As Alex Tweet walked down the hall of the B-building’s third floor at SF State's Village, an unidentifiable song blared from a man playing bagpipes. Bearing a shield and carrying a long sock stuffed with another sock, Tweet was about to meet his fate.

As the door to the smoking deck flung open, Tweet was met by a crowd of about 50 cheering students, most of whom live at The Village. No one could predict what was about to happen. The duel began and socks went flying.

The game “Assassins” has hit the folks over at the Village hard. It’s a live- action mock combat game brought to the community of about 760 students by Pony Smith, also known as the game master. In addition to running the game, Smith, a 25-year-old grad student, is a Community Advisor at the Village. He introduced the game last semester and it caught on pretty quickly.

The rules of the game are very extensive, making it hard to win. Village residents who wish to participate are given an alias along with a target that they have to “kill.” Sounds violent? Not really, as the targets are gunned down with marshmallows and bunched-up socks.

Players may only kill their targets and those who are targeting them. If an outsider, (one who is not participating in the game), witnesses the hit, it is void and the target remains alive. If there is some type of mix-up that can’t be solved by a witness or the game master, those involved settle it in a duel.

There have been only four duels since the game was introduced in Fall 2002. The most recent, involving Alex Tweet and Keith Kubota lasted about five or six minutes.

“We both agreed to just have fun out here. This was my very first kill,” says Kubota of the duel.

The two men used stuffed socks as weapons. The toe of the sock is dipped into talcum powder enabling judges to see how many hits each player gets. Small plastic shields are allowed for blocking giving the duel a true “Gladiator” feel. The first player to get four good hits on his or her opponent continues in the game while the loser is pronounced dead at the scene.

Last semester’s champion, Chris Mallaber, is still in this semester’s game. He wore his championship belt, (what looked like a replica of a belt worn by wrestlers) to the duel. Aside from the belt, which is passed on from winner to winner, there is no grand prize, just the satisfaction of “staying alive for a semester.”

Besides Mallaber, there are three people left in this game, one male and two females. Near the end of the semester Smith establishes new rules to speed up the game if necessary. A new winner will then be named and a new game will begin next semester. Smith doesn’t anticipate the group of “Assassins” to grow much.

“It will probably stay pretty consistent. You’ll always have a hard-core group of guys and girls,” said Smith.

The game allows Village residents to get to know one another. Although it may seem like an odd way of meeting people, the game has formed many bonds among students, enabling those who live on campus to focus on something other that just that.

“Throwing marshmallows at each other--it’s kinda strange,” says Ray Cahill, the Village’s Community Director. “You wouldn’t think college students throwing stuffed animals at each other would be such a community builder.”

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