Premise:

The basic premise of assassins is fairly simple: you are an assassin; you will be given the names of other players
whom you must “assassinate”; you want to survive. But before we go any further, let’s get one thing straight:
You will not actually be attacking, shooting at, stabbing, bombing, or in any other way actually assassinating
another player. All such terms used throughout this set of rules refer to the act of PRETENDING to do any
of the above. Any intentional act of real violence will result in automatic expulsion from the game.

Now that the obligatory disclaimer is out of the way…

Terms and Rules:

Assassination:

Assassination of other players can be done in a number of ways, and can be roughly divided into two methods:
overt and covert.

Overt Assassination: Overt assassination is done in person, face-to-face, mano-a-mano. The methods vary, but
some conventional methods include “shooting” your target with a water pistol or Nerf gun, “bombarding” your
target with a water balloon, or “stabbing” your target with some object representative of a knife (usually as
spoon or some other non-pointy object). However, creativity is highly encouraged. Feel free to use foam
nunchucks, plastic swords, Nerf weapons of various sorts, water hoses, etc.

Due to some confusion in the last game, all overt weapons must be something that can actually make contact
with your opponent in some way. Thus cap guns would not be considered valid, as there’s no way to prove that
the player hit or missed their target. The only exception to this stipulation would be if the cap-gun is actually in
contact with the target’s body. In such a case—and only in such a case—would it be considered a valid kill.

Covert Assassination: The term covert assassination in this game refers to all means of assassination in which
the assassin is not actually present at the time that the target is eliminated from the game.

In the past, there has been a great deal of confusion about what qualifies as a valid covert hit. So a few
guidelines have been established:

• Bombs can no longer be simple pieces of paper with the word “bomb” written on it. Bombs must be
something that produces some sort of action when they “explode”—preferably a noise or flash of light.
For instance, one might set an alarm clock and label it as “bomb”; when the alarm goes off, the bomb
is said to have exploded. Another method might be to use some sort of remote-controlled noise making
device as a remote bomb, or some sort of motion-detection device that makes a noise that would be a
proximity bomb.
o All bomb blast radii cannot exceed:
 One residence, in the case of apartments, houses, and condos
 One dorm-room, in the case of dormitories and sorority/frat houses
 One room, in the case of all other university/public buildings (the Croft Building,
Honors College, etc)
•
• Anthrax packages or envelopes are not valid unless opened by the target. Simply picking up the
envelope or package is not sufficient. To send an anthrax envelope, you must put a note inside the
envelope that says “pretend Anthrax,” or something similar. Again: the envelope must be opened.

In each case, the assassin must leave a note along with the device to inform the target that they’ve been killed
(so as to avoid any confusion on that point). While the assassin does not have to include their real name in the
note, they are required to sign it with, at the very least, their code-name.
The primary benefit of covert assassination lies in the fact that one need not be present—and thus neither risk
being attacked in self defense, nor revealing their true identity. While the honor system is important in all
aspects of the game, honesty on the part o fall assassins is particularly essential in the case of covert
assassination.

Lastly, in the event that the assassin who placed the bomb is eliminated by another player before the bomb
detonates, the bomb is still valid. However, in such a case, the person who placed the bomb would be dead and,
thus, unable to collect his victim’s targets. In such an instance, the moderator can re-distribute the dead
assassin’s targets as he or she sees fit.

Targets:

At the beginning of the game, the moderator will distribute the names of other assassins to each player. Each
player will be given one name—the name of his or her first “assigned target.” It will be the mission of that
player to track down and assassinate that target.

After your target has been eliminated from the game, you will then assume the target or targets previously
assigned to that player. For instance, let’s say that Johnny is assigned to eliminate Susie, and that Susie is
assigned to eliminate the ambiguously-named Pat. If Johnny eliminates Susie, he will now be assigned to
eliminate Pat, and so on.

Lastly, in the event that a player kills a target that is not their assigned target, they will receive a penalty, but
will nevertheless still acquire their assassinated target’s assigned targets. So, let’s say Johnny is NOT assigned
to kill Bobby, and Bobby IS assigned to kill Jane. If Johnny assassinates Bobby, the moderator will penalize
Johnny by taking away points, but Johnny will STILL acquire Jane as an assigned target.

No-Fire Zones:

Some areas are strongly prohibited for assassinations. As long as a player is in one of the following locations,
you cannot attack them. No-Fire Zones include:

• Classrooms when class is in session and/or the professor or teaching assistant is present. After class,
however, as soon as either the professor or the player leaves the classroom, all’s fair game.
• Organizational meetings: don’t disrupt any group’s official meeting with an assassination or
assassination attempt.
• Places of Worship: any traditionally recognized place of worship at any time.
• Work—excluding smoke breaks and lunch breaks.

THE “PROFESSOR CLAUSE”: There is one exception to the prohibition against assassinations in the above
locations. If—and only if—you have obtained prior permission from the leader of any of the above locations—
the professor in the case of classrooms, the meeting facilitator/chairman in the event of organizational meetings,
or the player’s boss or supervisor in the case of work—then the player is fair game and the no-fire zone
becomes a valid location for an attack. However, the assassin must obtain permission from the professor,
meeting facilitator, or boss/supervisor prior to the attack.

Areas that are considered fair game, but deserve caution include:

• The library
• Dining halls
• All other public buildings and/or places of business

As always, USE COMMON SENSE.

Intelligence:
A piece of information will be given to each player at the beginning of the game, along with the target
assignments. Information will include either another player’s code-name or another player’s starting
assignment. The value of this information lies in the ability to trade such information with other players either
for other information, for assistance, or for points.

Code-Names:

Each player will choose his or her code name. It is advisable to keep your code-name secret, although you
might choose to share it with other players as you see fit. One important reason to closely guard your code-
name, however, is because it is information that another player might trade or sell in exchange for points or
other information or assistance.

Bounties:

In the event that the moderator deems that another player is playing unfairly, is ignoring the guidelines of the
game (see “guidelines”) or is failing to participate (for instance, if a week goes by and that player has not yet
made a single attempt to eliminate his or her targets), the moderator can “place a bounty” on that player, in
terms of points. In such a case, that player then becomes fair game—e.g. qualifies as an assigned target—for all
players.

Winning:

There are three ways to win, and thus, there can be up to three winners. The first way to win is to be the last
player to survive. The second way to win is to be the player with the highest score. The third way to win is to be
the player with the most kills.

One change made for the 2.0 version of the rules is that dead players can continue to compete to be the player
with the highest score. Once a player is dead, they will essentially remain in the game as an informant. He or
she will have the opportunity to sell whatever information they have to other players in exchange for points.
Thus, through brokering information, a player who died in the first day of the game could still possibly earn
enough points to be competitive in the highest score category.

Lastly, in order to qualify as the last surviving player, that assassin must have at least one successful kill. For
example, consider the event that the game comes down to two players, and one of the two player has lain in
hiding or has left town for the duration of the game without making any kills—thus preventing them from being
killed, in the hopes of being the last to survive. If the moderator determines that that player has not participated,
and that the other surviving player is unlikely to locate the hiding/absent player, the moderator can declare the
game over if the hiding player has not made any kills, or if the moderator otherwise determines deems that
waiting for the last two players to kill each other will delay the end of the game (and thus the start of the next
game) unnecessarily.

Additionally, there will be separate awards that can be given. All awards will not always be given in every
game. A list of awards can be found at the end of this document.

Hit-Men:

Hit Men are players whose sole purpose is to be contracted by other players to take out a target. Hit Men are
hired with points, and generally a hit man will not take less than 500 points for a hit. If you use a hit man to kill
your target, you will acquire the targets of your target the same as if you had carried out the kill yourself, but
you will not get credit for the kill. You will still get the points for the kill—or the penalty—depending on if the
target was your assigned target or not.

One major change in the 2.0 version of the rules is that hit men are no longer invulnerable. You can shoot hit
men. If you kill a hit man, he or she is dead to you for the rest of the game—meaning that they cannot attack
you again, nor can they be hired by you—but will be alive to all other players. Thus a hit man is not out of the
game if you kill them; they are dead to you and you only.
Lastly, if you kill a hit man in any circumstances other than self defense, the moderator reserves the right to
place a bounty on your head, in which case you will be fair game for all players and hit men.

Points/Credits:

Points and Credits are central to our version of assassins. Points can be awarded for achievement, or subtracted
as a penalty for rule or etiquette violations. Points are one of the ways to ‘win’ the game. Additionally, however,
points are a sort of credit to be spent.

Spending Points: Points can be traded to other players in exchange for assistance or information. For instance,
you might offer a player 100 points in exchange for the identity of the player assigned to assassinate you or your
teammate. In another case, you might bribe an assassin to help you take out another player, or bribe a team-mate
to betray their co-partner. The inherent value of the points lies in the fact that points are needed to be one of the
winners of the game. However, in some circumstances, losing a few hundred points might be worth it, if it
means saving your life.

Additionally, in games that include “hit-men”, you can spend points to hire a hit-man to take out another player,
or to buy-off a hit-man who has been hired to take you out (assuming, that is, that you find out that he’s been
hired ahead of time).

To trade points with other players, send a notification via Facebook message to the moderator, with both parties
(the person paying and the person being paid) included in the message. Once the moderator sees that both
parties have agreed to the transaction, he’ll subtract the appropriate number of points from the score of the
payer and add them to the score of the person being paid. The same applies to hit-men.

You can have negative points (as a result of penalties) but you cannot spend points that you do not have.

Point Values:

Starting points: Every player starts out with a beginning balance of 500 points.

Assigned Kill: 250 points. You get 250 points for every assigned kill that you make.

Double, Triple Kills, etc.: You receive a bonus for managing to kill multiple assigned targets in a single strike.
For every additional assigned target killed, multiply the number of points by the number of targets killed. For
instance, if you kill three assigned targets in a single strike, you would take the number of points for those
targets (750pts) and multiply it x3, for a total of 2250pts.

Killing Spree Bonus: 1000 points. Awarded for 5 or more consecutive kills over the course of a day.

Rescued Team-Mate Bonus: 250 points. If you are playing on a team, and kill a player who has your team-
mate’s name as an assigned target, you can choose to receive a 250 point bonus for “rescuing” your team-mate,
rather than the 250 points you would receive simply for assassinating them.

Collateral Damage Penalty: Subtract 500 points for each additional non-player killed.

Non-Target Player Killed: Subtract 250 points for each player killed who is not your assigned target. This
does not include killing in self-defense, or killing your team-mate’s killer. However, if you wrongly kill someone
out of an erroneous belief that they were your assassin, or falsely believing them to be your team-mate’s
assassin, you will still subject to the Non-Target Player Penalty.

Guidelines:

While the following are not rules, per se, they are guidelines to consider when playing:
 1. Avoid using anything that looks like a real weapon. If you’re using water guns, make sure they’re
bright plastic colors. Particularly avoid anything that looks like a real gun or real knife.
2. Safety first! If you plan to lob an object at someone, make sure it’s not too hard. If you’re using a nerf
gun or something similar, aim away from the head and face. If you’re planning to pretend to stab
someone, don’t use anything that is actually sharp.
3. Be considerate of others who are not participants in this game.
4. Don’t use water-weapons in inappropriate places (such as the Library), and try not to be excessive with
water-weapons indoors or in cold weather.
5. If you leave any kind of note, try to make sure it’s phrased so that’s intent is unambiguously non-
threatening. For instance, you might say “you’ve been pretend bombed, courtesy of the assassins
game” rather than “there is a bomb in this car”. As a rule of thumb, always consider how your note
might sound if someone else who doesn’t know anything about the game were to find it.
6. Use common sense.

Questions:

Q: What happens if someone else kills my target before I do?

A: Contact the moderator. He will either assign you to kill the person that wrongfully killed your target, or
assign you another target (if any open targets are available).

Q: Can I hire a non-player to kill someone for me?

A: No. But there’s no rule against getting them to freely cooperate with you.

Q. Can I hire a dead player to kill someone for me?

A: No.

Q: How do I get my next assigned targets when I use covert assassination, since I won’t be present at the time
that my target is eliminated?

A: You can either contact the eliminated target player and have them give you the names of their previously
assigned targets, or contact the moderator. In the event that you contact the moderator, he’ll merely confirm
with both parties (assassin and target) that a valid ‘kill’ has been made, and then pass on the relevant
information (the names of the eliminated player’s assigned targets) to you.

Q: Do I get 250 points for killing someone in self-defense who is trying to assassinate me?

A: Not unless they also happen to be your assigned target; but you get to survive, which seems like reward
enough.

Q: What happens if, after killing my assigned target, I discover that I was their assigned target?

A: You get the same points you would for killing any other assigned target. You are not required, however, to
then acquire yourself as an assigned target an eliminate yourself (although you’re certainly free to do so).

Q: If I kill someone who is trying to assassinate me, do I then acquire their assigned targets?

A: Yes.

Q: What do I do if a bounty is placed upon me?

A: Run. Or Hide.
Q: What happens when a player with a bounty on their head is eliminated?

A: If another assassin eliminates the player with the bounty, then he or she will acquire that player’s assigned
targets, the 250 points for eliminating an assigned target, and whatever point value has been assigned as the
bounty. If a hit-man eliminates a player with a bounty, he will only get the bounty. The assigned targets will
then either be reassigned by the moderator or put up for blind auction to the highest bidder (paid in points).

Q: Do I get 250 points for killing someone who is not my assigned target if I’m paid-off by another player to do
so?

A: No. Not if they aren’t your assigned target. In fact, if they’re not, you’ll be penalized 250 points for killing a
non-assigned player, so it had better be worth it—either in terms of the size of the bribe, or the information or
assistance gained through the action.

Q: Do I have to take a bribe?

A: No.

Q: How do you define “traditionally recognized places of worship”?

A: Churches, Mosques, Temples, Chapels, and Synagogues. Other sites (such as the BSU building, for instance,
or Church gymnasiums) are fair game as long as a service of some sort is not being held at the time. Outdoors
areas around places of worship (church parking lots, or the open areas around a chapel or religious building) are
fair game also, but please abstain from any loud or disrespectful behavior during and around worship times.

Q: Can I change code-names during the course of the game?

A: No. You have to stick with the same code-name for the duration of the game.

Q: What happens if we can’t agree on who shot who first?

A: If no agreement can be reached, and there are no witnesses to prove who shot whom, then the moderator will
declare both of you dead. Your targets will then be either reassigned or put up for blind auction to the highest
bidder.

Q: Can I hire a hit man to kill a hit man?

A: No.