
Who would you want with you if you were stranded on a desert island? How useless would you or your friends be in a post-apocalyptic world? Desert Island Dream Team is a great game that aims to answer these questions.
Here’s how it works:
- Identify a group of people to act as your pool of options. This could be your group of friends, your extended family, co-workers, celebrities, etc. The game works best when you establish the rule that all players must know the people in the pool of choices.
- Identify the nature of the post-apocalyptic world you find yourself in. (e.g., 99 per cent of the human population has been wiped out, there’s no electricity, zombies are everywhere, there are other teams out there, etc.)
- Each player then takes turns choosing one person they would want to have on their team in a post-apocalyptic world. Once a person is selected, they are locked in on that person’s team and no one else can choose them. Players can give reasons for their selection, highlighting the benefits the individual would bring. NOTE: You cannot choose other players involved in the game (since they are leaders of their own teams).
- The game ends when each player has selected five members for their team (or select an appropriate number based on the size of the pool of choices). Afterwards, feel free to debate into the wee hours of the morning the merits of your team and the weaknesses of others.
- There are no “winners” (although I suppose everybody’s a winner when you’re prepared for a zombie infestation).
Some qualities you might want to look for when building your dream team:
- Someone who’s an avid camper/wilderness buff
- A friend with first aid training or nursing background
- If you’re interested in reaching out to other teams, perhaps that diplomatic friend could be useful
- A big and burly bloke to help keep the wolves and zombies at bay
- Someone with an engineering or mechanical background to help build your camp/new civilization
Also be sure to consider group dynamics. You may have two friends with great survival skills. But will they get along? Or just end up killing each other before the zombies do? A well-rounded team is important too. Having five gym rats may help you dominate physically, but who will be the hunters, builders and healers?
Fewer players tends to work better, and this game is a great way to kill time on a long road trip, layover or in the doctor’s waiting room.
And if you spend most of your days at a desk in front of a computer like I do, it’s also an eye-opener as to how bad you’d be in a real-life survival situation. Realizing that the diploma hanging on your wall would only be useful as a fire starter is a bit sobering.
2 responses to “Play Desert Island Dream Team”
Celebrities? – duh – “Survivorman” Les Stroud
I choose Josh. It’d be like old times. Are there fudgsicles and Boston Legal DVDs in this dystopia?