Some games have "police forces", sometimes composed of eliminated players, whose job is to track down rule breakers. The safety can last for one specific day or for the duration of the game. These items or actions are called safeties. Game hosts might assign certain items to be worn or actions to be performed that protect the wearer or performer from elimination. Under some rulesets, the presence of witnesses (or the presence of witnesses above a certain number) will either invalidate the kill or expose the killer to "penalties", like additional assassins being dispatched to target him or her. At a university, safe zones might include classrooms during class periods. A safe-zone is a place that protects a player from elimination. Some rules establish safe-zones, also known as Out of Bounds. Eliminations might include hitting the target with an nerf gun or striking them with a toy plastic lightsaber. What constitutes an elimination depends upon the particular rules set up by the game host. The respawn means events are organised during the game to capture specific points.Įliminations ("kills") remove a target from the game. Oxford University plays by a ruleset where the game runs for a week and the players respawn, usually after 12 hours the aim of the game is to collect as many points from kills as possible. If only one player remains, the game is over. Only one assassin can kill a target at a time.
When a player eliminates their target, they get the victim's target(s). The aim of the game is for players to track down and eliminate their targets until only one player remains. A player is usually told the personal details of their target as collected by the game host. Once enough players have signed up, the game host assigns targets to the players. Game hosts (also called umpires or referees) begin by advertising that a game is being set up and instruct potential players to send in their personal details. As such, the specific style of play is likely to vary between one group and the next. The Assassin game has several published variants, such as the Steve Jackson book Killer: The Game of Assassination, first published in 1982, and different guilds tend to create their own sets of rules and procedures.