(Plus, it helps advertise my blog. Two-fer of awesome, don't you think? =P)
Anyway, here's the official rules I composed for Assassin.
Assassin Rules
v1.01 (Last Updated: THU 03 MAR 2011 - 1310 hrs.)
Ever since the dawn of time there existed the act of killing someone. At first it was for mere points of survival, but as time progressed into the present more reasons emerged.
Now, in the 21st Century, we are at a time where humankind kills each other for sport. While most would shrink away in sheer terror of the idea, a few noble vagabonds rallied together and decided to make a competition out of it. And when that happened a few more people decided to make a non-lethal version of these kill competitions…
…and out of those non-lethal kills, the game Assassin was born.
Okay, not really. Perhaps there is some truth to this story; perhaps there isn't. But either way, Assassin is a great game that requires stealth, cunning, imagination, and paranoia while throwing in elements of strategy and – if you dare to risk it – teamwork.
HOW TO PLAY ASSASSIN (The Abridged Version):
PLAYERS:
Anyone is allowed to play so long as they understand the basics of the rules.
Before gameplay starts, each person is required to submit the following:
Why these three things?
The name is just a way of telling everyone else who each person is. It also helps assassins who aren't that familiar with the other players.
The relatively current picture does the exact same thing as the name. Plus, when keeping track of stats, it's always fun to slap a big, red "X" on someone when they've been eliminated.
The allergies, medical conditions and miscellaneous things are there so that one doesn't accidentally eliminate their target for real. We don't want asthmatics inhaling dust from a rigged vacuum cleaner "bomb" or people allergic to pepper choking from the "pepper poison" in their pesto or people who can't swim getting dunked in the deep end of a swimming pool.
MODERATOR:
It is often recommended that a non-partisan person work as a Moderator, especially with larger groups of people playing Assassin.
A Moderator's job is simple: oversee the other players and make sure they all follow the rules to the best of their ability.
Should a dispute arise (such as questioning the validity of a kill), it is the Moderator's job to listen to both arguments and come down with a settlement.
The Moderator is also the one responsible for setting up the other players so that the kill order is clear. It is highly recommended that the players be lined up in an imaginary circle and each player targets the person to his/her left (without them knowing their position or others' positions, of course).
While it is possible for a game of Assassin to be played without a Moderator or with the Moderator as an active player, it is heavily advised not to.
BASIC GAMEPLAY:
The Moderator of the game will determine a proper starting time for an Assassin game.
Each player will also somehow be contacted by the Moderator and will be provided with information for their first target – a name and a picture.
Until the game starts, NO KILL will be considered legal until one of the following conditions are met:
- the Moderator declares that the Assassin game has begun, or
- the Moderator's pre-determined starting time has passed.
Once an Assassin game starts, each person must hunt down and assassinate their target.
Should their efforts be successful, then they get a new target to kill: their target's target.
For example, let's say:
Sam is supposed to kill Charlie, and Charlie is supposed to kill Alex.
However, Sam isolates and successfully crushes Charlie to death (via bombarding Charlie with pillows with the words "10,000 lbs weight" on each one). Sam acquires Charlie's target (in this case: Alex), and now it looks like:
Sam is supposed to kill Alex.
The game of Assassin continues until only one person is left alive. That person is considered the winner.
KILLS:
How one chooses to assassinate their target is up to them; Assassin promotes creativity and ingenuity. However, all kills can be boiled down to two basic kinds: Direct and Indirect.
Direct kills are straightforward in that the assassin is actively trying to end their target's life.
The assassin can choose to walk up and blast their target with a Nerf shotgun or slash them with a bamboo training sword (not the most creative of kills, but they still count), or they can wait until their target is sunbathing alone in their swimming pool and then dump a box of rubber ducks in the water, yell "piranha attack" and watch their target fall in the water and laugh about it*.
* = This actually happened.
All direct kills must be performed while the target is relatively isolated from other people.
In other words: if one wants their kill to count, the only ones that can be physically present at the time of the kill… are the target and their assassin (and any of the assassin's accomplices if he/she has any).
Indirect kills are more discreet in that the assassin isn't actively trying to end their target's life.
It could be a subtle trap such as having a waitress bringing the target a tasty meal with a poison flag on it, or having a sushi chef lace the target's shrimp tempura roll with a lot of wasabi.
It could be a rigged CD in the target's car stereo that plays an explosion sound followed by the message "You just got car-bombed."
It could even be as simple as throwing a plastic poisonous-looking snake* into someone's backpack or purse and watching them freak as they grab it.
* = "Red and yellow: killer fellow. Red and black: venom lack." Remember this statement, for it might save your life if your assassin uses the wrong snake prop…
Indirect kills can be performed anywhere, but care must be taken – should someone else other than the intended target (non-player or otherwise) trigger the "trap," then it is considered defused and no longer able to kill the target.
RULES OF THE DEAD:
Dead men tell no tales. Once eliminated, a player stays eliminated and is (for all intents and purposes of the game:) considered "dead."
What the Dead CAN Do:
- live on their lives as normal until the next Assassin game
What the Dead CANNOT Do:
- communicate with any living player about knowledge pertaining to Assassin
(they can be told things, but they can't tell anyone else)
- act as an accomplice to any living player
- interfere or involve themselves with any assassination attempt
SELF-DEFENSE:
A few games of Assassin have allowed for the act of self-defense, where a target is somehow able to subdue their own assassin.
Cases of self-defense are commonly seen with direct kills – for example, an assassin botches his/her attempt (their gun jammed or they completely missed their sword swing) and the target just so happened to be armed with a Nerf shotgun at that moment and fired back.
Self-defense kills can only be performed by a target when an assassination attempt is in progress and can only be performed if the assassin is still trying to make an attempt on the target's life.
Should the assassin decide to flee, however, the target is advised not to give chase unless they choose to risk it (i.e.: they're somehow prepared).
All self-defense cases probably should (and will) be brought up to a Moderator for verification and/or disputing.
Should a self-defense case be ruled as legal, then the assassin is the one eliminated, not the target.
Whoever was targeting the assassin should also be notified of their target's death and be given a new target accordingly.
For example:
Ashleigh is supposed to kill Peter, and Peter is supposed to kill Sarah.
Peter decides to slash Sarah to death, so he shows up at her front door with a wooden sword. Sarah flees into her house and Peter gives chase, but Sarah is able to find a loaded airsoft gun and takes Peter out. Since Peter followed Sarah and still tried to hunt her down, he would still be making an attempt on her life, thus legalizing Sarah's self-defense kill.
Afterwards, the Moderator would notify Ashleigh about what happened and the game would then look like:
Ashleigh is supposed to kill Sarah.
ACCOMPLICES / HIRED HANDS:
What makes Assassin such a paranoia-inducing game is the fact that virtually anyone playing could be a potential assassin for anyone else – including yourself.
However, this doesn't mean that one must act solo in their killing endeavors.
All players are allowed to hire any amount of accomplices to assist in their assassinations.
There are only four simple guidelines that must be followed should a player decide to hire some help:
1.) An accomplice CANNOT be the one actively assassinating the target.
In other words: they can't pull the trigger or shove the target into the lava pit. However, they can drive in a hit-and-run kill… so long as the assassin is the only one going nuts with the weapons.
2.) An accomplice CANNOT be a player who is already considered "dead" in the current game.
It makes sense in real life…
3.) An accomplice CAN be anyone – even non-players!
And people thought they only had to worry about those actually playing Assassin…
4.) All accomplices MUST be okayed by a Moderator.
Otherwise, someone's target might proclaim "Accomplice A" as a witness and get their humiliating hacked-to-death assassination retconned.
Other than that, they can be used for virtually anything – from helping an assassin set up traps to monitoring a target and acting as an informant to simply staying at the assassin's side at all times and acting as a direct kill deterrent.
POINTS:
Some Assassin Moderators actually give out points for each kill, adding a bit more competition to those left in the standing.
While the points don't really add up to anything (let's face it – points only count if you're not dead), it does make the game more interesting should players want to use them.
Plus, points make for a great way to track a player's statistics should a group decide to have multiple Assassin games over a long period of time.
The addition of points will be left up to the Moderator to decide if they want to use them.
SAFE ZONES:
Safe zones are areas where assassination attempts can be considered null and void.
There are two kinds of safe zones: Full Safe Zones and Restricted Zones.
A full-safe zone is an area where no assassinations are allowed to be performed.
ZERO exceptions.
A restricted zone is an area where assassinations can be performed, but care must be taken to observe and obey local restrictions (usually, this means no weapons or weapon-look-alikes).
That, or a person intending on pulling off an assassination in a restricted zone must first get it authorized by the person(s) in charge of the zone in question.
Traditionally, the following locations are considered safe zones:
Full-Safe Zone:
- all religious places of worship (this includes the adjacent parking lot, too)
Restricted Zone:
- all educational facilities (such as school campuses and public libraries)
- all locations where any player is currently working on-the-clock
Of course, safe zones can be changed if the players decide to do so, but traditionally most Assassin games will leave the standard safe zones as is.
If one is unsure about a specific area being a safe zone or not, talk to a Moderator.
GAME VARIANTS:
Assassin has been around since roughly the 1980s, remaining popular due to its free-for-all and no-holds-barred nature.
Even so, variants of this exciting game have existed, with slight variations on the rules.
Killer:
A classic variant that most people have probably played at least once in their childhood. One person is randomly selected as the "Killer," and their job is to eliminate everyone else without getting their identity revealed.
Mafia:
A team-based variant where a group of people are the killers. Gameplay remains similar to "Killer," except after a predetermined set of kills, the remaining survivors may choose to "hang" someone in the hopes of slowly destroying the mafia.
With all that said and done... happy killing, and watch out for your back!
Now, in the 21st Century, we are at a time where humankind kills each other for sport. While most would shrink away in sheer terror of the idea, a few noble vagabonds rallied together and decided to make a competition out of it. And when that happened a few more people decided to make a non-lethal version of these kill competitions…
…and out of those non-lethal kills, the game Assassin was born.
Okay, not really. Perhaps there is some truth to this story; perhaps there isn't. But either way, Assassin is a great game that requires stealth, cunning, imagination, and paranoia while throwing in elements of strategy and – if you dare to risk it – teamwork.
HOW TO PLAY ASSASSIN (The Abridged Version):
- All players are given a name and a picture of someone else in the game – their target.
- Each player must try to isolate and assassinate their target while avoiding their own demise. Should they succeed in eliminating their target, they must then continue by eliminating their target's target (and so on and so forth).
- Gameplay continues until one player is left alive.
PLAYERS:
Anyone is allowed to play so long as they understand the basics of the rules.
Before gameplay starts, each person is required to submit the following:
- their name (only first and last names are necessary)
- a relatively current picture of themselves (the face must be clearly visible), and
- any allergies, medical conditions and miscellaneous things they'd like to be brought up.
Why these three things?
The name is just a way of telling everyone else who each person is. It also helps assassins who aren't that familiar with the other players.
The relatively current picture does the exact same thing as the name. Plus, when keeping track of stats, it's always fun to slap a big, red "X" on someone when they've been eliminated.
The allergies, medical conditions and miscellaneous things are there so that one doesn't accidentally eliminate their target for real. We don't want asthmatics inhaling dust from a rigged vacuum cleaner "bomb" or people allergic to pepper choking from the "pepper poison" in their pesto or people who can't swim getting dunked in the deep end of a swimming pool.
MODERATOR:
It is often recommended that a non-partisan person work as a Moderator, especially with larger groups of people playing Assassin.
A Moderator's job is simple: oversee the other players and make sure they all follow the rules to the best of their ability.
Should a dispute arise (such as questioning the validity of a kill), it is the Moderator's job to listen to both arguments and come down with a settlement.
The Moderator is also the one responsible for setting up the other players so that the kill order is clear. It is highly recommended that the players be lined up in an imaginary circle and each player targets the person to his/her left (without them knowing their position or others' positions, of course).
While it is possible for a game of Assassin to be played without a Moderator or with the Moderator as an active player, it is heavily advised not to.
BASIC GAMEPLAY:
The Moderator of the game will determine a proper starting time for an Assassin game.
Each player will also somehow be contacted by the Moderator and will be provided with information for their first target – a name and a picture.
Until the game starts, NO KILL will be considered legal until one of the following conditions are met:
- the Moderator declares that the Assassin game has begun, or
- the Moderator's pre-determined starting time has passed.
Once an Assassin game starts, each person must hunt down and assassinate their target.
Should their efforts be successful, then they get a new target to kill: their target's target.
For example, let's say:
Sam is supposed to kill Charlie, and Charlie is supposed to kill Alex.
However, Sam isolates and successfully crushes Charlie to death (via bombarding Charlie with pillows with the words "10,000 lbs weight" on each one). Sam acquires Charlie's target (in this case: Alex), and now it looks like:
Sam is supposed to kill Alex.
The game of Assassin continues until only one person is left alive. That person is considered the winner.
KILLS:
How one chooses to assassinate their target is up to them; Assassin promotes creativity and ingenuity. However, all kills can be boiled down to two basic kinds: Direct and Indirect.
Direct kills are straightforward in that the assassin is actively trying to end their target's life.
The assassin can choose to walk up and blast their target with a Nerf shotgun or slash them with a bamboo training sword (not the most creative of kills, but they still count), or they can wait until their target is sunbathing alone in their swimming pool and then dump a box of rubber ducks in the water, yell "piranha attack" and watch their target fall in the water and laugh about it*.
* = This actually happened.
All direct kills must be performed while the target is relatively isolated from other people.
In other words: if one wants their kill to count, the only ones that can be physically present at the time of the kill… are the target and their assassin (and any of the assassin's accomplices if he/she has any).
Indirect kills are more discreet in that the assassin isn't actively trying to end their target's life.
It could be a subtle trap such as having a waitress bringing the target a tasty meal with a poison flag on it, or having a sushi chef lace the target's shrimp tempura roll with a lot of wasabi.
It could be a rigged CD in the target's car stereo that plays an explosion sound followed by the message "You just got car-bombed."
It could even be as simple as throwing a plastic poisonous-looking snake* into someone's backpack or purse and watching them freak as they grab it.
* = "Red and yellow: killer fellow. Red and black: venom lack." Remember this statement, for it might save your life if your assassin uses the wrong snake prop…
Indirect kills can be performed anywhere, but care must be taken – should someone else other than the intended target (non-player or otherwise) trigger the "trap," then it is considered defused and no longer able to kill the target.
RULES OF THE DEAD:
Dead men tell no tales. Once eliminated, a player stays eliminated and is (for all intents and purposes of the game:) considered "dead."
What the Dead CAN Do:
- live on their lives as normal until the next Assassin game
What the Dead CANNOT Do:
- communicate with any living player about knowledge pertaining to Assassin
(they can be told things, but they can't tell anyone else)
- act as an accomplice to any living player
- interfere or involve themselves with any assassination attempt
SELF-DEFENSE:
A few games of Assassin have allowed for the act of self-defense, where a target is somehow able to subdue their own assassin.
Cases of self-defense are commonly seen with direct kills – for example, an assassin botches his/her attempt (their gun jammed or they completely missed their sword swing) and the target just so happened to be armed with a Nerf shotgun at that moment and fired back.
Self-defense kills can only be performed by a target when an assassination attempt is in progress and can only be performed if the assassin is still trying to make an attempt on the target's life.
Should the assassin decide to flee, however, the target is advised not to give chase unless they choose to risk it (i.e.: they're somehow prepared).
All self-defense cases probably should (and will) be brought up to a Moderator for verification and/or disputing.
Should a self-defense case be ruled as legal, then the assassin is the one eliminated, not the target.
Whoever was targeting the assassin should also be notified of their target's death and be given a new target accordingly.
For example:
Ashleigh is supposed to kill Peter, and Peter is supposed to kill Sarah.
Peter decides to slash Sarah to death, so he shows up at her front door with a wooden sword. Sarah flees into her house and Peter gives chase, but Sarah is able to find a loaded airsoft gun and takes Peter out. Since Peter followed Sarah and still tried to hunt her down, he would still be making an attempt on her life, thus legalizing Sarah's self-defense kill.
Afterwards, the Moderator would notify Ashleigh about what happened and the game would then look like:
Ashleigh is supposed to kill Sarah.
ACCOMPLICES / HIRED HANDS:
What makes Assassin such a paranoia-inducing game is the fact that virtually anyone playing could be a potential assassin for anyone else – including yourself.
However, this doesn't mean that one must act solo in their killing endeavors.
All players are allowed to hire any amount of accomplices to assist in their assassinations.
There are only four simple guidelines that must be followed should a player decide to hire some help:
1.) An accomplice CANNOT be the one actively assassinating the target.
In other words: they can't pull the trigger or shove the target into the lava pit. However, they can drive in a hit-and-run kill… so long as the assassin is the only one going nuts with the weapons.
2.) An accomplice CANNOT be a player who is already considered "dead" in the current game.
It makes sense in real life…
3.) An accomplice CAN be anyone – even non-players!
And people thought they only had to worry about those actually playing Assassin…
4.) All accomplices MUST be okayed by a Moderator.
Otherwise, someone's target might proclaim "Accomplice A" as a witness and get their humiliating hacked-to-death assassination retconned.
Other than that, they can be used for virtually anything – from helping an assassin set up traps to monitoring a target and acting as an informant to simply staying at the assassin's side at all times and acting as a direct kill deterrent.
POINTS:
Some Assassin Moderators actually give out points for each kill, adding a bit more competition to those left in the standing.
While the points don't really add up to anything (let's face it – points only count if you're not dead), it does make the game more interesting should players want to use them.
Plus, points make for a great way to track a player's statistics should a group decide to have multiple Assassin games over a long period of time.
The addition of points will be left up to the Moderator to decide if they want to use them.
SAFE ZONES:
Safe zones are areas where assassination attempts can be considered null and void.
There are two kinds of safe zones: Full Safe Zones and Restricted Zones.
A full-safe zone is an area where no assassinations are allowed to be performed.
ZERO exceptions.
A restricted zone is an area where assassinations can be performed, but care must be taken to observe and obey local restrictions (usually, this means no weapons or weapon-look-alikes).
That, or a person intending on pulling off an assassination in a restricted zone must first get it authorized by the person(s) in charge of the zone in question.
Traditionally, the following locations are considered safe zones:
Full-Safe Zone:
- all religious places of worship (this includes the adjacent parking lot, too)
Restricted Zone:
- all educational facilities (such as school campuses and public libraries)
- all locations where any player is currently working on-the-clock
Of course, safe zones can be changed if the players decide to do so, but traditionally most Assassin games will leave the standard safe zones as is.
If one is unsure about a specific area being a safe zone or not, talk to a Moderator.
GAME VARIANTS:
Assassin has been around since roughly the 1980s, remaining popular due to its free-for-all and no-holds-barred nature.
Even so, variants of this exciting game have existed, with slight variations on the rules.
Killer:
A classic variant that most people have probably played at least once in their childhood. One person is randomly selected as the "Killer," and their job is to eliminate everyone else without getting their identity revealed.
Mafia:
A team-based variant where a group of people are the killers. Gameplay remains similar to "Killer," except after a predetermined set of kills, the remaining survivors may choose to "hang" someone in the hopes of slowly destroying the mafia.
With all that said and done... happy killing, and watch out for your back!
