Official rules · v2

The rules.

A Section Olympics event for GSB students: a giant loop of tag, played with socks from October 12 to 22, with the finals live at the Olympics on October 28.

Joining

Sign-ups run October 8–10. GSB students only: sign in with your @stanford.edu email (a one-time link, no password) and enter the Game Master's join code.
Use your real name, pick your section, and add how to find you: dorm, teams, what you usually wear.
Pick an agent code name. The leaderboard shows it instead of your name; only your hunter sees your real name, until you're out. It can't be your real name, and no two players can share one.

Targets and elimination codes

When the game starts on October 12, every player gets one secret target. The targets form a single loop, so everyone hunts one person and is hunted by one.
Every player also gets a private elimination code. Keep it on your phone: you hand it over when you're eliminated.

Eliminating your target

Tag your target with a sock. It doesn't matter who sees.
Your target hands over their elimination code, you enter it in the app, and it's official. Their target becomes yours.
Refusing to hand over your code gets you disqualified. Disputes go to the Game Master, whose ruling is final.
If you can, get a picture of your target holding your sock (the more festive the better). It goes in the app's evidence locker, and the eliminated player posts it to the group chat with only your code name. Never post your own eliminations: a message from your phone gives you away.
Keep photos friendly. The Game Master can remove any of them.

The clock

The first 3 days have no clock: from the start on October 12 until October 15.
After that, make an elimination every 72 hours or you're eliminated automatically, and your hunter takes over your target.
Each elimination resets your clock to 72 hours, or leaves it as it is if you have more than that left (from a checkpoint or your shield). Your clock is always on your screen.

Points

Every elimination is 1 point. Ties go to whoever reached the score first.
Your points also count toward your section's total.

Milestones

5 eliminations: the Shield. 24 hours in which you can't be eliminated. One use, switched on from the app whenever you choose. You can still eliminate others while shielded, the leaderboard shows it, and it doesn't work during the Purge. Your hunter's clock stands still while it's up, too.
10 eliminations: straight to the Elite 8. You leave the hunt at once with your spot locked. Your hunter takes over your target, and your points still count for your section.

Checkpoints and twists

Checkpoints fall on October 14, 17 and 20. The section that scored the most points since the last checkpoint gets 24 extra hours on all its players' clocks.
At each checkpoint a new twist (a minor rule) starts, voted on by eliminated players in a WhatsApp poll from three options the Game Master approves. It runs until the next checkpoint; the last one runs until play stops.

The Purge

October 21, noon to midnight. Anyone can eliminate anyone, still with elimination codes, and the clocks stop.
Safe zones still apply, and shields don't work.

The Elite 8 and the finals

Play stops as soon as the players still hunting plus those who reached 10 eliminations add up to 8, or on October 22, whichever comes first.
If more than 8 are left on October 22, those who reached 10 go through first, then the rest by points.
If a batch of players times out together and takes it below 8, the ones with the most points from that batch come back to make 8.
On October 22, rock-paper-scissors cuts the Elite 8 to the top 4. The semifinals and final, also rock-paper-scissors, are played live at the Section Olympics on October 28.

Safe zones

The game runs 24 hours a day.
Eliminations never count in these safe zones, including during the Purge: classrooms, your own room or apartment, bathrooms and locker rooms, recruiting events and interviews, and health centers and religious services.
Someone else's room follows Vampire Rules: it's only a safe zone for you once the owner blesses your visit.

Conduct

Follow Stanford's rules and policies and the law, always. Nothing in this game overrides them.
No physical force, no chasing, no tagging anyone who's driving, biking or on a scooter, no breaking into rooms, and no involving people who aren't playing.
No sharing or trading elimination codes, and no teaming up (informal alliances during the Purge are fine).
The Game Master can disqualify anyone for unsafe or unsporting play.

Medals

1st and 2nd: decided by the final at the Olympics.
3rd (shared): both semifinal losers, plus the best sock. The Game Master shortlists the best socks from the elimination photos and everyone votes in a WhatsApp poll; if the winner already has a medal, the runner-up gets it. The sock medal is individual and doesn't count toward section standings.
Best section: the section whose players scored the most points in total.
How the medals count in the overall Section Olympics standings is up to the section representatives.

Pauses and rulings

The Game Master can pause the game, for an outage or a campus event. While it's paused, clocks are frozen and eliminations don't count. When it resumes, everyone has exactly the time they had left.
If the Game Master overturns an elimination, that player is back in with a new elimination code and a fresh clock, and the eliminator loses the point.
If your target changes for any reason, your screen shows the new one. Check it before you strike.