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 last person to be left alive is, not surprisingly, declared the winner. 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.
If you have any questions about these rules once you have read them thoroughly, please ask for clarification from the Umpires as they will be only too happy to provide it.
Everyone who wishes to play should provide the Umpires with:
Anyone found to have supplied false or misleading details to the Umpires will be disqualified, but I'm sure it's not necessary to say that.
The main aim of the game is for everyone to have a good time. The aim of each player is to be the sole survivor.
You will be given details of your targets by the Umpires, in the dead of night (well - secretly anyway) shortly before the start of the game. Of course, you will not be informed about who your assassins are.
IMPORTANT: Since recent events, and the public awareness of guns, and gun-related crimes, players should be very careful when using weapons in public. Any guns, or other weapons, that look realistic should be made to look obviously like toys - e.g. spraying them bright colours. Anything that looks too much like a real weapon the Umpires will refuse to licence for use. In all cases players should be careful about any weapon used in public, and should avoid themselves being seen using them.
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, the Umpires may make any kills carried out with an unauthorised weapon invalid, so do come and check before using your latest creation in the heat of battle. In general, all weapons must be completely safe (for both people and property) and actually do something, to indicate to the victim that he/she has been killed. All non-obvious weapons must be clearly labelled.
Messy weapons and water weapons should be used sensibly; where the rules state "with care", no large-calibre water weapons (larger than a Super-soaker XP270 or a Storm Force 2) should be used, smaller water weapons should be carefully aimed and not used to excess. Don't use messy or water weapons against people carrying something expensive or wearing formal clothes; they might get annoyed.
Weapons should be specific to the victim - killing bystanders is to be avoided even when the effect is harmless.
The Chief of Police is likely to take a tough line over policemen/women using "non-standard" weapons (e.g. those that could easily endanger the lives of others, such as contact poisons). Police found to have breached the rules will be suspended or made wanted. Claiming you didn't read the rules properly will not be a defence!
Guns, knives, swords, grenades and darts will kill instantly if they hit the head or torso. If a limb is hit then it can no longer be used for the duration of the encounter.
Represented by water pistols, rubber band guns (or rubber bands fired by hand) and other soft projectile weapons. BB guns are NOT allowed.
You must get a definite hit with the main jet. If you just splash them with water (e.g. at extreme range or out of ammo) then it is only a flesh wound - they can carry on as normal. If they are hit in the head or torso then they are killed instantly.
If your private room contains expensive equipment (e.g computers) which may easily be broken by maniacs with water pistols, you may ask the Umpires and have it declared out of bounds for water- based weaponry only. Your assassin will be reminded of this. Note that other weapons may still be used, and also that you may not use water weapons out of such a room.
Water pistols may not be used in shops, or in places which contain electrical equipment.
Water and messy weapons MAY NOT BE USED in the rooms of non players, and must be used with care in staircases and other indoor areas.
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.
Rubber bands fired from the fingers, small rubber band guns, Edison Giocattoli orange pellet pistols and all Nerf weapons are allowed. Anything else must be shown to the Umpires before use. Guns must not look like real guns. Pellet guns must not have the orange piece at the front of the barrel removed, and should be decorated in some way to make sure they look like toys.
In this term's game, pellet rifles will not be allowed.
Head shots should be avoided where possible with all forms of projectile weapon.
Represented by Vaseline, jam, mustard etc. This will
kill immediately after contact even if it is wiped off. This sort
of contact poison is deemed to be no longer effective if it has
dried enough that the victim does not notice it (be honest,
please...). If wearing non-porous gloves then it will have no effect.
Similarly, poison will take an appreciable time to diffuse through
anything thicker than, say, a towel. Powder, eg. talc is also
permitted. As contact poison is dangerous to anyone else who
might touch the surface in question, anyone using it in a
public area will be put on the wanted list. This includes a
target's door handle. Ask the Umpires for further clarification.
Excessive use of contact poison, even by Dave Hammond and those
already on the wanted list, should be avoided.
Please take care not to use any substance liable to cause allergic
reactions.
Represented by a cardboard poster tube or a newspaper rolled up and stuck with Sellotape. Either should be clearly labelled "Cosh". The effect of a cosh depends upon the location of the hit:-
Head .......... Unconscious for 5 minutes.
Body .......... Immobilised but conscious for 5 minutes.
Arm or Leg .... The limb is immobilised for 5 minutes.
Foam, soft rubber, retractable plastic or cardboard knives
may be used. If the knife has been made by you eg. from cardboard,
it must be plainly labelled "KNIFE". Plastic ones which are more
obviously knives don't need this. Plastic swords are permitted,
but please be careful. Cardboard swords must be clearly labelled
"SWORD". A rolled up paper tube is a cosh, not a sword.
Plastic light-sabres count as swords and do not require labelling.
No metal knives may be used, including cutlery. Kills made with these
will be disallowed.
Latex weapons (as used in LARP games) will not be allowed in this game.
Any fluffy toy will be allowed as a knife as long as it is registered first,
because Umpires like to see what embarrassing fluffy things assassins
have in their rooms.
Cards, letters, parcels containing contact poison or some sort of audible detonator (letter bombs). Musical birthday cards are a special type of letter bomb, requiring no additional detonator or label. It will kill the victim if it goes off, although signing it from e.g. A. Sassin might be an idea. Poisoned letters should have a disclaimer reading something like
"This is a letter for the mock assassination game run by the Cambridge University Assassins' Guild. The substance contained within is [insert name of substance] and is completely harmless. Queries should be addressed to this term's Umpires, Matthew Johnson (mjj29) and Michael Cripps (mac57) of Trinity Hall."
Powdered contact poison (talc, flour etc) must not be sent through the Royal Mail.
Cards, letters, parcels, etc. that are sent through the mail
service (University or Royal) or are handed to porters, and have
leaked their contact poison are deemed to have killed innocent victims.
Remember: Careless Talc Costs Lives.
'Blackmail' letters must be individually approved by the Umpires before use. These are poisoned letters which offer a poisoned victim the chance of an antidote in return for promptly killing a player chosen by the sender. The receiver will be made wanted if the killing breaches normal targeting rules, but at least he won't be dead... perhaps a legal method of killing could be contrived. Note also that an inappropriate choice of target by the sender (e.g. a non-player) may end up making the sender wanted too.
Bombs can be deadly in their effect, but they require careful preparation and setting up if they are not to kill innocent bystanders.
A bomb is represented by a box or container consisting of two pieces: Firstly, the detonator - to tell the victims that the bomb has gone off. It must bang or bleep sufficiently loudly to be heard by any victims. Remember rule 1.2.4, "A victim is not dead unless they know about it." Secondly, there must be explosive. The size of the bomb is determined by the volume of the explosive. 'Explosive' could, for example, be cotton wool or plasticene, or water placed in a closed container like a wine bottle. Air-filled objects are not considered to contain explosive, except in the special case of balloons. The detonator must be touching or attached to the explosive.
You must furnish the Umpires with details of the construction of your bomb along with your report.
The volume of the explosive must be marked on or in the bomb in litres, as must the blast radius, and it must be labelled 'FAKE BOMB' in large letters. There must also be a disclaimer reading:
"This is an imitation bomb for the mock assassination game run by the Cambridge University Assassins' Guild. Please do not touch. Any queries may be addressed to this term's Umpires, Matthew Johnson (mjj29) and Michael Cripps (mac57) of Trinity Hall."
In the event of the bomb being triggered, the blast shall be assumed to act in a 'reasonably' straight line, and along this line may encounter obstacles. 'Reasonably' means that a bomb placed right up against the door (outer or inner, for those with double doors) to a room, will blast in all directions into all corners of the room through the door, not through the side of the wall.
For people with 'oaks' this may sound unrealistic, but this is a game, not reality, and I have to be fair in this respect at least to those with only one door.
The blast radius of a bomb can be generated from its volume by the following formula:
r = 2.4 + 2.6 * ln (V)
Where V = bomb volume in litres, r = blast radius in meters, and the logarithm is the "natural" log, to base e.
Table of Bomb Volume vs Blast radius:
m 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0 3.5 4.0 4.5 5.0 5.5
r 0.6 2.4 3.5 4.2 4.8 5.3 5.7 6.0 6.3 6.6 6.8
m 6.0 7.0 8.0 10.0 12.0 14.0 16.0 18.0 20.0
r 7.1 7.5 7.8 8.1 8.9 9.3 9.6 9.9 10.2
If there's something the victim and the bomb, it will subtract from the blast radius as follows:
Door ..................... 1 m
Window ................. 0.5 m
Plasterboard wall ........ 1 m
Brick wall ............... 3 m
Stone wall ............... 5 m
Cupboard ................. 1 m
'Ready made' bombs include alarm clocks, tape recorders, plug timers, and such like. Party poppers also count as bombs, but remember that they are of extremely limited volume and are hence only likely to be useful as letter bombs. They can be used as detonators for larger bombs.
NOTE: Bombs operated by timers are not permitted. Some method of detonating them involving a person's action of some kind must be used. This is because it is unfair that people should be blown up while asleep; there is no defence against it. Similarly, bombs detonated directly, by the bomber's actions alone, (eg. radio controlled) are disallowed. "Dead man's triggers" (bombs that go off when you die) may not be used for the same reason.
The one exception to the triggering rule, is that timers may be used on bombs INSIDE a player's room, because there is a defence to this. It consists of locking the door...
Bombs can be triggered by the victim in various ways. There are endless possibilities: drawing pins positioned to pop balloons, smoke detectors (if the victim smokes), vacuum cleaners booby-trapped with Confetti in the exhaust, etc.
Note: Constructing a bomb which is intended to kill the occupants of an entire staircase or college, is not generally valid as it validates rule 1.2.4
If you can defuse a bomb without causing its detonation, so much the better. It is a good plan to start by removing the explosive, however this will not render the bomb totally harmless as detonators contain a limited amount of explosive and are considered similar in effect to letter-bombs. If the bomb detonates, all detonators attached to it are destroyed and considered harmless.
Devices which prevent motion sensors or other triggers from going off for a certain period of time are permitted, if you can work out how to make one!
Also consider remote bomb detonation. For a bomb left outside your door, detonation from within your room may be done with, say, a coat-hanger underneath the door or by opening the door whilst standing at a safe distance.
You may not remotely detonate a bomb using another explosive device. All bombs are considered bomb-proof.
Please provide the Umpires with details of how you defused / detonated the bomb as part of your report. Try and make this interesting for inclusion in the news report. All bomb equipment should be returned to its maker via the Umpires, unless it is defused or dud and you wish to reuse the components to build a new device. Even so, you should keep track of the components and try to prevent their loss: they will still be returned to their original owner later in the game. Components of a bomb that has detonated may not be reused for the duration of the game by any player.
Those with small rooms may construct barricades/bomb shelters/bunkers. These must be registered with the Umpires before use.
Poisoned umbrellas may be used to transfer contact poison on to a player (as in the case of the Bulgarian Georgi Markov). However, you should be careful to avoid actual injury to the participant, and may well need to cover up the tip of your umbrella with something softer.
It is possible to use 'novelty' weapons which aren't in this list. Previous unusual weapons have included buses (used to run someone over) or poisoned lipstick. Email the Umpires before using such a weapon. A kill using a non-sanctioned weapon may not be accepted!
NOTE: Tanks and shields will not be available in this game for normal players. Police may, however, employ riot shields. These are umbrellas or latex shields. Umbrellas must be labelled and cannot be used as both a shield and a poisoned umbrella.
Deaths should be reported to the Umpires 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; in fact, players repeatedly submitting boring reports will be made wanted "for bad press".
When a player is dead they may, if they wish, join the "police force" with the purpose of killing any wanted criminals, such as those who are found to have killed innocent bystanders. The members of the police force will be announced to all players.
Police may only use direct kill methods on wanted criminals. However they may use bombs on incompetents only.
Successful police officers may earn promotions to higher ranks provided they demonstrate skill and fairness in their application of the law. The actions of the police force will be coordinated by the high-ranking Chiefs of Police.
Police may also attack players openly bearing weapons in "pre-emptive self-defence", but once a weapon is out of direct sight the player cannot be killed by police. Police should not collaborate with assassins unless the target is a wanted criminal.
Police officers should take great care not to kill innocent victims. In general, police who kill innocent bystanders will be permanently suspended from duty, whether they are innocent players, non players or ducks.
The Umpires will consider individual cases though, and if there are extenuating circumstances the officer will be allowed to resume his duties. These would include bystanders who deliberately threw themselves in front of a criminal to stop a bullet, or if the police misidentified a passer-by with reasonable cause (no, goatees do not count as reasonable cause). If police shoot innocent players, the players will not be killed, but the police will be suspended anyway, so there!
Police officers can be made wanted for corruption if they are seen with live criminals, or if they fail to kill wanted/incompetent members of their own college in what the Umpires deem to be a reasonable length of time.
Police officers may be made incompetent for failing to make attempts on wanted or incompetent players. They will of course be excused if there are none of these around for them to kill.
Police officers who show exceptional bravery or devotion to duty may find that death is not the end...
You may legally kill any of the following:
Note that someone in the process of making an attempt on someone else is *not* a valid target in this game, unless of course they are bearing weapons.
You may, of course, kill any player not in the above list, but they are considered to be innocent victims and you are liable to become wanted.
There are a number of ex-players around whom people find it amusing to shoot. These people will have some say in the fate of their attacker(s).
No assassination attempt may be made if victim or assassin is in an out-of-bounds area. The following are always out of bounds:
Assassinations CAN take place in the Phoenix User Area, Cockcroft 4, departmental/college computer rooms etc, but only as follows:
Should the situation occur again, 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 college) are permitted to use computers. Players' private rooms do NOT count.
"Formal college dining halls" shall be taken to mean in a hall
for the purpose of eating food which is served to the table. We are
aware that this applies to some colleges' informal dining arrangements.
Any meal where you get the food yourself from a servery is in bounds.
The Umpires would like to encourage people to keep their playing to University grounds if at all possible. If you must attack on an open street, then please be careful about showing visible weapons where members of the public might see them, and call the police.
Any further suggestions should be communicated to the Umpires as soon as possible. Please use your common sense!
Once the game starts, you must make a reasonable kill attempt within one week of the start of the game. After this, you must make an attempt less than one week after your previous attempt, until the end of the game. If you do not, you will be added to the incompetent list and hence become a valid target for any player or police officer. This length of time will decrease as the number of players decreases.
There will be three levels of kill attempt in this game. These are:
At the start of the game, sending a poisoned letter will keep you
competent. After three weeks, only other indirect or direct attempts will
keep a player competent. It is likely that at the end of the game only
direct attempts will suffice. This is to keep the game running at a good
pace.
Note that a legal kill will always keep you competent, however it is
achieved, including killing someone trying to attack you. Merely
surviving an attempt will not, in general, extend your incompetence
deadline.
Players who are on the wanted list for incompetence can be removed if
they catch up on kill attempts in a way specified by the Umpires. This
will probably involve performing an attempt at the current incompetence
level, and one at the next level up.
When only direct attempts keep players competent, a legal kill may be
required for a player to remove him/herself from the incompetent list.
Example: someone going incompetent in the third week may regain competence
by sending a poisoned letter and planting a bomb.
WARNING: "Attempts" made on friends and allies solely for the purpose of extending one's competence deadline will not count towards competence.
Whenever you make an attempt on the life of another player or an innocent, successfully assassinate him or her, are attacked yourself, or become involved in any other game related incident, you must notify the Umpires as quickly as possible. If you can, confirm the exact details of the event with the other assassins involved — though be careful about exposing yourself to danger, when doing this.
Players may gather after an incident to discuss what happened, and will be under a no-kill zone during the discussion, until the players disperse.
In general, all players concerned should submit reports; the Umpires can update the game news more quickly and with fewer problems if this is done.
A witness is any player or non-player who is in a position to see an assassination take place. Witnesses can, of course, talk about the assassination to other players.
In game terms, dead witnesses tell no tales but provoke investigation. The police force has a very up-to-date forensic department, and players do not escape the Wanted List by disposing of witnesses.
Each player may begin the game with one pseudonym of their choice,
which may be used in the news in place of their real name. Every time they
have legally killed another two assassins, they earn the right to use one
more pseudonym; but only so long as they remain on the right side of the
law (ie. not wanted for any reason).
Police Officers and wanted criminals have no secrecy; their pseudonym(s)
are always published together with their real names.
Players may at any time make a choice of the pen-name under which subsequent reports involving themselves are to be published - subject to that pen-name being either their real name, or their first pseudonym, or any of their pseudonyms (if a player has earned one or more extra ones). Obviously, the actual pseudonyms themselves may not be altered once devised.
If you are responsible for the death of an innocent victim (see rule on Permissible Targets) then you will be put on the Wanted List (a public file containing the names and addresses of known criminals).
Getting other people to open your mail/door for you will make you responsible for them (if they die you will become wanted, unless you have a very good explanation). Non-players MAY NOT defuse or detonate bombs intended for you.
Players who incompetently _attempt_ to murder innocent victims will also be put on the wanted list. If an innocent person is killed by genuine mischance, and players could not be expected to foresee this they may appeal to the Umpires. Poisoned letters are considered attempts on those to whom they are addressed; poison on door handles will be considered to be an attempt on the life of ANYONE who may reasonably be expected to try to open the door. So if you poison a communal door, you have attempted to murder innocents, and will be put on the wanted list. To discourage indiscriminate contact poisonings (which get tedious), it's now assumed that people other than a room's occupant could reasonably try to open its door.
If you are on the wanted list the police will come after you...
This term's Umpires are Matthew Johnson and Michael Cripps (assassins@srcf.ucam.org) of Trinity Hall.
The primary method of contacting the Umpires is through email, though players are welcome to visit. The Umpires are immortal. Michael Cripps lives in Room 1 and Matthew Johnson in Room 9, both in Dean House, Trinity Hall Wychfield Site, Huntingdon Road. The staircase containing Room 1 is out of bounds, as are both rooms. They are also non water zones. The Umpires will however take a dim view of players who run into their staircase in order to escape an attacker.
If you have any queries, send mail or visit the Umpires (but try to arrange the meeting beforehand), 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 Umpires.
NOTE: 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 the Umpires send e-mail to that effect or publish the details on the website. They are not wanted/police before this.
This may seem a bit unfair, but is less so than expecting the Umpires to guess if a player has logged on recently. Players are not wanted before the Umpires announce the fact and therefore are not automatically permissible targets, even if people know they will be wanted soon. Of course, you may shoot anyone displaying a weapon.
The game has its own World-Wide Web pages, which will host these rules and game news:
<URL:http://www.srcf.ucam.org/assassins/>
To avoid waste of bandwidth, game news will not be distributed by email.
The history of this set of rules is thought to be:
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