# Rules and Variations on the game Assasins **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 29, 2005, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rules-and-variations-on-the-game-assasins/296826 "2005-03-29T19:57:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![teemingONE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b4bc9f/32.png) [@teemingONE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/teemingONE)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2005, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rules-and-variations-on-the-game-assasins/296826/1 "2005-03-29T19:57:35Z")
I’m trying to organize a good game of Assasins for my friends and I to play but I’m not too sure on what to make the point of the game to be or how the rules should be set up. If anyone can give me an idea or a form of the game they have played, I’d really appreciate it. ---
**Author:** ![Hal\_Briston](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a9a28c/32.png) [@Hal\_Briston](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hal_Briston)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2005, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rules-and-variations-on-the-game-assasins/296826/2 "2005-03-29T21:23:06Z")
_Assassins_ is a LARP, in which you use various devious methods to “kill off” friends and strangers. The way we used to play in high school: The game leader makes it know that the game is being organized. The more players who do not know each other (or at least do not know who else is playing), the better. Between 10 and 20 players makes for a good game. Each player is given a slip of paper with the name of another player. The player’s job is to find the person on that slip, and “kill” them. There are many ways this can be done in many ways: –Simply walk up to the person, “shoot” them with your finger, and declare them dead. –Make a cassette tape of you saying “Boom! Your car just blew up…you’re dead”, and place it in their car stereo so it plays when they start their car. –Stick a note inside their sandwich informing them they’ve been poisoned, and are now “dead”. Basically, any way you can convey the message that you just “got” the person will count. However, the target should always have a chance to survive if they just exercise due diligence (or extreme paranoia). The target could check out their sandwich first, or notice the cassette in their car before it “goes off”. We had one guy in high school that would walk around with a large piece of cardboard stuffed inside his jacket. When he got “shot”, he unzipped the jacket revealing the cardboard with the words “bullet-proof vest” written on it. The game master happened to be nearby, and he ruled that the would-be killer had to walk away and try again another time. Once a player has been “killed”, they must turn over the slip of paper naming the target they were hunting to the person who “got” them. That player now has a new target to “kill”. Play continues until there is only one person left. A good game is built around the creative methods of “killing” one another. Yes, walking up to someone and saying “I just shot you, you’re dead” is legal, but it’s much more fun to get a call from another player saying “Ok, the lethal rubber spider you hid in my bed got me…I’m dead”. The key to this game is the honor system. If you didn’t actually take that cassette tape out of your car and play it in a containment unit (i.e., your home stereo) before it goes off in your car, then you’re dead and you’ll just have to deal with that fact. However, if you _really did_ notice the tape before starting your car, and you “diffuse” it, then call up the game master and have him pass along a “nice try, sucker” to your would-be killer. It all comes down to being honest. Cheating is easy to do in this game…but it makes the game suck. Also, it’s a good idea to keep the game master informed of what you have planned. His rule is law in this game, so give him a head’s up before doing something stupid (note: if your going after a smoker, _do not_ place a bang-charge in one of his smokes…if he happens to have that smoke while driving, the game can take on real-life themes). Something else to note – I played this game in 1983-84…we’re talking a _much_ different age than we live in today. When we “shot” someone, we made sure to pull out a toy gun to do it. This is NOT recommended if you’re playing in anything like a high school atmosphere these days. You’d probably be lucky if you were only suspended. Hmmm…it seems Steve Jackson formalized the rules. Looks like you can order a game book [here](http://www.sjgames.com/killer/). ---
**Author:** ![GilaB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8e7dd6/32.png) [@GilaB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GilaB)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2005, 6:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rules-and-variations-on-the-game-assasins/296826/3 "2005-03-30T06:22:26Z")
In Yavneh (the Orthodox student group), Columbia/Barnard Hillel, 2004 (after I graduated, but a friend forwarded them to me for old times’ sake), the official rules were [my notes in brackets, like this]: > [@](#): > > Before you start: > > Make a team of four people (including a captain). All players must be > members of the Columbia / Barnard Hillel. > > Before Sunday night, November 14th at 9:30 pm, all team captains must > email the judge ([address omitted]) with the names of their team > members. > > Before Sunday night at 11:30pm, captains must contact all of their > team members, get $7 from each team member, (that’s $28 total per > team) and procure 4 water guns/water bottles. > > On Sunday night team captains will meet at the sundial [a central campus location] at midnight > and receive the names of the members of their opposing team. (In order > to receive the list of enemies, the captain must bring all of the > money from his/her team). [Note that this means you don’t even know who most of the people playing are, as only the captains need to show themselves before the game starts. You do not know which captain’s team has received the secret assignment to kill you, either.] > > Rules of Play: > > 1. Each team has 72 hours to kill all of its opposing team. > > If the team doesn’t succeed in killing all of the opposing team within > 72 hours, then it automatically dies and is out of the competition. > > 1. If the team kills all of the opposing team within 72 hours, it > receives a new opposing team that it must kill within 24 hours (the > judge will e-mail you the names of the people on the new opposing > team). This continues, with each remaining period lasting for 24 > hours. [They shortened the times - you used to have 72 hours to kill each new assignment, but that meant the game lasted over a week, and the stress got to be too much.] > > 2. If an individual member of a team is killed, he/she may continue to > help his/her teammates stalk the opposing team but he/she may not do > the actual killing. > > 3. Once a team member is killed, he/she is dead forever. > > 5)All killings must be IMMEDIATELY reported to the judge by BOTH the > assassin and the victim (e-mail: [omitted]). [People were actually really good about the honor system.] > > 6)All communication between the team and the judge occurs via e-mail. > > 1. Killing is accomplished by shooting the enemy with a water gun in a > legal area (the enemy must get wet). Any way of getting your opponent > wet with water is a legal kill. (water bottles, cups of water etc are > all fine) [Poland Spring bottles with sport caps are particularly popular, as they don’t mark you as somebody playing/hunting.] > > 2. One may not protect oneself from being “shot” with external objects > such as umbrellas or coats. If water touches any part of you or > something you’re holding, you’re out. > > 3. One must be within the following boundaries for 2/3 of the time of > the duration of the round: from 125th St to 100th St, and between > Riverside and Central Park West. Basically, you’ve got to live or plan > on being on or near campus to play). In a 72 hr. session, 48 of those > hours must be spent within the boundaries. [A new rule - my team got killed one year in the final round when the team we were hunting sent someone out of the borough of Manhattan for most of the time we had left to kill them before we expired ourselves. Definitely a good rule.] > > 4. The winning team gets $100. A portion of the rest of the proceeds > will go to Mission Motorcycle [a charity]. > > 5. This game operates on the honor system i.e. you know if you’re dead or not! > > 6. If ever unsure of whether a kill has been executed, email the > judge ([omitted]). She and only she has the last call on all > matters of the game. > > Legal and Illegal Places of Play: > > The following times and locations are illegal and are off-limits to assassins: > > 1. No killing anywhere between 2:00-7:00 AM > > 2. No killing in class during actual class time (or anything mandatory > for a class that you are in) > > 3. No killing during Shabbat (from 30 minutes before mincha [prayers right before the start of the Sabbath] on Friday > to 30 minutes after Havdalah [the ceremony ending the Sabbath]) > > 4. No killing your suitemate in your suite > > 5-10, 13, 15) [No killing in various places and times of services and other Jewish Religious stuff] > > 1. No killing in the actual Hewitt cafeteria and dining room, as well > as the actual John Jay cafeteria > > 2. No killing in the reading rooms in the library (but > hallways/cafe/bathrooms/computer labs are not safe zones) > > 3. No kills can be made at a person’s off-campus place of work. [My rule! I get warm and fuzzy just seeing it. The best story I have, in my entire life, involves my roommate and me infiltrating through several layers of security at the main branch of Morgan Stanley in order to kill somebody doing an internship there. This has become legendary enough that I’ve had people repeat it back to me as an example of the insanity of Assassins, without knowing that it was me who did it. The freshman had all heard the story several years later. It was great.] > Pointers: > > Although usually classified as a psychological disorder, paranoia is > encouraged in these circumstances. [You would not _believe_ the level of paranoia involved.] > > Try to catch people off guard. A kill early in the morning, while > people are still tired, is a great way to start the day. > > If you don’t know what your enemy looks like, check the facebook. [Also, you’d be surprised how much stalking you can do via computer.] > > You CAN kill: On the way to class, on the way to Kraft, in the dorms, > before/after class. > > REMEMBER, JUST BECAUSE YOU ARE BEING PARANOID DOES NOT MEAN THAT NO > ONE IS WATCHING YOU! The judges arranged the teams in a giant circle if you charted it out, such that A was hunting B, who was hunting C, who was hunting D, all the way out to Z, who was hunting A. If A killed B, they inherited B’s secret assignment to kill C. The two keys to being successful were a)being insane (my team had that down - we were willing to infiltrate major corporations, climb fire escapes, stalk people in the underground tunnels, etc.,) and b)having a good information network, such that you could figure out who was hunting who was hunting who, and everybody on each team (not my specialty.) The Penn Orthodox student group also played assassins, with very different rules (involving either assassinations with no witnesses at all or very public ones with a long, embarrassing declaration made first, poisonings, etc.) which I can try to dredge up if you’re interested. ---
**Author:** ![GilaB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8e7dd6/32.png) [@GilaB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GilaB)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2005, 6:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rules-and-variations-on-the-game-assasins/296826/4 "2005-03-30T06:26:33Z")
One other thing - I never liked that there was no defensive killing in our version of Assassins. If someone you knew was hunting you got near you, the only thing to do was run. I’d add something that would allow you to kill someone trying to kill you. ---
**Author:** ![Scuba\_Ben](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/278dde/32.png) [@Scuba\_Ben](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scuba_Ben)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2005, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rules-and-variations-on-the-game-assasins/296826/5 "2005-03-30T14:18:22Z")
> [@Hal Briston](#): > > Something else to note – I played this game in 1983-84…we’re talking a _much_ different age than we live in today. When we “shot” someone, we made sure to pull out a toy gun to do it. This is NOT recommended if you’re playing in anything like a high school atmosphere these days. You’d probably be lucky if you were only suspended. Good point, **Hal**. I doubt that even the Chiquita .45 (an ordinary banana) would be tolerated by high schools these days. Play the game over a weekend instead. ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2005, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rules-and-variations-on-the-game-assasins/296826/6 "2005-03-30T14:38:29Z")
Or just have the school be a no kill zone. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Goob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c77e96/32.png) [@Mr.Goob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Goob)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2005, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rules-and-variations-on-the-game-assasins/296826/7 "2005-03-30T16:21:47Z")
Wow what memories. Mid 80’s we had those toy guns that shot yellow plastic bits about BB sized. I remember having a pump shotgun in my locker. and having a firefight in a hallway. All we got was a stern “stop that” from the teachers. Now it would be handcuffs. We allowed defensive moves, if you see someone drawing a weapon on you, you can shoot back. You may or may not have been their target, maybe it was the person next to you. Too bad they are now dead and you get their name. Bombs can have the same effect. If other players are in the area they are all dead too. This can lead to you having several targets worth of names at once. We had to have a rule about subcontracting out hitmen. A minor ledgend was born when one player got a teacher to play a hitman to get a very elusive target. My favorite kill was taking out a baseball player during the middle of a game. The look on his face was priceless. Boobytraps… oh the imagination runs wild. Have fun. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2005, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rules-and-variations-on-the-game-assasins/296826/8 "2005-03-30T17:01:12Z")
Steve Jackson also published a book of rules, _Killer_, in the eighties. While we only played a couple games in Junior High, I was fascinated by the complex rules he came up with for it. Daniel ---
**Author:** ![Hal\_Briston](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a9a28c/32.png) [@Hal\_Briston](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hal_Briston)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2005, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rules-and-variations-on-the-game-assasins/296826/9 "2005-03-30T23:47:21Z")
> [@Left Hand of Dorkness](#): > > Steve Jackson also published a book of rules, _Killer_, in the eighties. _Pssssst!_ Last line of Post #2. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![FilmGeek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b19c9b/32.png) [@FilmGeek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FilmGeek)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2005, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rules-and-variations-on-the-game-assasins/296826/10 "2005-03-31T04:16:11Z")
This game was constantly being organized by different groups in my dorm freshman year. Inside the dorm was off limits (no one could come shoot you in the shower) but the porch and anywhere else was a-okay. It was all done with water pistols. My advice if you do it with water… don’t miss and shoot the people standing at the bus stop. It pisses them off. The Columbine shootings happened my sophomore year and the hall administration put a stop to assassins games for a while after that. ---
**Author:** ![Billdo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/billdo/32/315_2.png) [@Billdo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Billdo)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2005, 5:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rules-and-variations-on-the-game-assasins/296826/11 "2005-03-31T05:57:52Z")
I also played it in high school in the early 1980s. We had an ongoing debate over which was better, the guns that shot the little yellow pellets or the ones that shot the spinning plastic disks. We’d run through the school and the town going after each other. One night I was staying over at the house of a buddy of mine whose father had a night vision scope – pretty darn cool for that time. We used it to watch some friends on the another team sneaking up on the house through the back yard. We were waiting for them to approach so we could ambush them. At this point, my buddy’s father stupidly decided to help us out (knowing we had the scope) and turned on the back yard floodlights, spooking the enemy and ruining the ambush. We did not let my buddy’s father live that one down. There’s nothing like the expression on someone’s face when he realizes that the back of the padlock on his locker is coated with vaseline, and he’s just died from contact poison. Anyway, I strongly suspect if we even thought about playing it were we in high school today, we’d violate about sixteen zero tolerance policies and be shipped to Guantanamo Bay as potential terrorists before we could even choose a game master. And **GilaB** , I can’t really imagine you playing Assassins, much less doing a serious undercover job at Morgan Stanley. You must have been the one that nobody ever expected.