Survivor: Samoa

Outwit, Outplay, Outlast

Introduction

Welcome to the tropical island paradise of Samoa. After numerous applications, castings, interviews and psychological tests, you have been selected as a participant in this years American run of Survivor.

During the next month, you will do all you can to stay on the islands that make up the playing area and vote opponents off, create and break alliances, forage and fish to keep alive, duel against others and above all, do what it takes to become the sole Survivor, returning back home with both wealth and fame.

With you are 13 others, mixed people from all areas and walks of life. Each of you shares the hope of winning the one million dollars at stake, though some crave the fame or the game itself more than the money. Around you swarm a horde of men with cameras and microphones, ready to tape all of your waking moments, sharing the juiciest bits with millions of viewers around the world.

Setting

The game takes place on a small chain of unhabited islands close to the island state of Samoa in the Pacific Ocean. Your character has, for reasons of his or her own, signed up and gotten approved for the annual Survivor show. This show pits several people against each other in a game of survival and intrigue. First in two tribes, and later, as more and more contestants are voted off the island, individual against individual. Participants must make do with only the barest minimum of survival gear, and must be able to survive on their own. In addition, there will be physical and mental challenges which result in the winning team getting bonuses like firemaking tools or a good meal, and the losing tribe having to vote some of their number out of the game. 

As this continues, with twists and surprises, alliances are made to secure both the efficiency of your daily life as well as your chances at the Tribal Council, where participants are voted off the island. In the end, the winner will be the one who has navigated these alliances and challenges in the best possible way. The losers will be those who performed poorly at both the mental and physical challenges as well as the social intrigue and bond-making.

This is not a game for those who feel OOCly bitter when betrayed. In order to function, this game requires mature, motivated roleplayers who understand how to play a role and do as their character would do. As we play, no one will know who is playing what character, both in order to heighten the immersion and keep the game clean from OOC influence.

The game runs over 10 'recorded' episodes of Survivor, with the RP text produced being available after the campaign in an edited form, so that all can read what happened. As this is a game about player elimination, you must be ok with the fact that you might only ever see one session of play with your character - or you might make it all the way to the end. Some of those who get voted off, will still return for the final episode, where they have to decide who is the most worthy winner from the remaining final two.

For a feel of the setting and what might happen (in general terms of course), this is the Wikipedia entry on Survivor:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survivor_(TV_series)

The ingame focus will almost exclusively rest on the social RP between characters, and not on daily survival or the challenges. These will be handled according to the underlying stats of your char, and will mostly take place with the GM narrating. Both to limit actual play-time as well as to focus on the actual, meaty stuff - the intrigue, backstabbing, alliance-forming, trust and deceit part of the game.

Characters

The game features 14 distinct characters coming from various states of the U.S. and having various backgrounds. Players can either opt to create their own character or have one assigned by the GM. If doing your own character, please provide atleast a minumum of background and feel on the character, including mention on education, age,  hobbies, job, family/significant others as well as outlook on life. The GM will assign stat and skill values, and respond with a description of what he sees as that characters strengths. Note that all characters will have roughly the same total in stats - only how the points are distributed between the attributes will differ. Also note that you will not know the value of your stats or skills - only what you are good at. It is up to you to roleplay according your selected personality without rules getting in the way.

Any kind of character might have a shot at winning the game, if they play well - the simple but strong gravedigger, the lying and conniving bitch, the Christian radio-show host, the annoying and half crazy school-teacher, the friendly and naive young model, the overweight southern hermit, the gay New Yorker accountant, or the strategizing business-owner. All characters and all ages are allowed, from 18 and up, though elderly characters must be in somewhat good shape.

Weak or annoying characters are often kept on by the rest of the group, so that there is less opposition later, when the game becomes more about the individuals, while strong, team-minded players are usually kept on while helping the tribe, but backstabbed off when they start to become an individual threat - but not always. Not all characters are scheming or manipulative. Some are casted for their honesty or integrity as well, some want to change the way the game works, winning a 'noble' victory, and so on. The casters usually make sure that there is a little of everything present, then hope they've brought together the elements well enough for it to be entertaining. So do not think you 'need' to play someone scheming or doublecrossing.

However, as this is a game about social tension in a group closed off from the rest of the world, you must be good enough as a roleplayer to be able to play an at times (or all times, as you prefer) irritated, irritating, tense, irrational person - most roleplayers tend to choose 'perfect' characters to play. Those who react rationally and reasonably. That is infact unrealistic, especially under pressure, and this setting would come out best, if people got annoyed with each other, said something they should not have, and so on. I hope you'll welcome the chance to also explore the irrational side of humanity.

Rule-system

Survivor: Samoa features the bare minimum of rules needed to run it in its current form, and all rules/rolls are handled by the GM (though you can get this information after the game is over, with detailed breakdowns of any ingame happenings that affected your skills). However, you are free to make any kind of person you can imagine - the GM handles the conversion into the rule system, and as such, knowing about it now is superfluous and limiting to your creative freedom.

As for actual ingame rules, no participant is allowed to use physical violence, try to arrange a sharing of the first prize or to vote themselves off at the Tribal Council. These and other practical aspects of the game will of course be detailed for you before we begin play.

Structure

This game focuses on social interaction/manipulation and has been developed for 'quick' (we'll see about that ) 2-3 hour sessions, thus several aspects of Survivor will be toned down or just narrated by the GM. Day to day survival will happen outside of play for instance. As mentioned, there will be 10 episodes, but the final 9th and 10th episode will be a 'double-episode', so I estimate we will use 9 sessions on this game. I also think sunday afternoons GMT+1 will be the best time for the most players, so this is the target playtime.

When we play through an episode, we will roughly follow this structure:

1st episode day

Losers back from previous Tribal council, focus on their reactions.
Tree-mail about the Reward challenge, puzzling and strategizing about this.
Reward Challenge - Tribes compete for rewards.
Exile Island phase - someone is exiled for two days.
Reward for the winners/Life in the losing camp.

2nd episode day

Exile Island continued.
Reward possibly continued.
Tree-mail about the Immunity challenge, puzzling and strategizing about this.
Free RP until contestants are called to the challenge.
Immunity Challenge (exiled player returns in time).

3rd episode day

Losers talk about who to vote off/winners RP around their camp.
Tribal Council.
The one voted off says his or hers final piece in private to the camera.

RPGChat

This is the medium we use for our play. RPGChat is a text-only program you log into supplying a name and the IP to the host. The GM will introduce all new players to this program, its functionalities and the parser used before the first session. Yes, for those who didn't know it, play is text-only, over the internet for this first pass of the scenario.

To provide consistency and an easier later edit of the produced text, there will be a limited and constant number of channels(=locations) used. If you want to create a private scene with someone outside of these, just have your character initiate it ingame, and the GM will set up an appropriate scene for you automatically.

Closing words

Well, this will be tons of fun I hope! If you think 'Ugh, a lame American TV show?!' when reading about the setting, then I hope you'll be positively surprised by the mood, the competition, the backstabbing, the intense rivalry and strong bonds formed - I've always wanted to create an intense, goal-driven social RP with strong feelings and reactions from the characters. I think this setting is very ideal for that. Intensity and immersion are key-words, and I hope we will all be able to bring out these key-words as we play - it does take good and motivated roleplayers to make this work, but don't be shy or afraid, jump in, and we'll see where the ride goes

So, please tell me if you're interested - max. 14 players, I'll fill in NPC's to reach that amount if needed.

Actual playing will happen sometime during June and continue on for 9 weeks - though less for some If you are not there to play one session, your character will be played by the GM.