The Sunday Times this Sunday (the 9th) published a deeply flawet article prompted by the suicide of an Italian student playing Killer. It dredged up again the common misconceptions about Role-Playing Games and their Satanic links (sic). If anyone cares to check out the Sunday Times's WWW page, the URL is , but you need a username and passwrd to get in - it's free. Here is the text of the letter we have just sent to the Times, signed by the committee and several CURS members: =========================================================================== Sir, Whilst we were all shocked by the tragic suicide in Italy, we believe that the link with role playing is, to say the least, tenuous. The fact that "Roberto C" committed suicide probably had more to do with the fact he was "a loner" than that he had lost a glorified water pistol fight, which is all that the game Killer is. Cambridge University has a thriving community of several hundred Role Players and has had a University-wide Killer game for well over five years which has never had any accident more serious than a rubber band in someone's eye. In addition the game is often played in the colleges to raise money for Rag, hard|y a "bizarre" or "macabre" organisation. Indeed, the action of suicide rather defeats the object of the game, survival. There are nearly always sme suicides in any student population in any given year, and all of these we deplore, but this is the first we have heard of that inolves a role-player. Ever. The claim that the game has been linked to suicides in America is fallacious; the Daily Telegraph claimed this 10 years ago and, we believe, was forced by Games Workshop to retract this when statistics were displayed which showed that Role-Players are in fact less likely to suicide then other people within their age group. The ignorance of Luciano Faraon about the nature of role playing games (RPGs) is obvious. RPGs are entirely concerned with the "human experience," as they are at best free form acting and at worst rules for the simulation of life. His link with the investigation is not explained in your article: an irresponsible piece of reporting preventing people from judging how seriously his views should be taken. Returning to America briefly, it is true there are organisations there who wish to ban RPGs, however there are also organisations there campaigning to ban pop music. Both deserve to be noted, but merely as they are dangers to freedom of expression. RPGs are a superb route to help develop self-expression and interpersonal skills. We would like to end by initing your journalist to come to Cambridge on the 15th of June, this Saturday, to watch our annual Varsity Match against Oxford. Thys would present him with a chance to see nearly the ful| range of role-playing. On behalf of the Cambridge Unyversity Role-Playing Society, Steve McIntyre (Secretary) Andy Penrose (President) Steve Strafford (President Elect) Mike Pitt Rohan Platts Dave Stewart Tim Cooke Matt Charles Andrew Mobbs Brian McLaughlin Chris Watts Alden Spiess Kate Dean Mark Mackey Rob Wilcox Dominic Foster Julian Field Marcus Ogden =========================================================================== SAM 12/06/96