Chaosium
- Company typePrivate
- Founded1975
- HeadquartersAnn Arbor, United States
- Headcount11–50
- GTM typeB2C
- OfferingHardware or Manufacturing
Chaosium firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- Chaosium
- Legal name
- Chaosium Inc.
- Website
- https://chaosium.com
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 1975
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 11–50 employees
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Chaosium industry classification
Industry- Product category
- Tabletop Roleplaying Games
- NAICS
- Hobby, Toy, and Game Retailers (45912), Hobby, Toy, and Game Retailers (459120), Book Publishers (513130)
- SIC
- Retail-Hobby, Toy & Game Shops (5945), Books: Publishing Or Publishing & Printing (2731)
- akta.pro primary industry
- Role-Playing Games (RPGs) & Sourcebooks Retail (CRALALAE)
- akta.pro secondary industries
- Hobby Games & Miniatures Retail (Tabletop RPGs, Wargaming) (CRALAFAH), Tabletop RPG Miniatures & Terrain (CRALAKAD)
Keywords
Where Chaosium is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- Ann Arbor
- HQ country
- United States
- HQ region
- North America
Offices1 record
Markets served
Chaosium business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2C
- Offering type
- Hardware or Manufacturing
- Cost components
- Personnel, Supply Chain, Operations, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Others
Revenue model
- Physical Book Sales: Sale of hardcover and leatherette bound core rulebooks, scenarios, and accessories for RPG product lines. Products include starter sets, core rulebooks, slipcase sets, collector editions, and supplements.
- Digital PDF Sales: Direct digital sales of PDF rulebooks, scenarios, and supplements through the chaosium.com e-commerce platform. PDFs are also bundled free with physical purchases.
- Premium Leatherette Editions: Higher-margin premium products priced at $90-$99 for collector's editions of core rulebooks like BRP and Age of Vikings.
- Board Games: Sale of board games in addition to RPG products, diversifying the product portfolio.
- Fiction and Art Books: Publishing and sale of fiction and art books, including RuneQuest Fiction, Pendragon Fiction, and Cthulhu Fiction.
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| One time/ perpetual license | Pay-as-you-go | Starter Sets - Entry level products |
| One time/ perpetual license | Pay-as-you-go | Core Rulebooks - Standard hardcover editions |
| One time/ perpetual license | Pay-as-you-go | Slipcase Sets - Premium collector editions |
| One time/ perpetual license | Pay-as-you-go | Leatherette Editions - Premium collector bindings |
| One time/ perpetual license | Pay-as-you-go | PDF Downloads - Digital versions |
| One time/ perpetual license | Pay-as-you-go | Scenarios and Adventures - Supplementary content |
| One time/ perpetual license | Pay-as-you-go | Print-on-Demand via Lulu |
Go-to-market motion3 records
Distribution channels4 records
Marketing channels9 records
Chaosium product offering
Product offeringCore offering
Chaosium publishes tabletop roleplaying games (RPGs), board games, and fiction across multiple franchises, anchored by the proprietary Basic Roleplaying (BRP) d100 universal game engine. Flagship product lines include Call of Cthulhu (horror), RuneQuest (fantasy set in Glorantha), Pendragon (Arthurian chivalry), Age of Vikings (Norse historical), 7th Sea (swashbuckling adventure), and Rivers of London (urban fantasy), sold as physical hardcover books, PDFs, and premium leatherette collector editions.
Product overview
Chaosium is a tabletop roleplaying game publisher offering a diverse portfolio of game systems and licensed properties. The core system is Basic Roleplaying (BRP), a universal d100-based game engine that powers multiple flagship titles including Call of Cthulhu, RuneQuest, Pendragon, and Rivers of London. The company also publishes standalone games like Age of Vikings, 7th Sea (second edition), QuestWorlds, and HeroQuest Glorantha. Products are available in multiple formats including hardcover books, PDFs, leatherette collector editions, and starter sets. The company operates under the ORC (Open RPG Creative) license, making the BRP system available royalty-free for personal and commercial use.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Brands
- Basic Roleplaying (BRP): The core roleplaying game system powering Call of Cthulhu, RuneQuest, Pendragon, Rivers of London, and other Chaosium titles.
- Call of Cthulhu
- RuneQuest
- Pendragon
- Rivers of London
- 7th Sea
- Age of Vikings
- QuestWorlds
- Cthulhu by Gaslight
- Down Darker Trails
- Pulp Cthulhu
Products and services
- Basic Roleplaying (BRP) Universal Game Engine A universal tabletop roleplaying system using d100 mechanics that serves as the foundation for multiple Chaosium games including Call of Cthulhu, RuneQuest, and Pendragon; available royalty-free under the ORC license for personal and commercial use.
- Call of Cthulhu RPG
Companies that use Chaosium
Customer profileSegments5 records
Ideal customer profiles5 records
Chaosium technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed No
API detail
- Has API
- No
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Integration2 records
Feature4 records
Chaosium partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
Four partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.
- Foundry Virtual TabletopcoreOfficial partner offering Chaosium RPG products compatible with Foundry VTT platform. Products available through the Foundry marketplace for online tabletop gaming.
- LuluminorPrint-on-demand partner for older out-of-stock titles, enabling fulfillment of products not available in standard warehouses.
- Ben Aaronovitch (Licensor)coreLicense agreement to produce Rivers of London: The Roleplaying Game based on the novels by Ben Aaronovitch. Chaosium publishes scenarios and supplements for this licensed property.
- Friendly Local Game StorescorePartnership with FLGS for retail distribution. Free RPG Day promotions drive customers to stores for Age of Vikings Quickstart and other products.
Scale indicators4 records
Recent moves6 records
Expansion highlights5 records
Chaosium competitors and assessment
Company assessmentBroad incumbents
- Wizards of the Coast: Subsidiary of Hasbro and publisher of Dungeons & Dragons, the dominant TTRPG franchise. Operates as a broad incumbent with significantly larger resources, retail footprint, and IP portfolio; competes with Chaosium for hobby store shelf space and player attention across multiple genres.
- Fantasy Flight Games: Asmodee subsidiary publishing board games, card games, and previously Star Wars/Genesys RPGs. Broad incumbent in adjacent hobby gaming categories; shares collector-edition product strategy and hobby retail distribution.
Direct peers
- Steve Jackson Games: Independent publisher of GURPS, Munchkin, and Car Wars with four-decade-plus history. Similar legacy independent publisher, multi-line portfolio, and direct-to-consumer + FLGS distribution model.
- Cubicle 7: UK-based independent TTRPG publisher of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay (4th Ed), Age of Sigmar: Soulbound, and Doctor Who RPG. Similar size and multi-system portfolio, with strong overlap in fantasy/historical genres and FLGS distribution.
- Pinnacle Entertainment Group: Publisher of Savage Worlds, Deadlands, and Rifts. Comparable independent publisher of multi-genre RPGs with strong direct-to-consumer e-commerce and an established core system (Savage Worlds) used across multiple game lines, analogous to Chaosium's BRP.
- Modiphius Entertainment: UK-based independent publisher of Achtung! Cthulhu, Star Trek Adventures, Dishonored, and Dune RPG. Comparable size, direct overlap with Chaosium in Lovecraftian horror, and similar strategy of licensing external IP for game lines.
- Pelgrane Press: Publisher of GUMSHOE system RPGs (Trail of Cthulhu, Night's Black Agents, Esoterrorists, Blades in the Dark co-publisher). Comparable small independent publisher with direct overlap in Lovecraftian horror RPGs and similar direct-to-consumer/PDF distribution model.
- Free League Publishing: Swedish independent tabletop RPG publisher behind Tales from the Loop, Mörk Borg, Vaesen, Alien RPG, and The One Ring 2E. Comparable size, similarly multi-line portfolio across genres (horror, fantasy, sci-fi), strong direct-to-consumer e-commerce, and overlapping international customer base.
- Goodman Games: Publisher of Dungeons & Dragons retro-clones (Old-School Essentials, Dungeon Crawl Classics) and creator of the original Metamorphosis Alpha. Comparable independent publisher of premium hardcover RPG products targeting the collector/enthusiast segment.
- Paizo Inc. Independent tabletop RPG publisher of Pathfinder and Starfinder, founded in 2002. Closest direct peer: comparable size, independent structure, multi-line RPG portfolio, similar direct-to-consumer and FLGS distribution model, and overlapping customer base in the TTRPG enthusiast segment.
Market position
Strengths5 records
Weaknesses5 records
Competitive moat4 records
Key risks1 record
Key highlights7 records
Customer concentration
Chaosium social profiles
Digital presenceChaosium financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Chaosium leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Chaosium funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds
Investors
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Chaosium M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about Chaosium
What does Chaosium do?
Chaosium publishes tabletop roleplaying games (RPGs), board games, and fiction across multiple franchises, anchored by the proprietary Basic Roleplaying (BRP) d100 universal game engine. Flagship product lines include Call of Cthulhu (horror), RuneQuest (fantasy set in Glorantha), Pendragon (Arthurian chivalry), Age of Vikings (Norse historical), 7th Sea (swashbuckling adventure), and Rivers of London (urban fantasy), sold as physical hardcover books, PDFs, and premium leatherette collector editions.
Is Chaosium a public or private company?
Chaosium is a private company. It is classified as unknown and is currently operating.
When was Chaosium founded?
Chaosium was founded in 1975. It employs 11 to 50 people.
Where is Chaosium based?
Chaosium is headquartered in Ann Arbor, United States, in the North America region.
How does Chaosium make money?
Five revenue lines are on record. Physical Book Sales are the primary driver. The others are digital PDF Sales, premium Leatherette Editions, board Games and fiction and Art Books.
Who are Chaosium's main competitors?
Broad incumbents on record are Wizards of the Coast and Fantasy Flight Games. Direct peers are Steve Jackson Games, Cubicle 7, Pinnacle Entertainment Group, Modiphius Entertainment, Pelgrane Press, Free League Publishing, Goodman Games and Paizo Inc..
Does Chaosium have an API?
No public API is recorded for Chaosium.
What industry is Chaosium in?
Chaosium's product category is Tabletop Roleplaying Games. Its primary akta.pro industry code is CRALALAE, Role-Playing Games (RPGs) & Sourcebooks Retail, with a secondary code of CRALAFAH, Hobby Games & Miniatures Retail (Tabletop RPGs, Wargaming). Its NAICS code is 45912 and its SIC code is 5945.