Ken Blumreich was born on a dark and stormy Halloween evening in 1974, which may help to explain his lifelong interest in the mysterious and the macabre. Since early childhood, Blumreich has been an avid fan of horror, mysteries and science fiction in the form of books, movies and, eventually, tabletop and live action role-playing games. He is very active in the local gaming community and has helped design, improve and playtest multiple roleplaying game systems. Blumreich collects early 1920s pulp fiction and weird art, and has a particular appreciation for the works of HP Lovecraft, Clark Ashton Smith, Carl Jacobi and Ramsey Campbell. Blumreich founded Playing With Murder in 2009. The company was originally intended as a creative outlet, with the goal of providing murder mystery parties with themes of horror and sci fi (which, at the time, were notably absent in the murder mystery business). His first party, The Terrible Castle of Baron Castaign, was a survival-horror based game that required players to make their way through a treacherous castle while trying to identify the monsters in their midst. The title was an instant hit, and since then Playing With Murder has developed many more parties with a wide variety of themes, all with a focus on superior character development and attention to detail. Blumreich remains deeply involved and invested in game design theory and game creation. He hosts weekly role-playing games, many with a focus on cosmic horror and supernatural investigation. He also owns and runs a thriving martial arts studio.

Kyle Maresh has always been interested in creating experiences for people. Whether performing garage band rock concerts in high school or making films as an undergrad in college, he’s always looked for ways to make people feel something memorable. This passion made it easy to say yes when his friend, Ken, asked him if he’d like to run marketing for his creative side-project, Playing With Murder, in 2009. Maresh brings to the company years of experience in digital marketing and running a small business. He graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2005 with degrees in both marketing and communication arts (with an emphasis in Film, TV and radio). He dove into the tech sector with his first job, learning early on that you have to wear a lot of hats to be part of web-based startup, even as an entry-level employee. That has only become more true as he has grown into leadership positions, co-founding two startups in the last 10 years and managing operations for Playing With Murder.