Assassin (game)

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Assassin (also called Assassins, Paranoia, or Killer) is a game commonly played on college campuses. Assassin is, essentially, a live-action roleplaying game where players' goal is to "kill" each other, and to be the last surviving assassin.

Assassin is described as a "lifestyle-invading" game in Salen and Zimmerman's Rules of Play. Play is not restricted to a specific time interval, but is integrated into the players' everyday activities. A game will last for days or weeks, and while the game is in progress, all players are targets of some other player, and have targets of their own. The game is intended to induce an atmosphere of paranoia, since an assassination attempt could occur at almost any time.


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Rules

Assassin is not a published game (although Steve Jackson Games has published a booklet on it, under the name "Killer") and rules vary considerably from group to group. There are certain common elements, however. At any given time, each player has a "target" (or possibly more than one) that they are trying to kill, and each player is in turn the target of another assassin (again, or possibly more than one.) Players are assigned their targets by the game's coordinators, but do not know the identity of the person assigned to target them. In larger games, players may not know the identities of any players other than their target or targets.

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Kills

"Kills" are made by various means, as defined by the rules of whatever variant is being played. Some games have only one way to make a kill, or have a short list of well-defined methods. These may involve the use of fake weapons such as water guns, Nerf weapons, or balled-up socks. Other games allow more creative means like "poisoning," "mail bombs", "knives", or even "bombs". Still other rules require some item such as a clothespin to be stolen. An additional method is for the assassin to grab his or her target's butt - a two-handed, palpable, simultaneous squeeze which must be agreed upon as legitimate by both killer and victim. The key is that all players agree on what methods are legal and how they can be implemented.

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Witnesses

Some variants restrict assassination attempts made in the presence of witnesses. Kills made in the presence of witnesses (or in the presence of a sufficient number of witnesses) may be disallowed or may result in the publication of the assassin's identity (in games where the players do not generally know each other).

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Safe zones

During required activities like classes and work, a player is required by outside obligations to be at a certain place, at a certain time. For assassins to approach them in these environments would be unfair, especially, say, in classes where the game would be disruptive and unwelcome by the professor. Hence, places associated with these activities are "safe zones". Typical "safe zones" include classrooms, while class is in session, places of employment, places of worship, and, more rarely, dining halls, and libraries, among others. Places of residence are typically not safe zones, and some games may explicitly allow entering a target's dorm room, house, or apartment without the target's knowledge.

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Other variations

There are numerous other possible rules. Some games have "police forces" or "death squads", often composed of eliminated players, whose job is to track down rulebreakers. Some require each kill to be made within a time limit, or penalize players for not making assassination attempts. Others allow for non-players or eliminated players to participate, for example as informers or bodyguards.

In a variant called "Godfather", play is a competition of several teams. Each team has a "Godfather", in the sense of a Mafia clan leader, who assigns each of his players a target on an opposing team. There might be a "package" involved, whose capture may be a secondary objective.

There was also a set of 'undead' rules used by the Oxford Guild of Assassins in which players could sell their soul and become resurrected as vampires on being killed. Other players were werewolves with special abilities at the full moon or could choose to be priests who could make holy water.

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History

As Assassin is mainly a tradition on college campuses, where turnover is high, it is not known precisely when and how the game originated. The MIT Assassins' Guild was reportedly running games as early as 1983 and possibly before. KAOS, in New Zealand, was founded in 1981, when the founders heard about the Assassin's Game being run elsewhere. By the early 1990s, there were groups operating regular games at a number of colleges including Cambridge University and Hampshire College, where the game is known as "Wassassins".

A simple version in which an assassination was performed by saying, "You're dead," was mentioned in Harpo Marx's autobiography, Harpo Speaks!. This particular part of the autobiography covers the late 1920s.

The idea for the game is essentially that detailed in the 1953 Robert Sheckley short story "Seventh Victim," which was filmed in 1965 as "The Tenth Victim." The "game" is established as a replacement for large-scale war, as an outlet for violent tendencies, which are inherent in people, and without which we would become soft and retrogress. Those who desired could sign up for one-on-one legalized murders. In Sheckley's vision, "At least there weren't any more big wars. ... Just hundreds of thousands of small ones." As further described in the story: "Anyone who signed up to murder, under the government rules, had to take his turn a few months later as Victim. ... The Emotional Catharsis Board picked the Victims' names at random. A Hunter was allowed two weeks in which to make his kill. This had to be done by his own ingenuity, unaided. He was given the name of his Victim, address and description, and allowed to use a standard caliber pistol. He could wear no armor of any sort. / The Victim was notified a week before the Hunter. He was told only that he was a Victim. He did not know the name of his Hunter. He was allowed his choice of armor. He could hire spotters. A spotter couldn't kill; only Victim and Hunter could do that. ... There were stiff penalties for killing or wounding the wrong man, for no other murder was allowed." Reference: The Collected Short Fiction of Robert Sheckley, Book One, 1991, Pulphouse Pub., p. 114-115. For the sake of brevity, the game Assassin is played with each Hunter simultaneously a Victim, without a time gap between turns as Hunter or Victim.

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Media influence

Interest in the game also spread when similar games were used as a plot device in various films, including:


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Means of Assassination

Assassin variants differ widely in the types of weapons are allowed. A few examples are listed below. These are by no means exhaustive, and some games explicitly allow creativity.

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Guns

Various types of guns are used. The most common are probably water pistols, Nerf weapons, and rubber band guns. Tracer guns have also been popular. Pellet guns and BB guns are generally considered too dangerous.

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Knives and Swords

"Knives" may be either toy knives, or other objects that approximate the size and shape of a knife. The same goes for swords.

Ice cubes may be used for knife kills in some Assassins variants. A common item which is used as a knife is a black permenant marker.

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Poison

Some variants allow "poison", which can be implemented by adding strong flavors such as Tabasco sauce to the victim's food. Rules might also cover "poison gas" or contact poisons.

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Bombs

Many variants allow "bombs," which may be implemented in various ways. Some require the bomb to "go off" in some way, and hence might use alarm clocks or other timers. Another technique is the "car bomb" where the assassin puts a tape or CD in the victim's car audio system. When the victim starts the car and audio, he will hear the assassin saying that he was just "car bombed."

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Clothespins

In this variety, strictly physical, players clip clothespins to themselves in agreed-upon places. These must be stolen, much as a flag is stolen in flag football.

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Ass-Grabbing

This variation plays on the title of the game, often capitalizing it as AssASSins. The assassin must grab his or her target's butt with both hands, simultaneously and palpably. Both the killer and the victim must agree that the grab was sufficient; a one-handed grab or a grab where both hands were not simultaneous is incomplete, and if the victim contests, the kill may be appealed to the game's authorities. This method of play adds a dimension of difficulty to the game, requiring assassins either to approach their targets with extreme stealth or be prepared for a wrestling match.

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External links

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About the game

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Example rules

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Organizations

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