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Join a world filled with assassins... Assassins Ball at PAX East 2014!
MarsChelios
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Registered User regular
You walk into a massive space filled with people; bright lights and loud sounds grab your attention. Your eyes narrow as you scan the crowd searching for your prey. Suddenly a chilling sensation sweeps up your spine; you are being watched. You duck around a corner sneaking a quick glance over your shoulder and see... nothing. But you can’t shake the feeling that someone is hunting you.
Welcome to Assassins Ball, a social game played during PAX East 2014 in Boston, MA, April 11th - April 13th.
For this game I'll be running a Kickstarter campaign for initial materials funding. Following forum rules the link to the campaign will not be posted in this thread but can be found on the game websites main page (http://www.phenixone.com) now that the campaign is live. Please do not post the link here and ask any question pertaining to the campaign through PM or through Kickstarter itself.
For anyone wondering, this has been given specific clearance versus the kickstarter ban on the forums from the Administrator. However, any questions related to the kickstarter itself would be best left to PM or on the kickstarter page. Please do not use this thread to discuss the kickstarter (other than if you want to post that you're participating in Assassins). You will also notice that @MarsChelios has been careful to not link to it directly, this is by design.
What is Assassins Ball?
The premise is simple: You are an assassin with a mission to find specific players and assassinate them, gaining prestige for yourself and your allied faction. After you confirm a kill on your target you will receive a new mission and the process starts over.
Your Kit and Tools
Assassins are only as good as their tools and in Assassins Ball it's no different. Each assassin kit comes with a large 3" player button that has a number of elements on it to identify players as an assassin, listed below:
- Identifying Symbol - Each button is printed with a brightly colored shape on it that acts as an identifier for that player.
- A unique QR Code and 5-letter code used for registering your badge and other game-related activities.
- Below the symbol will be an emblem signifying that players allied faction (You'll pick your faction in the backer survey once the campaign is completed).
The button has both a standard pin-back and a clothing magnet attachment to ensure that it stays on. The button should be worn on your left arm facing out or on the upper left side of your chest.
Kill Confirm
In addition to the player button each assassin kit comes with a Kill Confirm card that will be used so other players can confirm they have attacked the correct target. This card has a prominent QR Code printed on it as well as an alphanumeric backup code.
Website & Apps
The game website http://www.phenixone.com will be your primary tool for Assassins Ball information, registering your kit and receiving missions. Here you will also be able to view your prestige and ranking compared to other players overall and in your allied faction. The site is being rebuilt at the moment to work on mobile sites for use during the game.
In addition to the website, an Android app is currently in progress for players to use during the game. More info will be released as it nears completion.
A note on Missions to previous Assassins and Assassins Ball players
In the previous Assassins and Assassins Ball games physical mission cards were provided to the player. For this and future games missions will instead be provided through the games website and Assassins Ball apps.
How to play
Once you've received your kit you will need to go to the game website and register your player button (You will need to create an account that requires a valid email address prior to this step). Additional steps may be needed to sync your account to the Android app and will be added here once finalized.
MIssions
Shortly before the game starts you will receive an email with your first mission. This mission will also be displayed on the website and the Android app.
Each mission will identify a specific symbol to look for on other assassin players as well as the preferred faction for the target. The specified faction on a mission is always optional but matching it to you target will earn you more prestige.
While you will never receive a mission requiring you to target your own faction you are free to do so if a players symbol matches the one on your mission. However, your faction will gain no prestige for such kills and may cause you to be declared a rogue agent by faction leaders. Once a mission has been assigned, you will notice that a timer starts to countdown on the website. After a few hours time the timer will reach zero and if you have not found your target you may request a new mission.
Assassinating Players
When you find a player whose symbol matches your mission walk up, say “Hi”, and kill them. Just kidding, assassinating a player is primarily a verbal exchange and while players are encouraged to be creative when assassinating players please do not:
- Use prop weapons
- Do things that could be considered threatening (Physical contact, proximity)
- Above all don’t ruin someones fun
Confirming assassinations
There are a few ways confirm your assassination. You can enter the code on that players Kill Confirm card on the website, scan the QR Code on the Kill confirm card through the Android app. In the event that you cannot access the website, feel free to snap a picture of it for entering later (You will need to confirm the kill before you will be given a new mission, however).
Earning prestige
Prestige are points awarded for each confirmed assassination to the player. Points are also award to the assassins allied faction (except if the player and target are in the same faction). The amount of prestige awarded is determined by how closely you match your target to your mission.
Being assassinated
Struck down in your prime? Lucky for you, you were trained pretty well and your faction simply can't have you dying on the job. Unlike previous assassin games being assassinated is not the end of the line. When another player approaches you to be assassinated be cordial and allow them to see you Kill Confirm card but do not let them take it. Once they have scanned or taken a pic of it they will return it and be on their merry way. You may then continue with your mission, just be more careful ok?
Factions
Factions are powerful organizations or groups who employ assassins to further their goals, each with a specific theme. The factions and their emblems are listed below, but to find out more go to the factions page on the games website.
Faction Leaders
Faction leaders are players dedicated to making sure assassins in their faction succeed. They do this by getting the word out and enrolling players to register, tweeting enemy faction player positions, and even recruiting new players to join their faction! I'd like to appoint one player for each each faction from this community. Community Faction Leaders will need to purchase their own kit but will receive a Faction Leader kit for free.
What's next?
Don't see something covered here or uncertain about something? Got a suggestion or constructive criticism? Think this is awesome? Let me know below! I'm very excited about this years game and I hope you are too! If you're posting a question for me, please place @MarsChelios in your post so I can be alerted and respond promptly.
Help get the word out!
Assassins Ball grows primarily through word of mouth. With the all or nothing nature of Kickstarter I need your help more than ever to make sure Assassins Ball is at PAX East! Help me get the word out or let me know any suggestions you have on reaching people!
Here's some ways I'm connecting with people:
MarsChelios on
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Looking forward to reading the rules WRT the assassinations - does this mean no need for Second Lives? I assume that not actually being assassinated means no more need for intel cards either.
She is fast and thorough / and sharp as a tack
She's touring the facility / and picking up slack
I'm still thinking about Intel, I want some sort of Intel in the game just to give players more to do. With the codes on the buttons again its possible to move back to surreptitiously gathering them off players, but I really liked the aspect of the Intel cards from the last two games that forced players to interact. Luckily that system is fairly easy to implement either way, so let me know your thoughts on Intel or any other aspect of the game!
She is fast and thorough / and sharp as a tack
She's touring the facility / and picking up slack
In any case, I can't wait to play again this year! It was seriously one of the top highlights of PAX last year for my friends and I.
"You want to kill me? You couldn't even kill my boredom" - Roronoa Zoro (One Piece).
Attending PAX East since 2011.
Welcome! If you haven't yet you order a kit by following the link found my website: http://www.phenixone.com
Haha, you beat me to it! Thanks for playing @Temig!
I'm a little concerned about getting missions from a website with how spotty the connection can be at the BCEC - is there a chance that we might be able to text kill codes to a number, or email them, rather than relying on getting through to a site? Android app support will be nice for some, but I know I'm not alone in not owning such a device.
Awesome, I'm glad you're giving it another chance!
Data connectivity in the convention center is a big concern of mine as well and I'm open to ideas on how make confirming kills less of a hassle. Email for confirming a kill is something I can commit to supporting and I'll look into text messaging. Another possible fallback solution is to have faction leaders and myself have some printed missions to hand out on a case-by-case basis if a player can't connect.
Not at the moment but when the campaign meets it's goal I will open up orders through other payments. I'll PM you when that happens.
For now, i intend to get as many people playing as possible.
Tabletop, Pokecrawl, Pre-dinner.. all good places to start. Maybe talk to the various coordinators to see if they'd be willing to help.
There will be other ways to purchase kits once the kickstarter is complete, and if you really want them shipped to you rather picking it up in person that should be doable.
I wanted to acknowledge the rules are delayed while I finalize some of the printed material files. Because I'm adding QR codes to the buttons I wanted to ensure they would be scannable, and I've gone through 3 different test printings for the buttons and now have the design in a semi-final state. OP is updated but here's the new design below:
As you can see in the image the players faction will now be printed directly on the button, no pesky stickers or labels on the back to worry about. Because the buttons are printed on acetate rather than paper the printed product will look different from this mockup and any white areas will be clear and show the underlying metal. I think you guys are going to dig it.
THIS makes a BIG difference.
Last year I saw 2 people.
The first because he found me,
and the second I met in line and asked to swap intel codes, but also had me.
Then I was dead for the rest of the weekend, and didn't feel compelled to look anymore.
I am a huge fan of this change too. The first year i played (last year of armbands) i didnt get killed and managed to bring home several kills, but last year i got taken out twice with only 1 kill, my friend was just taking people out left and right though.
One of her kills pulled out his second life and killed me the second she killed him and the last guy literally got me at 6pm on sunday right before leaving the expo hall.
Can a rule be put in that prevents this from happening (say a half hour safe period before they could engage me as a kill)? With the ability to get a new target every few hours, the person could always switch to a new target if they have a hard time finding anyone else...
Fair enough. Perhaps a "contested kill" for the second person in this example then. First person who found and initiated the kill gets full points. The killed person who realizes the killer was a target gets to log the kill, but marks it as contested and gets some, but not all points. Obviously this is honor system... just spitballing here
I'm going to try and convince others to join.
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[3DS] 3394-3901-4002 | [Xbox/Steam] Redfield85
Another question: do we do this all three days? I hope so!!!
Yep! The game will start at the same time PAX does and ends when it closes down on Sunday. I'll have be posting more info about details like that soon.
NEED TWO ROOMS IN THE WESTIN ON THURSDAY NIGHT! Please PM me!
Do you try to balance the teams? Or is it possible that one has 80 and another has 0?
NEED TWO ROOMS IN THE WESTIN ON THURSDAY NIGHT! Please PM me!
I can't believe I forgot. I was gonna get one for me and one for my brother-in-law. It was fun last year the day or two we played. Sadness.
Tumblr | Twitter | Twitch | Pinny Arcade Lanyard
[3DS] 3394-3901-4002 | [Xbox/Steam] Redfield85