When I grow up, I want to be Milton Davis. Let me tell you why.

He’s an Atlanta-based chemist, the entrepreneur heading the pioneering Afritopian publishing house MVmedia, a key figure in the development of Sword & Soul and Steamfunk, the co-editor of four anthologies including Griots and Griot: Sisters of the Spear with Charles R. Saunders, the author of numerous adult and YA novels including The Woman of the Woods and Amber and the Hidden City, the co-producer of the new animated series From Here to Timbuktu, and the co-developer, with fellow Afritopian creator Balogun Ojetade, of the breakthrough role-playing game Ki Khanga! Ki Khanga is innovative for numerous reasons, as you’re about to hear, but especially because it’s the first standalone Afritopian RPG ever made.

I spoke with Milton Davis by web video on December 19, 2018; in full disclosure, I tried to get co-creator Balogun Ojetade in the same call, but the gremlins who destroy online conversations made sure that couldn’t happen. But Balogun joined us in spirit. Milton Davis and I discussed:

• How he and his co-creator chose their target audience for Ki Khanga and how they’d attract them to the game
• How their fantasy RPG would be innovative far beyond the exhausted cliches of J.R.R. Tolkien and Dungeons & Dragons
• The impact that Ki Khanga is already having in the Western hemisphere’s most African country and in which non-African countries it’s having the most surprising appeal
• Why entertaining games can be educational but educational games are almost never entertaining
• The best strategies for funding RPG development, and
• How to promote table top games using the internet.

Along the way, Davis explains that Ki Khanga uses “ashé” as part of its point system; ashé comes from the Yoruba religion of Nigeria, Benin, the Caribbean, and Brazil, and is the cosmic-cognitive power to create and alter reality.

I began by asking Davis what makes Ki Khanga different from all other RPGs, including ones with African content.

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