Last week a small game hurled the senior class into a world of paranoia and excitement. The game is called Assassin. The Masterminds behind the game are Eric Rahtjen ’08 and Charlotte McCurdy ’08. The premise of the game is fairly simple: the last to stand wins.
The rules, however, are not that simple. During the first day of every round, the senior class will get an email giving him or her the target for assassination. The seniors then have a week to assassinate their designated target by hitting him or her with a spoon. To have a confirmed kill, the assassin must not be seen in the act. If a witness has seen the assassination, the kill is considered void and the target is still alive. The safe zones, places and times where no kill may take place, are in classrooms while class is in session, study hours, and after 9:30 pm. Once a kill is made, the assassin must send an email to Eric Rahtjen to confirm the kill.
A player is eliminated from the game if he or she is assassinated. In addition, if he or she does not assassinate the target in the allotted time, or if the target and the assassin have failed to settle a dispute by the end of the round then they, too, are eliminated.
The game was visualized over dinner on a Sunday night. Charlotte and Eric were discussing amusing games and Charlotte pitched the idea of Assassin to the table. Everyone seemed to like it, but there was one problem: What is a good way to completely randomize the assignments without anyone seeing who is paired with whom? Eric then designed a simple computer program that randomly pairs people and puts it into a file under that person’s name. These files were important because it kept Eric from seeing the pairs, keeping it secret. The only thing left do was send the emails to the senior class and begin the madness.
With the first round over as of Sunday night January 13, 2008, many seniors feel as if their life as an assassin was cut too short. Brian McDermott ’08 was spooned by Phil Risman ’08 within hours of the game’s beginning. “I didn’t know what happened,” says McDermott, “One second I am standing enjoying the nice weather, and the next second I am distraught because I was assassinated.” More and more seniors were slain as the day went on. The highlight of the week, according to an email sent out by Charlotte, happened at approximately 11am on Monday, January 7th. Paul Ryder ’08 saw his target in the servery and began his approach. “I saw her standing by the cereal alone and I reached to get a glass with the pretense that I was going to get some milk. I then took out my spoon and whacked Vivian Brodie ’08 on the side of the head.” The week carried on and slowly more and more seniors were eliminated. It is not yet the beginning of round two and the paranoia is most certainly increasing. Blake Gruber ’08 comments, “I have been looking over my shoulder all week, but it paid off, as I am headed for the next round”
Thus far, there have not been any complaints from the faculty. Because there is no assassination inside of class, there is no disruption or lack of concentration. Kristen Schaefer, an advisor in Nichols, said, “I think the game is a great idea.” The under formers, however, are very upset that they are not included. Fifth former M.E. Hawkins ’09 is disappointed she is not playing but reported, “I am excited for when we get to play it next year.” The freshmen are very upset that they have to wait three years to play. Madeleine Foote ’11 commented, “I think they should let the whole school play. It’s not fair.”
McCurdy and Rahtjen are using this as a test run. They plan to try more variations as time goes on. “There’s only one senior year,” say Rahtjen. The next game should be real-time, with assassinations happening left and right. “The beauty of the real-time game is that for one second, someone can be your ally, and the next be your killer.” Only time will give the identity of the ultimate assassin.
