My brother and I used to play this game quite a bit when we were vacationing without electronics. I'm sure there are variations out there that you might have played or heard of but this is our simple version. At times we add other weird things or obstructions to challenge ourselves.
Basically you are in a small plane with 3 other people. Each person has with them 1 piece of luggage. Each piece of luggage weighs under 30lbs. 1 person is the pilot. The plane crashes on a small, unknown island. The pilot immediately dies. You now have yourself, two other people, and 4 total pieces of luggage, each under 30lbs apiece.
It takes approximate 30 minutes to walk around the perimeter of the island. There are only palm trees and small shrubs. The largest animal is the size of a rat. There are also some pretty yummy bugs. These allow you to survive for an indefinite amount of time (assuming someone has a working fire starter on them)
So the process begins:
Who are the people you are traveling with? What are their characteristcs, hobbies, skills, weird quirks, whatever that might help you get off the island?
What are they carrying in their luggage?
How do these people/things come together to escape the island and make it safely to a populated land
All the little details sort of get made up as we go. So if you want to know if there are nuts on the island, the players either a agree or disagree on the details. I don't know if that will work in an online forum setting, so you can make assumptions about little details that will help you.
Sometimes we do famous people or actual characters from history. Other times they are just a person with x skills, etc. We try to make it semi-realistic in terms of what a pilot would be carrying in his luggage vs what a dumb blond hot chick would be carrying.
I'm curious to see what your answers are or what bizarre quirks you come up with to tailor a master escape or rescue plan.