Basic Rules
The aim of the game is to assassinate the players you receive writs for using any means at your disposal. You are then obliged to submit a written report of any assassination attempts you make. You must also report any attempts you bare witness to.
It is very important that whiles playing the game you abide by the following rules.
No Realistic Weapons - Realistic weapons are against the law and can potentially be harmful to other players, cause panic amongst the public and could get the Bureau closed.
Only use Valid Weapons – A list of allowed and disallowed weapon types is in the weapons section. If you have an idea for a weapon and it is not covered by the rules then assume it is disallowed and contact the umpire for clarification. It may be allowed immediately or be included in the rules for future games. This is to save you the heart ache of hunting down your target and then finding out later that beating them with a raw sausage doesn't count as a weapon.
Do not break the law - This shouldn't have to be said. Just because you are playing this game does not give you the right to break into strangers house, damage their property or ask in an intimidating way. Basically use your common sense.
When it comes to entering players houses without permission just think about what you would do if you weren't playing the game. If you entered a friends house without permission there would likely be no consequence; if you however enter a strangers house without permission then the consequences could be serious.
No Physical Contact – This is just a common sense thing, no grappling, dragging, pushing ect. Or anything else that could be seen as aggressive out of the context of the game.
No Civilian Casualties - If a Civilian is assassinated, either on purpose or by accident then the assassin responsible can expect to be punished by the Umpire. The punishments will differ depending on the situation. If it is a case of misplaced poison then the punishment will be minor, if it is a case of soaking a random member of the public with a super-soaker then the punishments will be extreme.
Assassins are not only responsible for their own lives, but to a limited extent they are responsible for the lives of the civilians around them. If you find a letter and suspect it to be poisoned, giving it to a civilian will be your responsibility and the assassin who originally wrote the poisoned letter will not be held accountable for it. Obviously if the civilian opens a letter without being persuaded or manipulated into doing so it would then be the responsibility of the writer.
If in the example above, a known civilian has become poisoned; any assassin in the area should respond in a realistic and reasonable way to it. This means that if the civilian is a house mate the surrounding assassins are expected to at the very least inform the civilian of the game and how to take an antidote if they so wished.
Leaving a civilian to die (especially a friend) in the hopes that it will somehow work against the assassin targeting you is not in the spirit of the game. You may also recieve kudos for saving the civilians.
Safe Areas – A number of predefined ‘safe’ areas are excluded from the game, this includes:
- Inside the university buildings including Lounge and Legends and paved smoking area. Grassy areas and areas leading between buildings are not safe. Please remember that if you are near a building you are expected to act discretely and non-disruptively. Areas shaded in red below are out of bounds.
- On college ground (excluding fields). Anyone playing from the collage should contact the Umpire discuss more specific details; obviously the Umpire is unaware of the specific layout of every campus in Stafford.
- Inside Hospitals, libraries, museums, places of worship, and sports halls are out-of-bounds
- Public transport is out of bounds
- Officially Organised sports activities are out-of-bounds. This mean regular training sessions, tournaments, and any events prearranged to be safe by the Umpire. In addition to this people participating in such activities are considered safe for 10 minutes before and after each activity. This is to prevent wannabe assassins from loitering outside sports halls therefore preventing their targets from enjoying their activity in peace.
To make sports activities easy to referee, players must make it obvious that they are about to, or have just finished playing a sport. Ways of doing this include : -
- Making their team shirt obvious (either worn, or over a shoulder ect.)
- Holding a ball/disc/bat or other equipment
- Being with a group of people obviously in sports gear (a group means 3 or more)
- Wearing shin pads or other sports related gear
- You can wear a white shirt or sash with the words "Immunity" written on it instead of a kit.
Not marking yourself clearly as being involved in sports activities can leave you open to assassination. It would be up to the discretion of the Umpire whether the kill counts as successful based on the reports submitted.
If you attempt to mislead your assassin by dressing up in sports gear, purely for the purpose of avoiding assassination it will count as abusing the rules and you could be disciplined for it. Obviously this is not going to the extreme of banning people from innocently wearing e.g. football shirts.
- Anyone working in a job is out of bounds while at work. Players about to enter work are protected in the same way as players involved in sports activities. They are safe for 10min before and after they go into work as long as their uniform is showing, or they have the white "immunity" shirt described earlier. In addition messy weapons such as watergun are not to be used on anyone wearing a uniform for their job.
- A player’s room is a safe area unless they invite their potential assassin in. Then it becomes temporarily unsafe until the said assassin has left (by which point it is usually too late!).
No attempted assassinations should take place in safe areas. Also assassinations cannot take place across the boundary; there is no shooting into or out of a safe zone. Also as explained above you cannot physically move your target out of a safe area.
Pre-agreed safe zones - If you are having a house party and don't want people to be scared off due to the risk of assassination, then you are free to request a temporary safe zones for the duration a social.
The Umpire must be informed beforehand about any safe zones that you want to set up otherwise they won't count. You must also give enough time for the Umpire to respond with permission (or disapproval) of the proposed safe zones.
You must ensure that The Umpire, and everyone entering the safe zone knows of the conditions. Do they need to leave all weapons at the door? Are they safe from everyone or just a select few? What time is the safe zone in place? Where is the perimeter of the safe zone?
You must put a notice on every door to the house to inform people that the area has been declared a safe zone. This is not only to inform your guests, but also to inform any wannabe assassins planning a raid.
Do not act intimidatingly, do not loiter, do not act suspiciously- I have always wanted to believe that people have the ability to use common sense, unfortunately every now and again a minority of people let the side down.
If you are playing the assassins game it does not give you the right to run around annoying and intimidating people, especially those who are not actually playing the game. Such behaviour is not acceptable and results in penalties or your removal from the game.
Please keep in mind that although you might be having fun speaking around your targets back garden, their is a street full of people potentially watching you who might assume you are up to no good and trying to rob the place. To know exactly what you can and can't do, please ensure you read the "code of conduct".
Ensure that all housemates are informed about the game- Even though there are rules in place to control assassins behaviour it is important to ensure your housemates know that you are playing the game. This is because there is a good chance that fellow assassins might try and attack you at your house. In this game it is important that your housemates do not become alarmed.
It is also important that if they are not happy with the idea of you playing the game that The Umpire is informed, and potentially you choose to sit out. The assassins bureau does not want to be hearing complaints from disgruntled house mates.
Always be graceful in defeat and well spirited in victory– We want everyone to have a fun time playing. If there are any disputes, please contact the Umpire immediately.
When possibly it is advised that you go back to any players that you have assassinated to ensure that they are clear with what has happened. This is to prevent disputes or differing stories. You will be surprised how many players get assassinates and don't realise because it was too quick, they were drunk/tripping-balls, or they disagree with how it was done.