How to Assign Targets in Assassins

If you are hosting or playing in an assassins game, it is important to know how targets are assigned. On Sassins.com you can assign initial targets in any arbitrary way you want, but we make it very easy to do it in a circle, like this:



Each dot represents a player and each arrow represents an assigned target, pointing from assassin to target.

When a kill occurs, the person who got eliminated is removed from the circle, and her assassin is then assigned to target her former target. (A→B→C becomes A→C when B is eliminated.)

This algorithm ensures that each player always has exactly one target and one assassin until there is only one player surviving.

This knowledge would have been valuable to 'Dispatcher'...

'John Galt' killed 'Dispatcher'

'Dispatcher' writes,
Tuesday Afternoon, the future looks bright. My would-be assassin coyly requests help with MATLAB programming. A third party assassin dispatches my assailant minutes before he could execute his vile plan. Believing I was safe (since I didn't know who was after me), I let my two colleagues finish their business after they asked to be left alone. Seconds after I left, the killer chased me down and made small talk. Like an innocent one-winged dove I fell for the bait and let my guard down. After positioning me against the wall, the cruel villain exacted her second kill in 2 minutes as I fell to the ground. For my last moments I thought about how precious life really is.


Originally published on Tuesday, March 28, 2006, in the game HKN Assassins Spring '06

'John Galt' went on to get a total of three kills. She was eliminated in the end, but she had the most kills so she won the game.