🦜サバイバル・ゲーム! Survival Escape Game 🦜 Book club [Adventures underway ❄ ]

[mitrac]

Welcome to the サバイバル・ゲーム! Survival Escape Game Book Club

We read Book 1 in this thread, and this is now the home thread for future books.

• Book 1 [This thread, see reources below] - ジャングルから脱出せよ Jungle Escape!
• CURRENT Adventure: Book 2 極寒の雪山を脱出せよ Escape from the cold and snowy mountains!
• NEXT Adventure planned: 太平洋 Pacific ocean (join here) - voting for the start date will happen after the current adventurers escape from the cold and snowy mountains.

The Adventure Begins

You wake up alone in the Amazon jungle. Which way to walk? Where is there water to drink? Where will you eat? Your choices will determine your fate!

I was looking for a choose your own adventure book of the kind that I remembered reading as a kid. This is what I found! It is part of a series of 5 books that are in paper form only. Do you dare join an adventure party to find out if you have what it takes to survive???

We read Book 1 ・ジャングルから脱出せよ・ [Jungle Escape!] from March-May 2024 - see resources and the Party Guide below. We are continuing to read other books in this series. These are all independent books, so you can join any book (and we can choose any order to read them).

Considerations

Natively Rating: level 20 Furigana: Yes
Preview pages: see photos in comment below.

Difficulty level thoughts: Japanese reviewers suggest it’s the right level for a 3rd grader but too easy for a 6th grader. BBC level.

Where to Buy

Physical Purchase (JP): AmazonJP | CD Japan | KinokuniyaJP | Honto | Rakuten

Physical Purchase (EU): Verasia on request

Discussion / How it Works

Set this thread to watching to follow the club in general! We’re followed Book 1 in this thread so far. Additional books will get their own thread.

The book doesn’t have page numbers, but scenes (1-113). To help people orient and avoid spoilers, put comments under the scene name. For example: “Scene 1-3” would mean scene 1, page 3 of that scene. Or just write “scene 1 page 3”. That way, if someone else isn’t on that scene/page yet, they can wait to open it!

If you’re joining the party exploring this book, we are going to read in “Stages”, which is a collection of scenes up to the next decision point, i.e., Stage (A, B, C, etc). We are aiming to take up to 2 weeks on Stage A, and up to 1 week per stage from Stage B onwards.

Resources

Vocab spreadsheet. Likewise - the vocab spreadsheet will be organised according to how the party makes progress (see guide below) by Stage NOT sequential scene (to avoid spoilers for the party).

Renshuu - see this post by shuly, who made a more comprehensive vocab and sentence mining deck following the club’s path.

Not getting lost!

Anyone can join - here’s how! Set this thread to “watching” so that you receive alerts!

If you’re joining the party, we can expect among members there will be injuries (ill health) and detours (holidays and life overwhelm) along the way. To keep it fun, moving forward, and to keep that from putting anyone off committing to joining the group, here is how we handle this.

At the start of each stage there is a poll to join, these are recorded in the next section. We’ll wait at least a week for everyone to join and vote at each decision point. But if life happens and we don’t see you, we’ll move on and hope you catch up! On the other hand, if everyone makes it early, we’ll move on right away to keep it moving as a lot of stages are short. Here are the steps:

1. Stage start poll: mark yourself reading along (links in next section)
2. Read on from the chosen scene until you reach the next decision point or a ゲームオーバー. If it’s a ゲームオーバー, then go back to the previous decision point and follow the other branch. If it’s a decision point, go to the next step.
3. Next decision point poll: vote in the poll. Mitrac tries to create them right away but feel free to create it if you are there first!
4. Stage finish: the earlier of either a) everyone in the active party has voted or b) a week has gone by.
5. We declare the winning route and move on to the next stage!
6. All decision points will be recorded in the Party Guide below.

! If you have extra time, consider adding some of the trickier vocab to the spreadsheet.

Party guide

Guide links for Book 1 ・ジャングルから脱出せよ・ Jungle Escape!

This is our map, a record of our exploration through Book 1, which was explored in this thread. Each stage includes a link to the stage start and decision poll, and lists the scenes that are part of that stage.

If you fall behind and want to catch up efficiently, check which scenes are ゲームオーバー. Avoiding those would streamline your path to rejoin the party.

! If you have extra time, consider adding some of the trickier vocab to the spreadsheet.

Stage A - March 8

Stage A start and decision polls

• Read: Intro, Scenes 1-4
• Decision point: 5 or 7.
  Chosen: 5

Stage B - March 16

Stage B start and decision polls

• Read: scene 5
• Optional: 6, Then: scene 11
• Decision point: 13 or 15
• Chosen: 13

Stage C - March 24

Stage C start and decision polls

• Read: scene 13
• Then: 10
• Decision point: 17 or 19
• Chosen: 19

Stage D - March 25

Stage D start and decision polls

• Read: scene 19
• Then : optionsl hint scene 20
• Decision point: 25 vs 27 vs 29
• Chosen: 25

Stage E - March 28

Stage E start and decision polls

• Read: scene 25
• Then : 31, optionsl hint scene 32
• Decision point: 37 or 42
• Chosen: 42

Stage F - April 2

Stage F start and decision polls

• Read: scene 42
• Decision point: 48 or 51
• Chosen: 48

Stage G - April 6

Stage G start and decision polls

• Read: scene 48
• Decision point: 62 or 83
• Chosen: 62

Stage H - April 10

Stage H start and decision polls

• Read: scene 62
• Decision point: 66 or 79
• Chosen: 66

Stage I - April 16

Stage I start and decision polls

• Read: scene 66
• Decision point: 71, 89, or 91
• Chosen: 89

Stage J - April 23

Stage J start and decision polls

• Read: scene 89, optional hint scene 90
• Decision point: 104 or 74
• Chosen: 74

Stage K - April 30

Stage K start and decision polls

• Read: scene 74, 77, optional hint 78, 81
• Decision point: 86 or 75
• Chosen: 86

Stage L - May 4

Stage L start and decision polls

• Read: scene 86
• Decision point: 93 or 105
• Chosen: 93

Stage M - May 11

Stage M start and decision polls

• Read: scene 93, 100
• Decision point: 96 or 102
• Chosen: 102

Stage N - May 17

Stage N start and decision polls

• Read: scene 102, 107
• Decision point: 108 or 113
• Chosen: fake poll - we won!

[mitrac]

Polls

Are you interested in reading Book 1 - Jungle Escape Survival Game! たったひとりのサバイバル・ゲーム! ジャングルから脱出せよ

• Yes please
• Maybe
• I’m waiting to see if you survive
• No way, where’s the exit, oh wait…
• Just clicking!

If you are joining, what kind of adventure interests you?

• Solo (everyone reads at their own pace)
• Party (we read together and vote on decision points)
• Other? (write a comment)

If you are joining and interested in a party, when would you like to start?

• late February
• early March
• other (write a comment)

Which jungle animal will be your ally?

• Parrot🦜
• Tiger
• Monkey
• Possum
• Snake

[javerend]

I see the council has reached unanimous agreement

I may not be able to join, since I have some pretty ambitious projects for february and march coming up already, but I love the idea for this! I remember loving these kinds of books as a kid and never even thought to check if a similar thing existed in japanese

[mitrac]

@javerend

I see the council has reached unanimous agreement

This is totally cracking me up!

Well, no worries, if you join that’s great! But if you don’t, and we survive the first adventure, maybe you’ll make it for book 2

[Boodil]

This is such a cool idea. I loved these books as a kid. Unfortunately, I currently have too many book clubs to add one more, and I also find the prospect of reading a paper book very daunting, because I usually rely on easy lookups with e-help a lot. So I clicked “I’m waiting to see if you survive”.

[mitrac]

@Boodil

So I clicked “I’m waiting to see if you survive”.

hehehe, a fine choice as well, I hoped there would be interest for search party members in case we get lost

[prath]

I loveeeee this!!! aah

if we decide to start this early March, I’ll be joining as well!

I wish I could join in Feb too but I’m planning to join the BBC and we have slam dunk going on and I’m also starting three other books simultaneously so welpp

[mitrac]

Great! Looks like that would make three of us so far with a couple maybes.

Overall then how does it sound to start early March? Like, the second weekend?
I’m sooo looking forward to this!

[yukitanuki]

So happy to have you join as well! March is totally fine!

@mitrac Second weekend would mean 9th to 10th of march?

[mitrac]

@yukitanuki

Second weekend would mean 9th to 10th of march?

Oops meant to say that, thanks, yep! Is that good for you all? I’m not in a rush so it doesn’t have to be that weekend!

[prath]

yess works for me!

[Otoko68]

I am thinking of joining you guys. First need to find the book and hope I will be able to commit the time!

[mitrac]

How fun!! I put some links in the home post, I hope you can get a copy! I’m still waiting for mine actually. I sure we’ll all figure out the pace together once we get started and help each other have a good time

[Otoko68]

So I have ordered mine, which should be arriving in Feb - count me in!

[mitrac]

How fun that’s great, so glad you’re joining!

I’ve just received a message that I should get mine this week

[yukitanuki]

Since I already have the book I thought I could post some pages so people can gauge the difficulty before they jump in and order it:

first two pages of the story

first decision (a few pages later, but not really a spoiler :D)

[mitrac]

@yukitanuki

Since I already have the book I thought I could post some pages so people can gauge the difficulty before they jump in and order it:

What a great idea, thanks so much!! I linked that in the home post and hopefully that helps others to decide if they want to join.

My copy just arrived, too, and I’m so excited! I just tried to do a non-spoiler flick through to see how the book is organised to get an idea of how we best organise to go through this together.

Let me know if you have other ideas, this is just a first pass suggestion.

Layout

• The pages @yukitanuki posted look representative in terms of the amount of text.
• There are no page numbers, but rather 113 numbered scenes that are 1-2 pages each.
• Let’s call what we might read before a decision point a “stage”. For each stage (i.e., A, B, C, etc), I think there will be about 1-3 pages of reading across 2 scenes. If we reach a ゲームオーバー, then I suggest automatically, go back to the previous decision point and choose the other branch. Therefore, there would be up to 6 pages of reading before the next decision point.
• Just a rough estimate - I think there might be ~40 decision points give or take. So, a lot!

Pace

Therefore, we probably wouldn’t want to take more than a week on average for each stage (1-6 pages), and we might want an easy mechanism to go faster if everyone is doing well (more on that below).

• Up to 1 week per stage sounds good (except for Stage A which has 2 weeks)
• I have a different idea (please comment!)

I proposed up to 2 weeks for Stage A because this stage is uniquely long at 13 pages. I haven’t read it but I’m guessing by the layout it includes: the intro (4 pages), and Scenes 1-4 (9 pages) to “teach” the reader how to follow the book. The first decision point is in Scene 4 as shown in the previous post page photo. If it turns out to be really tough, though, we’ll just take longer.

Not getting lost!

That means we’re on quite an extended adventure together with weekly votes, and I expect there will be injuries (ill health) and detours (holidays and life overwhelm) along the way. To keep it fun, moving forward, and to keep that from putting anyone off committing to joining the group, I thought of a way to handle this:

1. Stage start poll: Poll where you can mark yourself reading along (expecting to join the next vote) or expecting to catch up (i.e., you’re anticipating something to come up and we shouldn’t count on your vote before moving on).
2. Next decision point poll: First person to reach the decision point creates the next decision point poll. (I’ll put a template in the home post)
3. Stage finish: at either 1) everyone in the active party has voted or latest 2) a week (or whatever time we agree) has gone by.
4. As soon as someone notices that everyone in the active party has voted, i.e., if you’re the last person to vote, even if that is earlier than a week - then declare a winning decision (or break the tie) and start the next stage! Go up to #1 and create the poll for the next stage start or ask someone else to do that! Otherwise, unless we have agreed a delay, I’ll declare a winner after the time for that stage is up.

I’m hoping this means a) that we can go faster than 1 stage per week, especially for the really short stages, and b) it takes the pressure off of needing to report in to the group if something else comes up (although, of course we’ll be happy to hear you’re ok!).

I think it will be pretty easy to catch up, because we’ll invariably always have a bit of delay at each vote to determine a winner and move on. But if needed we could always have a catch up week now and then to regroup. There are so few of us, I’m sure we’ll sort this out informally as we go.

• Sounds like a plan
• Uh, … what?
• I have a different idea (please comment!)

Example polls

Stage start poll options (suggested):

• I’m reading along - see you at the next decision point!
• I will catch up later - don’t hold the vote
• I’m exploring solo - don’t hold the vote

Decision point poll options:

Stage X Decision point

• Go to y
• Go to z

So what will this look like as week go

I’ll probably keep track of this with links in the home post like this:
Stage A
Read Intro, 1-4
Decision point: 5 or 7. Winner: ?

Stage B
Read (scene x, y)
Decision point: w or z. Winner: ?

etc

Spoilers

Discussion: to help people orient and avoid spoilers, put comments under the scene name. So like 1-3 for scene 1, page 3. Or just write scene 1 page 3. So if you’re not on that scene/page yet, best don’t open it!

Other

I’ll make a vocab spreadsheet and we can see as we go if that comes in handy still for such a small group.

• I like vocab spreadsheets, especially for a paper read like this
• I might need/use it, and would try to help add to it if it’s there
• I probably won’t use it or add to it

I don’t know if the various branches can cross later or if there are multiple successful endings, so I’d say let’s leave any alternate decision points for later. Flicking through, the decision points all look binary to me, perhaps I saw one 3 way choice. If it stays with 4 of us it might be interesting how often we tie, lol.

Let me know what you all think, or just vote in the polls above, and once we reach some kind of consensus then I’ll put whatever we decide in the home post!

[prath]

For some reason, I’m having such a hard time making the payment. I’ve even tried all the international cards, but CD Japan is not working. I could try JP Amazon, but I don’t want to because the shipping is 3xtimes the amount of the product, lol. Welp idk what to do but hopefully I make the purchase this week AND hopefully I get the book before we all start reading. Please manifest for me!

Also @mitrac your plan sounds great to me - I’m in! (ARGH need my book to arrive on time). Thanks for doing all the thinking hehe

[mitrac]

@prath

I’ve even tried all the international cards, but CD Japan is not working.

oh no!
I found the book on Honto and Rakuten. I think Honto is more outside-of-Japan friendly, fingers crossed they will accept your card and the shipping is more reasonable than amazon’s!

Thanks for the feedback on the other questions

I really hope it works out for you - may a copy find it’s way to you…

[yukitanuki]

It’s also on suruga-ya! They do free shipping every weekend. I used them once and found the “used” books to be like new Shipping was super quick when I ordered.

Ah it’s still free shipping for like 5 hours?!

Edit: ah damn apparently it just ran out, thought it went till 24:00 JST but apparently only till 18:00