This is an extract from an article which appeared in the Sunday Times
Magazine on March 8th. I have been saving it because I thought it might
amuse all you role-playing types. Any death threats will be met with
a preemptive strike. Apologies to anyone who receives this twice as it
is going to both lists. Enjoy.
The Dying Game
One morning, Luke Woodham drove to his Mississippi school and
shot two girls dead. Then his mother was found stabbed in her bed. The
authorities arrested Woodham and some of his friends, saying that they
were part of a satanic cult which was responsible for the deaths. The
Sunday Times has another theory.
'"It was role-play games," says Kacy Strauss, who watched the
comings and goings at Woddham's house and knows all the suspects from
school. "That was the first thing I said. The role play got out of hand.
But no one would listen to me."
"I heard them talking about it. They'd get different characters
from Star Wars and assign themselves to that person. Like the Assassin,
and All-powerful person and this person and that person, and they'd
fight for power, like there'd be three of them fighting over a different
galaxy and whoever won was, like, king or whatever, I don't know.
"They stood in the same place every morning," says Strauss,
"over at the wall by the doors. They sat together at lunch. They always
talked about role-play games."
Other young people support her theory. "As soon as they said
'The Kroth',(the name of the 'cult') that's immediately what I thought,"
says Sid Maxey, 20, a Pearl high graduate. "They're looking for it in a
satanic verse and I don't think they're going to find it. It's a Star
Wars word."
Even an elementary version (of the Star Wars role-playing
manual) encourages people to create their own adventures. "It's really
very much like writing a good short story," the booklet says. "Provide
an interesting setting and a conflict... Give the characters a goal in
each adventure." Such as a surprise attack on your school, with five
minutes to hold everyone at gunpoint, while Woodham, the assassin, seeks
out those listed for execution? Is it possible that one of the group
flipped while the others thought it was just a game?'
Could never happen here. I'm sure that we cold never have groups of
people who call themselves by strange names and spend all their time
talking about fantasy as if it were reality. Oh dear. That's what
happens every Monday in Lec A.
Luke (yes it IS a gun in my pocket) Dalli
Magazine on March 8th. I have been saving it because I thought it might
amuse all you role-playing types. Any death threats will be met with
a preemptive strike. Apologies to anyone who receives this twice as it
is going to both lists. Enjoy.
The Dying Game
One morning, Luke Woodham drove to his Mississippi school and
shot two girls dead. Then his mother was found stabbed in her bed. The
authorities arrested Woodham and some of his friends, saying that they
were part of a satanic cult which was responsible for the deaths. The
Sunday Times has another theory.
'"It was role-play games," says Kacy Strauss, who watched the
comings and goings at Woddham's house and knows all the suspects from
school. "That was the first thing I said. The role play got out of hand.
But no one would listen to me."
"I heard them talking about it. They'd get different characters
from Star Wars and assign themselves to that person. Like the Assassin,
and All-powerful person and this person and that person, and they'd
fight for power, like there'd be three of them fighting over a different
galaxy and whoever won was, like, king or whatever, I don't know.
"They stood in the same place every morning," says Strauss,
"over at the wall by the doors. They sat together at lunch. They always
talked about role-play games."
Other young people support her theory. "As soon as they said
'The Kroth',(the name of the 'cult') that's immediately what I thought,"
says Sid Maxey, 20, a Pearl high graduate. "They're looking for it in a
satanic verse and I don't think they're going to find it. It's a Star
Wars word."
Even an elementary version (of the Star Wars role-playing
manual) encourages people to create their own adventures. "It's really
very much like writing a good short story," the booklet says. "Provide
an interesting setting and a conflict... Give the characters a goal in
each adventure." Such as a surprise attack on your school, with five
minutes to hold everyone at gunpoint, while Woodham, the assassin, seeks
out those listed for execution? Is it possible that one of the group
flipped while the others thought it was just a game?'
Could never happen here. I'm sure that we cold never have groups of
people who call themselves by strange names and spend all their time
talking about fantasy as if it were reality. Oh dear. That's what
happens every Monday in Lec A.
Luke (yes it IS a gun in my pocket) Dalli