Assassin

Overview

This game of stealth is great for your tweens, teens, and young adults. The larger the area (such as a park or school campus) the more fun you can have! Each player is both assassin and potential victim, which makes for some interesting detective work as each player vies to be the last one left alive.

Age

Tweens, Teens, Adults

Number of Players

5 to 10, 10 to 20

Team Division

Every man for himself (individual players)

Competitiveness

Competitive (has winners and losers)

Difficulty

Attention, please! (a few rules to follow)

Indoor or Outdoor

Either

Space Needed

Extra large (football field, warehouse), Campus (extended space such as a college campus, urban area, park, or neighborhood)

Noise Level

Semi-rambunctious

Mess Factor

Clean and tidy

Prep Time

10 - 20 minutes

Game Time Length

60 minutes or more

Supplies

Slips of paper

Colored circle stickers (like the kinds at office supply stores used for color-coding)

Photographs of each participant (optional)

Envelopes (optional)

List of players

Pens

Name tags (optional, but helpful if you are not using photos)

Setup

1. If you have photos of everyone that is attending, create “dossiers” with a person’s photo and name. If you don’t have photos, just write the person’s name on a slip of paper. These can be placed in envelopes or simply folded over in thirds and sealed with a circle sticker. Make sure to keep a list of all of those playing.
2. Assign one person to be the “Boss” -- they will be handing out the assignments. Place that person in a side room that cannot be observed by the players.
3. Have a stack of stickers handy in the same room.

How to Play

The object of this game is actually pretty simple: kill or be killed! Each person will be given an assignment. It is their job to seek out and find the person they are assigned, and place a sticker dead center on their back; by doing so, they effectively kill their target and acquire that person’s target. The one who can last the longest becomes the head assassin.

1. Gather your group together and have them enter the Boss’s room one at a time.
2. The Boss will hand each player a piece of paper with either the photo or name of their target. The player should open the paper in front of the Boss. That way, if they have been handed a slip of paper with their own name on it, they can trade it for another. (The Boss should verify that it is that person on the slip of paper.)
3. Once the assassin knows their target, they take their assignment and a sheet of stickers and leave.
4. No one in the group can begin until the Boss releases them.
5. Once everyone has been assigned a target, the Boss releases the players.
6. To make a kill, a player must place a sticker directly on the back of their target; they should then inform the player that they are “dead.” If the target senses that they are about to be stuck, they can retaliate by placing their own sticker on their assassin. If they tag their assassin, the assassin must go to the Boss and have the sticker removed before returning to stalk their victim.
7. However, if a would-be victim sticks a sticker on someone who is NOT their assassin (i.e., they panic or are tricked) that player receives a sticker from the non-assassin and they must return to the Boss to have the sticker removed.
8. If at any time a player is “killed,” they relinquish their dossier to their assassin. That becomes the assassin’s new target.
9. Once killed, a person returns to the Boss, and their name is checked off the list. The player can then return to the field and play the role of double agent, trying to trick those that are still alive into thinking they are assassins, or informing players on information that might help them.
10. Play continues for either a set length of time, or until there is only one assassin left standing.

Additional Rules
1. It is considered cheating to remove any sticker -- only the Boss can do that.
2. No matter where the Boss is stationed, you must return to the Boss to have a sticker removed.

Variations

1. Instead of stickers, use Nerf tag guns. A hit to the chest plate must stick to be considered a direct hit. If the bullet bounces off, it does not count. Players may retaliate with their own guns. All the rules are the same as if the bullet was a sticker, with a hit to any part of the body on a victim against his assassin counting (doesn’t need to stick).

Tips

1. Make sure you’ve got “officials” on site to verify “kills.”
2. Keep the game moving. If things seem to be too timid, send in informers.