'Assassins' Game Spices Up Quincy Atmosphere

PLACE: Quincy House.

WEAPON: Orange Dart Automatic.

MISSION: Kill Student X.

Quincy House is Harvard's answer to a James Bond movie this month, as the house is engaging in its annual game of Assassin, and 46 newly-paranoid students are skipping meals and avoiding unprotected public places as a result.

The game assigns each player a target to "kill" with special flaming orange rubber dart guns, or with "poison" administered through a sticker at the bottom of the victim's plate in the dining hall.

"I can't leave without my weapon. I've started to get my mail during off hours," said Rick M. Gonzalez '95.

Assassin has been a Quincy House tradition as long as students can remember. This round began Tuesday at midnight, when the master assassins assigned players their victims.

Kills are only valid within the Quincy House gates or at the De Wolfe Street building, but certain parts of the house are off limits, including the weight room and the grill.

When a target has been killed, the assassin is assigned the target's target. Philip H. Chang '94, the assistant master assassin, said that the causalities have been high in the first week. Of the 46 players who signed up, 15 have already been killed.

After a few weeks, only the "hard core" players remain, Chang said.

"When there are only four assassins left, we let them loose in the tunnels of another house with four 'terminators' who can't be killed," he said.

Poisoning Rare

Chang said only two or three people per year are killed by poisoning.

"I know someone, though, who plans to poison the entire ice cream bucket hoping that her target will eat from it," he said.

Players can also defend themselves from their assassins by shooting at them and "stunning" them. If stunned, the would-be killer must refrain from assassination attempts for 15 minutes.

Some students report that certain Assassin players "are too into it. I was staked out and killed by some guy named Kerby who was carrying four guns. When he killed me, I told him it didn't count and he freaked," said Joe B. Nadol '95.

Gonzalez, whose target is reportedly skipping meals, said, "It's ridiculous we get this carried away with this [game]."

Cabot and North House are also traditional Assassin sites, Chang said.