The Thinking Person's Assassins
YOU CAN STILL PLAY
PUZZLES NOW DUE FEBRUARY 15
Do you like writing and solving puzzles? Do you want to test your puzzle writing and solving skills against other people? Do you think you might be the puzzle master of Truman? If so, be one of the first contestants in the Residential College Program’s first game of The Thinking Person’s Assassins. The game is modeled on the popular game Assassins with one crucial twist.[1] In this version, you assassinate your competitors by solving puzzles they supply. Any member of the Truman Community (Faculty, staff, and students) is welcome to participate.
Watch Play Unfold and See Solved Problems (Coming Shortly)
Objective
To be the last person alive by having assassinated all of your competitors. You assassinate your competitors by solving the puzzles they supply.
Rules
Each player starts the game by submitting a puzzle and solution that meets the standards of acceptable puzzles.
The moderator distributes an initial puzzle with an assigned puzzle number to each player. The puzzle constitutes a player's first assassination target. The player assassinates the target by solving the puzzle. The player sends the proposed solution to the moderator by email. The email needs to include the puzzle number, the player's name, and the solution. The moderator responds within one business day with an email to the assassin and blind carbon copied to the target indicating whether the target has been slain or still alive. A player is slain if the moderator judges the puzzle solved and still alive if the proposed solution is incorrect. If the player is slain, the assassin inherits the puzzle of the target just 'assassinated'. The moderator's email will include the next puzzle to be solved. The game continues until only one player is living or the time limit has elapsed.
Depending on the number of participants, the game will be played in rounds. Rounds will consist of a maximum of 8 players. Winners of preliminary rounds will face each other in advanced rounds. The preliminary rounds will be determined by type of puzzles so that we can crown champions by category. The categories are word puzzles, logic puzzles, math/science puzzles, and miscellaneous puzzles. If there are more than 8 entries in a category, there will be multiple rounds within the category.
Other rules
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Players may ask others for assistance in solving puzzles.
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Players are free to use reference materials and the internet in solving puzzles.
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Players can use software in deriving solutions although all puzzles must have solutions that can be derived without using software.
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The moderator determines whether puzzles meet the acceptable criteria.
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All decisions of the moderator are final.
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The moderator classifies puzzles into categories for the preliminary rounds (assuming sufficient entries for preliminary rounds).
Standards for Acceptable Puzzles
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The puzzle must be solvable using deductive reasoning.
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The puzzle must contain a well defined question and/or clear directions for solving the puzzle.
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A solution must accompany the puzzle. A solution must show the reasoning used as well as provide the answer.
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The puzzle need not be original.
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The puzzle must be self-contained in an email message of less than 1 MB containing no links to websites.
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If you have scanned images in your puzzle, the puzzle must be readable.
To play, send an email to puzzles@truman.edu. The body of the email should contain:
1) Your name
2) An email contact. (All game correspondence will be sent to this address)
3) The puzzle as an attached file. Your puzzle needs to be in an easily read file format. This document will be shared with participants. Hence, it should not contain identifying information unless you want your assassin to know your identity.
4) The solution to your puzzle as an attached file in an easily read file format.
You will receive a confirmation email. You will be able to monitor progress of the game on the RCP website. You will be able to see the solved puzzles as the game progresses.
February 8: Puzzle submission deadline. Play will start when all players in a preliminary round receive their initial puzzles. (The exact time will depend on the number of players.)
April 30: The game will end by April 30 at the latest and anyone with an unsolved puzzle at that date will be declared a co-winner.
Note: The moderator reserves the right to establish earlier deadlines for preliminary rounds. The deadlines will depend on the number of players. Such deadlines will be announced when puzzles are distributed.
Examples of Acceptable Puzzles
These are provided as examples, but are not intended to limit players' creativity.
- A double crostic puzzle following the rules for double acrostics. (see http://www.doublecrostic.com/ for examples)
- A Sudoku
- A problem similar to a weekly puzzler on Car Talk (http://www.cartalk.com/Radio/Show/)
- A problem similar to one that the Puzzlemaster (Will Shortz) might use on National Public Radio's Weekend Edition Sunday.
- A logic problem such as http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Plains/4484/lp9705.htm
[1] It isn’t the only variation on Assassins. Knitters have their own version and they call it sock wars. Check out http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/arizonaliving/articles/1229knitting1229.html for more details.