Paco García Jaén: Documenting the People Behind Tabletop Games
For more than fifteen years, Paco García Jaén has helped people hear from the makers of tabletop games. Through GMS Magazine, his interviews, reviews, and publishing conversations have given designers room to explain their work and readers a way to discover it.
Keeping those conversations available matters. A rulebook tells players how a game works; an interview preserves how its creator talks about a choice, while a review records an encounter with the finished release. García Jaén has contributed to that record while writing, editing, designing, and helping produce games himself.
The two parts of his career meet naturally: he talks with people about making games, and his own credits show him taking responsibility for some of that work.
Keeping the Conversation Going
García Jaén’s professional profile dates GMS Magazine to July 17, 2010. A 2013 UK Games Expo program also identifies him as its founder in 2010. By 2026, the site still carried his reviews and interviews, giving that work a span of more than fifteen years.
The archive includes a conversation with Graeme Davis, reviews such as his 2026 Vaesen piece, and material in podcast and video form. These are different ways into the hobby: hearing a designer speak, finding out about a release, or spending time with a discussion that reaches beyond the rules.
Beyond Gaming, which he co-hosts with Chris Dias, takes up the practical side of publishing. Episodes consider whether publishing is right for a creator and what crowdfunding can cost, including expenses that are easy to miss. The co-hosts and their guests bring those questions into public conversation.
A finished game may look like a single object, but making it involves words, art, editing, money, and choices about reaching readers. García Jaén’s coverage makes some of that work visible through the people doing it.
Making Games, Too
Campo de Mitos credits García Jaén as author and Andrés Sáez Martínez as artist. Its reception was mixed, but the book remains a concrete part of his own game-making work. Here he was contributing a manuscript that readers could encounter and judge, as they encountered the releases he reviewed.
Closet takes a different form: a solo journaling tabletop roleplaying game about coming out. Its campaign names García Jaén as creator and records €1,131 raised from 55 backers against a €100 goal.
Those figures describe a small campaign, while the premise gives the project a clear identity. Journaling makes written reflection part of play; in Closet, that form addresses the experience of coming out. The game adds a distinct subject and format to García Jaén’s work.
His contribution to the Spanish edition of The Cthulhu Hack was editing and art direction. Paul Baldowski designed The Cthulhu Hack, which draws on David Black’s The Black Hack; Jaume Ribera translated the edition, and María Pizarro illustrated it. García Jaén’s work was part of that group effort to produce a Spanish edition.
The Work Between a Manuscript and a Reader
Other credits put him close to the detailed work of preparing a publication. The official Hellboy: The Roleplaying Game Quickstart names García Jaén as Sensitivity/Proofreader. Marc Langworthy, Morgan Davie, Ben Scerri, and Robert Schwalb are credited as writers, and Terry Maughan as cartographer.
The Dragon Kings World 5E Rules preview credits García Jaén with editing and additional proofreading, as well as 5E rules layout. Steven Fowler and Robert Aducci receive additional-design credits. William W. Connors and Damien Coltice retain the original graphics and layout credits.
A reader may pass those lines quickly on the way to the game, but they describe work the publication needed. Proofreading, editing, and layout shape the encounter between material and reader—the point where words and images become a usable book.
García Jaén’s production work connects naturally to his interviews and reviews. Both attend to how games reach people. Credits identify his responsibilities in the publications; conversations let other makers describe theirs.
Leaving a Record
GMS Magazine gives readers a place to follow García Jaén’s coverage, while Campo de Mitos, Closet, and his edition-specific production credits offer another way to explore his work.
His contribution lies in the combination: documenting people behind games, making games of his own, and preparing other people’s work for readers. Interviews preserve the guests’ voices; publications preserve shared labor in their credits.
A hobby benefits from people who keep asking how its work gets made. Paco García Jaén has spent years making room for the answers while adding work of his own to the conversation.
References
- Paco García Jaén, professional profile. https://es.linkedin.com/in/pacogarciajaen
- GMS Magazine. https://www.gmsmagazine.com/
- GMS Magazine, interview with Graeme Davis. https://www.gmsmagazine.com/interview-with-graeme-davis/
- GMS Magazine, Beyond Gaming episode 1. https://www.gmsmagazine.com/beyond-gaming-episode-1-publish-your-ttrpg-is-publishing-for-you/
- GMS Magazine, Beyond Gaming episode 7. https://www.gmsmagazine.com/expected-and-unexpected-crowdfunding-costs-beyond-gaming-episode-7/
- GMS Magazine, 2026 Vaesen review. https://www.gmsmagazine.com/learning-when-to-keep-your-mouth-shut-vaesen-starter-set-review/
- Reviews from R’lyeh, Campo de Mitos. https://rlyehreviews.blogspot.com/2020/11/a-frustrating-first.html
- Goodreads, Campo de Mitos. https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/56248255-campo-de-mitos
- Verkami, Spanish The Cthulhu Hack. https://www.verkami.com/projects/19843-the-cthulhu-hack-el-juego-de-rol-de-terror-cosmico
- Dragon Kings World 5E Rules preview. https://d1vzi28wh99zvq.cloudfront.net/pdf_previews/296169-sample.pdf
- Mantic Games, Hellboy: The Roleplaying Game Quickstart. https://www.manticgames.com/wp-content/uploads/woocommerce_uploads/2020/08/Hellboy-Quickstart_08.08.20-ey2kbe.pdf
- Closet, Kickstarter. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/gmsmagazine/closet-solo-journaling-ttrpg-about-coming-out
- Tabletop Analytics, Closet campaign record. https://www.tabletopanalytics.com/project/closet-solo-journaling-ttrpg-about-coming-out-46457