The Assassin Game

In researching live-action games for a competition, I came across the “Assassin Game“; which is pretty common on college campuses. What struck me about this game in particular was that the entire city is the playing field, and once the game begins, it’s happening 24/7 until a winner emerges. It’s probably politically incorrect that the premise of the game is killing (eliminating) your opponents, but I think it plays off of some basic human instincts and allows total flexibility in how the mission is achieved.  Players say it also creates a healthy level of “paranoia” which I find interesting. It makes it harder to compartmentalize your “serious” work life with your more  fun, adventurous side. Some may see that as a negative, but I personally think blurring that line a little might be worth exploring.

Rules of the Assassin Game:

“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. Once enough players have signed up, the game host assigns targets to the players. A player is usually told the personal details of their target as collected by the game host. The aim of the game is for players to track down and eliminate their targets until only one player remains. When a player eliminates their target, they get the victim’s target(s). Only one assassin can kill a target at a time. If only one player remains, the game is over.”