How do you play the early game?

[Cephrir]

Usually I just try to make everyone like me so they see me as an alliance option. I want to be one of their most frequent conversation partners. Eventually it becomes clear to me which players I'm clicking with, and I start strategizing with those players.

It helps that I sincerely have a need to be liked by everyone i meet.

Alternatively, recently i tried being quiet yet amusing and making it extremely obvious that a slightly bigger player than me is running me and owns my vote. You can have shields in premerge too friends! But I probably would not recommend this to a new player.

[Cephrir]

Honestly surviving the first 1-2 votes is just talk as much as you can and be a reasonably stable person

[Cephrir]

You can tell me it was all cynical and I will still love friendbat

[Cephrir]

i now regret posting words instead of a picture, though my tablet is long dead

[Cephrir]

It's Day 1. You're excited for the game to begin, practically brimming with anticipation. Finally, the much-awaited PM arrives! You open it and see that you got your first character choice. Awesome! Exciting! You are so ready to RP the shit outta this character for about 48 hours and then never do it again. You frantically click the link and fill in your login info as though that few seconds from logging in faster is going to make the slightest bit of difference. (Or, if you're like me, you deliberately wait 10 minutes so as to not seem overeager, as though that is going to make any difference either). You login and start PMing your new tribemates like crazy. You're optimistic about these new friends you're about to make and think of each one of them as a treasure already. Let's see who's filling up your PM box!

The person you'll ally with day 1 but ultimately fall off with and probably stab later: "Hey! Here's a strong conversation hook, let's discuss a weird subject that you'd probably never talk about in real life for the next 3-4 hours!"
The first boot: [PM not found]
The second boot who you probably won't be able to save even though they're kind of cute: "Hi, what's up? I'm so nervous! I hope this PM is good! Anyway, gonna go spend my time posting in general discussion instead of messaging my tribemates, peace!"
The one person who seems to get along great with everyone else but you find uninteresting: "Hey! What's your opinion about something boring, like rocks? Hope you're as excited as I am to be each other's windmills to tilt at in confessional on this tribe while pretending to everyone else that we like each other!"
Person you won't get at first but will slowly come to appreciate more over time until they probably become your #1: "Hey dude. It's nice chatting with you. I gotta run pretty soon but you seem chill. It's refreshing to finally find someone to talk to about cannibalism/evolutionary psychology/etc."
Person who is clearly xofelf: *xofelf noises*

Well, this is going to be a hell of a month or so, and it might get rough or stressful, but damn it, you're gonna have a good time, and even if you can't see it right now, a year from now you'll look back on this and realize you were right at first; every one of these people *is* a treasure.

[Cephrir]

idk i just had that post in my head and this seemed like a good place for it.

[Cephrir]

Wait so you’re saying xof doesn’t fall into any of the other categories

I am merely factually recounting the six people who will generally be on your tribe

One of them is simply xofelf

[Cephrir]

If your tribe is big enough, you also get the own-gravedigger: "Hi, person I'm meeting right now for the first time! Here's some gossip I've taken out of context. What if we voted out all the characters of opposite gender to ours? Just kidding! Unless..."

[Cephrir]

It's refreshing to finally find someone to talk to about

cannibalism

/evolutionary psychology/etc."

Wow I feel called out

if it helps, the other subject listed is calling myself out