The OtakuBoards Survivor Series

OtakuBoards Survivors were three competitive RPGs created by Sage/Sandy. Their common factor was that they were all based on the widely popular reality-tv-series “Survivor”. The RPGs were all quite popular during their time, and the popularity grew with each new game.

The three games shared the same basic mechanics: the chosen players were divided into teams which competed against each other in various challenges, after which the losing team would vote out somebody amongst them through private messaging. When there were only two players left, the voting was made public with a poll.

Unofficial OtakuBoards Survivor: The Freakshow!
October the 26th, 2002 – January the 8th, 2003

The first installment to the trilogy of RPGs was the quirkily named Unofficial OtakuBoards Survivor: The Freakshow! It was first meant to be a parody of the real tv-show, but it quickly turned out to be something completely different. It featured two teams of original imaginary characters – the LimeTime Tribe and the Indigoth Tribe – that competed against each others and the maniac and capricious host of the game. Along the game they faced e.g. a maze, mock Idol contest, elephant race and a merge to one team, the Crimsonata Tribe. The first OB Survivor was largely experimental in nature, and reflected the standard of roleplaying of that time.

The players of the game were:

Arikel
calumon_luver (later KittyLynn) *2ND PLACE*
Circéus
Darkmoon
DarkOrderKnight (later Corey)
Digital_Monster
Faris (later TrickyNicky)
GotenksSSJ343
G/S/B Master
iggy
Rain *WINNER*
starlight

Final Fantastic Survivor
April the 9th, 2003 – August the 31th, 2003

The second OtakuBoards Survivor was the Final Fantastic Survivor, which was altogether much more organized and saner than the Freakshow, despite having only few months between them. The setting of this game was of course the worlds in the Final Fantasy -series, and naturally the competitors had to play as Final Fantasy characters. The host played the part of the series staple, Cid. The two starting teams were Tantalus and Avalanche, which later merged into Redwings. This game also featured captains to the teams, who were voted in a similar manner as the evicted players. The captains made all the crucial decisions for their team, for example who would be evicted in a tie-breaker situation.

During this game the teams completed challenges in the various worlds of the Final Fantasy games by travelling in airships between them, and although the challenges weren’t always that well thought-out, the players always did their best. The contribution was at times phenomenal, especially in the case of GinnyLyn, who created a whole website as well as a webcomic dedicated to the RPG.

Here’s a list of the players of this game:

Ajeh
Braidless Baka
calumon_luver (later KittyLynn)
Desbreko *2ND PLACE*
Domon (replaced JCBaggee and Draagul who didn’t post)
GinnyLyn *WINNER*
Mei
Sakuramon (later Sakura)
Tasis (later Zeh)
Zidane (later Zidargh)

OtakuBoards Survivor: Game On!
November the 6th, 2005 – April the 28th, 2006

The third game in the series was the videogame-themed Game On!, which ended last spring. It was also the most thought-out of the three games, and the popularity at the beginning at least was massive. The recruitment thread gained about 30 sign-ups, and many good candidates had to be left out.

As the theme was videogames, the contestants took the roles of various videogame characters, with the host playing as Mog the Moogle, the cute pink critter from Final Fantasy. For the first time, the players were initially divided into three teams, the Bravers of the Red Sword (with action-type characters), the Adventurers of the Blue Feather (with adventure-type characters) and the Legends of the Green Gem (with RPG-type characters). As the game progressed, the three teams were mixed up to two, divided by the gender of the characters: males were the Heroes of the Iron Fist and females were the Heroines of the Golden Lotus. For the final phase, the remaining players formed the Survivors of the Ultimate Game.

The challenges took place in different videogames, ranging from Lemmings to Resident Evil, as well as completely original environments. A strange blue place named the CPU worked as the hub of the game, where the characters met before each challenge and each eviction.

The reception of this game outstood the earlier parts, as it was the first OB Survivor to attract people who typically weren’t interested in RPGs. It was also awarded in the Nifty Fifty of 2006.

The players of this game were as follows:

^.^ (later JJ)
Baron Samedi
Desbreko
Deucalion
Doukeshi *2ND PLACE*
Imi (later Ezekiel)
JimiWiggy11
Kitty
KKC
Lrb (later White)
Outlaw
Raiyuu *WINNER*
Sakura
Shinji (later Shinje)
Sinistra
Solo Tremaine
Unborn Lord Xion (later Onix)
Wraith (later Blayze)
Trivia:

• There have been several attempts at creating OtakuBoards Survivors by other members besides Sandy, of which the most successful was OtakuBoards Survivor 2: Temple of Chaos by Bent Metal, but for some reason none of them lasted long. 
• The comic made by GinnyLyn about Final Fantastic Survivor was sadly never finished, but all the pages released were saved by Sandy. If anybody’s interested to see them, contact him.

Categories: History, Notable Threads, RPGs