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.
Three other people? All right. So myself, the Big Bopper, Ritchie Valens and Buddy Holly crash-land on an island in the middle of nowhere... We all have one piece of luggage? Did I hear three guitars and a (small) drumset? I thought so. Escape? Nooo, I think we'd kick back and record a bangin' sequel to That'll Be the Day. Self-release ;)
Ha ha! Count me in on this party! I will bring my banjo (there is a folding travel banjo ya know). Can we switch out Richie for Johnny Cash?? Can you imagine? That would be an awesome grouping.
Unfortunately we can't. Or fortunately, depending on how you look at it.
I love this question! Boy, I can imagine an infinite number of combinations of people and worldly goods! Just this morning I listened to Intelligence Squared on NPR and was really wishing I could have been part of the debate and conversation. So right now, I would love to be stranded with a well-spoken atheist and a well-spoken Christian (or other religion, a believer in some kind of God). Man, that would be so much fun, all of the discourse. I guess the luggage would have to include a bible for reference, a box of Cheese Its (dude, a gal's gotta snack!) and a couple of bottles of good wine - something that goes well with rat, maybe a nice cab. I'm going to think more on this and come up with a few more scenarios, ones that I spend some time on. Thanks for posing this, I am really interested to see what folks come up with. I will be back!
3 others: mk because seriously that guy has MacGyver skills. sounds_sound because he's fun to talk with and is an architect and can design our new island oasis and b_b because the guy has an engineering/biology background. Between all of us and the contents of our suitcase -computers, electronic devices etc. I think we could fashion a makeshift social aggregator that only the 4 of us can use. Oh and b_b always travels with an inflatable raft that weighs 29 pounds.
I think one of my favorite ones I came up with didn't come up with an escape or rescue but revolved around a pretty sick and twisted social/ genetic experiment that would be well documented over the generations and the assumption that at some point in the future our society of inbred, cut off from all society race would be discovered and studied and conclusions about human nature, etc would come from it. I believe that idea came about after reading this article (much before I posted it on Hubski) http://hubski.com/pub?id=19634 Also, damn that was an epic sentence.