Chaosium Inc
About
The home of Call of Cthulhu, RuneQuest, Pendragon, 7th Sea, and Questworlds.
Our award-winning roleplaying games, boardgames, and fiction have been acclaimed as some of the most engaging and innovative of all time. For more than forty years, Chaosium Inc. has captivated gamers, readers and mythic adventurers worldwide.
The Chaosium was founded by visionary game designer Greg Stafford in 1975.
"The first published RPG was Dungeons & Dragons, shortly followed by some other imitative games. Chaosium, however, was never content to imitate but published games that were original in style of play, content and design. We quickly became renowned for our originality and creativity, and were responsible for introducing many things to the hobby that are standard today." - Greg Stafford
The roleplaying games RuneQuest, Call of Cthulhu, King Arthur Pendragon, HeroQuest – as well as such classic board and card games as White Bear & Red Moon (later called Dragon Pass), Nomad Gods, Arkham Horror, Credo, and Mythos all originated at Chaosium.
Many of Chaosium’s product lines are based upon literary sources. Most notably, H.P. Lovecraft’s 1920’s horror fiction provides the basis of our Call of Cthulhu roleplaying game line. The Lovecraft Cthulhu Mythos also provides the inspiration for many of the books in our Chaosium Fiction line.
We also publish Basic Role Playing (BRP), the core of our roleplaying game systems, and the first to use skills based upon the d100 mechanic. Call of Cthulhu, RuneQuest and most of our other RPG lines use BRP as the basis of their rules. Once you’ve learned to play one of these, you've learned to play the others.
Chaosium began as a board game publisher, and in 2017 returned to producing board games again after a twenty year hiatus, winning multiple ENnie awards with our first two releases. In 2018, the King Arthur Pendragon RPG returned to Chaosium ownership. In 2019, Chaosium acquired critically acclaimed 7th Sea RPG, and 7th Sea creator John Wick joined the company.
Over the years Chaosium has won so many awards that we have actually lost count, including more than thirty ENnie Awards since 2014. Greg Stafford won the Diana Jones Award for Gaming Excellence not once, but twice (2007, 2015), and both he and Sandy Petersen have been inducted into the Academy of Adventure Gaming Art and Design GAMA Hall of Fame. The Call of Cthulhu and Pendragon RPGs are also GAMA Hall of Fame inductees.
Chaosium celebrated its 45th anniversary in 2020. In 2016 Greg Stafford's World of Glorantha celebrated its 50th anniversary. In 2018, it was 40 years since the debut of RuneQuest, and 2021 was the 40th anniversary of Call of Cthulhu.
Games
Age of Vikings
Age of Vikings is a world of myth and adventure in the deep and vibrant setting of Icelandic sagas. At the edge of the known world, free from tyranny, heroes take bold action to preserve honor and protect property and family, earning glory through heroic deeds!
Age of Vikings is a standalone game built with Chaosium’s Basic Roleplaying: Universal Game Engine. This rulebook contains the Hero creation rules, including Passions, family history, and ever-important Icelandic nicknames. The book also has rules for the Basic Roleplaying system as used in Age of Vikings, including skills, conflict resolution, and hero development
Basic Roleplaying Creatures
Basic Roleplaying: Creatures collects animals, monsters, nonhumans, and nonplayer characters drawn from history, science fiction, fantasy, prehistory, mythology, and the modern world, allowing for any gamemaster to use them in any D100-based game.
Call of Cthulhu: The Sutra of Pale Leaves - Carcosa Manifest
Call of Cthulhu: The Sutra of Pale Leaves - Carcosa Manifest contains four scenarios for the unique setting of 1980s Japan. These scenarios can be played stand-alone, or strung together and combined with the scenarios from Twin Suns Rising to create a long-form campaign experience.
Call of Cthulhu: The Sutra of Pale Leaves - Twin Suns Rising
Encountering the King in Yellow in 1980's Japan. The Sutra of Pale Leaves - Twin Suns Rising is a Call of Cthulhu supplement that takes you to the Japan of the 1980s. It is a time when the generations are at odds, yakuza gangs are thriving, and the traditional world is at war with modernity. Ancient creeds, gods, and spirits vie to keep their toe-hold in this new world of capitalist opportunity—and overworked and overwhelmed humans turn in desperation to spiritual organizations that promise release and new meaning. This is a world that needs the Prince of Pale Leaves—and he answers the call.
Cthulhu by Gaslight Keeper's Guide
Cthulhu by Gaslight takes the Call of Cthulhu roleplaying game to the fog-shrouded streets of Great Britain and beyond. This book is designed for Keepers—those who will be running the game.
The book includes detailed information on villainous organizations and occult societies such as the Secrets of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. The Cthulhu by Gaslight: Keeper’s Guide includes rules for Monsters and Mythos elements unique to 1890s Britain. Inside, you’ll also find new occult-based skills, tomes, spells, and rules for combat upon the astral plane! In addition to many scenario seeds to help spark all-new Cthulhu by Gaslight stories of your own design, the book includes two introductory scenarios, both designed for players new to the setting.
Cults of RuneQuest: Gods of Fire and Sky
Cults of RuneQuest: The Gods of Fire and Sky is the player’s guide to the deities of the high heavens and the flames beneath the earth. Each cult of the solar pantheon provides new visions of Glorantha, and for creating your RuneQuest adventurer.
Cults of RuneQuest: The Gods of Fire and Sky features 13 brand new cults, including Shargash, the god of war and destruction, Lodril, the god of peasants, and the mightiest sun god, Yelm. Explore rules to create brand-new RuneQuest adventurers belonging to these cults, detailing the skills, passions, spirit magic, and Rune magic each cult offers. Grow your adventurer into a God-talker, Rune Priestess, or even a mighty Sun Lord!
Miskatonic Tales: Journey to Innsmouth
Miskatonic Tales: Journey to Innsmouth is an immersive, storytelling board game that transports you into the realm of the Cthulhu Mythos and confronts you with forbidden knowledge waiting impatiently to be uncovered. Unsure of who your actual enemy is, you must investigate a chain of events in a mysterious place fate has brought you to. Fortunately, other Investigators are with you and together you can solve this case.
Combining strategy, storytelling, and cooperation, the game offers an engaging experience where choices matter, teamwork is crucial, and the story's path is as unpredictable as it is thrilling.
Pendragon Gamemaster's Handbook
The Pendragon: Gamemaster's Handbook contains everything required for a fledgling or veteran GM to open the window to the fantastical world of King Arthur!
Pendragon: The Gamemaster’s Handbook greatly expands the setting of the game. From highlights of important characters and time periods, to courtly intrigue and a myriad of strange and wondrous beasts, spirits, fairies and fiends which lurk in the dark places of Arthur’s Britain. The book also includes in-depth discussions of religion and magic, and how to use them in your game.
Rivers of London: In Liberty's Shadow
Rivers of London: In Liberty’s Shadow - A Guide to Case Files in the USA is a sourcebook for Rivers of London: the Roleplaying Game, based on the Rivers of London series by Ben Aaronovitch. The book also contains an exclusive piece of microfiction by Aaronovitch, “Ask, And Ye Shall Receive.”