Roleplaying Game Submissions

Roleplaying Game Submissions

Carefully read the following sections before submitting any manuscript to Chaosium Inc. You will find important details that will make both your and our jobs easier. Before submitting anything to Chaosium, please carefully read the Author’s Release. Any proposal or manuscript you send is governed by the terms of the Author’s Release - you don’t need to sign it as you consent to its terms by submitting something to us.

These guidelines pertain to submission of Roleplaying Game materials. Chaosium also has specific guidelines for board and card games, and for fiction.

"We thank you for your interest in becoming a Chaosium author. With hard work, creativity, and attention to detail, together we can create tales of adventures which thousands of game players will appreciate for years to come."

- Jeff Richard, Creative Director

Size

In estimating the page count of a book, a handy rule of thumb is that it takes approximately 15,000 words of text to end up with 32 pages of finished book (with art, formatting, layout, etc.). The length of a book should be a multiple of 32 pages. Thus:

• 16 page scenario is approximately 7,500 words.
• 32 page scenario is approximately 15,000 words.
• 96 page book is approximately 60,000 words.
• 128 page book is approximately 75,000 words.
• 160 page book is approximately 90,000 words.
• 192 page book is approximately 105,000 words.
• 224 page book is approximately 120,000 words.
• 256 page book is approximately 135,000 words.

We prefer to publish books of 256 pages or less. Longer books are possible (such as core rule books or such mega-campaigns as Horror on the Orient Express or Beyond the Mountains of Madness), but they require exceptional interest on our part. 

First-Time Submissions to Chaosium

We seek and publish more scenarios and adventures than anything else. If you have never been published by Chaosium or by another comparable publisher (Wizards of the Coast, TSR, Paizo, Steve Jackson Games, White Wolf, West End Games, Cubicle 7, Pelgrane Press, etc.) before, please begin with a complete scenario for the Chaosium game system of your choice. The normal size for a typical adventure is 7,500 to 15,000 words of final manuscript, including NPC statistics and maps. Please do not create an entire campaign before you prove yourself with a single simple scenario!

Never include more background material than adventure material in a scenario submission. Only the information which is relevant and integral for the adventure is needed. As a general rule, no more than ten percent of the submitted material should be background.

If Chaosium or a comparable publisher has already published your work, feel free to submit proposals for larger projects (still preferably 128 pages or less). But also feel free to submit scenarios - we always are looking for good stand-alone scenarios!

Format for Submission of a Manuscript

To submit a complete draft of a scenario/adventure that is 15,000 words or less, please email it to rpgsubmissions@chaosium.com. The scenario needs to be in .doc or .docx format. If we are interested in the submission, we will contact you and may send you a contract for purchase. We may require that you make changes to the draft before we accept it (which is also when you can get paid).

Format for Proposing a Book

Please send an email to rpgsubmissions@chaosium.com summarizing your proposal - 100 to 200 words is usually sufficient. Keep it short and to the point. Include the estimated word/page count for the book and a rough table of contents. For example:

“A 60,000 word (96 page) campaign book for Pulp Cthulhu set in the Yucatan of the 1920s, exploring the identifications between Mesoamerican cults and the Cthulhu Mythos made in the old Cthulhu Companion. The campaign is based on the Mayan legend, “el enano del Uxmal” (the dwarf of Uxmal), but has the ambience of the teaser for Raiders of the Lost Ark.  The campaign is centered on an archaeological expedition to Uxmal sponsored by Miskatonic University, which has found something that would enable a self-proclaimed heir to the magician-king of Uxmal to partially awaken Cthulhu. The book will cover the following:

1. The Yucatan in the 1920s (4,000 words)
2. Mesoamerica and the Mythos (3,500 words)
3. The Campaign (30,000 words)
4. Keeper’s Guide to the ruins of Uxmal and the Cthulhu Cult of Uxmal (7500 words).”

If we are intrigued by your proposal, we will get back to you. We may ask for additional details, or we may offer you a counter-proposal for an alternate topic. We will likely suggest modifications (in the example above, we may ask that the location be moved to Tikal in Guatemala and that the adventure include a subplot involving the machinations of the United Fruit Company and tying in the 1917 Guatemala earthquake).

Once the project is defined, discussion of practical matters like deadlines, payment, and manuscript brief follows. These are resolved on a per-case basis.

Artistic Integrity

We aim to publish material that interests us and has artistic merit (at least in our eyes). We are not interested in publishing splat books or transparent efforts to jump onto the newest pop culture trend - we like to think that, at Chaosium, good and interesting material can create new trends. Don’t submit or propose a by-the-numbers scenario or campaign because you think that will have a better chance of publication - propose something that genuinely excites and interests you. We are more willing to take a risk on truly creative and innovative projects than on something safe and familiar.

We are more likely to get interested in a scenario that lets the players explore the Gloranthan Underworld in order to return from the dead or plays around with the similarities between Saint-Yves’ Agartha, Tibetan Shambala, and Lovecraft’s K’n-yan, than we are in another treatment of the King in Yellow or a context-less dungeon filled with incompatible monsters.

Payment

Our roleplaying game books are typically commissioned as work for hire - when you get paid, you transfer full ownership of the intellectual property to Chaosium. You will be credited in the book as the writer, or one of the writers. Payment rates vary depending upon the completeness and quality of the submission.

Game Systems

Each specific game system Chaosium publishes has its own specific peculiarities. Be familiar with the current Chaosium edition of the rules for that game system! Provide complete statistics and use the right terminology (for example Call of Cthulhu has no player characters or gamemaster, but does have investigators and a Keeper). If you submit a scenario for RuneQuest that uses the Mongoose RuneQuest rules, we are going to reject the submission. 

In campaigns and scenarios, place the player characters (or adventurers, investigators, etc.) in the center of the action. We receive many proposals where the player characters (and consequently the players) are almost a second thought. Avoid expansive backstories that have little relation to the actual events and focus of the scenario.

What follows are notes for specific Basic Roleplaying systems. The Basic Roleplaying system includes Call of Cthulhu and RuneQuest, as well as currently out-of-print games such as Eternal Champion, Ringworld, etc.

Call of Cthulhu - Mike Mason, Line Editor

Know the Call of Cthulhu 7th Edition rules! 

The usual setting for Call of Cthulhu books is Earth in the 1920s to early 1930s, and also the modern-day, so we want most scenarios to be set in these periods. The Dreamlands are an acceptable place to visit during a scenario. The Gaslight 1890s, the Fourth Crusade, etc., all are certainly possible. However, whatever setting you use, make sure that it is both appropriate and necessary for the plot. If a particular story could be set in either the 1860s, 1890s, 1920s, or 2010s, then make it the 1920s or modern-day (preferably include guidance allowing the scenario to be played in either of these core eras).

Call of Cthulhu is not a shoot-‘em-up or hack-and-slash game. Concentrate on mystery, investigation, horror, and the threat of madness. Create player handouts that are pertinent and ingenious. Make your writing style evocative of the mood and horror of the Cthulhu Mythos.

Scenarios that are geared to action and adventure in the style of Indiana Jones, The Shadow, and E.C. Horror Comics, should be written for Pulp Cthulhu. Ensure the tone and pacing of pulp scenarios embodies the drive to action and quick-fire investigation beneath a blanket of mystery and horror stemming from the Cthulhu Mythos. 

For the specific Call of Cthulhu Style RPG submissions, go here.

RuneQuest - Jason Durall, Line Editor

We are open to proposals to use the Basic Roleplaying system for other settings. 

For the specific RuneQuest RPG submissions, go here.

Pendragon - David Larkins, Line Editor

QuestWorlds - Ian Cooper, Line Editor

We are looking for QuestWorlds genre packs and scenarios.

For the specific QuestWorlds RPG submissions, go here.

Licensed Properties

Games based on existing literary, comic book, or movie properties pose special problems. We do not want to purchase the rights until we see the game, and you will not want to write an entire game until the property is secured. Various companies have already bought many reasonably promising properties. We often know of purchased properties that are not yet in print. Contact us first if your game proposal is dependent on a licensed property.

Other Game Submissions

We prefer submissions based on our current games, but are open to consider something special. 

For the general RPG submissions, go here.

Non-Game Publications

Chaosium has published several art books on the Cthulhu mythos, including a coloring book, which have been extremely well-received. The Guide to Glorantha and Glorantha Sourcebook are non-game books that do not fit within the category of our fiction line. We have other such books in the works.

We will entertain ideas for other unusual types of books like this. They should be related to one of our games or settings. Other unusual items, such as the Miskatonic University Graduate Kit were extremely well-received. We do not need mere ideas – we need finished product. If you have an idea, work it into a solid product and send us the final text.

Proposals that we don't want at this time

• Michael Moorcock’s Eternal Champion, Larry Niven’s Ringworld, Wendy & Richard Pini’s ElfQuest - Chaosium does not currently have the rights to produce new materials in these settings. 
• Magic World - we have no plans to publish further scenarios or supplements (however, you may wish to propose a Magic World product yourself under license).
• Universal or Generic Supplements.
• Other companies’ games. We do not publish scenarios or supplements for games not published by Chaosium Inc.

Author's Release

If you (the Author) submit a proposal to Chaosium for review, you agree that the receipt and evaluation by Chaosium of this proposal will be undertaken under the following conditions:

1. Chaosium agrees to consider this proposal as a possible step toward publication, and to maintain confidentiality about it, but makes no promise that publication can be expected or guaranteed.
2. No confidential relationship or other obligation of any kind is created or implied by the receipt or consideration of this proposal by Chaosium. Author acknowledges and agrees that elements of this proposal may already exist coincidentally in either previously published format, unpublished format, or in the form of a work in progress or concept draft at the time of submission. 
3. This agreement binds all parties who lawfully succeed to the rights of the Author.
4. This agreement constitutes the entire Agreement pertaining to this proposal between the Author and Chaosium.
5. The Author hereby warrants that the Author has the right to submit this proposal to Chaosium on the forgoing terms and conditions, and guarantees that the work is the Author's sole creation. Any ensuing charges of plagiarism or copyright violation are the sole responsibility of the Author who will bear all costs of any necessary legal defense and indemnify Chaosium for any costs, settlements, or judgments made concerning those charges.
6. This Author’s Release is governed by and shall be interpreted under the laws of the State of Washington applying to contracts made and to be performed in that state.

Please go to the specific submissions page

• Call of Cthulhu RPG Submissions
• RuneQuest Submissions
• QuestWorlds Submissions
• Other RPG Submissions