[Danni Boatwright]

Welcome to your confessional John!

This may be the most important place in the game. It's where you will vote and more importantly, talk to us! Feel free to divulge your darkest secrets, current strategies, alliances, and hell... just pure hatred for other players. You are the only player that can view this forum. Outside of Alumni and Hosts, it is completely private. We love getting the dirt and there are plenty of us here to ask you questions. As you can see, this thread is labelled "Episode 00". Each round (meaning challenge + council) we will start a new thread with the title of each episode. After every Tribal Council, a host will start a new thread asking you more questions. Again, this is your forum and you can feel free to start whatever topics or make whatever posts you like. We will be here to help you out, make you think, get you to talk and really just lend an ear.

We take confessionals seriously because we're genuinely interested in your story. We want to know everything you're thinking and more importantly, what you're feeling. Think of it as free therapy. We will be guiding you along the way and asking you questions, provoking thought and helping you think about things you otherwise might not have. We find that just talking through your situation can help you get a fresh perspective on things.

Beyond that, it's just fun. What's more fun is having a record of what you were thinking at different stages of the game, and being able to look back on that is priceless so take advantage of it!

---

Here is a practice mini-challenge for you to work on. It is a challenge that might appear once or twice throughout the season in a different form. While it will be easier to do in the actual challenge using a puzzle-builder, this will help you practice reposting images. Image posting is something that will pop up in multiple challenges and is a skill that you should perfect. Please refer to the guide in the Camp forum for detailed instruction on how to post images.

This particular challenge is a 4x4 16-piece puzzle. You must correctly unscramble the puzzle using the ORIGINAL image links. Meaning, you can't simply rearrange them in a photo editing program. You must use the original images by using the IMG tag. (more information on this in the camp how-to threads.

Good luck, please ask us for any help or further instructions :)


You will need to reply to this thread ahead of the season and sign the rules in order to avoid being replaced.

[John]

Signing in - I agree to the rules. Extremely excited to finally be playing one of these, but I will give my full thoughts when this starts.

Two quick questions:

Can I instant message hosts as a test on my phone? PMs seem to be locked, but it looks like I can use the instant messager.

Also,

In the event of a tie, there will be NO REVOTE. The two+ members involved in the tie will plead their cases and then there will be a 5-minute window in which any votes can be changed. If after this time there is still a tie, we will draw rocks.

Semi confused by the wording of "NO REVOTE". Does this mean if there is a tie it would need to be unanimous after an initial tie like it was on the show? Or does it mean if any one person decides to change their vote, then it would count as a new majority and no rocks?

[Jeff Probst]

Yes correct, you can message hosts.

That is confusing.. oof. Basically we revote lol, but because some people prevote and leave, that vote carries over essentially. So if you want to keep your vote the same, you just do nothing. If you want to change your vote, you can do that.

[Shonee Fairfax]

Hello, it's me! Shonee Fairfax! I have a few questions.

First, introduce yourself. Tell us who you are, what you do, and why you're here. Take this opportunity to really show your personality.

What is your strategy for winning here? How are you going to get to the end and convince the jury that you're the one who should win.

Does anyone stand out to you solely based on first impressions? (Answer after talking to people.)

Thank you so much, I'm going to use these answers for a secret project. :)

[Jeff Probst]

My winner pick

[John]

Carl is a madman for offering alliances in the first half hour. Wonder how many people he offered stuff to.

I will respond to the rest and post a long confessional, but I am completely overwhelmed with talking to everyone at once.

[John]

Did not forget about those questions, I will answer them tomorrow (either before or after work). I also still need to do that puzzle.

For now, Davie and Carl have both separately suggested working together. Way too early to think anything of it, but note that there are two people that haven't shown up on our tribe (Christian and Lyrsa).

[John]

Nick already playing this game hard trying to get me to send him coins for the idol clue. I’m sure he is asking others for the same amount, and he’ll make money on it to probably share a fake clue.

May not be a bad idea to play dumb and hand it over for now.

[John]

I sent over two coins to Nick. He probably thinks I'm an idiot, and I am sure he is doing this with everybody.

"The idol is hidden where you would find, five, seven, eight and nine, twenty four and sixty two, this hunt began centuries before you"

Wonder if it's real. Don't care. I actually wasn't even going to purchase the clue - more concerned with building trust. Even if he thinks I'm dumb, he'll at least think I want to work with him. The currency will definitely put an interesting facet on this game and make it way more complicated as it goes longer. I'm also considering trying to buy half the clue from someone else to see if this is real/if I can trust Nick.

[John]

Hello, it's me! Shonee Fairfax! I have a few questions.

First, introduce yourself. Tell us who you are, what you do, and why you're here. Take this opportunity to really show your personality.

What is your strategy for winning here? How are you going to get to the end and convince the jury that you're the one who should win.

Does anyone stand out to you solely based on first impressions? (Answer after talking to people.)

Thank you so much, I'm going to use these answers for a secret project. :)

I will try to answer your questions with some incoherent rambling that helps me keep my thoughts together. Please let me know if I missed any that I still need to answer. Also, feel free to not read, don’t care. Streams of consciousness are more for my own benefit than anything else.

I have no idea why I decided to play this game. None. Poody messaged me and asked me to play in a Stranded game at least 10 years ago. Maybe more? I think it was around 2008? That’s insane to think about. It was around the time when RavuRules was running around on Sucks saying everyone should listen to some of his ridiculous opinions of the show because he won this random online Survivor game. Anyways, Poody has asked me to play in this series at least 2 or 3 times in total, I think? And I have applied on my own separately. I know he’s been recommended as a great host, puts a ton of effort into everything, and I have always wanted to play. That said, the timing has never worked out for whatever reason. So here we are. Quarantine has been terrible for many, many reasons but at least it gave me the time to finally play in this series. Extremely excited to finally be part of it.

My first ORG was in 2006, and I played relatively consistently for a few years bouncing between a bunch of random sites. I’ve played games where you communicate through AIM, and I’ve played games where you send private messages to each other. I’ve played both anonymously and as myself. I’ve never played a game with both PMs and instant messages. Interested to see how that works and is taken into account here. I do want to point out that I “retired” from playing these games a long time ago. Since like 2011?, I’ve only played sporadically. In fact, I even stopped watching Survivor during a stretch of terrible seasons, but Winners at War brought me back so during corona I’ve been trying to rewatch some of those that I missed. I’ve gone away for years at a time and always seem to end up coming back both to the show and these games in general. They’re both addicting. That said, I only play once a year or once every other year these days. I’m well past my “prime” if I ever had one, and I fully expect to do poorly every time I randomly sign up for a new one. Don’t have the time to commit to doing well as I used to. That’s why Poody posting here that I’m his winner pick better be a joke. I thrive on low expectations….so prepare to be disappointed. I don’t expect to do well at all, but if I get invested, I am sure I will find the time to at least make things interesting.

Normally when I sign up to play, it is solely because I want to try a schtick out with a certain character. Now, I was told I shouldn’t do a schtick in this series since there are a lot of new players that may not understand. It seems like it was good advice since so far everyone is playing themselves 100%; this is also why I will be playing a dumbed down version of myself here, but I still want to talk briefly about the character of John. He was one of my favorite players on David vs Goliath (which I just watched recently for the game) because on the surface he is a cartoon character. He has a fake wrestling persona that is an arrogant over the top maniac, but the dude is more than just a freak of nature on the surface. When he is being himself and conversing with people one on one, he is an awkward dude that doesn’t seem to fit into his body. To me, that was a really interesting character arc to watch play out, and it was a shame to see him leave earlier than he should have, despite heading out in a great Tribal Council. So anyways while I may not be doing a schtick in instant messages, I may have some fun on the boards when people start posting more often.

Will try to go through my first impressions; I’m fairly intrigued by how conversations are progressing so far. I feel like using the instant messenger will make people talk a lot more to each other which will result in people bonding really quickly or others finding out they can’t stand others almost immediately. Obviously, this game just started so we’re not at this point. Although Carl, Davie, Kara, and Nick have all at least suggested working together in some capacity, so people are playing this fast. Carl and Davie asked me directly on the first night which is crazy to me. Davie’s seemed more genuine (as in there is a chance he only brought it up with me) because it was after we had a fairly long conversation rather than right away. I like Carl quite a bit too so far, so I don’t have a problem with him asking, but It’s extremely hard to pinpoint exactly who you want to work with long-term when not everyone has even shown up and you’re juggling conversations with everyone else that has. Also, who knows how many other people they are saying the same stuff to. Kara didn’t offer anything directly but she brought up the conversation of who do you want to work with which can lead to all that in the future (she’s probably done this to a few others). Note to self, she mentioned she gets good vibes from Jessica, Angelina, and Nick. Kara does seem awesome, too. I mean everyone is great so far because it’s the meet and greet stage and no one has done anything to piss people off. I hate the idea of committing to too many things at the beginning because there’s a long way to go, and a lot of people do things to try to fit in while others take a couple rounds to get acclimated before becoming comfortable and their real selves.

I will say Nick kind of sketched me out with the coins thing since I feel like he got at least one other person on board to send him two coins. He’s definitely playing hard early and may have even made money on the clue. I don’t know if he would have lied about what the clue was since people may compare notes, but if not it could also be the start of a working relationship with him. Dan is a good guy that is going to be a huge threat on this tribe. You can tell he knows the ins and outs of the game, and he will socially be around. Again I like him and everyone else so far, it’s just something that was noticeable and will need to pay attention to that in the future. I think I talked to Angelina a little less than most others, but she’s awesome. Really liked what I saw of her both socially one on one and in the tribe chat, leading us in the reward challenge. Alison is nice so far, think I need to speak to her more too. Jessica I probably talked to the least on the first night, will make sure to message her more in the future. Am I missing anybody? Oh, yeah Christian sent me a message at 4AM while I was asleep. Wonder what time zone he is in, but he will need to be around more often if he wants a chance to stay longer. He has the entire weekend so not a huge rush. Glad to see Lyrsa was replaced. Haven’t spoken to her, but I will try to make the introduction rounds tomorrow.

I think that’s really all I have to say to start this game. I am going to be actively making newbie mistakes with the board because I don’t want people to know I’m lying about this being my first game. Not sure how long I’ll keep that charade up, although it helps that there are a lot of newer things that I have never experienced before. Jessica mentioned there was a post in the currency thread about finding coins on the beach, and I read that and did a double take. Ihave absolutely no idea what that means, so me telling Jessica that I have no idea was 100% honest. I’ll have to slowly get the hang of stuff like that.

Oh, what’s my strategy to win? Will figure that out as the game goes on. You have to be adaptable if you want any hope of doing well. At this point, I would not bet on myself. We’ll see if I am able to accomplish anything going forward.

[John]

Carl said Christian is from France which makes the times he sends messages make way more sense. I hope he is able to attend events, but I’m sure it will be difficult some days.