Each player is given a number which is used to mark their participation in the game. Numbers are worn affixed to the back with safety pins and must not be covered by clothing or bags. There is only one player with any given number in the game, and it is each player's goal to figure out what numbers opposing players are wearing without giving up their own number in the process. Each number is color coded in order to signify a player's team affiliation. If your number is red, then everyone with a red number is on your team.

Before play begins teams must be decided upon. Urban Paranoia allows for any number of roughly even teams (current guidelines suggest teams not be smaller than eight players eacy). Once teams have been selected the boundaries of the game must be set (current guidelines suggest that the play area be approximately one square block for every two or three players in the game). Finally a time limit and a rally point are determined for the game. This ensures that the scattered players will know when the game is over and where to regroup in order to find out who won.

With teams and boundaries determined, each team will receive their numbers from the referee. These numbers should be kept secret from all other teams. After the numbers have been distributed each team will select a starting point within the play boundaries. Starting points should not be within line of sight of one another. Each team will then proceed to its starting position where it will distribute and affix its numbers and elect a team captain. Once all the players have a number the captain will send a text message to the referee to signal his or her team's readiness. As soon as all teams have checked in, the referee will send a text message to the captain of each team to signal the beginning of the game.

Play is simple. Players move throughout the designated play area searching for members of the opposing team. Their objective is to spot the number of an opposing team member and then deliver that number to their team captain. Players may accomplish this however they can except that players may not:

• Enter any building
• Touch an opposing player

In the course of play it is inevitable that you will find yourself in a stalemate of a face-off with another player in which neither of you can spot the other's number, but in which neither of you can escape as turning to run would give away your number. If you are in such a situation you may call “stalemate” and the other player must count to ten (at a moderate pace) before they can move. This permits you to back away and break contact. You are never required to call a stalemate.

So you've been chosen to be the captain of your team. Congratulations! Like many leaders you will be blamed for your team's failures without being able to claim credit for its successes, no matter how important your steady guidance is to victory. As the captain you are just like a regular player, but you also have a few special rules. Your team needs to consider these three things when selecting its commander-in-chief.

• Texting: As team members pass on the numbers from opposing players to the captain, it is his or her responsibility to send a text message containing that number to the referee. If the number texted in is being worn by an opposing player then the team scores one point, but if the number is not being worn by an opposing player the team will lose one point.
• Checking in: The captain must check into designated checkpoints throughout the game. These checkpoints are established at the same time that game boundaries are. A captain must check into a checkpoint at least once every five minutes. He or she may pick any checkpoint to check into, though, so that his or her path is difficult to predict. (That said, since it is important that team members be able to find their captain, it may be advantageous to discuss travel patterns while numbers are being distributed.)
• Vulnerability: A team's captain is important as the person who can score, but they are also important because they are vulnerable. While most players' numbers are worth only one point each, a captain's number is worth half the number of players on their team (rounded up).