It all started with a group of children. Strange for a game about death, but, it did…

from the creator of Morbid Curiosity - Kimberley Mead

I was working at a grief center, facilitating a children’s group and was struck with the remarkable difference the kids approached talking about death. They asked all sorts of questions that made many adults adults squirm. They sang about decomposition, asked what makes a person dead, and tried to make sense of it all. They encouraged and supported each other exploring the fine line between life and death in a way that adults had forgotten. The kids were simply… curious.

That’s how this all started.

I wanted to create something for adults to explore and engage with this “taboo” and fascinating world. And though it could be a useful tool for facing grief and mortality, my primary focus was to create something fun - I wanted the strange, fascinating, and the irreverent to be part of it, whatever “it” was. I wanted a game.

I began to gather information and immerse myself in the world of death. Since, when I get excited I talk out loud and inundate those around me with my ideas and questions, my partner (now husband) was drawn in. He is a vessel of history, culture, and arcane knowledge, and has a beautifully dark sense of humor. He also understands the rules of grammar. Very helpful.

As a team, we brainstormed and tested numerous ideas: a board game where you moved round the Ouroboros answering questions, “Have You Ever” questions, competition vs. group play, a job interview to become Death. Numerous friends (game designers, game players, writers, scholars, therapists, artists, and business folk) became our sounding board and test players. We spent two years trying out rules, refining questions, developing the look, and play testing until we felt we got it right. Through experimentation and soul searching, we created a card game which combined trivia and story telling.

We started working on our game in the fall of 2014 and, as of spring 2023, we are in our third printing of our original deck, embarking on a second printing of its younger sibling “Memento Mori: More Questions about Death” and have a third deck on the way.

We are proud to offer a game rich with laughter, storytelling, wonder, maybe a tear or two, and yes, a lot of morbid curiosity.