March 27, 2009: Killer Text Message

From the "You Can't Make This Stuff Up" Department, the Egyptian government is fighting a new urban legend: killer text messages. It seems that a newspaper reported a man south of Cairo receiving a strange text, then promptly dying of massive and messy brain hemorrhage. Supposedly, others have gotten the same text ("from unknown foreign quarters") and suffered splitting headaches that also led to death.

There's no scientific evidence, of course. But if you were looking for a plot hook for . . . well, I was going to say "any modern game," but in a cybernetically enhanced future, viruses may actually be lethal. Alternatively -- alternate history, that is -- how about tweaking the rumor for steampunk? "Killer Telegraph Message Terrorizes Town!"

-- Paul Chapman