SILLY SOCIETIES KILLER XI

Assassination should consist of Universally Tasteful Practical Jokes. Assassination should be subtle. And Society Meetings, while no-kill zones, should not be entirely safe either... This is the `Inner Half' of Assassination...

WHAT DOES ONE DO IN THE SILLY SOCIETIES KILLER GAME?

0. The Picnic or Room is divided up into Partitions, e.g. by thread or multiple tablecloths.

1. You are the President of a Silly Society. Your mission is to run a number of meetings of that Society in one of the Partitions. You may also attend other Presidents' meetings.

2. Your ... other ... mission is to safely and friendlily assassinate, with a range of low-powered and amusing toy or labelled weaponry, those rival Presidents named on the Target Cards that you receive.

3. Each Silly Society must have a particular Closing Procedure. It is strongly preferable for each Soc to have a Constitution that determines who has the right to Close the Meeting. Feel free to Invent and Bring your own Silly Society! We provide a list of established Silly Societies for those who don't bring their own or want more. See the list of these below the Rules to have an idea of what Constitution, Closing Procedure, and, indeed, Silly :) mean.

4. Society Meetings are Out Of Bounds for the Killer Game. That means that Killing will mostly happen in infrequent bursts, usually as a result of a Meeting suddenly being closed. It is by these means that there'll be a lot of Eating and a lot of Silly Society Fun as well as some Killing... Don't be bewildered by the variety of Society Props, if you can't find a societal prop, *Label* something else as it.

5. Meetings can last No Shorter than 5 minutes and No Longer than 10 minutes. Only one Society can run a meeting in each partition at any one time.

6. It is licit to kill your Target or your Assassin or a Wanted Criminal. It is not licit to kill anyone else (including for Bearing Arms or Arming Bears ^^ ). People who kill illicitly, or are Elsewise Naughty will be made Wanted by the Umpire. Attacks through partition walls don't count. You're in a Glass House, but the owner's Paranoid, so it do be Bulletproof Glass ^^. The Dead Resurrect after 10 minutes, as a different President if they so want. They should use being dead to tell the Umpire, though, so that they and their assassins get new target cards.

7. The nature of this game is such that Sneakiness, Treachery, and Theft/Sabotage of Weaponry/Societally Significant Objects are actively encouraged (no permanently damaging stuff, relabelling it, however...)

8. In the case of a disagreement over the constitution or power mechanisms of any randomly invented extra societies, or multiple labellings, whichever The Umpire finds most amusing wins out.

9. You get 1 Victory Point per person other than yourself attending each one of your Silly Society's Meetings. There is a "Plan 9" bonus of 9 points for the largest meeting. You get 2 points for a licit kill, 1 point for an illicit kill and 5 "Police Hero" Victory Points for killing a Criminal. The top four scorers, excluding the Player-Umpire get to do some form of silly (but safe ^^) blindfolded duel.

10. Be welcome to write to us afterwards nominating prizes and giving any kill reports or silly society goings-on that you wish to share with us. This shall be made into a GameNews and PrizeList! The best entertainer will be awarded the Assassin M.Sc. (Master of Silliness and Creativity)

(DIS)ALLOWED WEAPONS

1. No Water Weapons. No Bandguns. Bands can be Thrown, but Not Flicked. No Nerf Guns other than *ridiculously* underpowered ones (as provided by the Umpire).

2. Weapons which aren't obviously weapon-shaped must be labelled (e.g. courgettes, hats, cardboard crocodiles). Safe objects, obviously weapon-shaped or labelled, can be used for gentle-poke stabbing. The only things that can be thrown are bands, nerf darts, paper planes under 10 cm long and soft Killer Attack Animals; the latter cannot be thrown near the food.

3. The following heinous assassin practises are *disallowed* at this Party. Multi-Throwing. Bang-Killing. Shields. Ricochets. Cheating. Dead People Killing or Assisting. Silly Societies with rights to Traverse Partitions (That's you, Old-Style GingerCake Soc!), Forced-Conversion (that's you, Vampires, Kick-You and FUCS!), or that start further lunchtime-long Killer Games (That's you, Paddy Raffearteigh's Breakaway Assassins Society). Silly Society Meetings that are themselves Killing Events, however, are allowed, once enough eating's been done.

4. Blocking with hand-held weapons allowed. Limb-hits wound. Lost limbs regrow after 10 minutes (one is allowed to eat and be silly with lost limbs, but not kill/thieve/sabotage weapons or societally significant props, nor close meetings).

SERIOUS RULES (GOLD AND SILVER)

GOLDMASTER: This is only a Game and thus based on Friendly Conduct Only.

NO FORCE RULE: There is no place in this game for any use of force. If you hold a weapon, nobody can snatch it from you by force. If two people hold the same weapon, it can only move how both of them let it. Today, this no-force rule *cannot* be used to itself forcelessly restrain people (though how to do that will be demonstrated on willing persons). Be careful in fighting round any doors. Certainly don't do anything that might even slightly hurt you or anyone else.

INCLUSION: All assassin folk are welcome to come to this provided that they respect these serious rules and are not on the *very* small BannedList of those who've seriously disregarded the serious rules (kept out for the safety and wellbeing of the other participants). The Cambridge Guild BannedList and ALSO/Aurors Azka-BannedList both apply.

SAFETY: I. You may only use something not in the weapons list if the Umpire sees and approves it.

II No projectile or stabbing implement with any parts made of such as metal, stone or wood can be used.

III You may not stab people in the head or in the private parts.

SECURITY: I. If in a room, no assassination or waving of weapons around outside the room, esp not in the kitchen, nor in travelling to and from the venue. If at a picnic, no alarming of, or fighting in the immediate vicinity of, bystanders.

II. If in a room, keep the noise down. If everyone talks quietly, everyone is heard. This helps with not being ejected for being a disturbance.

NONDAMAGE: Take care not to crash into or knock over anything, or in any other way damage anything. Certainly no running, and take things easy!

C E A S E F I R E: If there were a serious rules problem, whether of unfriendliness or of safety/security in character, "CeaseFire" will be called and everything stops. Proceed Calmly.

SAMPLE SILLY SOCIETIES (Hint: most of these are spoofs, and/or built for tactical advantage with the killing.)

Sheila and her Dog (founded 1986, is a real society) We are a Tyranny currently Partly Ruled by Partly-Cross-Gendered Royals. We Read Children's Books in Silly Voices. Our meetings start and close when our Queen drops a Penguin onto the Floor.

Root Veg Soc We are a nitpicking "democracy", devoted to fiddling the constitution so as to stay in power indefinitely. The constitution can only be changed by One who Holds an Adult Aubergine. Our Meetings end when the Constitution Says So, with the words 'Thus Spake A.A. Aubergine. Amen.' Hint: we are a fake version of the Winnie the Pooh Society.

The Carrollideans Croquet Subring We are an Inconstitutional Tyranny, whose Meeting Shall Begin when One Present Proves Worthy of Queenship by Proving that there is No Such Thing as a Largest Prime or Being from Trinity. The others shall be alternately allocated the roles of Arches and Players. It's Standard Croquet except the Queen gets to perform one O(2) transformation on one of the Arches per full playing phase. The meeting ends when the Queen either wins or exclaims "off with their heads !!!". In the latter case, the game can resume, and ends when the first player has gone through all the Correctly-Oriented Arches. Hint: we are a fake version of the Archimedeans Maths society.

Capture The Wig We are an Indoor Battle Assassin Society. Due to Amazingly Timed Terraqueous Teleportation, our Power Structure is not two but Three! Rival Armies - Red Headbands, Yellow Headbands *and* Sentient Race of Evil Space-Turtles (Lortnoi). We play First Team to Two Wins. Winning Army gets to close the meeting! Hint: we are entirely unaffiliated to Capture the Flag.

Crocsoc Once We Have Constructed our Crocodilomorphic Comrades and Painted them Greeeeeeeeeeeen, we shall Take Them On Parade To Reimpose Cleopatran Law on the Delta of the Nile! This Anachistic Commune is only Open while at least one person present is Actively Constructing a Cardboard Crocodile... Hint: we're just plain bonkers.

Spocksoc (NEWLY UPDATED!) Special Missive: BjoernofBorg AGM at Chutney Essex College We are a famously Soulless Oligarchy Ruled by Those with the Tallest Prosthetic Ears. Our Apex, who shall be known as "the Being-a-Chair", gets to close the meeting by being sat upon by an 'Alligatorwoman from Posteriors V'. Hint: we are a mockery of the sci fi soc.

Leisure Lap We arst a Societie of Exotyque Dancers that Remove Layers of Boiled Leather and Chainmail. We are Ruled by They who, by having taken off the most such layers *Editor: while remaining decent,* hereby dost stande "elected" "Mayor of BanterBugger". The Mayor of BB gets to close our meetings by an act of NeckRomancy (i.e. causing a Skeleton to appear in the room). Hint: we are a mockery of that near-unspeakable depravity known as LARP.

StonedSoc We are a Moshocracy ruled by Those with the Highest-Velocity Hair. This might just serve to Centrifuge the Uranium Ore and other Illicit Heavy Metals that we Smoke all the way up to Weapons-Grade Quality. Our meetings are closed by "obtaining a Kebab from the Van of Death". Hint: we're a fake version of Rocksoc.

Queens Ents. We will run a CosPlaying Ent. The person Most Dressed Like a Tree when the music stops for the first time gets to stop the music the second time so as to end the meeting. Hrooom, Hoom, Now Let's Not Be Hasty!

The Perpetually Amazed Ornithologists Meeting is opened by "look, there's a ... [insert species of bird NOT MENTIONED BEFORE THAT GAME]" and closed by "look, there's a ... [insert species of mammal likewise not mentioned before that game]".

The Trinity Foot Bagels (has had a Stall at the SocFair before!) We Bravely Chase Vicious Chicken-Murdering ... cream-cheese-filled buns, and Do For Them, Chiefly with our Packs of Rottweilers and our Trusty 350mm Howitzers, although we sometimes then give them a Jolly Good Stomping (in Antique Diving Boots) "just to make sure"... Our meeting ends when nobody has had Scent of a Bun for over two minutes. Tally Ho!

ReclineSoc We Recline to Comment on our Power-Structure. All merely sitting or standing (spit) are fair game to shoot and be shot.

Societas Zingiberenifera Secreta (founded by Sally Clough as an excuse to kill an assassin-couple in L00 game). We are the Secret Society that Brings Ginger Cake to Random People. We are not at all the Bavarian Illuminati. Has a "Pyramid-Sales" Recruitment Strategy based on the Number Five. All Hail Dischordia! Anyone not holding Ginger Cake after 5 minutes is In Bounds. Other Societies are similar, with this not holding thing, e.g. DuckSoc. These are abusible by finding some funnier purpose for them, however.

THIS GAME's NEW STAR ATTRACTIONS: ***Here's where our current folk enter new nonsense***

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