Poll: Stranded on a deserted island, which do you choose? + wild card round (page 5)

[Aginor]

That said, if you feel that the dogs are more of a liability, you could slay both of them right at the onset. That gives you some food right away, and it also means that you have all that dog food as emergency rations. I'm not recommending that you rely on this food, but if you come across a time when the fishing/hunting fails you, at least you won't starve to death. Obviously in everyday life it is not recommended for humans to consume dog food, but in a life or death situation it will suffice.

The problem is that it will spoil. Conserving food is not easy. Unless you can freeze it, or find loads of salt very quickly then slaughtering the dogs is pretty useless.

I still agree with @Scalenex that gold + alcohol + loaded gun + shitty personality = a dangerous situation.

It is! But being only one human is the single most dangerous thing in such an environment.

Not to mention the psychological torment of having to put up with somebody like that for 20 years!!! Knowing my luck she would be a third-wave feminist constantly prattling on about how evil white men are in her best Jar Jar Binks voice. I can already picture her AoS and Force is Female tattoos. In a week I'd be on the island all by myself with only 299 rounds of ammo!

I'd take any lesbian ultra-feminist nazi that hates cats, science fiction, music, planes and Warhammer. Really. In a life or death survival situation the most important thing is not being alone. Being alone and unprepared usually means death within days or weeks, a few months if you are well prepared for wilderness survival in general and know the exact environment you have to survive in. Unless you are Rüdiger Nehberg or someone similar (prepared and exceptionally skilled in survival).

Even the famous mountain men usually didn't spend more than a few months completely alone, and even then their death rate was high and most died relatively young.

In the history of mankind there are very few examples of people who survived several years completely alone and lived to tell the tale.

Some Japanese "Holdouts" survived several years alone, but AFAIK all of them started out as a group of at least three people, and they usually didn't purely live off the land, they stole stuff from other people.

Even in a tropical paradise with water, edible fruits and so on the chances of survival are actually pretty bad, even for groups of people on their own.

I have yet to see a movie that even halfway realistically depicts a survival situation in which a person could actually survive.

The point is, that such a person can be demoralizing across such a long period of time (you might not want to be alive by the end of it). A second person is not necessarily an asset and can very quickly turn into a liability. Having more people in a survival situation is often a huge benefit when trying to survive, but only if the group can effectively work together. I'm sure we've all had group projects that exemplify my point.

Absolutely! But none of those were life or death situations. That does change things a lot.

The thing is: yes, in option A you might not make the 20 years or even half of it.
In fact none of the options provides a decent chance of survival. Even a trained five man crew with a full set of survival gear doesn't have a good chance of lasting 10+ years alone.
But I am fairly sure that in option A your chances to survive the first few months, maybe even the three years until the first woman dies, is immensely higher than in option C. Just because of workload.

 

[NIGHTBRINGER]

The problem is that it will spoil. Conserving food is not easy. Unless you can freeze it, or find loads of salt very quickly then slaughtering the dogs is pretty useless.

I never said it was my plan to slaughter the dogs, only that if you feel that they are so useless you could do so. You'd get a least a meal or two before it spoils and the dog food would keep.

I'd take any lesbian ultra-feminist nazi that hates cats, science fiction, music, planes and Warhammer. Really. In a life or death survival situation the most important thing is not being alone. Being alone and unprepared usually means death within days or weeks, a few months if you are well prepared for wilderness survival in general and know the exact environment you have to survive in. Unless you are Rüdiger Nehberg or someone similar (prepared and exceptionally skilled in survival).

Even the famous mountain men usually didn't spend more than a few months completely alone, and even then their death rate was high and most died relatively young.

In the history of mankind there are very few examples of people who survived several years completely alone and lived to tell the tale.

Some Japanese "Holdouts" survived several years alone, but AFAIK all of them started out as a group of at least three people, and they usually didn't purely live off the land, they stole stuff from other people.

Even in a tropical paradise with water, edible fruits and so on the chances of survival are actually pretty bad, even for groups of people on their own.

I have yet to see a movie that even halfway realistically depicts a survival situation in which a person could actually survive.

I think you overestimate the value of having that second person (three for a short while), but to each their own. Not everyone is useful and some people are actually a liability. Option C is better in my mind because your work load is heavily cut down due to the nice little shelter it comes with. Water is top priority and if you can find that, then you are pretty good. Then you need some fire and food, but in a pinch you can eat some dog food until you are able to secure a food source. I think the workload is greater in A (even with the additional hands) because you have no shelter and no decent cutting tool to make traps, weapons and shelter.

In any event, it is much harder to survive for 20 years than it is to survive for 12. Plus, if your chances to success are as bleak as you believe them to be, then I'd rather spend my last days with a little peace and quiet than have to listen to that potential ultra-feminist nazi!

As for the life or death situation changing the dynamics of the group, that could go both ways. All that pressure and low nutrition could make things go south real fast. Especially with that booze and gun lying around. Who controls the gun by the way?


At the end of the day, if your top priority is not being alone on the island, you're better off with option B. At least that companion has a good personality and will make for a far superior functioning group. I'll wave to you as I pass by your island on my sail boat (out of rifle range of course)

 

[Aginor]

I never said it was my plan to slaughter the dogs, only that if you feel that they are so useless you could do so. You'd get a least a meal or two before it spoils and the dog food would keep.



I think you overestimate the value of having that second person (three for a short while), but to each their own. Not everyone is useful and some people are actually a liability. Option C is better in my mind because your work load is heavily cut down due to the nice little shelter it comes with. Water is top priority and if you can find that, then you are pretty good. Then you need some fire and food, but in a pinch you can eat some dog food until you are able to secure a food source. I think the workload is greater in A (even with the additional hands) because you have no shelter and no decent cutting tool to make traps, weapons and shelter.

In any event, it is much harder to survive for 20 years than it is to survive for 12. Plus, if your chances to success are as bleak as you believe them to be, then I'd rather spend my last days with a little peace and quiet than have to listen to that potential ultra-feminist nazi!

As for the life or death situation changing the dynamics of the group, that could go both ways. All that pressure and low nutrition could make things go south real fast. Especially with that booze and gun lying around. Who controls the gun by the way?


At the end of the day, if your top priority is not being alone on the island, you're better off with option B. At least that companion has a good personality and will make for a far superior functioning group. I'll wave to you as I pass by your island on my sail boat (out of rifle range of course)

Interesting that you call three years "a short while".
That's way more than the likely period of time a single person will survive.
Either way, all three options have only a tiny chance to even reach the five year mark.
Unless you develop a sustainable long time survival environment (which is pretty much impossible alone) it doesn't matter if you are there for 1, 2, 5, or ten years. The boat doesn't matter because you won't live long enough to ever get on it.

Realistically: both you and me and all the girls and dogs will be dead by the 6 months mark. At most.

 

[NIGHTBRINGER]

Interesting that you call three years "a short while".

It represents only 15% of your total stay on the island. I think it is a fair assessment on my part.

Realistically: both you and me and all the girls and dogs will be dead by the 6 months mark. At most.

Nice to see that for once I'm the optimist of the bunch. So this is what it feels like.


Staying positive is key...

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/news/How-to-survive-on-a-desert-island/

 

[Paradoxical Pacifism]

Both options are tied. That's pretty cool.

If it convinces anyone to turn to the weedian side, the acoustic guitar could help immensely. Perhaps not with deterring predators away from a juicy, sweaty snack, but rather psychologically. If you're going to be stuck on an island for 20 years (12 for c), then you're going to need to develop a habit or something that resonates with your past civilized life, or you're going to lose it as scalenex mentioned. Assuming we've never played a guitar before, learning riffs and tunes would help immensely in giving us something to focus on in our down times.

Other than that, I'd say it would only take about a year or so for someone to learn how to succinctly compose songs since playing the guitar is likely the only thing to do.

Actually, do we even know how large the island is? This variable could effect our psychology immensely depending upon what there is to do and discover.

 

[Lizerd]

Well, I think B is the best. But not for the reasons most people think.
Time to start my dark cult.
A hunting rifle, and some unarmed people.
I’m kinda hungry and they probably demand food. Get them to do work on a shelter while you claim to get food. Tell them if they finish they can drink a bunch of booze. Then get them to drink a bunch of booze and be drunk or blacked out. THEN you kill them and eat them.

So now you have food and shelter covered, now hammer the gold into demonic altars or something else. It will keep the little sanity you have left at this point from melting away. Now you have access to two full skeletons and bone is surprisingly useful, can be used as knives or spears. Then you now have tools, shelter, booze, food, and a weapon. When animals come by kill them and eat them. You see this survival thing is easy, all you need to do is sacrifice your sanity!

Guys I swear I’m sane. This wasn’t meant to be serious

Edit: or was it?

 

[Paradoxical Pacifism]

Something to consider about option A as well too. Even if the person you'll have to spend your 20 years with is incredibly crappy, and hates everything you love, doesn't necessarily mean the sour relationship will stay that way indefinitely.

I'm obviously not married nor really care about marriage, but i'm pretty sure relationships aren't stout palm trees unwavered by even the severest of events. There's actually a very good chance you'll warm up to the crappy person, and you will too through necessity of survival even though it may seem impossible at first. I think i can even imagine @NIGHTBRINGER warming up to a "feminist nazi" in this situation.

I would agree that human contact is absolutely paramount; even compared to a nonsensical freezer, or a kewl instant-to-build shelter with all the pot you could ever want. We're social animals first and foremost, so warming up to a shitty person that epitomizes everything you hate in life, and/or hates everything you like, makes a lot of sense imo

 

[Lizerd]

You see good sir, you don’t have to deal with a person who has a bad personality if they are dead...

In all honesty no matter what I take I probably will die. A minor with little training is asking to get eaten.

 

[NIGHTBRINGER]

A hunting rifle, and some unarmed people.
I’m kinda hungry and they probably demand food. Get them to do work on a shelter while you claim to get food. Tell them if they finish they can drink a bunch of booze. Then get them to drink a bunch of booze and be drunk or blacked out. THEN you kill them and eat them.

So now you have food and shelter covered, now hammer the gold into demonic altars or something else. It will keep the little sanity you have left at this point from melting away. Now you have access to two full skeletons and bone is surprisingly useful, can be used as knives or spears. Then you now have tools, shelter, booze, food, and a weapon. When animals come by kill them and eat them. You see this survival thing is easy, all you need to do is sacrifice your sanity!

I think i can even imagine @NIGHTBRINGER warming up to a "feminist nazi" in this situation.

It is mathematically possible I suppose, but the odds on betting favourite is that I'll be drinking from her skull by the first week's end! Such is the nature of Chaos! All eventually give in to the lure of the Dark Gods.

I would agree that human contact is absolutely paramount; even compared to a nonsensical freezer, or a kewl instant-to-build shelter with all the pot you could ever want. We're social animals first and foremost, so warming up to a shitty person that epitomizes everything you hate in life, and/or hates everything you like, makes a lot of sense imo

I'm okay with peace and quiet!

 

[Killer Angel]

OK, time to analyze the options.

A.
we have a woman with shitty personality. SHe is good at fishing, but in the first 3 yrs she will have a person more important than you to care about. Guess who will be left behind in case of poor fishing? In the first month, when things will be the hardest?

hunting rifle. it's a TRAP. 300 rounds… 20 yrs. it's 15 rounds / year. You can basically afford ONE shot each month.

Booze is actually very useful, to storage water into bottles and disinfectant.

Gold. Please.

So, this is IMO the worst option.


B.
Hot chick. good for avoid the madness, as we cannot live alone 20 years or we can go crazy. But we don't know what she's good at…. and if (when?) she will become pregnant that will be a huge problem.

Fishing net + poles. OK, i don't know how much a fishing net can last before being useless, and 20 years are a long time, but it's darn useful.

Freezer. The BIG advantage of option B, as you won't be often able to catch food on a regular basis, and the freezer will let you storage the food

MP3. i suppose some music can help. Mental health is important.

Not optimal, but certainly better than option A



C.
Dogs… we don't know their kind of training, but let's suppose it's something useful for our survival, and that they are not trained to search people under the snow. Killing a dog will leave us with a useful companion for the whole time we'll stay on the island. The cans will be useful too as containers.
But we are social animals, and we need the companionship of another human to don't go crazy, and a dog is not the same thing.

Knives. We NEED them, a sharpened knife is exceptionally useful, it lets you do many thing… the problem, here, is that without the ability to storage food, we'll be forced to find it every single day. But cutting tools are a must.

Shelter. it cannot be stressed enough how much of vital importance is to have one.

Wrecked ship. 12 years instead of 20.... plus, i suppose on the sailboat there will be something else useful.




Here we are.
Option A got too many downsides I would never pick it.
Option B got a couple of very useful thing, and the girl is an unknown factor
Option C gives you only useful tools, but lacks at least a couple of crucial things. Im torned, but i believe C is the best one. Certainly not A.

 

[Scalenex]

I haven't voted because I don't believe I could survive 12 or 20 years even if I had A, B, and C.

I would consider myself lucky if I survived a single year in such a situation. Throw in a guidebook that says which plants are edible and which are poisons, add another year.

If the island was an Eden like paradise with mild weather, lots of edible plants, no dangerous animals, lots of tasty animals, I might be able to make it twelve years BUT if you have an island that nice, someone is going to claim it for something so we wouldn't have to wait 10+ years for a rescue.

 

[Killer Angel]

I haven't voted because I don't believe I could survive 12 or 20 years even if I had A, B, and C.

i fear it's so true...

 

[Aginor]

i fear it's so true...

Pretty much.


Oh and btw something else that makes C not a great option: if I am not mistaken then the boat in the picture cannot be sailed alone.
I also wonder how you would repair it alone, while at the same time surviving.
Also: if the island is _that_ remote then unless you are really good at sailing and manage to get a sufficient amount of supplies together, then the boat is a death trap.

 

[Killer Angel]

Pretty much.


Oh and btw something else that makes C not a great option: if I am not mistaken then the boat in the picture cannot be sailed alone.
I also wonder how you would repair it alone, while at the same time surviving.
Also: if the island is _that_ remote then unless you are really good at sailing and manage to get a sufficient amount of supplies together, then the boat is a death trap.

Those are good points… but I've assumed it will be repaired. It was specified in the setting, so i take for granted its repair, even if it's unreal. (more or less like the freezer)

 

[NIGHTBRINGER]

Oh and btw something else that makes C not a great option: if I am not mistaken then the boat in the picture cannot be sailed alone.
I also wonder how you would repair it alone, while at the same time surviving.
Also: if the island is _that_ remote then unless you are really good at sailing and manage to get a sufficient amount of supplies together, then the boat is a death trap.

Those are good points… but I've assumed it will be repaired. It was specified in the setting, so i take for granted its repair, even if it's unreal. (more or less like the freezer)

@Killer Angel is correct, as per the original post.

I haven't voted because I don't believe I could survive 12 or 20 years even if I had A, B, and C.

i fear it's so true...

Pretty much.

Perhaps... but people have endured far worse. However, if you aren't positive about your chances, you're probably as good as dead already.

 

[Aginor]

but people have endured far worse.

Have they?
I actually cannot recall anything worse than that, that people actually survived.

 

[NIGHTBRINGER]

Have they?
I actually cannot recall anything worse than that, that people actually survived.

Really?... a "nice" little island with supplies.

I'm not trying to make it sound like an easy survival situation, but human history is far darker.

 

[Aginor]

Really?... a "nice" little island with supplies.

I'm not trying to make it sound like an easy survival situation, but human history is far darker.

Darker like in: die even more quickly? Sure.
But a situation like the one in the opening post has never been survived in the history of mankind as far as I know, so I would call that pretty bleak.

 

[Scalenex]

Lets look at these items bit by bit. First off, no one should know they will be on the island for twenty years. That's absurd.

If food or water is scarce more people is a liability. Otherwise more people increases your chances of survival. I would rather deal with someone with a shitty personality who has applicable surival skills than a sweet person with no useful skills. Even then, I imagine within a few months EVERYONE will know what everyone else knows. How to fish, build fires, find clams, purify water, etc. Starting a fire from nothing is very very hard but if you have four people, you only have to do it once. People take turns sleeping and you can keep one fire going 24/7 with a minimum of fuss.

Political leanings are irrelevant in a survival situation. Nothing helps one get over differences better than a cooperative effort that everyone is invested in. Most people are invested in survival.

Dogs can be trained to do all sorts of useful things but their most important function is to soothe human pysches. The dogs could be killed for meat and humans can subsist on dog food. I don't think I'd start by eating the dogs, but dog food is good emergency rations early on when your survival crew is getting their bearings hunting and fishing and the crew is burning calories trying to start a fire without matches for the first time or building a shelter.

I remember for a class we had to choose four items from among ten random items to decide how to survive from a plane crash. In this case we weren't learning about survival we were supposed to learn communication with the others in our group but the survival stuff was interesting. The professional survivalist instructor for (some country's military) wrote material on what people should logically pick and how to get the most out of everything.

The professional survival guide was concerned that tensions would be high in a survival situations and thus a gun would be a liability if the group had a serious argument, especially if alcohol was involved. I'm sure this applies to firearms and marijuana would be dangerous.

Granted in this case, the gun only had six shots, not 300 and, but the professional survivalist saw a gun as more useful as a fire starter or a signalling device than a hunting implement. This applies to a long term survival situation.

If you run out of ammo (or you gut all the ammo for the gunpowder to create fires with), you still have a sturdy tool. A pry bar, club, hammer, all sorts of improvised thing. If it's a top of the line scope it might double as a cheap telescope.

I would default to the fishing expert, BUT I think a net might be more useful to create an improvised shelter than as a fishing net. You can string it up and fill it with leaves and light sticks to provide shade and something of a rain barrier.

The poles could be used as improvised tools but I think they'd be more useful as fishing poles. Eventually you are going to break all your line and lose all your hooks but these are relatively easy to improvise.

Knives are extremely useful. The sharpening stones mean they will last a long time. I doubt they would last 12 years much less 20 years because you would use the knives for everything. You can carve sharpsticks for hunting, make sparks for fire, carve fish hooks, prepare fireword, stab hostile animals, descale fish, skin prey.

The professional survivalist was very clear that the disorienting effects of alcohol are very bad in a desperate survival situation. But alcohol is a coolant and disinfectant. You can use an empty bottle to store water. You can glass to be reflective to attract the attention of rescue plane. You can use the reflective power to send morse code. You can at least approximate SOS (three short flashes, three long flashes, three short flashes, everyone should know this). You can shape broken glass into a spear head or fishing hook. In theory you could juryrig a bottle into a magnfying glass to start a fire with. Messages in a bottle have worked multiple times in history though it's a long shot (but you should have bottles to spare).

Electricity is just weird. I'm guessing one my immediate concerns for water, shelter, and food are solved the number one discussion topic would be how to channel this electricity to get rescued somehow. But yeah storing excess food is great. If you can make ice from water that gives you something shiny to signal rescuers with.

A guitar would mainly be a way to maintain sanity. Barring Al Cabong! shenanigans it's usefulness as a tool would be less than an unloaded gun, but a guitar is hollow and probably water tight. I believe my hypothetical professional survivalist would view marijuana as an obstacle to survival, not an aid to it. Pain killer or not but the pot stash likely comes with matches or lighters. It probably comes with paper for rolling joints. The container it comes in would be a handy shelter. The bags of pot themselves could be cushions or pillows. If there is no clean river or stream, you can rip the plastic bags the marijuana comes in to make a rain catcher.

No one is going to hide 3 tons of drugs on an island without planning to go back for it. I'm not sure I want to be rescued by drug dealers but I'd rather take my chances there than eke out on an island for 12 or 20 years.

Gold is soft, you might be able to shape it into useful tools. Especially very expensive fish hooks. What I would do is scatter the gold in an extremely sunny spot and I would arrange the coins in SOS. Whether greed or altruism you are going to attract would-be rescuers.

An MP3 player can be used to flash Morse code but mostly this is for the psycholgical benefits.

Unless you are in a war zone or somewhere similar where all your would-be rescuers are hostile, survival rule #1 is to stay put and await rescue. With no map sailing off the island woud be reckless. If you are so close to civilization that you know you can sail to safety, that means a rescuer should find you by accident. Drag the wreckage of the sail boat somewhere highly visible. That will attract rescuers along with your big gold SOS and your pile of marijuana. Dogs barking can alert you when someone is near and then you flash them SOS while shooting the gun.

We will get rescued much faster than 3 years, the lesbians will get proper medical care. I want to keep at least one of the dogs. I'm naming it Gilligan.

 

[Lizerd]

Well here is the thing: our ancestors did live in conditions like these, and they lived. So what were they doing?
Well they were mostly mobile, and one misconception is that they were primary hunters. They weren’t. They mostly foraged for food and fished. Why? Because we humans will lose almost every fair fight we get into. So essentially just avoiding a conflict is key. Arguably 2 loud dogs could, in some cases, be a liability simply due to being to aggressive.
In dealing with predators you want a few things:
Eyes on them
Making loud noise
Appearing bigger
FIRE
This is where the glass becomes stupid useful. Animals fear fire, in fact they are terrified of it. And rightly so, as burning in say a wildfire is a huge risk and hurts a lot. So they run. Fire is huge.
With animals solved people shouldn’t be to much of a problem. If they are, see my above post