Everything about Chaosium totally explained
Chaosium is one of the longer lived publishers of
role-playing games still in existence. Founded by
Greg Stafford, its first game was actually a wargame,
White Bear and Red Moon, which later mutated into
Dragon Pass and its sequel,
Nomad Gods.
White Bear and Red Moon is notable for containing the first published material about
Glorantha, later immortalized as the primary setting for the role-playing game
RuneQuest,
Hero Wars and now,
HeroQuest.
Background
The rules of RuneQuest, Chaosium's first role-playing game, were distilled down into a generic, genre-neutral format known as
Basic Role-Playing (BRP). These generic rules formed the basis of many, if not most, of Chaosium's later RPGs, such as
Call of Cthulhu,
Stormbringer,
Nephilim, and
Ringworld.
Chaosium and
Greg Stafford are also responsible for
Pendragon, an Arthurian RPG now published by
White Wolf, Inc.'s ArtHaus imprint after a spell with
Green Knight Publishing. Other games of note include
Mythos,
Elfquest,
Worlds of Wonder,
Superworld,
Hawkmoon, and the frequently forgotten
Prince Valiant.
Several notable RPG authors have written material for Chaosium, including
Steve Perrin,
Sandy Petersen,
Lynn Willis,
David Conyers,
Ken St. Andre, and
Arduin creator
David A. Hargrave.
Distribution
Some Chaosium products have been translated into
French,
Portuguese,
Japanese,
German,
Spanish and
Italian, and were available in
France from
Jeux Descartes, in
Germany from
Pegasus Press, in
Spain from
La factoría de ideas and in
Italy from
Stratelibri and
Grifo Edizioni.
In the mid-1980s, Chaosium entered into a complex arrangement with
Avalon Hill to publish RuneQuest material while Chaosium maintained editorial control over Glorantha-based material for the game (which Avalon Hill would publish). While this agreement reportedly kept the company in existence, it also left RuneQuest moribund, leading to products of questionable quality, long gaps with no products published at all, and, eventually, the death of the game altogether.
Failed ventures/new directions
In 1979, Chaosium began publication of
Different Worlds, a magazine designed to support its products, much like
Dragon Magazine for
TSR. The magazine ran for 38 issues under Chaosium, then for another nine under other publishers.
In response to the
collectible card game craze, Chaosium released the
Mythos CCG. Initially it was a great success, but the crash hit hard.
In the late 1990s, Chaosium effectively split up into various successor companies, each maintaining its focus on a few of the company's products.
Green Knight Publishing formed to focus on Pendragon, Chaosium "proper" retained Call of Cthulhu, Stormbringer, and Mythos, while Greg Stafford founded
Issaries, Inc. to publish
HeroQuest and focus on bringing new
Glorantha related material into print. Also,
Wizard's Attic (no longer in business) was formed in order to act as a fulfillment house.
Charlie Krank became president when Stafford left.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Chaosium'.
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