Seriously...

In response to "Are There Satanists on the Square?" published in the most recent issue of the Community Free Press as well as at jerichosjournal.blogspot.com, I wrote the following letter to the Community Free Press. I am reposting it here in the event it never sees print.

In re: "Are Satanists on the Square?"I am a Park Central Square "vampire." Some facts about the game for the uninitiated: The Georgia-based White Wolf publishing company is responsible for Vampire: The Masquerade, a role-playing game in which players take the role of vampires who are trying to hold onto their humanity while hiding from a superstitious and fearful humanity. The game was originally intended for tabletop play, much like TSR's Dungeons and Dragons, but rules were adapted by players and the publisher for live-action role-play. To clarify, live-action "vampires" like myself do not bite one another or endorse any physical contact of any kind between players. They use a set of rules to determine their characters' statistics, roll dice to resolve actions based on those statistics, and drink too much Dr. Pepper.

It's a morbid version of Strat-o-Matic Football (or basketball or hockey).

Unfortunately, like Dungeons and Dragons, V: tM has attracted players who were unable to seperate reality from fantasy and players who have not demonstrated the most maturity. There was a notable case in Florida where teenagers who identified themselves as players of V: tM were arrested for violent crimes. Another negative incident involved tetanus being spread because a player bit another.

The general public doesn't see these things in Springfield, not because there is a Satan-spawned conspiracy to cover them up, but because all of the players involved locally have the common sense to know that the content espoused in White Wolf's books is purely fictional. We do not meet at Park Central Square because of its history, and we have no interest in splashing through sewer water in the Springfield Underground. We meet there because it is a central location. We go and play our game in full view of the public, pick up after ourselves, and leave usually right before midnight, sometimes meeting at local diners to have a laugh and some food. Recently, the Park Central Square game relocated to an indoor location provided by one of the players. Not so we could conduct "wicked rites" in private, but so we would not get rained on.

Mr. Jericho would know none of this, however, because all of his information, as he himself has written has been given to him by "a source." If his source is anything more than his own spiritual fervor, it's second hand, and so being, is not beyond reproach. Mr. Jericho would rather make allegations about the moral character of people with whom he has never interviewed or even observed first hand than to pursue the truth.

I will not challenge Mr. Jericho to do anything. I will not demean myself by sinking to his level and casting stones (what does the Bible say about that, by the way? Oh, yeah! Don't do it, ye who is not without sin). I will, however, encourage parents and people who know players to thumb through the books at Barnes & Noble. One could even go to http://www.white-wolf.com/ to see the roots of this game. If you have concerns that the players are coercing your children into something you are not comfortable with it, do what parents should do in many aspects of their children's lives: check it out for yourself and talk to your children about it. Whatever. Just don't be a tool of hate. I don't care if you're an avid Jericho reader or not, if you assault me because you've been led to believe I am a devil worshipper, I am not going to level unholy powers against you. I'm going to call the police.