Role Playing Games

Some people have way too much time on their hands. I am not talking about the proverbial "Gee, I sure would like to clip more toe-nails for my collection" type of time. I am not talking about the kind of time that kids generally have when school lets out for the summer. (Although that is a pretty scary thought for most parents of teenagers, usually the threat of yardwork takes care of that.)

The kind of time I am talking about here simply boggles the mind. In Sao Paulo there is the story of one young man who had time on his hands and got involved in a role-playing game. (No, not THAT kind of role playing game, although a good sex romp would have been a lot more creative than what happened.) A role playing game generally seems harmless enough, unless it is Ever-Crack, er...I mean Ever-Quest. It was a murder-mystery game, but the players agreed that whoever lost the game would be murdered along with their family!

Damn.

Granted, the sick little shit was 21 years old and his parents should not have had to keep up with whatever games he was playing, but maybe in this case it would have been better for them to monitor his activities closely. A lot more closely than they did. It cost them their lives. I seriously do not think that they would have agreed to the same ending that the three game players agreed to:

Thiago Andrade Guedes apparently died after agreeing that whoever lost the game would be killed with his family - just as it happened in the game, police Investigator Alexandre Lucente Capella told the Folha de S. Paulo newspaper. Authorities said all three men - who had known each other for about two years - were playing characters that might be murdered depending on the outcome of the game. Guedes lost, and allegedly allowed the other men to carry out the killings, police said.

The three happy game players had played other role-playing games before this one, according to the police, but this one was just not to be topped. How on Earth does it happen that people would agree to such madness? Who knows how people cross the line from reality to Oz? It could have been a warped sense of fairness I guess. You know, "I agreed to do this and I lost, so I have to be good for it." I used to hang a round the D & D crowd when I was a young lad, and I certainly saw folks that had lost a good deal of the reality picture. I saw twenty sided dice hurled in anger over the loss of a magic item. I have seen people at Scarborough Fair actually believe that they are re-incarnated medieval wizards or William Shakespeare, or whatever. I have seen the slobbering, starry-eyed Ever Quest addict spend all of his milk money for the week, but I have yet to see one of them actually commit a murder as a result of a game.


Is it real?

What I really want to know is did the boy even have a job? Most of the un-reality addicts I mentioned above had their fantasy lives rather rudely interrupted by real life. He certainly had no real grasp of reality, but maybe if he had been working flipping burgers somewhere or stocking a grocery store he would not have had enough time to plot his own murder along with his poor family. If he did not, then maybe NOT making his ass go to work was a sad failure on the part of his family. Well, that and keeping the lithium supply flowing.

We have all seen the ads on telelvision now that say that taking time to know what your kid is doing will help prevent them from doing drugs or drinking alcohol. What about preventing them from being batshit crazy, or hanging out with equally batshit crazy friends?

"Son, I need to know where you are going tonight, as I am afraid that you may partake in drugs or drink alcohol."

"Gee Dad, all we are doing is playing a little roleplaying game, having a good time, and PLANNING A RITUAL MURDER/SUICIDE."

"Hmmmmm....."