The Assassin's Game

Damion Schubert/ 28 August 1996

Quite simply, the Assassin's Game is a competitive scenario run by an NPC named Roq. Each combatant is given a dagger with the name of another on it, and yet at the same time knows that someone has a dagger with his own name on it (he knows not whom). The goal is to be the last one alive.

Game modes

• There are three distinct modes to the Assassin's Game: wait mode, accept mode, and game mode.
• During wait mode, players may do nothing other than say 'advertise' or 'no advertise' to Roq, so that they get notified when a match should occur. Wait mode lasts between one and four days. Wait mode only occurs to put some amount of time between matches.
• At the beginning of accept mode, Roq notifies everyone on his advertise list that a match is starting. Each player then has between 6 and 12 hours to join the match (by saying 'blade' to Roq). This is kept reasonably short, so combatants have a reasonable expectation of being on somewhat during the same hours.  Players must be PKABLE to take part. If there are not enough people enrolled in the match when it begins, Roq sends the loop through accept mode again.
• During game mode is the only time that actual killing is allowed. This period lasts either until there's a winner, or until there has been three days without a kill (at which point, Roq calls the game on account that it's participants are a disgrace).
• Note #1: Players may quit the proceedings at any time by saying 'quit'.
• Note #2: DM actors (DMs with pbActor = 1) may artificially enter each of the modes by saying 'accept mode', 'start game', and 'reset game'. This is for testing only.

Combat and Combat Math

The assassin's game was designed to put more emphasis on knowledge of the game, stealth, sneakiness and deception than combat stats - i.e. to give low level characters as good a chance as high level characters.

• Each player gets a dagger. Set in each dagger's pommel are four gems which, if the wielder is fully healed, glow. If all four of these gems stop glowing at any time, that player 'dies' and is expelled from the game.
• Only two other combatants may attack someone with a black dagger: his 'primary' target (the person whose name is on his dagger) and his 'secondary' target (the person on whose dagger his own name appears). Note that you CAN attack the person who is trying to kill you.
• A player swinging a dagger always has a 50% chance of hitting his target.
• If a player hits his primary or secondary target, then one of his target's gems stop glowing. If all four cease to glow, that player 'dies' and is expelled from the game.
• Gems flicker back to life after five minutes. If a player logs off while any of his gems are not glowing,
• If a player hits anyone other than his primary or secondary target with his dagger (whether they are part of the game or not), his dagger loses 1 hit point.  Should his dagger lose 5 hit points, the dagger will shatter. Those hit points return back to life at a rate of 1 every 8 hours.
• Safety flags are ignored by the daggers, as are outlaw, murderer and pkill-enable flags. Also, there are NO safe zones, except for the Underworld.
• Combat should have normal fighting sound and animations.

The Long Haul

A couple of additional quirks were put in to ensure that a couple of bad players couldn't hold up the whole thing for everyone.

• If a player is spending less than three hours per day online at any given time, he will be kicked out. This check is performed once per day, and each player gets one warning.
• If the game goes three days without any kills at all, Roq calls off the entire game in disgust.
• When the game ends, Roq notifies everyone on the advertise list. He sends mail to those offline.
• If a player is not PKILL_ENABLED, he may not take part in the proceedings. If he loses his PKILL_ENABILITY, he will be kicked out of the proceedings.
• Players who suicide also are removed from the game, as well as the advertising list.

The Daggers

The daggers themselves have a handful of unique properties.

• The black dagger shivers whenever your primary or secondary combatant has changed (remember, someone else is trying to kill them, too).
• The dagger 'shivers' when you log on, if either your primary or secondary combatant has changed.
• The dagger's description shows (a) how many gems you have left glowing, (b) how many notches are cut in the hilt (how many kills you have) and (c) the name of your current target. Before the match starts, the name of your current target is a bunch of runes that are indecipherable.
• Death at the hands of the dagger teleports one to the underworld, but with no loss of stuff or stats.
• The dagger can not be equipped until the game starts. The dagger is deleted as soon as you are expelled from the match, or the match is over (either you win or it's ended by tie).
• The black dagger can not be sold, offered, bought, or dropped.
• The black dagger can not be enchanted, mended, brittled, shattered or swapped.