When it comes to online presence in the field of tabletop games, few people have as far and wide a reach as James Mathe.

For starters, Mathe is the force behind the brick-and-mortar Milwaukee store Game Universe and its online presence RPGShop. So he’s a retailer. 

He also started and runs RPGHost, parent company of RPGNow/DriveThruRPG – the largest source of downloadable RPG and other gaming products, RPGLife – forums, etc, Wargame Vault, RPG News, RPG Sheets, and dozens of others.

He also started a board and card game company, Minion Games, for which has designed and published several games, including some new releases that are targeted at the Eurogame crowd. They are available as downloads and as physical products (or are scheduled to be).

  • Those Pesky Humans – A dungeon exploration game of humans versus monsters.
  • Legitimacy – A roll-and-move game with special abilities, spells, and attacks, on a quest to find three jewels.
  • Nile – A new release, competitive crop planting and harvesting.
  • Sturgeon – A draw-and-play game of set collection with fish.

And he also started a Play Testers Network, wherein he hopes to create a community matching game designers with playtesters.

Lastly, he’s working on the site BoardGame Guide, which he hopes will offer an alternative to the currently dominant Board Game Geek; where BGG moved into RPGs from board games, Mathe is moving into board games from RPGs.