A list of Rules!

Raffles Assassins' Guild: Rules

This set of rules has been adapted from those of the Cambridge Guild of Assassins' Lent '05 game.

You can find a copy of the original rules here.

1.0 Introduction:

Assassins is a game of mock assassination for a large number of players.
Each person has to try to survive the attempts of others to kill them
whilst eliminating their own targets. The last person to be left alive is,
not surprisingly, declared the winner.

If you have any questions about these rules once you have read them
thoroughly, please ask for clarification from the Umpire as he will be
only too happy to provide it.

1.1 Signing up for the game:

The game shall be open to people study in the Raffles campus.

Everyone who wishes to play should provide the Umpire with:

• Full name, indicating the name you are usually known by


• E-mail address


• Your class, as well as activities which you are involved in. The time and place of these should be clearly stated.

<

• An initial pseudonym, which will be used in news reports to
  disguise your true identity.


• Anything else which your assassins should be informed of, such as
  an allergy to a substance which might be used as a poison, or that you have a fear of evil killer bunnies, and might get a fatal heart attack.

Anyone found to have supplied false or misleading details to the Umpire
will be disqualified, but I'm sure it's not necessary to say that.

Note that by signing up to play you are agreeing to report any
assassins-related events which you are involved in for the period in which you
remain alive. You are also giving permission for other players to try to 'kill'
you by the legal methods described in these rules, and to enter your room
without warning should you leave the door unlocked or the window open.

1.2 Conduct:

1.2.1

For any deliberate breach of the rules a player may be
identified as a legitimate target for all other players ("put
on the wanted list") or, in serious cases, disqualified
from playing.

1.2.2

The spirit of the rules is more important than the actual rules
themselves. Rules are made to be bent here and there. On the
other hand, the umpire will not be bound by the rules if he feels
that someone is attempting to exploit a loophole. If in doubt, email
the umpire with your question.

1.2.3

Exercise common sense. Players are entirely responsible for
their behaviour. Avoid inconveniencing other people, especially the general public.

1.2.4

This game depends on players being honest for it to work. Please inform
the Umpire if you have been killed. Honour among murderers and all
that ...

1.2.5

You must expect other players to have nefarious intentions at any time
during the game. Do not involve (or cause to become involved) school
authorities or other non-players to eject or intimidate those attempting
to kill you or others. If you feel players are behaving unreasonably,
contact the Umpire.

1.2.6

This is not a game about physical strength or violence. There is no
excuse whatsoever for pushing people around or forcing them out of your
way. Most specifically, if someone is holding a door closed you should
not attempt to push it open, and you should never do anything likely to
cause anyone injury.

1.2.7

Most of all remember that this is a game. Do your best, but have fun. Don't take things too seriously or turn into a paranoid wreck, but get out there and

enjoy it.

2.0 How to play:

The game, in brief:

• Before the game starts, send an email to the Umpire as described above
  informing him that you wish to take part in the game.


• When the game starts, you will be sent an email with the names of your
  target(s). Try to kill them.


• Whenever you make an attempt on another player's life, whether or not
  you succeed, email the Umpire with a report. If someone tries to kill you,
  report that to the Umpire as well.


• When one of your targets dies, whether it was you or someone else who
  killed them, the Umpire will send you a new target to replace them. In this
  way every live player will always have a target at any given time.


• If you die, send a report of this to the Umpire. The game is now over for
  you, although you may rejoin it as a police officer (see later).


• If you do not die, congratulations! You have won the game.

2.1 Killing people:

The weapons rules describe the various weaponry
you may use to eliminate other assassins.

2.1.1 Legal targets

You may legally try to kill any of the following types of player:

• The targets you have been assigned by the Umpire.


• The assassins who have been assigned you as a target —
  you will not be told who these are, but should you find out you may attempt
  to pre-emptively defend yourself by killing them first.


• Anyone who is clearly holding a weapon or setting a trap (with poison/safes etc.). (You cannot
  legally attack someone who was holding a weapon a few seconds ago but has
  now hidden it again.)


• Anyone who is in the process of trying to kill you. (So, if two assassins
  come to your door, you may kill both of them, even if only one had you
  as a target. Of course, if they weren't really assassins, you're in
  trouble. Also, this only applies to people trying to kill you —
  assassins trying to kill other people are not legal targets unless they
  are bearing weapons.)


• Anyone on the Wanted List (see Wanted Criminals).


• Anyone on the Incompetent List (see Competence).

Note that it is, of course, possible to attack people who do not fall into
any of the categories above. Should you do so, you will be made wanted for
killing or attempting to kill innocent victims.

There are a number of ex-players around whom people find it amusing
to shoot. If not playing, they are entirely innocent and should not be attacked.
These people will have some say in the fate of those who do attack them.

2.1.2 Rules of engagement

You may use all manner of ruses to ensnare your target. However, there are some things you are not allowed to do:

• You are not allowed to impersonate authority figures such as teachers, security or maintenance staff or the (real) police. This is so that players can
  
  take part in the
  game without aggravating authority. You are also
  not allowed to take advantage of a fire alarm to attack your target. Note that
  it is fine to impersonate the exco, Prefects and other student
  positions.


• You are not allowed to impersonate the Umpire, for the same reason. If
  someone knocks on your door claiming to be the Umpire, you may safely let them in. You are also not
  allowed to impersonate the Umpire indirectly by, for example, forging
  email messages.


• You may enter a target's room through an unlocked door or an open window
  only. If the door is locked you may not make any kind of attack
  including firing shots or pushing any other item through keyholes, letterboxes or
  any other gap in, under or over the door (exception: you may post special
  letters under the door or through the letterbox, since this does not
  distract the occupant).


• You are perfectly at liberty to deny that you are an assassin. However,
  you are not allowed to claim that you are a dead assassin and
  hence harmless. You may also not lie about the vital status of other
  assassins who are immediately present.

2.1.3 Out of bounds areas and situations

There are some places and circumstances which, for reasons of sanity, are
considered out-of-bounds. No-one may kill anyone or be killed when they are
out of bounds, which includes the following:

• Lecture theatres are out of bounds, whether or not a lecture is in
  progress.


• Practicals and laboratories are always out of bounds.


• Libraries are out of bounds.


• Classes are out of bounds, classrooms are fair game. Classes take place within normal school hours, i.e. 0755 to 1535 for all days except Friday,
  
  which starts at 0755 and ends at 1335.
  
• Administrative offices, staff rooms, staff lounges and other official areas are out of bounds at all times.
  
• Churches, chapels, synagogues, mosques, temples, stupas or any other
  official place of worship. The Umpire will not allow any player's
  room to be considered an official place of worship, no matter how inventive
  their excuse.


• Formal dining halls and any other dining arrangement in
  which food is served to the table. Anywhere you get food yourself from a
  servery is in bounds.


• Any formal school events.


• Official meetings with teachers are out of bounds.


• Players participating in Co-Curricular Activities are out of bounds. Shooting of them will only result in laughter, and possible wanted status


• Anyone working in a real proper office job is out of bounds while at work.
  (This is unlikely to apply to anyone who is a student.)


• Official school society meetings or regularly scheduled meetings of
  an unofficial society which takes place in school grounds, including in
  players' rooms. Assassins carrying
  bulky or expensive items to and from society meetings may be out of
  bounds while doing so, but must specifically clear this with the umpire
  beforehand. If you are planning to attack someone near their society meeting
  you may check with the umpire if there is any reason your target may be out
  of bounds.


• Computer rooms are always out of bounds. A computer room is, in general, defined as a place where the public is permitted to use computers. Player's
  
  rooms do not count. Computers placed within administrative offices are part of the office, and are out of bounds at all times.

A computer room is, in general, defined as a place where the public (or any
clearly-defined group, e.g. members of a college) are permitted to use
computers. Players' private rooms do NOT count. Computer rooms which occupy
a completely separate room inside a library count as computer rooms and so are
in bounds outside office hours. Rooms which function as both computer rooms and
libraries such as the one in the CMS count as libraries.

Players should not abuse no-kill zones. You may not take a suspicious letter
into a no-kill zone and open it in safety.

If you are not sure whether a given time or place is out of bounds or not,
please contact the Umpire. Similarly, if there is something not mentioned on
this list you think should be out of bounds, ask the Umpire to consider it.

2.1.4 Accomplices and non-players

Non-players may, if you wish, act as accomplices on your kill attempts.
However, accomplices cannot attack or kill anyone (but they can still be
attacked). You are responsible for the safety of your accomplices, and should
they be killed you will be held responsible, which means that you will probably
become wanted. You should not allow your accomplices to be seen bearing weapons
at any time; particularly, you should not use armed accomplices as decoys, and
should you do so the kill may be disallowed.

You should not use non-players to avoid exposing yourself to danger, for
example, by getting them to open your mail for you. Should you do so and they be killed
as a result, you will be made wanted in connection with their death.

In general, if you kill a non-player you will be made wanted. However, it is
possible for innocents to be killed through unforseeable mischances, in which
case you will be let off if you are believed to have acted responsibly. A
poison letter clearly addressed to your target will not make you wanted if it claims the life of a curious
innocent. However, it is assumed that people other than a
room's occupant could reasonably try to open its door; therefore, should you put
contact poison on someone's outside doorhandle, you will be made wanted for
endangering innocents.

2.2 Reporting:

Whenever you are involved in any assassins-related incident, such as
successfully or unsuccessfully trying to kill another player or innocent, being
attacked or killed or witnessing a killing, you should inform the Umpire as
soon as possible.

Reports of the game's events will be published on the website during the
game. Reports are encouraged to be dramatic and creative and may also be
intentionally misleading (although outright lying is frowned upon). However, if
your report is sufficiently outlandish to make it unclear what actually
happened, please explain the raw facts separately to the Umpire in your email,
as he likes to know what is going on.

If you cannot be sure what happened in an attack, you may call a
"discussion phase" with the other assassins involved in order to
clarify who was hit, who is dead, etc. Players cannot kill one another while
doing this, although please try to avoid exposing yourself to any entirely
different assassins who might happen to be passing. In general, all players
involved should submit a report of every incident; this way the Umpire can
correlate the reports and so ensure that the news is updated as quickly as
possible.

2.2.1 Pseudonyms

Obviously, you will wish to avoid other assassins finding out that you are
playing the game and what you have been doing. For this reason each player is
allowed to select a pseudonym at the start of the game. Whenever you make a
report, you may choose whether to have it appear under your real name or your
pseudonym. If you do not specify, the Umpire will probably assume that you
intend to use your pseudonym.

For every two assassins you kill legally, you can earn an extra pseudonym.
If you wish to take advantage of this, email the Umpire telling him that you
wish to register a new pseudonym and what it is. From then on, whenever you
make a report you may choose any of your pseudonyms to report under instead of
your real name.

You will not be awarded extra pseudonyms for kills you make while wanted,
but wanted criminals who succeed in redeeming themselves may be given a new
pseudonym to help with their rehabilitation, at the Umpire's discretion. Note
that while you are wanted, all of your pseudonyms will be listed on the Wanted
List along with your real name.

2.2.2 Public killings

If you kill someone in an unsubtle manner in a public place, you may be
unable to avoid being noticed. For this reason, any kills made in public areas
or areas like college dining halls may result in your not being allowed to
report the event pseudonymously, if there is a sufficiently large number of
people around to see you. (As a rule of thumb, there need to be at least half a
dozen uninvolved people in a position to clearly see you make the kill —
the intent is mainly to discourage assassins from having shootouts in crowded
areas.) Kills made with subtle weapons like knives will not result in your kill
being witnessed in this way.

2.3 Dead players

Dead players should esentially act as non-players, but refrain from
seriously affecting the game. In particular, dead players should not act as
accomplices, however they may point assassins out, or pass on any
information they have to other players unless it concerns the incident in
which they died. Players may not get dead players to open doors for them or
check their mail in the same way that they may not get non-players to do so.

If you have been killed, you should not announce this to anyone until you
are sure that the information could not be used to track down your killer;
preferably, you should wait until the report of your death is on the website.

Dead players may, of course, rejoin the game as police; see Police
Force.

3.0 Wanted criminals

Any players who break these rules, such as by killing or endangering
innocent victims, may be declared to be "wanted". The names of all
wanted criminals will be put up on the website along with their addresses and
pseudonyms. Anyone on the wanted list is a valid target for anyone else in the
game, including the police (see Police Force).

It may be possible, at the Umpire's discretion, for wanted criminals to
redeem themselves through services to society such as the elimination of other
criminals. The Umpire (possibly in conjunction with the Chief of Police) will
decide what conditions, if any, are appropriate. Note that players who become
wanted intentionally by, for example, murdering other players are very unlikely
to ever be redeemed.

4.0 Competence

To encourage participation in the game, there is a time limit for making
attempts on your targets, called the "competence period". Initially
the competence period will be 3 days. If you do not make an attempt within a
week of the start of the game, you will be designated incompetent. After each
attempt, you have 3 more days in which to make another attempt.

If you become incompetent, you will be put on the Incompetent List. This is
like the Wanted List without the glamour; incompetent players are legal targets
for all players and police. The Umpire will specify conditions for players to be
removed from the Incompetent List; this will probably involve making two
credible attempts on your targets, possibly of a specified type.

Initially all attempts will count for competence. As the game progresses,
certain types of attempt may cease to count for competence: you may still make
them, but you will become incompetent if you do not make any others.

You will
always receive competence for killing another player, even if it is done
using a method which would not otherwise count or if they were attacking you
rather than the other way around.

As the end of the game approaches, the competence period may decrease. Should this occur, the Umpire will let you know.

5.0 The police force

Players who have been killed may, if they wish, be reincarnated as a member
of the "police force". This is a special group of players who exist
solely to hunt down and kill criminals and incompetents. If you have died and
would like to join the police, tell the Umpire. A list of all police (including
real names) will appear on the game website.

Police are more limited in their powers than real players; for one thing they
are not allowed to use any form of poison.
Police, unlike players, will also find that they cannot kill anyone who is not
a legal target for them — should they attempt to do so they will discover
that the victim miraculously does not die. Police may attack and kill players
bearing weapons in pre-emptive self-defence, but attacking innocents or other
illegal targets will result in their being made wanted just like anyone else.

Police should not collaborate with assassins except to co-operate in the
elimination of criminals and incompetents. Those who are found to be helping
assassins with any other goals will be made wanted for corruption. Police who
arrange to "collaborate" with other assassins and then shoot them for
bearing weapons may have such kills disallowed at the Umpire's discretion.

Police who fail to make attempts on criminals and incompetents when there are
any around for them to kill may be designated incompetent and made a legal
target for all players. Note that even wanted or incompetent police cannot kill
people who are not legal targets for them, although obviously they can kill
anyone who attacks them.

Police who are successful in upholding the law and removing criminals may be
promoted to higher-ranking positions in the Force. The actions of the police are
ultimately controlled by the Chief of Police and his deputies.

Particularly successful, devoted or brave police officers who are killed in
action may just find themselves given another chance ...

6.0 The Umpire:

This term's Umpire has yet to be decided.

The primary method of contacting the Umpire is through email, though players are
welcome to visit.

Attempting to take items from the Umpire's pigeonhole or break into his
computer account is strictly forbidden. Impersonating the Umpire is also
forbidden; see Rules of engagement.

Player-Umpire communications may be made public at the end of the
game for everyone's enlightenment and amusement. If you do not
wish a certain communication to be made public, please tell the
Umpire.

The Umpire is immortal. Players attempting to test this proposition will be
made wanted, and quite probably laughed at.

7.0 Administrivia:

It is the responsibility of players to read their e-mail and read the news to
see whether they have been put on the wanted list. Players are deemed to know
that they are wanted/police as soon as these details are published on the
website. They are not wanted/police before this, and you cannot kill someone
just because you believe that they are about to become wanted. Of course, if
they are trying to kill you or bearing a weapon, they are fair game anyway.

7.1 Web pages:

The game website is at href="http://www.rassassins.blogspot.com">Raffles Assassins Guild; you are probably reading these rules there now. During the game, the news will
be published on the website along with any updates to the rules, news of
upcoming special events or social events, etc. A regular email will be sent out, detailing the events of the day.

8.0 Comments:

• 
  The Umpire's Rule is law. There will be no right of appeal against a
  disqualification.
  


• 
  Official complaints about a person's behaviour will almost certainly
  result in disqualification. Involvement of the (real) police will
  definitely cause you to be disqualified.
  


• 
  Individual players may not speak for the Guild as a whole, and as
  such not use our rules as an excuse for their behaviour.