Some of you may be aware of an ongoing game that's played by hootooers. It is called 'Deathlist', and it involves predicting which famous people will die in the coming calendar year. Points are awarded for correct predicitons, but there is no prize, apart from kudos.

With the onset of Winter, we are rapidly approaching the end of the year, and so thoughts naturally turn to next year's game. The Rules for Deathlist 2008 will be as follows:

Predicitons to be submitted by email to someone before some date. Someone and some date still to be decided, could be Mu Beta since he's got the software, possibly List Co-ordinator Emmily.

Predictions should be a list of 15 names. The order is unimportant apart from one thing: the name at slot 15 should be under 50.

Points are awarded thusly: 10 points for a correct predicition, 15 if your choice was unique. Those points are doubled for the under-50 selection.

For clarification, you may chose as many under-50s as you like, but only the one named at slot 15 will count for double pointage.

To assist List-Co-Ordinator Emmily, please check the spelling of your chosen ones. And avoid using a nickname that isn't the main name by which they're known.

The secret e-mail system is being introduced this year: since extra points are avaiable for uniqueness, sound tactics favour a list with a large percentage of unique picks, and this can lead to unsportsmanlike late declarations. So this year we're emailing, OK?

Need some inspiration? See the experts at it on Deathlist

What to do now? You don't have to do anything right now, but you could start getting your list of 15 ready, and watch The Post and Ask h2g2 for further details of the closing date.

How's 2007 going so far? The scoreboard shows that Dai the Death has held on to his early lead, but GreyDesk and Mu Beta are hot on his heels, and there's still 6 weeks to go...