Every semester or so, my college dormitory plays a game called Assassins. Assassins is a game of intrigue, betrayal, and general distrust, as everyone has a target on their back and your friends might try to hit yours.
The rules and objective of the game are simple, and are listed here.
Your objective is to "kill" your target, which is assigned to you at the beginning. To do so, you must affix a sticker (of which you are given five) onto their person, or something that they are wearing.
- You cannot kill your target in their room, unless they personally invite you in.
- You cannot kill your target on any flight of stairs with five or more steps, or in an elevator.
- If your target is at their place of work and cannot leave, you cannot kill them.
- You cannot kill your target if they are walking directly from their room to the bathroom, or vice versa.
- Certain events (such as blood donation, or voting in midterm elections) are safe, but you are not safe while on your way to or from said events.
- To successfully kill your target, the sticker must stay affixed to their person, without interference. If the sticker falls off on its own, it is not counted as a kill.
- Each day there is a sign-in posted on a random floor in Stout. If you fail to sign in by midnight, you die automatically and your target is given to the person who was targeting you.
- If you do successfully kill your target, you receive their target, and your kill count goes up by 1.
- If there are multiple players left at the end of the week, there is a Battle Royale, in which all remaining players are put in a circle and given stickers; those players then kill each other at will until there is a "last man standing"
There are two winners at the end of the game: the last man standing, and the player with the highest kill count.
This semester, our game had a total of 94 players, constituting the largest game of Assassins in the dorm's history. Sunday night held a rules session at 9 PM, and at midnight, the targets were sent out, marking the beginning of the game. The following is a log of all the events from Monday to Friday.
Monday
- A second sign-in sheet was posted, allowing players to make a choice; to survive, you had to sign both sheets OR kill one target by 2 PM the next day.
- 19 players were assassinated.
- No deaths occurred due to a failure to sign in.
- One player assassinated three targets, granting him the highest kill count.
- 75 players moved on to the second day.
Tuesday
- 14 players were assassinated.
- 2 players failed to sign in.
- 3 players did not sign the second sheet or get one kill by 2 PM.
- Another player accumulated three kills, meaning two players were tied for highest kill count.
- 56 players moved on to the third day.
Wednesday
- Due to the relatively high number of surviving players, two "Super Assassins" were added to the game. These new players were allowed to kill any living player, and would only stop if they reached a specified quota, or if midnight occurred.
- A second sign-in sheet was posted, following similar rules to Monday's extra sheet; to survive, you either had to sign both sheets, or kill a target by 2 PM the following day. It should be noted that kills from earlier in the week did not count.
- 2 players were assassinated.
- 2 players failed to sign in.
- 26 players were killed by the Super Assassins.
- Yet another player accumulated three kills, causing a three-way tie for highest kill count.
- 26 players moved on to the fourth day.
Thursday
- A rule was posted saying that any player who had a kill count of 0 by midnight would automatically die.
- 10 players were assassinated (multiple of which were voluntary, as some of them would have died anyway).
- No players died due to a failure to sign in.
- 3 players did not sign the second sheet or get a new kill by 2 PM.
- 1 player died due to not having any kills by midnight.
- One of the leading players acquired a 4th kill, pushing him back into the lead for highest kill count.
- 13 players moved on to the last day.
Friday
- 1 player was assassinated.
- Cease fire was called at 5 PM, and the Battle Royale scheduled for 5:30 on Sunday.
- No player accumulated more than 3 kills, granting the victory of "Highest Kill Count" to the player with 4 kills.
- 12 players moved on to the Battle Royale.
Sunday
The battle royale only featured 9 players, as the other three couldn't make it due to scheduling issues and/or traffic. It lasted several minutes, but finally a winner was crowned, ending the game.
