The Rules for

SPY

dedicated to the first Spymaster,
Victor "Banzai" Carsrud

This handbook is an attempt to codify the rules and policies of the Spy game. It is, and shall always remain, a work in progress. This revision is based on Banzai's rules for the July 1996 Houston game, and they should be considered binding for the November 1996 game in Dallas. Suggestions on how to improve this book are always welcome.

penned this 8th of October, 1996
Christopher "Mage" Barkley

Contents

A Brief Introduction
First off, we would like to explain exactly what the Spy game is (and is not). Its origins are shrouded in myth, but legend has it Banzai developed an early version of the game while in high school for his friends and himself to play. Over the years, it has evolved under his direction (with the occasional interjection by his loyal fans) for many, many moons. Now, at last, a new generation has taken up the gauntlet of trying to plan and organize one of these games. May the gods have mercy on our miserable souls.

In essence, Spy is a live-action role-playing game. The players take on a persona (think acting) and attempt to accomplish the goals of that persona. In this case, these personae are ones that would be appropriate to a modern-day intelligence (or other covert) organization. For example, a player might be assigned to the American Central Intelligence Agency. They would be matched with other players assigned to the CIA, and their team would be given a goal such as "Acquire the secret documents that the Chinese are selling to the Colombian drug cartel." They then go about their task. Other teams would be assigned to be the Chinese, the cartel, and the secret Japanese industrial espionage agents. As the players go about their disparate businesses, they interact with each other. Some teams may find they have grounds for an alliance, but others will discover they have mortal enemies. Discovering who else is in the game and how their goals mesh with your own is one of the keys to success. Because the genre is that of spies, there is a tradition of lying, betraying, sneaking, and generally behaving reprehensibly. Victory means the achievement of your goals; defeat means another team denied them to you. More than one team may "win" if their goals do not conflict, but the real essence of any role- playing game is that the players all enjoyed themselves.

The style of play varies from game to game, but certain common elements are generally constant. Some superior in your organization will direct you to a meeting with another team. You will have been given your initial orders such as "find out how to buy the documents", "assassinate the ambassador", "recover the vials of small pox", or even "reports suggest something interesting is up, go check it out." From there, things may well be up to you. What tactic do you take with the other team(s)? Are you honest about your goals? Do you lie about your identity? Do you share your vital clues with a potential rival? Do you kill them all and hope the bodies have something interesting on them? Afterwards, you may be told where to go next, or you may be at a loss. You may have access to your superiors for direction, or you may be alone. The choice, always, is up to you.

Some Handy Terms to Know
We have included this glossary to help you understand who the other people in the game might be. Please try to understand this as confusion and other unpleasantries have resulted from misunderstandings about someone's role.

Agent
An agent is a player in the game such as yourself. He or she is part of a team (lone players are almost unheard of as they get terminally bored without someone to talk to), has some set of goals, and may or may not be your friend. The identity of an agent will not change during the game, so if Bob is a Yakuza assassin the first time you meet him, he's still a Yakuza assassin that afternoon. How you interact with other agents is between you and them. Honesty, violence, deceit, and avoidance are all fair tactics.

Staff Agent
These poor souls are part of the game staff who are in the field pretending to be agents. In this case, they are privy to knowledge agents are not and are likely operating under secret directives from the game masters. They exist to facilitate the plot. They will not change their identity during the game, so if Steve was a CIA explosives expert, he'll continue to be a CIA explosives expert. In general, you won't know which of your fellow agents are staff and which are not. In the event that you DO find out, don't make a big deal out of it. They should behave like ordinary agents. The most important difference between them and the real agents is that they can not win or lose the game. They have a goal, but it serves to guide their actions in facilitating the plot.

Contact
This is a more advanced form of the staff agent, and they are identified as such. (The method chosen to denote a contact has not yet been determined.) Again, these people are here to move the plot along, but they do not haves roles as such. They may put on a persona, but they do not pretend to be players, and they may change from meeting to meeting. Essentially, a contact has no past or future; they exist only while you are meeting with them. A contact may be spoken to, interrogated, killed, or otherwise interacted with, but they won't remember it the next time you "meet" with them. The only other important difference is that you may not kidnap a contact or follow them after a meet ends since they may be needed in another role elsewhere in the game. In reality, the contacts exist because we don't want to waste a staff agent on a single-appearance role where you'll never see them again. That would tie up a lot of people who only got to play for a few minutes and then had to sit out the rest of the game. There are two other caveats needed to avoid confusion. First, due to sloppy speaking, you might be told to "Go to the park and meet with your contact." That could well be an agent or a staff agent as well as a contact in this sense. If they aren't clearly marked as a one of THESE contacts, then assume they're an agent. Second, you might have a "contact" you phone in to report to or receive orders from. This person is the equivalent of a staff agent since they have a permanent persona (although they may also be playing a different persona as a contact for another team). In general, assume that your commander (or whatever) is on your side and don't worry about it too much.

God
These are the game masters. You may or may not come into contact with one of them, but they will always identify themselves to you openly. THEY ARE NOT PART OF THE GAME! Do not attempt to interact with them as part of it. They exist to provide rules arbitration and to supervise play. If a god gives you a directive, you should obey it. If they make a ruling on a dispute, that ruling is final. If they give you information, understand that it is meant to keep you actively in the game and ensure a fun time for everyone. The gods do not have game personae and will not lie to you. It is absolutely forbidden to claim to be a god if you are not. You may contact a god for arbitration or rules questions whenever you deem it necessary. They are also your contact point in the event of illness, accident, withdrawal from the game, or any other beyond-the-scope-of-things problem. If necessary, you may use a contact as a messenger or go-between with the gods.

Holy Writ
On rare occasion, it is necessary to violate the game rules when a god is not present. In such a case, a document will be provided explaining the alteration. It will be certified by the game master(s) to be binding. As an example, in the March 1996 game, two vials of blue fluid were to be "sold" at a nightclub meeting. At the last minute, it occurred to the game master that this could look like a drug transaction. Since Rule #2 is "nobody goes to jail," he removed the vials from play and sent a signed document to substitute for them. Claiming a document is holy writ when it is not is absolutely forbidden.

Meet
This is a scheduled event where your team and one or more other teams will come into contact. You will generally have some idea of what purpose the meet serves such as "buy the tape", "pick up the drugs", "shoot the defector", or whatever. What actually happens at the meet will, in most cases, be completely different. Since teams arrive late, arrive early, miss meets entirely, or even recognize a car and drop in on someone else's meet unannounced, predicting what happens can be difficult at best. Stay in character, be flexible, and try to accomplish your goal. In the final disaster of a chaotic meet gone wrong (such as the butterfly museum to those who remember), a god will step in and redirect everyone. When in doubt, wait a bit and look around. When that fails, call your phone contact (if you have one). When THAT fails, call the gods.

Team
Your team is the group you are assigned to at or before the beginning of the game. You should consider yourself loyal to that team unless the game masters specifically discuss being a double agent with you. Selling out to another team once play begins is not forbidden, but it is strongly discouraged.

Do not do your own recruiting. If you really, really want Bob on your team, ask the game masters as soon as you can. If they say no, that's life, but the odds of your request being granted are fairly good. If they are forced to say no, then be understanding. The game may already be full (so make sure Bob gets on the list for next time). In at least two cases, the person being recruited was actually part of another team already and the recruiter wasn't even aware they were in the game. This isn't designed to discourage bringing in your friends; it just means you must run it by the game masters first.

Game
Remember, it's a game. Have fun. Get passionately involved. But don't lose your head.

The Rules

These rules are our best attempt to govern the play of the game. When in doubt, go with the spirit over the letter. The idea is for everyone to have fun - not to rules lawyer your way through a loophole to a "victory" that leaves everyone feeling abused. If you feel that a rule is unfair or inappropriate, you should say so before the game gets underway. Ideally, you would discuss it with the game masters early enough that they can send out a revision before the players gather. If you find you can't live with a rule once play begins, call the gods. And then do what they tell you.

If you feel that someone is cheating, call the gods. Please don't cheat. This game relies entirely on the honor of the players to obey the rules. They are designed to both protect the players and the ensure that all the players feel they had a fair and entertaining time.

RULE #1: Nobody gets hurt. Don't do anything foolish, unsafe, or in any way hazardous. No real weapons. No real fighting. No high speed car chases. No climbing up buildings. We do NOT want to have to visit our players in the hospital or the morgue. If it seems unsafe, don't DO it. If you do get hurt somehow, don't take chances. Drop out of the game, call the gods for pickup, and we'll get you to a doctor.

RULE #2: Nobody goes to jail. Don't do anything that's going to anger the cops or the civilians. No weapons that look like weapons. No chasing each other around in public screaming violent threats. No scuffling in stores or other public places. No damaging a merchant's stock with a water balloon. If a store manager or security guard asks you to leave a site, go. Try to continue the meet outside. If things are hopelessly muddled, call the gods to sort things out. If a cop gives you a directive, do what he says. If, the heavens forbid, you DO get picked up, call the gods and we'll see what we can sort out.

Life and Death
While this is a role-playing game, don't get carried away. Unlike a months long AD&D campaign, this is a one day event with no follow-up. If you spend weeks designing the world's most elaborate background, you're just going to be disappointed when few or none of the nuances come out. Basically just get a handle on your team's functions. Law- abiding FBI agents do not generally start cutting off fingers to elicit information. Likewise, the IRA would not arrest someone. Try to stay in character as much as possible since it helps preserve the illusion and let people get into the game. The KGB doesn't have to fake a Russian accent if they don't want to, but they shouldn't degenerate into a discussion of the movie they watched last weekend either. Most games have a follow-up party where everyone can compare notes and just generally socialize.

If you must break character, be explicit. There has been confusion in the past where one player has gotten confused and asked an honest, outside-the-game question. The other player, thinking they were still in character, lied to them. Don't break character if you don't have to, but make sure the other people know when you do. Simply saying "out of character" is usually adequate. Very few FBI agents begin conversations by saying "out of character."

All agents (unless otherwise notified) have three lives. Staff agents may have special instructions regarding their number of lives. It is to be hoped that everyone is mature enough to be honest about losing all their lives. Thus, don't start screaming for a god just because you think someone is on their fourth life. If all your lives are used up, you should drop out of the game and call the gods for pickup. Your team may continue on without you.

We're on the honor system for wounds. If you get hit in the arm or leg, you lose the use of that limb for fifteen minutes. If you take a torso or head hit, you die. When in doubt, go ahead and die. We don't want things degenerating into "I hit you!" "Did not!". When you die, be dead. We're not asking for an elaborate death scene that might upset the locals who don't know it's a game. Just sit or lie down and play dead. Dead people do not talk to other people or run around. The one exception is that if your body is searched, you should hand over the items yourself rather than making them go through your pockets.

After your death, you remain dead until the end of the meet or ten minutes, whichever is longer. It is generally fairly obvious when the meet has ended. The transactions meant to occur have ended and most of the teams have left. Just because one team decided to stick around and have a snack after the meet doesn't mean you have to stay dead until they finish. The honor system generally works pretty well here.

your mission is to kill someone, you can generally assume this means to destroy ALL their lives, not just kill them once. Which means it takes a minimum of three meets to eliminate someone from the game for good (which is just as well to avoid people having to sit the whole day out). Of course, if your objective is for someone to become dead, you may well "win" if someone else does the deed for you. Only in special circumstances does it matter who pulled the trigger.

Try to keep track of what happens to you at a meet. If you have a phone contact, you might make a report like, "At the mall, we met with the CIA who say they'll give us the bomb, but only if we shoot somebody named 'Carlos' for them. We think they mean Mike with the secret service team, but we're not sure. Also, Jill shot Bob and killed him." This lets the game masters keep track of what's going on in case they need to make realtime adjustments. More importantly, however, it means they can reveal the REAL events of the day at the wrap-up party. It's worth the trouble just to see people's faces when they finally realize what was going on.

Combat
It is inevitable that teams will come into conflict during the course of the game. Sometimes, the sweet voice of reason will fail, and you'll have to hose down the bloody bastards. As with everything, remember rules #1 and #2.

The primary weapon you have is water. The most usual delivery mechanism is a squirt gun. These can vary from a pocket-sized two squirter to a truck-mounted, nuclear-powered Super Soaker 10 billion. Either way, you're just as dead. Guess which one hides better in a purse. We make no restrictions on water guns, but do remember that most merchants frown on such things entering their establishments. Remember rule #2 and don't open fire where you'll damage things. Another popular weapon is the grenade - usually embodied by a water balloon. Remember that balloons, like real grenades, tend to be messy and bad for bystanders. Lacrosse sticks have been used to lethal advantage in delivering these items. But if it blows up while you're tossing it and gets you wet...

Blade weapons are permitted provided they do not even remotely resemble a real knife. Any simple item such as a pen may be designated as a knife. Try to do so ahead of time since it's highly tacky to drop one's "knife", whip out another pen, and announce "this is ANOTHER knife!" For longer blades such as swords, you might use a poster tube, a wooden dowel, or any other item you feel won't really injure the other player.

Poison and other drugs are an old favorite. You may simulate such with green stickers or pieces of tape. Mark such as either L (for lethal) or K (for knockout). Both are assumed to take effect immediately. Much as it frustrates the more cunning among the players, avoid stunts like putting poison under car door handles and the like. It's not that it's unfair; it's just that no one ever notices. "You should be dead, I poisoned your car!" "Huh? I didn't see it..." Knockout drops are assumed to render the victim unconscious for ten minutes.

Exotic weapons are occasionally permitted. You may designate something as a tazer if you so desire. Touching the victim with it is considered the same as a knockout drop. If you feel a need to lay mines, put a crunchy paper plate or something on the ground (and stick around to explain to the victim why they're dead). Inverted mousetraps, while admittedly cool, could hurt somebody in sandals.

If you want a non-standard weapon, ask us before the game. We can probably work something out. If you are given permission to use an exotic weapon, then you will be given a piece of Holy Writ describing the weapon's nature, usage, and effects. If you're attacked with a weapon you don't recognize, you can ask to see this Writ. If you think someone's screwing around, call for a god. If we do forbid your clever weapon, please don't feel insulted. We will generally only ban a weapon if either (1) we deem it dangerous to either the victim or the user or else (2) it's blatantly unfair.

Hand-to-hand combat is forbidden. Yes, we recognize that some of you have martial arts training and can "fight" without hurting anyone, but the risk is too high and the public disturbance too severe. Just use a knife or something if you must do close range fighting.

Items that can do real harm are strictly forbidden. This includes anything sharp, bludgeoning weapons, exploding objects, electrical shocks, etc. Also, give some thought to whether the weapon is something that could be carried around in public. The cops wouldn't like you wandering the streets with machine guns and katanas. Bear this in mind and choose weapons appropriate to a meet. The heavy stuff is fine in the woods, but a small pistol is more concealable when visiting the mall.

Bullet-proof vests and other forms of armor are not allowed. The excuse we give is that such things are extremely uncomfortable and difficult to conceal while running around all day in the sun. Ultimately, however, it boils down to avoiding the "You're dead!" "Am not!" squabbling. The only exception to this rule are staff agents when specifically authorized by the gods. This would be an unusual case, so don't lose sleep over it.

If you want to take someone prisoner, you must either render them unconscious or threaten them into submission. You may NOT physically tackle someone. A prisoner is "controlled" as long as the jailer keeps a grip on them. Holding an arm while escorting them is sufficient; prisoners may not struggle or break free. If the jailer lets go, however, the prisoner can head for the hills. A prisoner may be bound by wrapping a scarf or something around their wrists. A bound prisoner may not run - even if not held by a jailer. If left unattended, though, they may "work their way free" in five minutes. No "working your way free" while in the presence of a guard. Anyone can free a bound prisoner by touching their wrists.

It is possible to kidnap an agent by taking them prisoner and not releasing them. At that point, the transport of the prisoner becomes your problem (got an extra seat in the car?). Think carefully before doing so since sooner or later they'll die or escape and need to be reunited with their team. If you manage to escape after being transported away from your team, call your contact to arrange a rendezvous. If you don't have a contact, call the gods. We'll get you back into play.

Arrest is a special form of kidnapping. If an arresting agent escorts a prisoner to their car, the agent is considered effectively dead. Yes, you may escape, be ransomed, have diplomatic immunity, etc. But that could take days to sort out and the events will be long over with by the time it happens. If you successfully arrest someone, release them at your car, and you and the victim should consider it a death. In the spirit of role-playing, law-enforcement teams should try to arrest rather than shoot enemies when possible. Don't get killed trying, though.

Cars
Cars are always a major point of contention in the game. While a good car chase is stimulating in the movies, in unchoreographed traffic it's a good way to get a ticket or worse. Car chases are strictly forbidden. You may follow a car, but don't do anything stupid trying to keep up. Likewise, you may try to lose a tail at a stoplight, but don't do anything reckless. In general, try to avoid this sort of thing. The game masters will not script a plot that requires you to tail another team once they leave a site.

When in a car, you are not part of the game flow. There is to be no shooting at or from moving vehicles. Do not throw a grenade at a car to kill its occupants. This is only inviting injuries. Also, do not abuse this rule by cruising around slowly in a car, stopping to shoot, and then cruising on again. Park the car, get out, and THEN go kill them.

If you find an enemy car unattended, you may "disable" it by placing a sticker (we suggest post-it notes) on the windshield saying "Five Minutes". In the past, this has been explained as car bombs, but that has led to confusion about possible kills, etc. The new interpretation is that you've slashed the tires or otherwise performed some quick and minor vandalism. Upon discovering this, the enemy team must repair the damage which costs them five minutes (adequate time for your team to ambush them or escape the area). It is not possible to booby-trap a car so as to kill the enemy team. It is also not possible to put two stickers on the car to inhibit them for ten minutes.

There is to be no monkeying around with people's cars for real. You may not break into, hotwire, move, or otherwise mess with a vehicle. That box you see in the back seat is just their lunch, it's not the missing bomb components you're searching for. In addition to people getting seriously angry about having their vehicles tampered with, what if you got the WRONG CAR?

Game Items
A game item is an item introduced by the game masters which occupies some special function in the game. In general, it is perfectly clear what is and is not a game item. If a god loans you a squirt gun because you broke yours, that's not a game item. If a man in a trenchcoat exchanges a briefcase full of money for an envelope of documents, those ARE game items. When possible, they will be labeled as such. In general, game items should be considered immune to accidental destruction. You can generally destroy most things deliberately, but why would you want to? Even if you don't need it, you might be able to swap it with another team for something you DO need.

Here's the rule you're going to hate. And we KNOW you hate it. Game items must remain in play. In the past, items have disappeared into cars and never been seen again. Since tampering with cars was forbidden, the item was effectively out of play. This is not acceptable. If your team controls a game item, some member of your team must have the item on their person at all times. It's perfectly fair to have that person hide out nearby while their teammates walk into danger. It is NOT in the spirit of the game, however, to drop off the guy with the item six blocks from the meet. The game masters will try not to design items which are difficult to carry around. In the event you find something too difficult to carry with you, you may substitute some other item and leave the real one in your car. You must explain your substitution to anyone you interact with, however, and you must exchange it for the real item ON DEMAND.

The best way to take a game item away from another team is to kill or capture the person carrying it. Once someone is dead or captured, any agent may search their body. The searching player doesn't get to feel anyone up. When someone says they are searching you, surrender up any game items you have possession of. All searches are assumed to be perfect - we don't want to hear about "He was in a hurry when he searched me so he didn't have time to find the document I'd tucked into my underwear." or "I swallowed the ring so he didn't find it when he just examined my corpse." If they search you, hand it over. You do NOT have to surrender personal items like your water guns, etc.

Forging game items is permitted. However, exercise a little bit of fairness. You may very well be able to provide counterfeit bearer bonds, but faking a suitcase full of plutonium is a bit harder. In general, you can assume that anyone interested in purchasing something can verify its authenticity. If the buyer says "I test the secret mind control drug you gave me with my testing kit," you must fess up that it's really just a bottle of Pepsi. Whether you give them the real vials or not is then up to you. However, it's more difficult for them to detect that 10 of the hundred million dollars you just handed them is counterfeit. You need not disclose that, even if they "check for counterfeits". If you faked the whole hundred million, though, you need to admit it when they check. For the most part, documents can be faked, machines can not, chemicals can be tested, etc. Try to be reasonable. In most cases, the gods are NOT required to verify the authenticity of items for you.

In the spirit of the great counterfeiters of history, try to leave some error through which you could be discovered. One team once doubled their available cash by photocopying the bearer bonds someone had provided them with. However, they used a different colored paper for the fakes which their victims failed to detect. Being blatant and still getting away with it both makes life fairer to the victims and gives you more bragging rights. Don't get carried away with it all, however. In all but one game, forgeries have played an extremely minor role.

Interrogations
Few things seem to make a team happier than grabbing some luckless agent and pumping them for information. The trouble is the mechanism through which they do it. First of all, we're ruling out torture. It just gets too difficult to role-play. Are you the squeamish sort who'll spill your guts if they hold a knife in front of you, or are you a Manly Man who would take days to break? When you consider that all wounds heal in fifteen minutes anyway, it's probably easier to just threaten to shoot them. They'll either talk or they won't. And they might lie anyway.

This introduces another of the Big Ugly Issues: truth serum. The usual mechanism is for someone to grab you, poke you with their pen announcing, "I inject you with truth serum!", and then demand all your secrets. Since this is such a beloved tactic, we do not have it in our hearts to forbid it. So, a few mechanics. First, truth serum takes ten minutes to take effect. Within those ten minutes, the enemy is free to lie or attempt escape. Once it takes effect, the victim must sit still and answer questions truthfully. The drug lasts for three minutes, and then the victim loses consciousness for the remainder of the meet.

The quality of answers is only so-so, however. Basically, the victim should role-play as though they are seriously drunk. Simple questions with simple answers should be answered. Complex questions like "Tell me everything your team has done today" are too much for the drug-fogged mind to handle. Lying is not permitted, nor may your speech become too slurred for them to understand.

Naturally, most agents would prefer not to be interrogated. Given that you have three lives, suicide to avoid capture is a viable plan. However, the old suicide-tooth trick is forbidden. It's just too difficult to prevent. At least pop a breath mint or shoot yourself with a squirt gun. If you're rendered unconscious by drugs or tazers, you do not have time to suicide. Likewise, you may not suicide after being taken prisoner.

Hints & Tips
Just because you have your initial mission objectives, don't assume that things won't change later. Perhaps new information will come to light. Maybe the old objective will become impossible or meaningless, but a new one will be offered. If the plot seems too simple, you might be missing something. (Or we may be messing with you.)

Not every team is after the same thing. There may be two or more quasi-separate plot threads. If you get sidetracked from your goal, you may discover you're helping someone else while your own victory conditions become unreachable. Of course, if you ignore that piece that doesn't fit in, you may miss the vital clue you need.

Look for allies. You may discover that your team can't accomplish some goals alone. There may be other teams who are natural soul mates to yours. Even if you can't find a permanent ally, you may be able to negotiate a temporary alliance. If things don't work out later, you can always shoot them then.

You're a spy; spy on people. If you notice another meet going on, infiltrate it. Chances are, neither of the other teams know you're not supposed to be there. There's no telling what kind of information you might pick up. If you can't just walk up, maybe you can listen in and overhear something.

Fake your identity. If you're talking to a team that you KNOW is going to be opposed to you, why not claim to be someone they might like to ally themselves with? For example, if you're the Russian Mob and you manage to convince the Mossad that you're really the CIA, the Mossad will probably be a lot more helpful. Then turn around and convince the real CIA that you're actually the KGB. This works pretty well (until you find out that you have a CIA double agent on your team).

Talk first, shoot later. You can always shoot them later, and dead men won't tell you where your next meet is.

Don't get carried away. Lying to other teams is an important part of the game. As long as you don't claim to be a god while doing it, we certainly won't stop you. The problem comes from too much lying and refusal to share information. If nobody ever talks to anyone else, the game stops moving. You never find your allies, you never put the clues together, and everyone sits at the meets glaring suspiciously at one another. Use your own judgment.

Use resources. Having a map of the game area is a pretty good idea. Likewise, checking the yellow pages to find out where the meet location is when you don't know is a smart move.

If you have a cell phone, go ahead and bring it. It saves looking for a pay phone. You should give the number of your phone or pager to the gods. In case something comes up, this lets them contact you at once rather than waiting until you next check in. Having a phone is not even remotely mandatory, however. Bring some quarters.

Use disguises. Something as simple as changing clothes, hairstyles, hats, or the like can throw off people who saw you at a previous encounter. Even if you're not planning to make yourself over after every meet, bring a change of clothes, some deodorant, and whatever else you need to stay presentable. Even Bond needed a standby hair stylist, after all.

Pack some food in your car. Mealtimes have been a real problem in previous games. In case someone gets hungry when you're too busy to stop, wouldn't it be nice if you had a Coke and some carrot sticks? For this next game, however, a designated meal time will be called. During that period, inter-team contact is forbidden so that everyone has time to grab some food. If you simply MUST visit with your long-lost friend without waiting until the party, go ahead. Just don't discuss the game. During a meal break, all game activities (except discussion with your own team) is forbidden. Don't meet with other teams, interrogate or kill people, tail anyone away from lunch, steal any items, etc. This is on your honor so that we don't have a repeat of teams skipping meals to try to keep up and having a rotten time from starvation.

Be careful how you handle truces and the like. In a recent game, one team suggested a truce to another so that they could eat in peace. The other team agreed. A third team, however, had no knowledge of the truce and started mugging people in the rest room. The first team thought the truce was over and attacked the second. LOTS of hurt feelings all around. In general, if you call an IN GAME cease fire, it's solely a role-playing issue if you honor it. IF you call an OUT OF GAME cease fire, be clear, be explicit about duration, boundaries, etc. Tell any other players you see that you're out of the game until a particular time. We do NOT need a repeat since even now, months later, people are still sulking.

There's usually a Big Picture even if you can't see it. Try to figure out what's going on - it could give you a real edge. Ask yourself why that other team was here, what were they doing, how do their goals overlap with yours?

So Now What?
If you haven't been scared off by all these rules, then you're in the game. You should receive a team assignment and a mission briefing soon. You are welcome (indeed encouraged) to co-ordinate with your team before the game begins. What you should not do is try to contact the other teams. It's usually not hard to guess who some of the other players are, especially if you've been in the game before. It is inappropriate to talk to them about the game before it starts. If you need to carpool to the game with a member of another team, so be it. Just don't talk shop on the drive. Also, in the spirit of a game, play by the rules. There have been rumors of players attempting to break into email systems to read other teams' mission briefings and the like. This sort of behavior is totally out of line.

If you have any questions at all, contact the game masters. For now, that means Christopher Barkley at either barkley@cirr.com or 972-380-1559.

Be honest, play fair, have fun.

Last modified: Mon Jun 2 11:31:47 CDT 1997