RPGNow.com: Our Story

RPGNow.com is part of a family of sites operated by OneBookShelf. From games to comics to fiction to cards, starting an account on any of the OneBookShelf sites gives you access to thousands of titles to satisfy the inner geek, grognard, or gamer in all of us.

We started in 2001 (the same year Apple launched iTunes) when James Mathe launched RPGNow. It may be common today to download a book and read it on a computer, tablet, or phone, but RPGNow and a handful of roleplaying game publishers pioneered downloadable PDFs in the gaming community.

In 2004, Mike Todd, Chris McDonough and Steve Wieck started DriveThruRPG. DriveThruRPG and RPGNow’s combined efforts made both out-of-print and in-print RPGs easily available in electronic format to fans around the world.

DriveThruComics (the first online retailer to specialize in downloadable comics) and DriveThruFiction (specializing in science fiction, fantasy, and horror fiction) followed the success of DriveThruRPG shortly thereafter.

In 2006, RPGNow and DriveThru merged to form OneBookShelf and the sites were integrated so that customers could log into any of the sites with one customer account.

In 2008, OneBookShelf took over operations of Mongoose Publishing’s Wargaming Online and relaunched it as Wargame Vault.

In 2010, a book printing program was launched that allowed many of our publishers’ titles to be available once again in softcover and hardcover printed book formats.

In 2012, OneBookShelf started DriveThruCards, a marketplace dedicated to stand-alone card games, custom poker decks, deck-building games, and other card products in both print-&-play and delivered high-quality printed formats.

For each of our sites, our goal is to offer the widest selection possible to enthusiasts around the world, 24/7, at a click (or a touch).

We are proud to support publishers and creators by giving them a place to share their work with and receive economic support from fans around the world.