Stranded in the Andes

This is the first officialday of your journey in Stranded! You'll have the weekend to get to know your tribe better, I suggest bonding well with each other over the coming days. There were questions in the pre-season confessional, but let's give a couple more.

1. The Tribe Leader is an intriguing position... what do you think it means? Would you want to be it or not? How do you feel of who gets it?
2. People are chatting it up today, so give us the deets: who are you vibing with, who are you more mellow on, etc?
3. Any plans for the weekend? Both in-game or out of it?

Trust me, when we say this game will get real intense and fast once the challenges begin to start after the weekend, we mean it. Good luck! And as always, feel free to type or speak whatever you want in here.

Episode 01: On A Wing and a Prayer
I hope you guys don't mind if I do my own subtitles for the episodes as we go on. Just something I've always liked to do!

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Day 1
Well well well. Here we are! It's been a long wait for a lot of us but now the game is finally on it's way. I'm really enjoying talking to my tribe so far. The vibes are flowin' and I think I've made some sort of rapport with all the tribemates. Well, except Danny, who hasn't shown up yet. I heard from Xander that Sara was an alternate and may be a veteran player which kind of puts some worry in my head already. But right now I think my closest relationships are Evvie and Xander. I also had some great conversations with Shan and Deshawn but when it comes to being able to talk freely about whatever, it's been quite effortless with Evvie and Xander. We're starting to talk about a Day 1 stoner alliance, which I'm in love with.

The Tribe Leader is an intriguing position... what do you think it means? Would you want to be it or not? How do you feel of who gets it?
No one wants to be the leader based on our chats so far. I think we're trying to figure out a way to do a random draw for who gets it. We don't like the idea of being that one person to make the main decision and so it's getting a little nerve wracking with how we're going to decide. I've heard of a plan to just pin the role on Danny since he hasn't shown up and I'm not completely against the idea, but there's also the risk that we need our leader to be active. Which is definitely hasn't been.

WHOA just as I was typing this, Deshawn stepped up to be leader! I think I have a good rapport with him so I should be able to get some info out of him. There was an idea for Xander, Evvie, and myself to make one of us leader so we could get all the info that comes with it. But I think this way the info stays only with me as I'm pretty sure no one has made a big connection with Deshawn like I have yet.

People are chatting it up today, so give us the deets: who are you vibing with, who are you more mellow on, etc?
So it's seeming like the stoner alliance is becoming more and more real. I think we're probably going to make a group chat for it but we're waiting for another group to be created first so it doesn't look too suspicious. Maybe that's just paranoid thinking but I'm okay with taking a backseat to bigger plans for now if it means I don't get seen as a big target. So now the plan is for us to bring in Shan and Deshawn for a majority alliance. We're thinking regardless of what happens to Danny, we'll be okay in this case. So far it's shaping up to look like this:



I'm liking this idea a lot and secures me for the near-future. I'm just hoping that if a swap comes, I'll be able to stay with a majority of the Anchas.

Any plans for the weekend? Both in-game or out of it?
I need to keep my conversations up with Evvie and Xander mostly. I need to build that F3 group energy where we vibe all day and have no issues hashing out anything that comes our way. I also want to keep talking to Shan and Deshawn more. Deshawn I've built a rapport around MMA and cooking so we'll have a lot to talk about with UFC 289 this weekend. Shan revealed to me that she's a mother and not sure how much time she'll be able to stay active online. She said she has only told me about it so far so I said not to worry and that I would keep an eye out for her. So I think plans for the weekend are mostly to build rapport and get this F3 and F5 plan ironed out. I'm going to let it come naturally and not push it. I'll let the others make the groups and get everything going as I've had bad luck with being the one to start the alliance and push on it.

Outside of the game, I'm having one of my friends stay at our place so we're going to do an Evil Dead marathon and a Paranormal Activity marathon. Like for bad horror movies!

I'm here for the visual alignment graphs

We're getting graphs now? I knew it was a good idea to have you as my winner's pick!

James wrote: ↑Fri Jun 09, 2023 7:09:37 pm We're getting graphs now? I knew it was a good idea to have you as my winner's pick!

Day 2

Things are finally starting to pick up game-wise. We've finally made the F3 stoner alliance a real thing. It all started when I noticed there was a new group chat made called 'dew it'. I'm assuming it's from the other tribe as when it was created, a lot of the Kalipa tribe was online. I can't remember exactly (wish I wrote it down or something) but I think I saw Aaron, Denise, Frosti, Jamie, and maybe Leslie? It makes sense as these seem to be the most active players. It also made me think that we should get rolling on this plan if the others are doing the same.

On the Ancha tribe front, people were coming in and out all afternoon / evening (I guess a lot of people had Friday plans) and so Evvie, Xander, and I found some time to iron out a group chat plan. The chat is going to be created tonight when no one is online (I think around 1:45AM EST or something). That way someone can't do the same thing we did and notice people online during the new creation of a group chat. Something to add here - I'm really recognizing how smart Evvie is. She's got some really good ideas and great to volley plans with. Xander said it as well to me. I'm hoping this can turn into something with me and Xander down the road, should we need to get rid of her before F3. I honestly think Evvie is my biggest competition in the game right now, but she's a great person to work with for the long term.

One thing I did notice is that I miiiight be taking things a little too fast with Deshawn. I'm really worried about solidifying something with him in the event he wants to bring Heather or Sara into an alliance. It will just make getting rid of them harder the longer we go on. I just have a feeling Deshawn is vibing with Sarah a lot and may be hiding it. Another thing that worries me is if Deshawn wants to make F2/F3 plans and mentions to Evvie or Xander that the two of us are close. He did mention that he liked talking to Xander but hasn't mentioned Evvie lately (which is a little interesting considering he did mention her a lot more on Day 1. Something to look back on towards tribal / next round). I just have to continue to push a majority alliance idea with him (F5/F6) rather than a F2/F3. If he does bring up the F2/F3, I'm not sure if I can refuse.

Shan hasn't been online too much so I'm not really sure who else she's really talking to. Again, I think it might be Evvie. It's been pretty light with her but I think that's just the rate she's moving at, so I'll keep it going the same way. I talked to Sara a little bit as well, but nothing important really. And Heather...well, if you're reading the chats, you can see the issue with Heather and responses. I wonder if once the group chat with Evvie and Xander takes off, I can try to sway them in the direction of each working on one of Deshawn/Shan/Heather/Sara so we always have eyes into another alliance. WIth us 3 being the most active compared to the above mentioned, it shouldn't be that difficult to pull off. I want this to be an idea that Xander or Evvie 'comes up with' so that I'm not seen making all these plans and schemes. I'll see if I can influence it that way.

And where the hell is Danny?



Day 3 will hopefully be a more entertaining day. I'll be sure to update when I can!

Day 3

Well I wasn't expecting Danny to show up at 2:30am after I finished my last confessional, but he did. And maybe 5 minutes into our conversation, he asked if it was too late to align with him. I didn't even know what to say really. I just agreed like we're taught to always do with alliances and just left it at that. I also had to show him where to sign the rules and do some of the icebreakers we created. This guy is gonna have a rough go at it.

Moving on to the Stoner alliance group chat plan, of course during our window of time Sara shows up online. So now I'm stuck helping Danny and Xander is having to talk game with Sara. The funny thing is, Sara started talking to me about alliances as well and offered me a F4 group including Xander and Deshawn. Xander also experienced the same conversation, however with me being a 4th to their final three (that being Sara, Xander, and Deshawn). Xander seems to really not like Sara. I don't know if this is a front just to make me comfortable but he really cuts deep on her sometimes. I understand why he feels that way, especially when I see the kind of stuff she's trying to setup in the game. For example, Sara's F4 plan also extends into F5/F6 with Evvie and Shan being alternates. It's kind of great Xander is feeding so much information to me like this about Sara's plans. I guess I have no reason to not believe it's all true, but we haven't voted together yet. I just know how manipulative people can be in these games sometimes so I just don't know if I 100% believe it. Regardless, I spent some time reiterating how much I trust him to hopefully keep things smooth.

Deshawn also finally spoke more game with me. And surprisingly, he hasn't heard much from Sara and the whole F4 alliance thing was a little of a surprise. I was able to influence the plan toward working with Evvie instead. Deshawn mentioned that Xander and Evvie are close and that us two (Deshawn and Myself) as a F2 and them two as a F2 could come together. Kind of perfect how that worked. I have this little idea brewing in my head that maybe Xander and Deshawn next to me at the F3 would work pretty well. I think I could string Deshawn as a good partner that doesn't do too much game on his own. Xander will definitely be more of a threat at the end, especially with us working so close. But I think I can do way better speaking to a jury against them compared to Evvie.

Speaking of which, Evvie really enjoyed our story this morning about our failed Stoner alliance group creation. She ended up waking up randomly at 4:25AM and decided to make the fake group for us. Xander made the real one shortly after. I forgot the reason why we made two groups, but sure. I'll let them control things for a bit and just be as agreeable as I can be. The real group is going to be Lurker_test and the fake one is Lurker. Once again, I completely forgot the reason why we made two. If it helps with the paranoia of what groups are being made, then sure.

I spent a lot of the evening watching UFC and messaging Sara and Deshawn to hopefully become closer with them. They're both into the sport but it seems like Sara actually knows her stuff and Deshawn was just agreeing with me over and over again. It's kind of like when you ask a friend if they've seen a show and they say they have, but then when you talk about something specific, they can only give generalized statements. Example, "oh my god, can you believe Jon Snow came back to life?" "Yeah it's crazy what kind of magic can happen in this show!" Doesn't add to the discussion at all and sounds smooth brain.

To return to the odd couple sitcom that is Xander and Sara's relationship, Sara mentioned this evening that there was a new group called 'dew it' that showed up. And funny enough, not one mention of the lurker groups. I can't believe that actually worked. I'm trying to play as dumb as I can with Sara because I think she works a lot better with you when she thinks she's smarter than you. I just kept acting as if I didn't see the full picture so that she would over explain and reveal as much as possible. She didn't really provide anything we didn't already know or think about, but of course this sent Xander back on his 'Sara is a threat and needs to be removed' paranoia-filled tirade. I made some memes for him that he seemed to enjoy. I designed them so they don't involve my name or Evvie's name, so I'm not really implicated if they get out. So if you see new memes in Xander's confessional, they're all made by me. I made them in paint because I'm lazy AF so don't knock me for not editing them better.

The rest of the discussions today didn't really go anywhere. Danny and Heather showed up and talked for all of 20 minutes. Sara also mentioned them as targets to Xander. Impending challenge and possible double elimination for the first round has also been a discussion with Xander and maybe Sara (it's late so can't remember for sure, but I don't think I would have given her that kind of info as I want to seem dumb to her). It's a common thought that Deshawn and Aaron as tribe leaders will decide on some sort of swap or immunity for a single person. I'm starting to feel that dread when tribal looms. I really don't want to go out first and I'm not sure if I'm playing correctly or I'm being manipulated like never before. I'd like to think that judging by online activity, I am safe and there's no possible way there's another alliance / plan to get rid of me, but you know *cue Sanda's I DUNNO ABOUT THAAAAT*

I am drained after all these conversations this weekend. Let's hope our 3 stay strong and we continue to keep Deshawn and Sara close for now so we can survive a few votes and a possible swap. See y'all at the challenge!

Updated allignment chart for Day 3. Just personal thoughts, who knows how accurate it is.

Green is for safe and for stoners! 

Love the charts  Can't wait to see them continue to evolve

Day 4

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As you’ve been getting to know your fellow tribe members, are any working relationships forming?

Challenge Day! You can tell there's a lot of nervousness in the air. I took the time before the challenge to do a paranoia / anxiety check on everyone. I thought that if I try and show a vulnerable moment that all of us have felt in one of these games, I can potentially see how people are feeling and try to build some trust at the same time. I think my first conversation with Evvie showed that she was having some worries. I told her we can both be each other's rock when they need someone to tell their anxieties to. This way I have my own sounding board as well when I'm feeling the doubts about the game. After this, I needed to do the same with Xander. He was feeling even more towards what I was. He was worried about being manipulated and that he was also some sort of plan to go home. I think I really solidified trust in both of the other Stoner Alliance members today by just being a friend and having a real human moment about anxiety and paranoia.

I've also been warming up more to Sara. I really do feel a little bad about how much Xander doesn't like her. It still could be an elaborate ploy to not tell how close they are. But Xander lying to both Evvie and Myself would be bad gameplay. I also don't think a twosome of Xander and Sara alone would be able to pull off a blindside on us. The Deshawn/Myself/Xander for F4 Sara intends to have may very well be true. Reminder to think back on this Tuesday if Danny is eliminated for inactivity. 4 becomes new majority.

Deshawn was another short anxiety/trust test as well. What I really liked was that Deshawn came to me first thing in the morning and brought up discussion with Sara. I'm thinking he truly believes we can be a potential F2. I brought up the idea of maybe people playing us and he said he genuinely believes in the Evvie/Xander/Myself/Deshawn F4. We also had a long discussion about Sara. I think Xander's witch hunt has made everyone a little weary about Sara. Deshawn mentioned that he wants to be able to trust her but she talks too much game all the time. (Funny, because I thought I was doing that. I guess Deshawn has an easy time volleying ideas with me?) Deshawn also mentioned Sara talking about the same tribe swap / merge scenarios and possible tribe swaping powers the leader might have. So it does sound like Sara is honest about sharing info with the F4 we discussed (Deshawn/Myself/Sara/Xander) and we're all getting generally the same info.

Shan, Heather, Danny...same old, same old. There's not much talk going on but I try when I can. I'll keep trying because there's always the case we need them for a pivotal vote. I need to talk more with Shan tomorrow when I get the chance. I feel her pulling away a bit and I need to start getting more game talk and alliance building if I want her to trust me over Evvie in the late game.

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How did the challenge planning talks go down tonight, any surprises there?

The challenge planning went pretty damn fast. I think Evvie, Xander, and I just thought to take the easiest roles quick and left the puzzle solving to others just so we don't get blamed for a challenge fail. Kind of worked out nicely that all 3 in the stoner alliance got the easiest leg - and it wasn't planned that way at all. It was simply everyone agreeing to do the puzzle and then I posted an easy guide in the chat that made everything simple. No one disagreed with their role from there. Sara was good at managing us during the challenge and Shan was absolutely amazing at the puzzle. I checked her time to post in the thread and she took about 6 minutes. Extremely impressive, but also worrisome if we get future puzzles during the merge. I ended up making a practice thread for the puzzle and did it a couple of times to try and improve my own puzzle solving. I'll come back to it throughout the season just so I stay sharp.

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How do you feel about your own challenge performance?

  I don't think there was really much skill required for our leg. It was kind of cool how it was the equivalent of doing an obstacle course for puzzle pieces. Really enjoyed participating in it. I think we did a great job with the pieces. I had a little bit of a slow start but was able to get out all my pieces at the same time as Evvie and Xander. I luckily had the least amount of pieces as well. I think all the glory goes to Shan for this one. We gave her some great kudos in our tribe chat and happily took the night off. Not too much talking from there and everyone slipped offline pretty quick. I guess everyone had game fatigue and was ready for a long deserved break.

However, I'll continue to be vigilant and not let the small break deter me from my goals. Now that the first challenge is done, I think the game is really going to speed up. I have a feeling that an idol is going to go into the game very shortly. I'm going to keep looking for the idol just as much as the other tribe is going to right now with the threat of tribal council looming. I think jumping on the opportunity and using every chance I get is the only way I'm going to keep pulling ahead from the rest of the players. Onto Round 2 we go!

Also if a game runner is allowed to tell us - how close was the Kallpa tribe from solving the puzzle in the challenge?

Day 5

I just wanted to give a short update regarding this morning / afternoon in case i don't get another chance before the vote tonight.

Evvie and I spoke just about how things are going with our plan. It looks like Heather is opening up to her more and more. There's a plan to maybe get the girls together and Heather is planning to talk game with me. Now is a time where we can really use the information from Sara about Heather being an alternate target to Danny. The way we reveal this information is really the key. One way involves Evvie telling her that she heard Sara is targeting her. But then we risk Heather going to Sara right away and confronting her. The alternative involves something else that happened today...

Deshawn dropped a bomb on me today - he wants Sara gone. Wow. I really didn't think I had all the right pieces of information on the tribe but it seems like Deshawn really sees me as his number 1. The plan from his perspective is to maybe use Heather and tell her right before tribal that Sara is gunning for her and then flip the vote on Sara. It's not a bad plan at all. I also tried to riff with him about Xander to see if he thinks he's genuine about our F4 of Myself/Deshawn/Evvie/Xander. From his perspective, it's the better option for Xander. Deshawn also doesn't see Sara being close with Evvie/Shan. Sara has always mentioned that they're flips come a swap or merge. For once in this game, I feel like I might actually have the whole picture thanks to Deshawn.

So now I think the plan is as follows. Evvie needs to build an alliance with Shan and Heather without including Sara. Then, Deshawn and Myself will go with what Deshawn thinks is his master plan, and vote for Sara. Hopefully by telling Heather that Sara is gunning for her, Evvie is able to get all of them to vote Sara. Regardless of what Sara tries to do, it looks like all votes land on her. Heather plans to speak to me and build rapport. So closer to the vote, Deshawn will go to her and tell her about this huge plan to get rid of her. Heather verifies with me and I tell her that yes, this is the plan. Heather gets us all to vote for Sara and Sara goes. Heather thinks it's her plan, Deshawn thinks it's his. It sounds perfect in theory and keeps F3 Stoners out of the spotlight. I really hope we can pull this off, but we'll see how it goes! Knowing if we lose a member before the next challenge will actually make this plan even more real.

For once, the game is all in the hands of Danny.

Abraham!

Loving the colour coded charts and the confessional game so far! I'm a novelist by trade so climbing through everything has been fun to read. I'm a fellow Canuck (out in Hamilton) and love the MMA connection - been doing it in some capacity for like 13/14 years, Mike Mallott trains 15 minutes from me. And a manga fan no less! I'm reading Sakamoto Days lately and loving it. What's in your read pile right now?

Let's get down to business. You do aquariums as a side hustle. I'm a beautiful otter who loves water. Pretend each of your tribe mates was an aquarium you were building, designing, and then had to sell to me because for some strange reason I want to swim them. What would these aquariums look like, how would you design them, and what's your sales pitch for these tribe mate aquariums? Don't go too hard here (or do, it's your time after all but I get it could be a daunting thing to answer). Best of luck in the game and keep the hits coming!