My high school senior class recently had a game going on. It was called “Assassins”. Some of you College people might know it, but basically here's a copy-paste of the rules from my Facebook Senior page:
Each person is assigned a target. You know who you have to kill, but you will not know who is trying to kill you. There are 2 objectives: kill as many targets as you can, and don’t get killed.
You can only assassinate your target. To do this, you must draw a black line across your target’s neck. You can use a sharpie, marker, paint, temporary tattoos, or any other type of harmless black marking. If you assassinate your target, you will receive a new target [your victim’s target].
Rules
1. The line must be a continuous 3 inch mark that goes around the front of the neck. Marks on the side, or a broken mark is not counted as a kill.
2. The library is a safe zone. You cannot kill someone in the library
3. You cannot kill someone if they are taking a test
4. You cannot kill your victim during a class period unless
a. Your target has a free period
b. You are not in a classroom
c. Your target is in your class.
(Essentially, you cannot go into another class to make a kill).
5. You can only wear a scarf or neck-covering one day of the week, unless it’s for religious reasons.
6. When you make a kill, or you are killed, both the assassin and the victim should tell me (Brendan) or message me on Facebook. I’ll message you back your new target. The victim should also tell the assassin their new target. (If Bill’s target is Mary, and Fred kills Bill, Fred’s new target is Mary. So Bill, who is dead, tells Fred who he had).
7. Don’t be one of those people who refuse to accept when they’re out. It sucks when people do that. Don’t do it. Really.
‘Safety Rules’ (These are so the game doesn't become dangerous or get shut down by the admin)
1. If you or your victim is driving a car, you cannot make a kill. A passenger can kill another passenger.
2. When you kill someone, their reflexes will probably kick in. If they have a knife or something dangerous, don’t kill them. Just be smart. We don’t want anyone getting hurt.
3. When assassinating someone, don’t press super hard on their neck, and don't cut them. Again, and injury could mean that the game gets shut down.
Unfortunately, the game was quickly banned by the administration on three premises.
First of all, people were playing it during class during the first couple days. (I think it stopped even before the game was shut down.)
Secondly, the game was called “Assassins”. A violent name, disrespectful of the school shootings that happened.
Thirdly, the method of assassination chosen was drawing a marker across the neck, as it says in the rules above. Once again, very violent.
Here's the deal. The administration have told us that they would have no problems with a game of “Tagging” done with something like “stickers on the shoulder”. Unfortunately, the name “Tagging” sucks, and putting stickers on people's shoulders doesn't sound neither reliable nor cool.
So I was wondering if anyone had any ideas for what to call it, and for a better method of assassination that is not a violent symbol. Preferably one that intrinsically discourages people from assassinating in the classroom. Everyone in my class wants the game to be restarted, no one has made any steps to do so yet. And to be perfectly honest, I have much more faith in the creativity of Bay12 than of my peers.
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Topic: Rebranding a school game (Read 1035 times)