In the first round, I died moments after the game started. I was sitting unaware in the JCR when our Vice-President came up and hit me with a sock ball. The email that signified the start of the game had been sent out a mere thirty seconds before (I did not even know whom I was to target and give an item meaning I had ‘assassinated’ them), and I was the first unfortunate casualty. For me, it was over before it had all really started.
For others though, it was only the beginning. Normal college life was turned on its head as friendships became strained and college family ties were broken. Secret knocks were developed, before cruelly being sold on to the assassin. One assassin claimed to be in need of some peer support welfare counselling, before taking out his counsellor. The JCR Secretary got involved through dreaming up spurious reasons for JCR meetings and then using them to get to his targets.
Even for those of us who were dead, the excitement continued. There were plenty of opportunities to betray friends, construct wonderful traps or simply just watch the carnage unfold. The Facebook event page gave regular updates, making it nigh on impossible to focus on that imminent essay deadline. Even though I played for less then a minute, Assassins has become a firm favourite, to the extent that we have now set up a second round, and are also wondering why it is only a Trinity-term feature of college life.
