Assassins: The Paranoia is 2/3 of the fun
An expansion on Bob the Cow's write up on the same game
The Goal is still to be the last person alive at the end of the game.
When Setting up the Game, you need a moderator. This person will not participate in the game, but will instead facilitate all dealings within the game, like a referee. In the begining, everyone who wishes to play must give the moderator one US dollar to be used as "burial money" in the likely event of their death. At my school you also give the moderator your name, your room number and your mailbox number. The moderator then pairs everyone to another person who they are supposed to assassinate. (This is an important step and must be done with some care, because if you assassinate the person who was supposed to assassinate you, you are out of the game as there is no longer anyone hunting you or anyone for you to hunt.)
The game begins at midnight on Sunday, and lasts for one week. At on Sunday evening, the moderator deposits a slip in the participants mailboxes with the assassins name, the targets name, and a space for the targets signature (you need to obtain the targets signature to confirm a legal kill. We will talk about this soon).
The Rules are as follows:
- All players must have their target slips with them at all times!
- Legal Kills are only made during dates of game play using only acceptable ordnances indicated below and NOT ON HOLY GROUND indicated below. All shots must be made using only clean water. Between the time that the target and the assassin are able to see each other, and the time the shot is made, NO ONE but the assassin may see the water gun. If the water gun is seen by anyone before the shot is made, the assassin must leave the general area of the target before making another attempt. Plain English: The target must be SURPRISED by the shot itself. If any action implies shooting before it is done, the kill is not valid. Unlimited attempts can be made after a kill has been thwarted or invalidated, but this is really, really hard when your target knows you’re after her. Note the person who tries to shoot you once can get shot and their killer is now after you.
- Holy Ground is any territory where kills cannot be made. At my school, this includes inside offices, classrooms, food serving areas and at events at which it is important for students to go to, like student government meetings. Some may want to limit it even more, to only on campus, or only at certain times of day. We are more hardcore than that.
- Acceptable Ordnances are anything you would normally call a water gun. This means that it must produce a jet of water. This excludes water balloons, buckets, cups etc. Modifications to standard water guns can be made, but FOR YOUR PROTECTION, your water gun must NOT look like a firearm. Do NOT paint your water gun black. If you are reported with anything resembling a firearm, you will be disqualified and your burial money will be given to the person who let the moderator know that you are an idiot.
- The device must never have ever held anything but water. A new spray bottle from the drug store is ok, but a Tilex bottle you "are positive you cleaned thoroughly" is not.
- Even if the device is brand new, it cannot have any medical connotation. This means even brand new syringes and brand new ear wax bulbs are NOT allowed.
- all ordnances be equipped with a separate, necessary, integrated component that one would naturally call a "trigger". (no water bottles with holes in them)
- Disguising the water gun has brought up the question of what "seeing the gun" means. Just consider this from the standpoint of surprising your target. If your target identifies your device as a water gun, then they have seen the gun. If they do not associate your device with a water gun, they have not.
In the event of a valid kill, the assassin must verify the kill with the signature of the target on the assignment slip. The dead target must then IMMEDIATELY give his/her killer all slips from completed kills plus his/her uncompleted assignment. This means you must carry all assignments with you at all times to keep the game moving. The dead target is then out of play for the rest of the game. The assassin must then attempt to stay alive and kill the uncompleted assignment of the last target s/he validly killed.
On the day after game play ends, all living assassins meet with the moderator. They get their original dollar back, and a dollar for every kill they have made (must be confirmed by a signed slip).
THE DIVINE RULE OF HOMER: in the event of any disagreement or confusion about rules, what the moderator says goes. No questions asked.
Other Stipulations. In the game we play collusion among players (and non-players) is allowed, but frowned upon by the assassin elite. Students have been known to form non-agression pacts so someone is guarenteed to live, assassinated students have told their former targets who is now hunting them. All manner of betrayal goes on (which just makes it more fun) We also include off campus locations as legal kill zones (your assassin can follow you to AppleBee's or whatever and squirt you while you are eating). When you play, you may want to come up with some new rules to prevent this sort of stuff.
Game Play involves a high level of paranoia. Back to the wall, never leaving your room, not opening your door to strangers who "just want to borrow a can-opener" and so forth. At my school, over 100 people play, so there is a good chance your assassin will be a complete stranger. Ask your friends to help you find them, but becareful who you tell, because you never know who may be listening and will tip off your target to your evil machinations. Facebook as proven helpful (but watchout for mass picture changes and deliberate mis-information in profiles during the game!) Student directories are helpful as well.
I have also heard this game called Killer, and Murderers. There are also "assassins' guilds" at colleges all over the world, that run games at their school a few times each year.
The University of Campridge has a fairly active guild from what I can tell of their website: http://www.srcf.ucam.org/assassins/
An article on the game from the Chicaco Maroon: http://maroon.uchicago.edu/news/articles/2005/05/03/annual_spy_game_infe.php
University of Illinois assassins guild: http://www.campusassassins.com/
The New College Assassins Site (the rules of play for this writeup where taken from here with permission): http://studentweb.ncf.edu/assassins/