Killer is a mock combat game for a large number of players. Each person has to try to survive whilst everyone else is 'killed'. The game shall be open to people who live for much of the time within a five mile radius of Great St. Mary's Church in Cambridge city centre.
These rules are for the May Week 2000 game, and as such, the rules are different from normal games of Killer.
The game will run from midnight on the 14th/15th June to seven days later, midnight on 21st/22nd.
Everyone who wishes to play should provide the Umpire with:
Every player is a valid target for this game. Consult the game web page for a list.
The following gives an outline of the various weapons which can be used against enemies. It is not an exhaustive list and players are encouraged to use their imagination. However, any weapon not listed below must be patented with the Umpire. It is up to the discretion of the Umpire whether a player using an unauthorized weapon has killed the victim. So do check with the Umpire before charging into battle using your latest creation. Weapons that have been patented in a past game must still be patented again with the new Umpire. In general weapons must
Ideally they should be specific to the victim - killing bystanders is to be avoided if possible, even when the effect (e.g. perfume poison) is harmless.
Indirect kills are not permitted during the May Week game. This includes bombs, contact poison, etc.
Weapons marked (*) in the following list should be used with extra care.
If you have delegated you room a No Water Weapons Zone, it then automatically becomes ILLEGAL to use any water-based weapons in the room. Note that other weapons may still be used. The disadvantage is that you may not fire a water pistol OUT of such a room.
Water pistols may not be used in shops or parts of shops where the PRINCIPAL goods on sale are electrical appliances, books or other goods which are likely to be the worse for it. Obviously if the adjacent goods are tinned foods or pencil sharpeners, you may shoot away. This should be common sense, but is worth emphasizing.
If small water pistols are used, it is a good idea to confirm the kill immediately with the victim who might not have noticed the hit if wearing thick clothing. This avoids arguments later, when the water has evaporated, or, as it is not uncommon for Cambridge, when it is raining.
Head .......... Unconscious for 5 minutes. Body .......... Immobilised but conscious for 5 minutes. Arm or Leg .... The limb is immobilised for 5 minutes.Note that anything you do with an arm that has been coshed is invalidated. If you run away after being coshed in the body or leg, then you are dead. Please allow your murderer to finish you off in style, they might have spent a long time trying to find you... (reasons for this - the satisfaction the assassin will recieve when they Finish Him/Her)
Open Umbrellas, labelled "Shield" count as protecting you from whatever waterpistol fire you may
encounter. Note that, in general, the heavier-calibre guns will get round/through an umbrella.
Be honest, if any water gets on your head or torso, own up to being dead. This reflects that
bulletproof technology has limitations. Furthermore, if your shield is hit by any class of
grenade (see 4.6 above), then you are dead as it explodes into shrapnel that tears your body
apart. Note that Body Armour is forbidden in this game. Umbrellas may NOT be simultaneously
labelled Shield and Poison-Tip. That would be too easy!
Deaths should be reported as soon as possible after the event, stating all salient details (when, where, how, and whether any innocent bystanders were killed). It is best if both assassin and target report the death to make sure there is no mistake. Creative/amusing reports are encouraged as they will be used in the news. All assassins should at some point receive a walk-through for the automatic reporting system.
There will be no police in this game, since all assassins resurrect after four hours. The Umpire will take on the police role.
You may attack:
Any other attacks will be attacks on innocent victims. Please do not inconvenience non-players. Attacking more than ten non-players will get you disqualified. Attacking university fellows or staff will get you out of the game (and probably sent down as well). Look, there's no point in attacking non-players anyway, so just don't, okay?
Be careful with players bearing musical and/or large electrical instruments (e.g. TV). The instruments are not to be wetted, and the victims have to be attacked carefully so they don't drop their expensive instruments during the assassination attempt. Do note that picking up a random instrument does not qualify as protection. You need a valid reason for carrying your respective instrument if an attempt is made.
Note that players who are in St. John's Ambulance uniform are effectively out of the game for the whole duration they are in uniform. They may not be killed, and they may not kill or be an accomplice. Attempting to gain a tactical advantage from a uniform is a serious offense, and will not be tolerated. You have been warned!
No assassination attempt may be made if victim or assassin is in an out-of-bounds area. The following are always out of bounds:
Computer rooms in libraries are defined as computer rooms, not libraries. A computer room is, in general, defined as a place where the public (or any clearly defined group, e.g. members of a certain college) are permitted to use computers. Players' private rooms do NOT count, no matter how many computers they own.
May Balls are designated no messy weapons areas. That means no water, no flamethrowers, no contact poison, no grenades. Poisoning food is fine though, as long as you stay to see the kill. Try to keep a moderately low profile in May Balls - we aren't an official society, and porters are liable to to throw gun-toting maniacs out of May Balls. Such is life.
Inside university faculty buildings will be designated no messy weapons areas, unless it is blatently obvious that the building will be oblivious to the mess. In general, use your common sense. If there's a carpet, notice board, fellows, milling crowd, or anything similar, then that place is definitely NO MESSY WEAPONS. Courtyards in university buildings are okay though.
Any further suggestions should be communicated to the Umpire as soon as possible. Please use your common sense!
The game only lasts one week. Kill as many players as you can in that time.
Witnesses are anyone who has seen a kill happen, be they players or non-players. Anyone may report a kill by anyone and of anyone. When reporting, the computer will attempt to work out if any reports are duplicates. Duplicate report texts will go to the news page (differing views, etc), but the statistics will only be updated once.
This game is unlike the normal games. Once you die, you resurrect after four hours (this time may change mid-game).
All players are listed on the web page in a table. This table includes information on which assassins each player has killed, and which assassins each player has been killed by. When viewing the statistics page, it is up to you to decide who you think is the winner.
However, the computer will sort the players on this statistics page, approximately as a ranking from best downwards. The better assassins will be recognised by the program as those who kill lots of different players, rather than those who kill several players lots of times. Note also that if you have already been killed by someone, them killing you again won't put you down the table much.
I cannot prevent mafias from existing. Any group of people may agree not to kill each other and call themselves a mafia. There is nothing wrong with that.
The problem comes when a mafia becomes too influential and starts ruining the game. In these circumstances, the Umpire will use whatever means necessary to keep the game enjoyable for everyone else. Let's hope the new rules will prevent this.
Please, have some consideration. It may be fun for you if you are crimeboss of a mafia that is killing everything in sight, but think of all the other people playing. It gets boring if no-one dares to emerge from their rooms.
This term's Umpire is Alex Churchill (gaec2@cam.ac.uk).
The primary method of contacting the Umpire is through email, though players are welcome to visit.
The Umpire is immortal. No one may be killed in the Umpire's room: Room 8, 6 Adams Road, next to Robinson College.
If you have any queries, visit/mail the Umpire, preferably before the query becomes a matter of life and death (yours or anyone else's).
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. Thanks.
NOTE: It is the responsibility of the players to check the game web site often. Information on which players are alive is posted on the web page, along with how many points one would receive on killing any particular victim.
If any information on the web site is inaccurate (especially kill reports), then send the umpire an email. Reports automatically go onto the web site as soon as they are submitted, but the Umpire should be able to sort out most problems.
The game now has its own newsgroup (ucam.rec.games.assassin) - although it hasn't been used for eons. Players may use it for discussion if they wish but I've no idea if anyone checks this. The news and announcements will only be posted on the webpage (see Section 11.2) by the Umpire.
If you wish to post something anonymously to ucam.rec.games.assassin, ask the Umpire to do it for you.
The game has its own World-Wide Web page, which will host these rules and game news.
To avoid waste of bandwidth, game news will not be distributed by email, although important announcements may be.
The history of this set of rules is thought to be:
Author unknown.
Typed in by Paul Roberts (per10).
Later history unknown.
Used by CUSFS for a while.
Martin Hardcastle (mjH12) made some modifications.
Julian Birch (jmb29), some modifications and clarifications.
Richard Fairhurst (rjf1001), further modifications and clarifications.
Ben Jameson (bfj1000), yet more modifications.
Jim Cameron (jc10007) and Elizabeth Pringle (EMPP1), even more, mistyped, modifications.
David Allsopp (dna1000), surprisingly, made some modifications.
Paul Menage (pbm1001) was Easter 1995 Umpire, and initiated 3 targets per player.
Nigel Harris (njH17) made modifications.
Ben Harris (bjH11) changed even more things, notably the bomb blast radius formula to be based on a
cube root.
Chuan-Tze Teo (ctt20) modified still more rules.
Martin Read (mpr22) corrected the text of the bomb rules, and set a (semi-)codified timing rule
(after a few shoutings, getting the wording right)
Lynnette Dray (lmd21) modified a few more things, surprisingly.
Tom Oinn (tmo21) htmlified the whole thing.
J Doe (ea212) made some modifications to counter the more modern forms of organised crime
endangering the game's status.
Nadim Nehmé (nn211) incorporated Ed's changes into Tom's html form and declared a different
form of Necromancy.
Matthew Wakeling (mnw21) was the May Week 1999 Umpire, and completely
rehashed the scoring method.
Alex Churchill (gaec2) hasn't modified much yet.