Chaosium - Miskatonic Repository

GUIDELINES

Welcome to the Miskatonic Repository! We’re excited to read the bounty of horror you’re about to share with us. Reading these guidelines will prepare you for making, preparing, and publishing your Miskatonic Repository content.

What is it?

The Miskatonic Repository is a way to publish and distribute Call of Cthulhu content you have written, including original scenarios, settings, spells and more.

You create content, format it to our design template, and then upload the PDF to the site. Your work becomes part of the Miskatonic Repository content on DriveThruRPG – able to be accessed by the community and, optionally, providing a financial return to you. 

Chaosium has created easy to use style templates (in both MS Word and Adobe InDesign) and free Art Packs specifically created for the Miskatonic Repository to help you create your own content.

Can I sell the content I create?

Yes, creators can make money from their published community content – or make it freely available (it is entirely up to you). Any retail sales are split between the creator (i.e. you), OneBookShelf (DriveThru's parent company), and Chaosium. As creator, you get 50% of the sale. For example, if your product retails on the site for USD $10.00, this is how the split of revenue is made:

  $5.00 to the creator

  $3.00 to DTRPG 

  $2.00 to Chaosium

You set the price. Which could be free or otherwise. The financial process is fully automated, requiring no additional administration from the creator. You can read DriveThru’s notes about this at: https://support.drivethrurpg.com/hc/en-us/categories/201257283-Community-Content-Programs). 

Note: you may be familiar with the existing community content for D&D, ours follows the same model in terms of revenue split and general rules.

What rules can I use in my product for Call of Cthulhu: Miskatonic Repository?

Your work can use any rules and setting materials from the following 7th Edition books and materials published by Chaosium

  Call of Cthulhu Keeper Rulebook

  Call of Cthulhu Investigator Handbook

  Keeper Screen Pack

  Pulp Cthulhu

What can’t I use in my Miskatonic Repository product?

Rules from Call of Cthulhu 1^st-6^th editions, or any material that infringes on copyright held by someone else.

How can I use Miskatonic Repository art?

The Miskatonic Repository art is licensed for use in content submitted to our community content program. That’s it. What you write for the program is the only place you can use those materials, and you must properly attribute the artists of any program art materials you use. Stock art and templates from Chaosium will be available for your use via OneBookShelf. Any other art from official Call of Cthulhu material cannot be used for the Miskatonic Repository products, but you can commission art for use in your product. Responsibility for sourcing art that is available for commercial use is that of Repository product creators.

Five free Miskatonic Repository Art Packs are available: 1920s Rogues’ Gallery, Curious Things, Ill
Omens, Mythos Monster Silhouettes and Weapons and Relics.”

What kind of products are welcome in the Miskatonic Repository?

Original scenarios, settings, spells, stats for monsters and background dossiers (be they on cults, conspiracies, occult societies, or other groups of interest to Investigators).

You may also create your own version of handouts for official 7^th Edition Call of Cthulhu campaigns (but remember that handouts for Chaosium scenarios bear our copyrighted text, so ensure you properly credit Chaosium: see the notes on credits and copyright below).

Products in the Miskatonic Repository may be in English or any other language. 

What types of content are prohibited?

  Conversions of content from other roleplaying games or other copyrighted media into 7^th edition rules.

  Anything written for the 1^st-6^th editions of Call of Cthulhu.

  Comics, fiction (unless short vignettes in roleplaying game materials)

  Software or apps.

  Products that infringe on the intellectual property of others.

  Crowd-funded content.

 Material included in Chaosium products under license.Licensed material not available for community use includes, but is not limited to, the Mythos creations of Ramsey Campbell, the Mythos creations of Brian Lumley, and Mythos fiction released by Chaosium under license. Please check the copyright statements in your Chaosium products to determine ownership and copyright. 

In addition

  Your Work does not contain material that a reasonable person would consider libelous, defamatory, racist, homophobic, or discriminatory; that violates the copyrights or trademarks of another party; or that violates the law.

  Your Work does not contain material that the general public would classify as extreme adult content, such as pornography or extreme violence.

AI Art

We are concerned about the ethics of AI art and its impact on the livelihoods of artists, and the ability of artists to maintain control over use of their creations. Effective 31 March 2023, AI Art (e.g. Midjourney, Dall-E) is not permitted in new Chaosium community content titles, including the Miskatonic Repository.

Can I create and sell content for previous editions of Call of Cthulhu?

We will only accept content designed for 7nd Edition. If you have something for a previous edition that you want to use with a product, you must update it to 7^th edition to do so. This does not cover updating entire scenarios published in earlier editions – we advise you to email us about such things as a pitch: cocrpgsubmissions@chaosium.com. However, a sequel (or even a prequel) would be possible, provided it has more original content than content referenced from a previous editions’ scenario.

Can I copy information from 7th edition rulebooks into my product?

You can reference information in the 7^th edition products, but please refrain from copying directly from the books whenever possible - an exception to this is monster statistics taken from Chaosium’s Call of Cthulhu 7th Edition products, which you may reproduce in material for the Miskatonic Repository.

Who owns material in the Miskatonic Repository?

You retain the copyright of any original IP you create for the Miskatonic Repository. Chaosium owns the IP it provides for use including rules, settings, characters, concepts, plots, storylines etc.

How does credits and copyright work?

Our template features the trademark and licensing language you must include on the Credits Page of your work. This acknowledges Call of Cthulhu is a trademark of Chaosium Inc. and is used with permission.

You should also include a copyright notice of your own – [title of work] [©date] [name of authors]

If you use any art from one of our Art Packs, simply follow the crediting guidelines from that pack.

If you intend to use art from elsewhere, ensure that you have clear permission to do so and credit the artist or source.

I already have a Chaosium license, how does this affect that?

The Miskatonic Repository is a separate element from our licensing structure and does not supersede your existing license – it essentially works separately in parallel, if you choose to contribute to the program.

How do I prepare the PDF of my title for sale?

There’s a few steps here to walk you through if you’re a creator using DriveThruRPG for the first time. There’s also an additional step for you as a community content creator. After creating your content, go to your account page and look in the "My Content" section. You can use the "Add a new title" link after you agree to the Community Content Agreement.

Once content is published, it can be found in the Miskatonic Repository. 

After your product is for sale, your account will begin to accrue a 50% royalty every time your title sells. You can withdraw your accumulated royalties via PayPal by going to the My Money section of the Account page. Note that the My Money section of your Account page will not display until you have a balance accrued.