This is an excerpt from my conversation with Ken Oswald, who contacted me regarding a bunch of role-playing topics. He was especially interested in the references he’d run across about Sean Demory’s 2002 game le mon mouri, so here is the bit where we went through its system diagram and talked about its content.

This was, and is, a significant game. It’s a good example of how long-standing, heartfelt ideas and desires for play found a new language and design-freedom to be expressed in. And also of how those expressions fed back into the play and discussion community as further inspiration.

I’ll tell you more about Ken as these excerpts get posted, but for the moment, he’s a long-time role-player and retailer, who’s preparing a talk to a substantial audience this summer, and he cares a lot about what he can commicate to them about the hobby.

One of the benefits of Ken’s interest was to reconnect me with Sean as well, whose thoughts and play-experiences will be as valuable today as back then. I’m hoping the game itself can be made available again soon.

* art by Aaron Houx