"Have you ever tried to kill someone using nothing but stealth and a fluffy kitten?" Your answer to this question is probably no - unless you’re a member of Cambridge University Assassins’ Guild that is. With the Michaelmas 2009 Game already in motion as of 5.00am, Wednesday October 21st (and here we all thought rowers had an early start), Varsity decided to take a look at this vibrant society, going strong since Lent term 1993.

The Assassins’ Guild revolves around a game resembling live-action role play. Players are given three targets and set out to hunt down said targets and (mock) assassinate them, all the while avoiding being assassinated themselves. Whenever an assassin makes a successful ‘kill’ they’re sent a new target – a process which continues until only the winner is left.

Bearing witness to the finesse involved in assassination, the Guild has a complex set of rules concerning issues from conduct to permissible weapons. Such rules include the prohibition of impersonating people of authority like porters and the use of empty bottles labelled ‘fake bomb’. Exceptional players are rewarded with titles such as MA (‘Master Assassin’) and PhD (‘Paranoia Hardened Death-master’) and prizes are given for specific achievements, such as the ‘Kenny Award’ (for dying far too many times) and the ‘Girton Award’ (for the kill furthest from Cambridge).

Although it does tend to be dominated by male scientists, the Guild is slowly gaining popularity across a wider range of people. Coryan Wilson-Shah, the Assassins’ communication officer, tells that "over half of our best regular players are studying arts subjects." There has also been an ongoing rise in the number of female players in recent years. A quarter of the players in Mayweek 2009 were female and "around half of our top assassins are female".

As a novel activity wedged somewhere in between theatre and sport, it’s no wonder the Guild had over 1,000 people sign up at the Freshers Fair. Alongside challenge of fearing for your life on a moment-by-moment basis (apart from in lectures, computer rooms and other out-of-bounds areas), one of the main attractions of the game is the potential for wacky weaponry. Wilson-Shah mentions some of the most memorable examples, like "a giant polystyrene ball labelled as a fifty-six trillion kilogram planet" and "a handy vac labelled ‘soul sucker’".

Alexander Scott, who participated in a game last year, told Varsity that being an assassin is "time consuming but worth it". Although the sign-up for Michaelmas 2009 has closed, there’s always the Lent and Mayweek games for those interested. In any case, if ever you spot someone standing outside your lecture hall holding a banana labelled ‘gun’, you now know the reason why.