Looks like we got a new crop of survivor players and that is very encouraging
, but some of you newbies are making rules with highly complex structures, which can be fun, but Ill just warn you against spoiling the basic spirit of survivors.
Survivor is a game originally played in a very simple form with elimination of one candidate per round. Since then it has evolved with more complex multiple elimination rounds and defensive bids, but it has always been possible to see
what you are voting for and use your tactical sense to try to influence the outcome. Hence it stayed a game.
Its no fun playing a game of random chance (unless money is involved...), so generally you should avoid rounds were
voters can not predict the outcome of their vote. Like the idea of voting for a number of candidates and making a run off between two candidates based on their position
or rounds where people don't know what they are voting for,
or not saying beforehand if it is the person with the most votes or the least that are eliminated.
Unpredictable voting generally spoils survivors since it tends to eliminate interesting characters and you don't get the thrill of tactical voting if you can't really predict the effect of your vote.
One other thing to avoid is trying to kill off the enemy too soon. Some characters are so important that they need to be in the final, even if you don't like them. For example if you have a survivor for best French president you can't kill off de Gaulle or Mitterand in the early rounds without spoiling the game. Look at my "Toughest tyrant"-survivor if you need an example of how
not to do it
.
