Thread by @Chaosium_Inc

The Chaosium, a 🧵

The Chaosium was founded by visionary game designer Greg Stafford in 1975.

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 is the 40th anniversary of Call of Cthulhu.

Said Greg about his company: "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.

Every game designer knows the Stafford Rule (or comes to learn it):
“If you believe you’ve come up with a clever mechanic, Greg Stafford already did it.”

The roleplaying games RuneQuest, Call of Cthulhu, King Arthur Pendragon, HeroQuest (now QuestWorlds) – 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.

(Chaosium also designed West End Games' Ghostbusters RPG, which pioneered d6 dice pool mechanics later used in such games as the Star Wars RPG.)

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 RPG. 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 RPG 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. 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, Khan of Khans and Miskatonic University: The Restricted Collection.

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.

In July 2015, the four principals of Diana Jones Award-winning Moon Design Publications (Rick Meints, Jeff Richard, Neil Robinson and Michael O'Brien) joined the Chaosium ownership and now run the company.

Greg Stafford served as chair of the company board and creative consultant until his passing in October 2018.

With its headquarters in Ann Arbor Michigan, Chaosium today is a company of creative professionals working in locations around the globe, including the United States, Australia, Germany, Spain, Poland, France, and the UK. "The sun never rises on Chaosium", we say.

While Stafford himself has been described as "one of the most decorated game designers of all time" and "the grand shaman of gaming", many other notable game designers have written material for Chaosium. These include David Conyers, Matthew Costello, Larry Ditillio...

...David A. Hargrave, Rob Heinsoo, Keith Herber, Jennell Jaquays, Katharine Kerr, Reiner Knizia, Charlie Krank, Robin Laws, Penelope Love, Mark Morrison, Steve Perrin, Sandy Petersen, Ken Rolston, Ken St. Andre, Jonathan Tweet, and Lynn Willis, among others.

One of the very first RPGs by a female lead designer was published by Chaosium—Kerie Campbell-Robson’s Hawkmoon (1986).

LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman's first paid job was as an editor at Chaosium, when he was 12 years old.

Over the years Chaosium has won so many awards that we have actually lost count, including more than thirty-six ENNIE Awards in the last ten years. Greg Stafford won the Diana Jones Award for Gaming Excellence not once, but twice (2007, 2015).

Both Greg Stafford and Sandy Petersen have been inducted into the Origins - 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 fully supports inclusivity and diversity — #WeAreAllUs

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