Remote Assassins: A Zoom-free Game to Stay Close to Friends During the Pandemic
After researching ways to host online board game nights with my friends, I decided that I also wanted a screen-free alternative to keep in touch while everyone was in lockdown.
I once played a game at a weekend getaway called Assassins where a large circle of people were assigned “targets” who they would “assassinate” by shooting with a water pistol. They then moved on to look for their target’s target until there is only one person left in the game.
It was a very memorable experience and a great way to connect with new people. Protective alliances were formed, players were betrayed, hearts were broken, many water pistols were emptied and filled.
I decided I wanted to adapt this game to make it pandemic friendly using my favorite human communication tool: the telephone. I made some napkin drawings and Remote Assassins was born.
How it Works
In order to adapt the game to remote circumstances, assassinations are made by speaking a secret weapon word over the phone to their target.
For example, if you were my assassin and my death word was “banana”, as soon as you called me and asked me if I ate a banana this morning, I would be out.
Now that everyone is remote, this poses a challenge. If everyone at the start of the game knew exactly who their target was and the word they needed to kill them, then the game would be over pretty fast. You would call me, kill me, take my target and kill the next person. The game would be over in about 15 minutes.
The purpose of this pandemic version of the game, however, is to actually talk to one another. If people play, it should help them keep in touch with friends and maybe make a few new ones.
In order to slow the game down and ensure that everyone is incentivized to communicate with the full circle, everyone begins the game not knowing who their target is or the word they need to make their kill.
You do, however, possess that information for other people. This means that, in order to advance in the game, everyone must talk to one another.
The beauty of the game is that even when someone is already out, they still possess secret information. While they may not have the ability to win, they still have a reason to continue to communicate with people, helping all players feel included until the game concludes.
How to Play
I start the game with a pool of seven participants, with me playing the role of Game Master keeping track of everyone.
At the start of the game, you as a player receive a message via email with three key pieces of information:
- Your death word, which if spoken to you by your assassin will result in you being out.
- The identity of someone else’s target.
- For yet another person, the weapon word that person needs to assassinate their target.
Everyone gets a link to a secure spread sheet (I use Google sheets) with the group’s email addresses and phone numbers.
The game commences immediately and finishes when one person has assassinated all remaining targets.
We’ve played the game 3 times now. Each time the game lasted between 1–2 weeks, heated up with increasing drama, and a victor made their way around the circle to win the game. Once people start tracing information trails it gets pretty exciting. But most importantly, everyone talks to each other and has a good time.
It’s hard to tell you in this blog post how fun the game really is. In lieu of having you try it, here are a couple of testimonials from my friends who played:
The excitement of the assassins chase was matched by how good it felt to talk to new people and share a bit about our lives. Like meeting friends of friends in a bar, but with the motivation to deceive them for money and glory. — Morgan B.
And another:
I had so much fun in my one on one meeting a new friend of a friend. It was too bad I had to assassinate them within the first 15 minutes of our relationship but she was very nice about it. — Alex B.
It’s fun. Believe me.
Logistics — How to Invite Friends and Run the Game
The game itself is pretty simple to play but designing and orchestrating the game takes some preparation. Here are the steps I went through to invite my friends and host the game for the first time. Below are links to email templates for you including explanations of the rules so you can get started and invite your friends right away.
1. Invite potential players
I wanted to make sure that people were excited to play and that they understood the rules. I set up two points of entry to filter out people who weren’t interested or didn’t have the time.
I started by sending a short email to everyone I knew to ask if people would be interested in learning about the game.
If they responded saying they were interested, I then sent them a second email with an explanation of the rules and a link to a sign up form which confirmed their understanding of the game and collected their contact information.
The one thing I wanted to avoid was one busy person holding up the game for everyone else, so going through these steps meant only people who were truly excited and available were given a place.
2. Assign Player Slots, Weapon Words and Targets
The next step is to assign each player their place in the game. The role of the Game Master is assign everyone’s targets and keep track of weapon words and assassinations. If confusion or a delivery of misinformation occurs, someone needs to break a tie or mediate so the game gets back on track.
In designing the circle, since everyone possesses information for other people, overlap has to be prevented so that no one will end up getting themselves as a target. I wanted the secret information to be distributed according to different patterns so it would be more challenging to decode.
I started with 7 players because that is a prime number so divisions of 1, 2 and 3 would not overlap. It is also possible to play with more people and a non-prime number so long as it’s planned. Whatever your group size, draw things out to make sure everything makes sense and there is no overlap.
To do this, first assign everyone’s targets:
Once targets are assigned, identify who will possess the secret information of who knows about whose target.
Finally, assign who will know whose Weapon Words they’ll need to make their assassination.
3. Give everyone their starting information
This is the trickiest part and I’ll admit that the first time that I ran the game I accidentally gave everyone the wrong information.
Here is a link to the full email I sent to everyone to kick things off including these directions:
Greetings, [Name]!
You have been sorted into a group of 7 lovely people who are on a mission to support one another through the pandemic with pleasant phone conversations — as well as to be the last one standing in a vicious murderous circle.
For this game, you have a target to kill, but you do not know who they are yet.
You also have to speak a specific Weapon Word to kill them, but you do not know this word yet.
You do, however, possess this secret information for other people:
1. [Player X]’s target is [Player Y]. You do not know their weapon word.
2. [Player Z]’s weapon word is [insert weapon word]. You do not know who their target is.
If your assassin speaks your death word to you, then you will die. Your death word is: [insert death word]. Keep your death word private.
The email was a bit longer with some FAQs so use the full template here.
In Summary
The basic principle of Remote Assassins is that you have to keep in touch with people over the phone providing mutual support and entertainment. To anyone reading this in the future wondering why I went to such great lengths to invent a game (e.g. to my unborn grandchildren):
2020 was a garbage year. Lots of people were out of work or knew someone who got very sick or died. Travel was impossible, the value of an American passport evaporated overnight, and our lives have consistently vacillated between being monotonous and treacherous, swinging back and forth between boredom and anxiety. On top of all of that, a light was shone on our aggressively racist and brutal police state, which despite everyone becoming made undeniably aware of it didn’t really change much. Everyone has kind of been having a depressing year.
This game was invented out of a need to talk to each other, but we also have really needed to talk to each other about something else. Inventing and running this game was the perfect distraction for myself and my friends and it is my honor to share it with you.
Thanks all for reading — please post any questions, feedback and suggestions in the comments section. Be well!
