Sancho Games was founded by Alan De Smet and Aaron Pavao in 1996. Sancho Games is named for Don Quixote's squire, Sancho Panza. He, unlike the rest of the world, believes Don Quixote, and is just a little confused. He's a common man who wants to live in a world of knights and magic, partaking indirectly in Quixote's quests, just a little baffled at why the windmills aren't giants.
Sancho's first product was "Live Role-playing Chess" (LRPC), released in 1996. Aaron has actually been refining this game since the late eighties, and the first ever public exhibition of this game was at the 1989 Gen Con. This fun game (requiring only you and 16 of your nearest and dearest) did what no other version of chess ever did: put you and your friends on the chess board itself. Under the direction of Sancho games' directors and (at that point) only employees, LRPC entertained crowds of participants and onlookers at the 1995 Madison Games Con, and every GenCon this decade, except for 1993 and 1999.
In 1997, Sancho released it's most widely known product to date, the happily homicidal card game, "Let's Kill.". Sold directly through the Madison gaming store, Pegasus Games, and through several national distributors, Let's Kill amused gamers across the country. It recieved rave reveiws from several gaming magazines, including Pyramid and Inquest. However, it wasn't until the 1998 GenCon that we knew we'd hit a nerve with our game. We arrived at the Con with plenty of Let's Kill decks, and several dozen sporks, expecting mostly to spread the word around that Sancho Games was a growing company, and our game was nifty. We didn't leave the con with a single deck.