Every year, someone organizes senior assassin. Most years, the rules are scattered across three group chats and decided on the spot. A rules template is the thing organizers actually build from, not the official document schools might distribute. It holds the eight decisions that separate a playable season from one that collapses on week two. The template is a working tool, not a finished product. You fill it in based on your school's geography, culture, and risk tolerance.

Why organizers need a template, not just a rulebook

A rulebook is what players read. A template is what organizers build from. If you start with a blank page, you will miss something. You will discover it when the rules fail at week three and half your players disagree on what was supposed to happen.

The template gives you the structure. It lists every decision you have to make and makes you explicit about each one. When a player disputes a ruling, you can point to the decision you made up front, not argue about what the rule was supposed to be.

The best templates do one thing: they hold the decisions. They do not tell you what to decide. Your decisions are the ones that matter.

Decision one: how targets are assigned

This is where the season lives or dies. You need to decide how the target chain forms and who decides it.

Most schools use the target chain generator, which is random and removes organizer bias. Some manually assign targets to balance skill or friendship groups. Some let players submit preferences. The key: once you decide how it happens, write it down so players know before they commit.

Also decide: who sees the assignments, and when. Do all players get notified at once, or do you stagger it? Does every player get exactly one target, or can someone get assigned multiple targets at the start? Can a player ask to be reassigned if they think the target is impossible to reach?

Decision two: what counts as an elimination

This is concrete. Water gun, water balloon, water bucket, throwing water? Soaked from head to waist, or a single splash? Can you use filled squirt guns someone else owns, or only ones you brought yourself? The more specific you are here, the fewer disputes you have.

Some schools require a photo as proof. Some require the target to confirm the elimination in real time. Some allow video. Decide what proof you need and when it has to be submitted. If someone claims an elimination with no proof and the target denies it, what happens? Write that down too.

One detail that matters: if you require a photo, how fast does it need to be taken? Within seconds? Same day? Next day?

Decision three: safe zones and when they apply

Players need places where the game cannot touch them. Home, school, car, bed. Choose three to five zones where nobody can be eliminated, and be specific about the boundary. Does the safe zone include the driveway? The front porch? Twenty feet from the building?

Decide when safe zones apply. Some schools have safe zones all day. Some turn them off during certain hours so the game doesn't freeze. Some have different rules for weekends.

Also: if someone is at their own house, is that a safe zone for them even if they opened the door and walked into their yard? At what point does home stop being a safe zone and the game start again? Read the full senior assassin safe zones guide for the three most schools forget and regret.

Decision four: game boundaries and elimination locations

Is the game city-wide, school-only, or neighborhood-wide? Can you eliminate someone at their workplace? At the mall? At a college campus?

You also need to decide: are there places where you cannot play even outside safe zones? A hospital, a church, a friend's house where their parent said no? Write it down so players know the boundaries before they make a plan.

One thing many organizers overlook: what about school property during school hours? If school policy says no, that's a boundary, even if school is not technically a safe zone the way home is.

Decision five: what happens when a target is eliminated

This is the one that keeps a season running. When you eliminate your target, you inherit their target. That's the chain. But what if your target died (was eliminated) before you got to them? Do you immediately get their target, or do you wait?

Decide: when does the inheritance happen? Instantly on elimination? After the player confirms it? After proof is submitted?

Also decide: if a player is eliminated and no one was assigned to target them, what happens to their target? Do they become targetless until a new player joins, or does the organizer reassign them?

Decision six: how disputes get resolved

You cannot avoid disputes. A player claims they eliminated their target. The target says they didn't. Someone says an elimination happened in a safe zone. Decide in advance who makes the call.

Is it a voting system where players vote on the truth? Is it you as organizer? Is it you and a co-organizer? What evidence do you accept? A photo and the target's word? Video? Eyewitness testimony?

Decide also: is a rule change possible mid-season if players agree? Or are the rules locked from the start? If they are locked, you need player buy-in before the game starts, not after.

Decision seven: timeline, season end, and finalizing your rules

Most seasons run six to eight weeks. Decide when the game starts, when it ends, and what happens to the last player standing. Is there a prize, or is it just bragging rights? Do you want a real date, or does the game end when only one player is left? Also decide: can new players join mid-season? If so, when does their window close?

You have your decisions made. Now put them into a form your players will actually read. A shared document or group chat pinned message works best. Whatever format you choose, make sure all players see it and agree to it before the season starts.

Before you finalize the rules, run them past a co-organizer or a friend who knows the game. Does anything sound unplayable? Did you miss a decision? The senior assassin rules pdf guide covers why a PDF works poorly on phones, but if your school insists on paper, that page has a printable version that still functions. The moment to catch problems is before week one, not week three.