PAXsassins

ctishman · March 2005

I saw the post in the other thread regarding LARPing, and decided to one-up it.

How about something less dorky and more fun? How about a PAX-wide game of Assassins, modified for a conference center full of games and gamers?

The modified rules are as follows:

- Open season begins when the doors open on Day 1, and runs 24 hours/day until PAX closes. Action should be relatively fast, as we want to have a Master Assassin by Day 3.

- One exception to the previous rule is for games & tournaments. You may not assassinate a player while they are engaged in a game or tournament. This is incentive to play games damn near nonstop all through PAX, and to watch your back closely when making a Pocky & Bawls run.

- Kills are made by taking your target's watch (8.5x11 PDF). Every player prints out the PDF in color, at 8.5x11, cuts it out, and wears it on the outside of their clothing, in a grabbable area. It's big, but that's so assassins can grab it without fondling you too heavily (unless that's part of their plan to get it).

-indoors only. We don't want someone getting sent to jail for menacing passers-by with a rubber band gatling. Indoors means the Mydenbauer. Outdoors is all the way outdoors. Diving for the door to avoid assassination won't save you.

- Should disputes arise as to 'who killed whom first', they target may appeal, and the dispute will be settled by a game of the assassin's choice, limited by availability. The appeal game goes for one round (if applicable, if not, one game), and the results are final and merciless. I don't care if a horde of chihuahuas grabbed your nards and made you let go of e. honda's turbo button. You lose, you lose.

Interested? Let me know here.

Legacy · March 2005

Sounds interesting...

Though, if the Doubletree is in-bounds, I'd be taken out when I was drunk during a party, easily.

ctishman · March 2005

That's negotiable. We don't want to cost Gabe & Tycho use of the Doubletree with our shenanigans. If that sounds preferable, we could make it only the PAX floor.

eelektrik · March 2005

Although I dont know the rules, Meydenbauer only would be a wise choice since not everyone will be at the doubletree and they will have an advantage in that case. They cant be assassinated on the way to their room once they leave the doors of PAX, so that should go for everyone.

DJ Eebs · March 2005

Something like this involving the watch would be awesome.

Dog · March 2005

I would be totally into this. Played it in my freshman dorm and it was a hoot. I ended up making the final kill in the chemistry building hall as my prey was leaving her first mid-term of her college career. That felt good.

SmallLady · March 2005

I"m very intrigued... I've never even heard of assians... I'll need to learn more!

but one question... how do you tell apart the people who are playing and the ones who are not?

Thanks

Small

ctishman · March 2005

Good point about telling people apart. Here's the basic concept of the game, for those who don't know:

Participants put their names into a hat (or in this case, spreadsheet with pictures, because for the most part we've never met), and then each is matched with a target.

Players do not know who is hunting them, only who they are supposed to hunt, and the objective is to score a 'kill' on your target, at which point he or she is out of the game, and you take his or her target as your own.

This continues until two people are left, hunting each other. When the final kill is made, the surviving assasssin is named "Master Assassin" and goes home with nothing to show for it but glory among a small group on an internet forum.

(Moved to general rules)

The Geek · March 2005

The problem that often arises with this game is that it won't come down to just two people with each other's name or picture.

Example:

9 people are playing, we'll call them 1 through 9.

9 names are put in the hat and everyone pulls a name.

1 pulls 2, 2 pulls 3, 3 pulls 1.

4 pulls 5, 5 pulls 6, 6 pulls 4

7 pulls 8, 8 pulls 9, 9 pulls 7.

Now you have 3 seperate groups who will never interact with each other because they will never "assassinate" someone who has a picture in the other groups.

1 kills 2 and then 3 and gets his own name back
4 kills 5 and then 6 and gets his own name back
7 kills 8 and then 9 and gets his own name back

And with the possiblity of hundreds of people playing this at PAX, you're gonna end up with more than just 3 seperate groups.

DJ Eebs · March 2005

Another option would be to have team battles, and limit the teams to a relatively small number.

Legacy · March 2005

The Geek wrote:

The problem that often arises with this game is that it won't come down to just two people with each other's name or picture.

Example:

9 people are playing, we'll call them 1 through 9.

9 names are put in the hat and everyone pulls a name.

1 pulls 2, 2 pulls 3, 3 pulls 1.

4 pulls 5, 5 pulls 6, 6 pulls 4

7 pulls 8, 8 pulls 9, 9 pulls 7.

Now you have 3 seperate groups who will never interact with each other because they will never "assassinate" someone who has a picture in the other groups.

1 kills 2 and then 3 and gets his own name back
4 kills 5 and then 6 and gets his own name back
7 kills 8 and then 9 and gets his own name back

And with the possiblity of hundreds of people playing this at PAX, you're gonna end up with more than just 3 seperate groups.

That's why you don't pull a name...

You make a tournament bracket. Or something like that.

Borfase · March 2005

we're also forgetting the fact that no one really knows how each other looks like

Legacy · March 2005

Borfase wrote:

we're also forgetting the fact that no one really knows how each other looks like

That's the best, cause then you have to kinda be an assassin. It's not like you wouldn't be distributed a picture of what your target looked like...

That's how I'm seeing it at least...

ctishman · March 2005

You'd get a picture. Right now the idea's for a planned assignment over a random draw, and everybody in a single pool though I suppose it could be split up if we get more than, say, 20 players.

Dog · March 2005

There are three outcomes here that I see need to be figured out before hand:

1) Like The Geek pointed out, you can kill off a group and end up with your own name,
2) you can kill your own assassin in self-defence, leaving that person's assassin with no live target,
3) or worse yet, your target gets the flu and never leaves their hotel room, leaving you no live target for the whole duration.

There's gotta be a system to get folks back into "assassination circulation". Since this is a pretty old game, I'm gonna bet there's some tried-and-true methods out there I don't have time to look up before I leave work.

Also, for those that are intrigued, lemme tell ya that 3/4 of the fun is picking out a gun (or several), strutting around like a badass, devising the optimal quick-draw rig, and then trying to keep your toy pistol at the ready while you go to the john.

Legacy · March 2005

protagonista wrote:

There are three outcomes here that I see need to be figured out before hand:

1) Like The Geek pointed out, you can kill off a group and end up with your own name,
2) you can kill your own assassin in self-defence, leaving that person's assassin with no live target,
3) or worse yet, your target gets the flu and never leaves their hotel room, leaving you no live target for the whole duration.

There's gotta be a system to get folks back into "assassination circulation". Since this is a pretty old game, I'm gonna bet there's some tried-and-true methods out there I don't have time to look up before I leave work.

Also, for those that are intrigued, lemme tell ya that 3/4 of the fun is picking out a gun (or several), strutting around like a badass, devising the optimal quick-draw rig, and then trying to keep your toy pistol at the ready while you go to the john.

1) You won't end up with your own name
2) Then they'll be notified and new assignments will be handed out for them.
3) Check-ins every day.

Or we can just do teams, like in the PA Forums Assassins games...

Andwarf · April 2005

I am definitely down for this. Or is that up for this? Both. I am both down and up for this. AT THE SAME TIME.

SmallLady · April 2005

I'm in!!

This sounds like alot of fun!!!!

Nephirij · April 2005

I might be up for such a game... *rubs chin* lets see how it all unfolds first.

Joey Fusion · April 2005

If this happens, we should have everyone that's playing be required to wear a "PAXsassins" shirt or something to that effect so that everyone knows who's playing. If we're doing the watch stealing thing, how do the nerf blasters play into it?

ctishman · April 2005

Heh, that was an earlier version of the rules. I'll shore 'em up now.

ctishman · April 2005

Close, except without the guns, because we don't want people getting arrested. You make a "kill" by grabbing your target's watch and ripping it off his arm. If you're lucky, he gets a papercut in the process.

CATS · April 2005

forgive my ignorance but... what's the story with these watches? are they anything special?? i'm very interested in playing but I'm unclear about this watch business.

Legacy · April 2005

CATS wrote:

forgive my ignorance but... what's the story with these watches? are they anything special?? i'm very interested in playing but I'm unclear about this watch business.

Joey Fusion · April 2005

The "Watch" is a piece of paper shaped like a watch that is taped to a visible part of your person (wrist probably). To "Kill" someone, you need to get ahold of their watch. For the first day we should do a team kind of thing and split them up on day 2 by having a few inter-team assasination missions; so everyone gets a little paranoid.

Nephirij · April 2005

this is sounding better and better.

Raiden333 · April 2005

I'll so play.

Drakenul · April 2005

I'm so in too.

CATS · April 2005

I'm definitely in for this but what's the deal with killing an attacker in self-defense? Who takes on who's target, and such?

ctishman · April 2005

That's one problem: If anything, PAX is chaotic, and informing assassins that their target has been counterkilled is a problem.

Of course, whipping around and ripping off some guy's watch is tougher than whipping around and shooting him with a band gun, beaning him with a tube sock, etc.

I suggest that if you see your target, and he's not wearing his watch (make DAMN sure!), you're well within your rights to assume he's been counterkilled, and to ask him for his target. If he's still in play and not wearing his watch outide his clothing, in plain sight, on his wrist, he's both a dick and not considered to be playing anymore.

MulysaSempronius · April 2005

Legacy wrote:

CATS wrote:

forgive my ignorance but... what's the story with these watches? are they anything special?? i'm very interested in playing but I'm unclear about this watch business.

hehe.. oh man that sounds cool. I would really like to participate in this, and watches sound like a great way to go about it. fake guns and the like just cause too many hastles with all the paranoia going around.

tmonkey · April 2005

One thing that would probably work, and would require that people register ahead of time, would be to put the name and picture of the target of the back of the watch. Once an assasain removes the watch from their target, they have the information for their next target. Assasains accumulate watches, and eventually there will be only two, fighting for control of the final watch.
There's two methods of determing the winner in this way, there's either the final killer standing, or the most efficient killer, i.e. the one with the most watches.

LogicLB · April 2005

ctishman wrote:

That's one problem: If anything, PAX is chaotic, and informing assassins that their target has been counterkilled is a problem.

We could try to build a website with registered targets, and then we could update it during the event.

We could have a central intelligence of sorts. So after you kill a target; you report your kill into intelligence, and intelligence would assign you a new target. As well as stamping "Terminated" over the target's picture on the website.

Communication with intelligence could be through text messages, emails, instant message, or whatever else.

Iâ€™d be willing to help get a system running if it sounds like a good idea to everyone else.

This sounds like a ton of fun.

CATS · April 2005

that seems to me, to be a bit... involved, is it not? Considering how busy things are going to be at pax, are people really going to have time to also update this site? not that its a terrible idea, it just seems a little too elaborate.

LogicLB · April 2005

What do you think?

or

ctishman · April 2005

Very nice! Personally, I like the bloodier one. Whaddy'all think?

Ani_B · April 2005

Blood makes everything better.

Nephirij · April 2005

i have made my decision and i am ...............................................in

CATS · April 2005

Always go with the blood!!!

Ulyssesdraco · April 2005

I wont play...but uhh...am I allowed to trip players with a cardboard tube?

Dog · April 2005

Oh dear Lord, count me in. I haven't played a good Assassin game in years. This sounds great.

From all the ideas, it sounds like there will defninitley need to be some repository of faces to assign. And the use of watches is fantastic...

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