The Assassins' Guild: Mayweek 2005 Rules
1.0 Introduction:
Assassins is a game of mock assassination for a large number of players.
In the Mayweek game, each person has to try to kill as many of the others as
possible as often as possible while avoiding the attempts of others to do
the same. At the end of Mayweek, whoever has the highest score is proclaimed the winner.
Note that the Mayweek game is substantially different from the Assassins games
which run in the Michaelmas and Lent terms. 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 who live for much of the time within
a five-mile radius of Great St Mary's Church in Cambridge city centre,
although others may be considered at the umpire's discretion.
Everyone who wishes to play should provide the Umpire with:
- Full name, indicating the name you are usually known by
- College or department (if you are a member of the University)
- E-mail address (full if not @cam.ac.uk, although your @cam.ac.uk
address is preferred)
- Your official address (i.e. room number) and if different the
address at which you will be living (i.e. sleeping and spending a
reasonable number of hours at) during the course of the game. This
address will be made public on the assassins website to enable other
players to find you. If you believe there is a real-life psychopath
attempting to kill you, explain to the Umpire and you will be
excused. However, it should be noted that if this is the case and you
still wish to play Assassins you may be in need of psychiatric or
police help.
- If you live relatively far from the city centre, brief details of
city centre visits that you regularly make. The Umpire shall use his
discretion in deciding which details to make public.
The aim is to involve outliers more in the game, since trekking out
to Girton to kill another player is usually only done by a few of the
keenest assassins.
- The extent to which water-based weaponry is allowed in your room.
The options are no water (no water pistols or other water-based
weapon may be used in your room), with care (small water-based
weapons may be used if the user is careful) and full water
(anything goes). You may also let the umpire know of anything specific
in your room which could be damaged by water; this information will
be given to your assassins.
- An initial pseudonym. The Mayweek game has no secrecy, but many
assassins enjoy the use of silly names anyway. You may change your
pseudonym or create new ones as frequently as you like during the
game.
- 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
live in a shared set and assassins should be wary of killing your
roommate.
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. You also
consent for your name to appear on the Guild website now and in the future in
connection with the events of the game.
1.2 Conduct:
- 1.2.1
-
For any deliberate breach of the rules a player may have a points
bounty placed on his or her head 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 porters
and the general public. In particular, do not knock on anyone's
door at unreasonable hours.
- 1.2.4
-
This game depends on players being honest for it to work. Please submit
a report 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) college
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. Similarly, you should not attempt to intimidate
other players with threats of actual violence, even if you have no
intention of carrying them through.
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, a page will appear on the Assassins' Guild website
with the list of people playing the game. If you see any of these people,
try to kill them.
- Whenever you make an attempt on another player's life, whether or not
you succeed, submit a report using the interface on the website. If someone
tries to or succeeds in killing you, report that as well. The system will
award you points when you are reported to have killed someone and take them
away when you die.
- If you die, you are out of the game for the next four hours, and may not
kill anyone. Once the four hours are up, you are resurrected and can
continue playing as before.
- At the end of the week, whoever has the most points wins the game.
2.1 Killing people:
The weapons rules describe the various weaponry
you may use to eliminate other assassins. Note that due to new legislation introduced in the UK in 2004, you are not allowed to
use any toy gun that looks like a real gun, as this is illegal.
- 2.1.1 Legal targets
-
You may legally try to kill either of the following types of person:
- Anyone listed on the website as playing in the game.
- Anyone who is clearly holding a weapon. (You cannot
legally attack someone who was holding a weapon a few seconds ago but has
now hidden it again.)
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 penalised 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 against another player. However, there are
some things you are not allowed to do:
- You are not allowed to impersonate authority figures such as bedders,
porters or the police. This is so that players can take part in the
game without aggravating their bedders by refusing to let them into their
room. You should also not take advantage of bedders unlocking the door to
your target's room to break in and kill them. Note that it is fine to
impersonate the JCR committee, RAG reps 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 (or, for that matter,
a bedder or porter), 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 player'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 through keyholes, letterboxes or
any other gap in, under or over the door.
- 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. Players are not expected to spend a large proportion of Mayweek
in lecture theatres, and may be ridiculed for doing so.
- Practicals and laboratories are always out of bounds.
- Hospitals, libraries and sports halls are out of bounds.
- 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 college dining halls and any other college dining arrangement or restaurant in
which food is served to the table. Anywhere you get food yourself from a
servery is in bounds, as are pubs that serve food to tables.
- Official university society meetings or regularly scheduled meetings of
an unofficial society which takes place in college grounds, including in
players' rooms. Pubmeets are not out of bounds.
- Seminars, supervisions, tutor or DoS meetings and the like.
- Rowers are out of bounds while rowing and also while carrying their
boat, to avoid upsetting the rest of the crew when someone has to run away
from an assassin while they were supposed to be carrying the boat. The
same applies to other "serious" boat-related activities such
as canoeing. Punts are not out of bounds.
- Anyone working in a real proper job is out of bounds while at work.
(This is unlikely to apply to anyone who is a student.) Anyone working at a
college bar, ent, May Ball, the Bumps or similar is also out of bounds while
they are working, but you are free to kill them if they have time off,
etc. Anyone working for the St. John's Ambulance is out of bounds while
they are in uniform.
- Anyone in a car or other motorised vehicle is out of bounds and cannot
attack or be attacked. Players on bicycles are in bounds, but please be
careful not to surprise the victim and only attack if there is no
possibility that you could cause an accident or injury. Players should also
avoid firefights
across busy streams of traffic, both to avoid risk of injury and to prevent
aggravating drivers.
- Auditoria of theatres/cinemas during or immediately proceedin/following a
performance. Any area in which a play is being performed counts as an auditorium.
- The CUR radio station in Churchill College is out of bounds.
-
Any persons performing/practicing with fire poi/fire sticks/fiery juggling
implements are considered to be have a rather large out of bounds area
surrounding them which should encompass all those in the immediate vicinity
who are primarily engaged in watching/teaching/heckling said persons. This
is entirely a safety concern and anyone abusing this item will have the book
thrown at them.
May Balls, Events, garden parties and college ents are all in bounds.
However, players are expected to show common sense at such events. In particular,
water weapons and messy weapons should not be used at any such event (this includes
May Ball queues). It is no-one's fault but your own if you are thrown out of
anywhere for being a gun-toting maniac.
Computer rooms such as the Phoenix User Area, Cockroft 4 and other
departmental computer rooms are in bounds subject to the following restrictions:
- Entirely out of bounds between 9am and 5.30pm.
- Use only weapons which cannot possibly damage equipment. This probably
does not include any form of gun except to make "bang" kills.
- Avoid annoying other users. Do not use noisy weapons such as cap guns.
If you ignore either of these rules the kill may be disallowed at the
Umpire's discretion.
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.
Care should be taken when attacking players carrying large items, musical
instruments or electrical equipment. Such players should not be attacked with
water weapons or other messy devices and be careful not to surprise them such
that they drop whatever it is that they are carrying. The Umpire will take a
dim view of people who run to pick up random musical instruments whenever they
see another assassin - you should not use this rule to gain a tactical
advantage from a musical instrument, as with any other situation which may make
you temporarily out of bounds.
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 may
be penalised. 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. If killed, accomplices resurrect
after four hours, as players do.
Attacking people not involved in the assassins game is strongly discouraged,
and you will lose points for doing so. Players who do this persistently may be
removed from the game.
If you are involved in a battle in a public place with non-players present,
please respect their wishes and allow them to pass in safety. Non-players are
not to be used as cover.
- 2.1.5 Ceasefires
The codeword "ceasefire!" may be used by any player or accomplice
in the event of an emergency such as injury or porterial intervention. Should
this occur, players should cease all assassins-related activity, put their
weapons away and, if appropriate, leave the area. Players cannot be killed during
a ceasefire; anyone attempting to violate one will be penalised or disqualified.
A ceasefire should only be called in emergencies; particularly, you should not
attempt to call one in order to advantage yourself in a battle, and you will be
penalised if you do.
- 2.1.6 Suicide
Suicide is not allowed in this game. If you wish to be removed from
the game, please inform the Umpire who will make the necessary
arrangements.
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 submit a report as
soon as possible. The Assassins' Guild website will have an interface which
players may use to submit such reports. If anything odd happens and you are
unsure of how to report it, email the Umpire.
Reports submitted by players will be added to a list of events on the game
news page. Reports are encouraged to be dramatic and creative and may also be
intentionally misleading, although outright lying is frowned upon.
If you cannot be sure what happened in an attack, you may agree upon
a
"discussion phase" with the other assassins involved in order to
clarify who was hit, who is dead, etc. Players involved in the original
incident cannot kill one another while in the "discussion phase",
although any entirely
different assassins who might happen to be passing may attack you with
impunity. Players whose vital status is in dispute are not allowed to
fight back during a "discussion phase". Since the game news is
updated automatically by computer, it is important that you resolve
exactly
what happened in a particular incident with all those involved before
you
leave. If a consensus cannot be reached, you are recommended to arrange
a duel
or other equitable means of deciding. Players duelling to resolve a
dispute in
this way cannot be killed by other players for the duration of the duel
(although arranging 'duels' which last for hours in order to become
invincible
will not work).
The automated reporting system adds reports to the website as soon as they
are submitted. However, if anything is wrong with the reports on the website,
let the Umpire know and he will fix it.
- 2.2.1 Pseudonyms
-
There is no secrecy in the Mayweek game; the list of all assassins is
available on the website at all times along with all their pseudonyms and other
statistics. However, whenever you submit a report, you may do so under a
pseudonym for general amusement value. There is no limit to the number of
pseudonyms a given player may use, and you may select a new one at any time.
2.3 Dead players
After being killed, you are deemed to be "dead" for the next four
hours. While you are dead you should refrain from interfering with the game,
meaning that you should not point out the presence of other assassins or pass on
information to live players.
3.0 The Umpire:
This term's Umpire is Adam Baird Fraser of Christ's College and may be contacted by
emailing assassins@srcf.ucam.org.
The primary method of contacting the Umpire is through email, though players are
welcome to visit. The Umpire lives in Room 2, 70 Jesus Lane. No-one may be
killed in the Umpire's room, although players are discouraged from running to the
Umpire in order to escape an attacker. Should you burst into the Umpire's room
gibbering about attacking assassins, he will sneer and call you a pansy.
Any queries about the game can be emailed to the Umpire, or you can visit (but
you should probably try to arrange the meeting beforehand, since even the Umpire
goes out occasionally). Try to resolve any queries before they become
a matter of life or death (yours or anyone else's).
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
punished appropriately.
4.0 Administrivia:
It is the responsibility of players to read their e-mail and read the news to
see whether there is anything important of which they should be aware. Anything
published on the website or emailed to players is assumed to be known from then
on, and claiming that you did not read it will not be a valid defence.
- 4.1 Web pages:
-
The game website is at http://www.srcf.ucam.org/assassins; 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.
To avoid waste of bandwidth, game news will not be distributed by email.
- 4.2 Newsgroup:
-
The game also has its own newsgroup (ucam.rec.games.assassin) which
players may use for discussion, etc. You are unlikely to find news about the
current game here, but you may find discussion of special events, proposed
changes to the game or new mini-games, etc.
- 4.3 IRC Channel:
-
There is an IRC channel #assassins
on the SRCF server
(kern.srcf.ucam.org, port 6667). All assassins, potential assassins or
ex-assassins are welcome to join and discuss the game or anything else. See
Adam Biltcliffe's updated Assassins
FAQ for more details on both the newsgroup and IRC.
5.0 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.
Notable changes
- Restaurants in which food is served to the table are now out of bounds. This does not include pubs that serve to tables.
History
The history of this set of rules is thought to be:
- Initial author unknown.
- Typed in by Paul Roberts (PER10).
- Later history unknown.
- Used by CUSFS for a while.
- Martin Hardcastle (MJH22) 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), 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 (NJH27) made modifications.
- Ben Harris (BJH21) 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 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.
- Claire Bordenave (cb302) modified the rules for May Week 2001.
- Ed Nokes (emn23) made a brand new May Week program.
- P�ivi Pasi (pap26) made some changes for the May Week 2002, with contributions from J Doe and Simon Ford.
- Jonathan Hogg (jdh41) made some changes for the May Week 2002, with contributions from J Doe.
- Adam Biltcliffe (amgb2) restructured all the rules to look a bit more like the
main game ones again, and changed the weapons rules a bit with some input from Ed
Allcutt (ema29).
- Adam Baird Fraser (asb47) made some small changes for May Week 2005.
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