Obituary - James Mathe of RPG Shop, RPGNow, Minion Games Has Passed

Terribly sad news that James Mathe, founder of RPGNow, Minion Games, and so much more, passed away over the weekend at the age of 52. We offer our sincere condolences to his family and friends.

James was a pioneer, and was massively influential in our hobby. Not only has he produced a multitude of board games, he brought the first major PDF store to the industry in the form of RPGNow, which later merged with DriveThruRPG to become OneBookShelf. He frequently offered advice to others in the industry, and was well known for the help he gave to others. He was involved in almost every corner of the industry, from online conventions to brick-and-mortar game stores, Kickstarter advice, and various online franchises, and was a mentor and friend to many.

 

[Ace]

Big loss for his family and this hobby. R.I.P.

 

[John R Davis]

Bugger. Same as me. Tragic news

 

[Mark CMG]

Sad news. He will be missed. Condolences to his friends and family.

 

[Chuck Whelon]

I worked with James a lot around the time he founded Minion Games. This was after the RPG-Now/Drive-Thru Merger. James also had two brick-and-mortar Game Universe stores in Wisconsin. James had seen my Pewfell webcomics up on DriveThruComics, and he wanted to use some of the art for a comp of a game he was working on called "Those Pesky Humans". I ended up illustrating the whole project, and it's still one of the things I am most proud of in my career. As it happened I had already been working on a board game of my own, which I talked James into publishing as “Legitimacy: The Game of Royal Bastards”.


James was an excellent businessman. He understood that rather than just making one game, he needed to create and sustain a product pipeline. So aside from Pesky & Legitimacy, James also published two card games that had been doing well on OneBookshelf: ”Nile” and “Sturgeon”. Once those were printed, James immediately set to work on another batch of games from other designers, giving sustained work to myself and other illustrators.


I travelled with James to Essen Spiel that year, and helped him man a Minion Games booth at the show. We shared a room, and I got to know him quite well. He was a dedicated family man, husband and father. Not long after that, “Manhattan Project” hit big for Minion and we moved in different directions, but stayed in touch over the years.


Those first games Minion put out were pre-Kickstarter, but James soon discovered the platform, and became a leading pioneer of Kickstarting boardgames. He wrote articles and started blogs on the subject and mentored many aspiring board game creators through the board game Developer/Publisher “speed dating” events that he created and ran. He really did a lot for a lot of people. I was lucky to know him, and it was great to do business with him. I will miss you buddy.

 

[Bobble]

Although I didn't know of him, his work in the channel of RPG games puts him high in my mind in this industry. He died at a young age. My condolences to his family. I hope he has found a good group to game with...