three Question Rounds and one Full Power Round.
2. Each Question Round has 20 factual questions (5 per team) based on the battle books within a theme that is announced before play begins.
3. The Full Power Round has 8 fill-in-the-blank questions (2 per team).
Lightning Trials - Rules of Play
Question Rounds
1. Once the teams have gathered, the judge will shuffle the question cards and announce the theme for the first Question Round.
2. Each team selects four of their team members to start in the Answer Zone and be available to answer questions. Any additional team members stand outside the Answer Zone and are ineligible to answer questions.
3. One team member inside the Answer Zone must hold the Lightning Bolt to signal that he/she is the designated team member to answer the first question.
4. The judge will ask the question to the designated person from Team A. The judge will read the question twice. The clock then starts with 15 seconds to provide an answer.
5. The team member holding the Lightning Bolt may answer the question as soon as the judge stops speaking. If he/she answers correctly, the team earns 6 points. If he/she answers incorrectly, no points are earned.
6. Alternatively, the person holding the Lightning Bolt can pass it to another team member in the Answer Zone and then must exit the Answer Zone immediately.
7. The team member now holding the Lightning Bolt must provide an answer – still within the 15 second time limit. If he/she answers correctly, the team will earn 6 points. If he/she answers incorrectly, no points are earned. Author names do not need to be provided.
8. If time runs out with no answer given, no points are earned for that question.
9. Team members in the Answer Zone are not permitted to speak to each other during or after the question is asked by the judge. They are permitted to use signals such as raising their hands, putting thumbs up, or pointing to themselves to communicate to the original team member holding the Lightning Bolt that they might know the answer.
10. After the judge announces a decision, the team member who answered the question (correctly or not) remains in the Answer Zone. He/she transfers his/her "power" by handing the Lightning Bolt to another team member. This action concludes the turn.
11. The judge then will turn clockwise to ask the next question to Team B’s designated person and continue on through Teams C and D.
12. When the judge returns to Team A a second time, the judge will ask if the team would like to use an Extra Life Token to add or bring a team member back into the Answer Zone. Only one token can be used per turn.
13. If yes, the judge will wait to ask the question until the token is turned in and the person has stepped into the Answer Zone. A team member added or brought back using an Extra Life Token cannot assume the Lightning Bolt position (although he/she could be passed the Lightning Bolt after the question is read – like any other team member in the Answer Zone).
14. If the team does not want to use an Extra Life Token (or has used up their available tokens), then the judge will proceed to ask the question to the person holding the Lightning Bolt.
15. Once a team has used its two Extra Life Tokens, no team members can be added / brought back for the duration of that Question Round.
16. Once the 20 questions have been asked, the judge announces the end of the Question Round. Teams are then asked to sit down until all teams in the room are ready to switch judges and move on to the next Question Round.
17. Once the second and third Question Rounds have been completed, the Lightning Trials will move to the Full Power Round.
Full Power Round
1. For the Full Power Round, all team members squeeze into the Answer Zone. The Lightning Bolt should be given to a team member who is willing to serve as team captain (spokesperson) for the Full Power Round.
2. The judge reads one fill-in-the-blank question to Team A – repeating the question twice. The clock starts with 15 seconds to answer.
3. For the Full Power Round only, team members are permitted to talk and confer to arrive at an answer. When the 15 seconds are up, the team captain should provide the team’s answer. If a correct answer is given, the team will earn 5 points. If an incorrect answer is given, no points are awarded.
4. The judge rotates clockwise – asking each team two fill-in-the-blank questions.
5. Once all four teams have answered their two questions, the Full Power Round is complete.
Lightning Trials - Scoring
Question Round 1 - 30 points
Question Round 2 - 30 points
Question Round 3 - 30 points
Full Power Round - 10 points
* Official Rules for Lightning Trials updated 3/18/2023 for the 2023 Battle of the Books Tournament.