Elude

The British army often holds Escape and Evasion exercises where a few soldiers pretend to be escaping prisoners and the others try and catch them, often with dogs, guns and helicopters. In 2010 a couple of entrepreneurs thought it would be really cool if they could translate this into civilian life (minus the dogs, guns and helicopters). Elude was born from that brainstorming session.

It was also inspired by one of them having decades of military experience and TV programs like Spooks, 24, Alias and films like Swordfish, Die Hard 4, James Bond, The Bourne Trilogy, Hunted and countless others.

Elude consists of at least two players. One player (or more) is being pursued and is therefore referred to as the fox. The other player(s) do the pursuing and are referred to as the hound(s).

Other people can play indirectly as agents, informers, honey-traps or contacts. They have no affiliation to the players and are therefore totally open to bribes !

Elude is played out in real life, like urban areas (towns, cities, etc), not in virtual space. The locations are real, the money is real, the equipment is real, the chase is real, the people are real and the excitement is real.

A typical 'fox' mission might be to deliver evidence of a gang shooting (eg video) to a contact in another city (or even another country). A typical 'hound' mission would be to stop the fox delivering that evidence. If the fox delivers that 'evidence' to his contact, he wins the prize. However, if one of the hounds stops him (by putting his hand on his shoulder and saying his code name) the hound wins the prize. Obviously the money has to come from somewhere, so each player pays a small amount.

Elude consists of four groups of people :-

Management team :-
- Exec and non-exec directors
- Developers / Marketeers / other staff
- Directing Staff (DS) to usher players and run point on location.
Players who can be :-
- Foxes. These are people who have been given a mission and will be
  chased by the hounds.
- Hounds. These are people who have to locate and intercept the foxes
  before they can complete their mission.
Extras. These are friendly shopkeepers, barmaids or hotel staff who act as
contacts and honey-traps. They are neutral but could be bribed either way.
The public. These can act as informants by selling fox sightings to the
hounds or on the website.

Basic rules :-

Players pay to enter, either as foxes or hounds. This cash becomes the prize.
There is a cash prize between £500 ~ £10,000+ depending on number of
players and the complexity of the mission.
Players must not break the law or coerce others to do so.
No physical violence or threats of violence to be used.
No arrest can be made while driving (or on moving vehicles) to avoid accidents.
Bribery is quite acceptable !
Players use their own equipment and travel at their own cost. They need to
have sufficient funds to do this. The prize needs to make the cost worth it.
Players are encouraged to use the website (or other friendly sites)
whenever possible.
If the fox completes his/her mission they win the prize.
If the hounds intercept the fox before he/she completes they win the prize. This
would need to the hound(s) to take a photo of the fox being arrested to ensure no
arguments.
Each report the foxes submit gets “leaked” (or sold) after a period of time to
the hounds and vice-versa.
For the advance levels, “wanted” posters of the foxes can be put up on the
Internet allowing the public to join in too.
Missions can be hours or days long and span many locations in many countries
(including some exotic ones).
Many missions can be concurrent, possibly inter-linked.
Foxes and hounds can include non-members to help them – at a cost !
When a hound puts his/her hand on the fox and says his code name – its game
over !

Missions are the heart of elude.
Example Mission #1 that was played-out in London in 2010.
Example Mission #2 played around Kent, London & Birmingham.
Example Mission #3 played around Kent, London & Isle of Wight.

Chapter 1