The rules in five lines
Each player secretly gets the name of a target and a mission to pull off on them, say getting them to say a specific word or to make a gesture. Targets form a ring. You hunt someone, and someone hunts you without you knowing who.
The mission plays out in real life, in the middle of the party, without the target suspecting a thing. If they smell the trick and refuse to say the word, the mission stays open, you will have to find another way.
Mission done, you tell your victim. They are the only one who can confirm it. Once the defeat is acknowledged, you inherit their target and their mission, and the hunt goes on.
Two ways to win, depending on the format chosen before you start. In the classic version, the victim is out and the last player standing wins. In the infinite-lives version, nobody leaves, the victim comes back with a new target, and whoever has the most victims wins when the host calls time. The Assassin applies both rules, the host picks the format on the setup screen.
An impossible mission can be swapped, but it costs a point. In The Assassin, the returned mission is replaced by one nobody else in the ring is holding.
What makes a good Killer game
Duration first. Killer is a background game, it runs while the party happens. Count a whole evening for a ring of ten, a weekend for a big house, and a fifteen-minute round if the table wants to play right now, seated, with missions that trigger inside a conversation.
Missions that are doable but not obvious. Getting someone to say absolutely takes ten minutes of well-steered conversation. Getting them to walk a full lap around the room takes a whole evening on their feet. Match the register to the venue, the list below is sorted for that purpose.
No humiliating missions. A good mission makes the victim laugh when they realise they have been had. A mission that makes them uncomfortable loses you a player, and often two. The bank of The Assassin was reviewed with this in mind, the missions that come for free at a party (picking up a glass) and the passive ones (yawning) were removed, and we left three more out of this page.
Twenty missions for a party in a flat
The missions that play seated, inside a conversation, the ones the game draws for its short round. They are reproduced exactly as the hunter's phone displays them.
- Get your target to say the word "absolutely"
- Get your target to say the word "exactly"
- Get your target to say the word "clearly"
- Get your target to say "honestly"
- Get your target to say "wait, no"
- Get your target to say "I swear"
- Get your target to say "that's ridiculous"
- Get your target to say "fair enough"
- Get your target to say "things were better back in the day"
- Get your target to say "it depends"
- Get your target to say "I agree"
- Get your target to say "excellent question"
- Get your target to swear
- Get your target to say someone else's first name
- Get your target to say the same sentence twice
- Touch your target's elbow without them noticing
- Place an object in front of your target without them noticing
- Get your target to touch their hair
- Get your target to cross their arms
- Get your target to nod 3 times in a row
Twenty missions for a weekend or a big house
Missions that get the target moving, changing rooms, looking for something. They need space and time, a weekend with friends or a big house makes them easy to hide.
- Get your target to go fetch something from another room
- Get your target to walk a full lap around the room
- Get your target to hunt for an object you secretly hid
- Get your target to look after something of yours for five minutes
- Get your target to look out the window
- Get your target to touch the ceiling (or at least try)
- Get your target to change seats
- Get your target to turn around
- Get your target to sit down if standing (or vice versa)
- Get your target to stand on a chair
- Get your target to carry someone (piggyback counts)
- Get your target to stack at least three objects on top of each other
- Get your target to change the music
- Get your target to hold an odd object for 10 seconds
- Get your target to open a jar or a bottle for you
- Get your target to clear away glasses or a plate
- Get your target to take off a shoe
- Get your target to arm-wrestle someone
- Get your target to send a text
- Get your target to make a phone call
Twenty missions for a wedding or a family party
Photos, toasts, songs and stories. At a party where everyone clinks glasses and takes pictures, these missions go unnoticed, and they make good memories when the story is told.
- Get your target to clink glasses with you
- Get a group photo taken with your target in it
- Get your target to sing (even just a snippet)
- Get your target to dance (even just a step)
- Get your target to give a toast in front of everyone
- Get your target to take a selfie with you
- Get your target to take a photo of you
- Get your target to tell a story
- Get your target to talk about a childhood memory
- Get your target to show off a hidden talent
- Get your target to clap
- Get your target to hug someone else
- Get your target to pour a drink for someone else
- Get your target to compliment someone else
- Get your target to wear one of your accessories (jacket, cap, glasses...)
- Get a high-five from your target
- Make your target laugh with a joke
- Get your target to impersonate someone in the room
- Get your target to make up a nickname for someone at the table
- Get your target to describe their last dream
Twenty gentle missions for kids and family
Silly faces, mimes and small challenges, nothing awkward. From eight or nine years old, a child holds a family ring very well, and is often the most discreet player in the house.
- Get your target to imitate an animal
- Get your target to make a silly face
- Get your target to try touching their nose with their tongue
- Get your target to play rock-paper-scissors
- Get your target into a staring contest
- Get your target to wink
- Get your target to snap their fingers
- Get your target to give a thumbs-up
- Get your target to balance on one foot for ten seconds
- Get your target to guess a word you mime
- Get your target to mime something
- Get your target to guess which hand you're hiding something in
- Get your target to spell a word out loud
- Get your target to say their own name backwards
- Get your target to attempt a tongue twister
- Get your target to raise their hand
- Get your target to look up at the ceiling
- Get your target to point at something
- Get your target to whisper
- Get your target to cover their ears
Twenty missions for an offsite or a team day
Missions that slip into a meeting or a coffee break. Getting a rating out of ten, getting a fact checked, getting a phone lent. The game's bank has no office category as such, these are the missions from the register that fits best there.
- Get your target to say the longest word they know
- Get your target to do mental math out loud
- Get your target to rate something out of ten (a movie, a dish, a song...)
- Get your target to answer a "would you rather"
- Get your target to guess the price of something
- Get your target to fact-check something on their phone
- Get your target to lend someone their phone
- Get your target to show their phone wallpaper
- Get your target to write something on a napkin or scrap of paper
- Get your target to pass a message along to someone else
- Get your target to make a bet with someone
- Get your target to name a foreign capital
- Get your target to name three movies
- Get your target to say their star sign
- Get your target to speak in an accent
- Get your target to shush someone
- Get your target to knock on wood
- Get your target to make air quotes
- Get your target to taste something with their eyes closed
- Get your target to sniff something
The paper version
Prepare as many cards as players. On each card, a target's first name and a mission taken from the list above. For the targets to form a ring, write the names in a shuffled order, each player gets the next one on the list, and the last gets the first. An A4 sheet cut into eight makes perfectly decent cards, no printer needed.
Whoever prepares the cards knows every target. They sit out and referee, which comes in handy in a big group. If everyone wants to play, put each card in a sealed envelope with the hunter's name on it, and have the envelopes prepared by two people who do not show each other their half.
When a mission succeeds, the victim hands their card to the hunter, who inherits their target and their mission. Keep the cards of the eliminated in a box, they feed the end-of-night story, when everyone finds out who was hunting them.
Or let the phone hand out the targets
From twelve players up, preparing the cards takes an hour and the referee spends the evening answering who hunts whom. The Assassin on PlaySobr does that work. The host opens a room, the others scan a QR code or type the six-character code, and each player discovers their target and their mission in secret on their phone, up to 30 players in one room.
Mission done, you press a button. Your victim gets a notification, sees the mission you claim to have pulled off on them, and confirms or disputes it. If they confirm, you inherit their target and mission, and they leave the ring or come back with a new target depending on the format. If they dispute, nothing happens, you can insist, and after two refusals the screen hands the question back to the table, out loud.
Three formats for the host to pick from. The fifteen-minute express round, playable seated, won by the first to fill their quota of contracts, two up to five players, three from six to twelve. The classic game, one life, the last survivor wins. Infinite lives, where nobody is eliminated and the ranking goes by victims when the host closes. A latecomer can join the ring mid-game, and the room stays open for six hours without activity, the length of a real party. Free, no account, nothing to install.