Mac Council Representative and former player Molly Kitts advised players to find some friends who are willing to be bodyguards. Kitts also warned players against leaving their rooms without the assassin’s contract and a water gun.

Not even the Great Hall is safe anymore. High-speed chases across campus with water guns drawn and jumpy students constantly checking over their shoulders can mean only one thing: Assassins has begun.

Assassins, the campus-wide game of strategy sponsored by Mac Council, began on February 8. The game allows players the chance to live like assassin Jason Bourne and enter a world of spies, secrets, targets and occasional treachery. Each player is assigned a target to “kill” with a water gun. The premise seems simple, but killing your target is more difficult when you’re also being hunted.

“You really see people’s true colors when you start playing Assassins,” said junior Charles Lewis.

Lives may not be at stake, but the game is still serious business for some students. Last year’s winner Lauren Kirschner said, “I changed my appearance for walking to classes. I almost never went to the Great Hall and had my friends bring me food in my room. I sometimes even had someone get my car to pick me up and drop me off outside of my dorm building.”

New this year, the last assassin standing will be memorialized on a plaque which will be displayed in the Maclellan/Rymer building. The plaque will include winners from the past three years and will be updated with each new winner.

Resident Director Meredith Hall explained another significant change: the Great Hall is open territory for attacks once again. “There was an accident in the Great Hall a few years ago, so we were asked to make the Great Hall off-limits.” The accident occurred when a player was standing near the hot food and tossed a cup of water at his target but missed, dousing the food. Hall said, “Now that rules are clarified, that assassinations cannot be made near food or drink stations, the Great Hall is open again.

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