I’m returning from a month-long sabbatical to provide some brief conclusive remarks to my Miskatonic Repository Best-Seller review. Since the initial post at the end of June 2024, multiple scenarios have joined the ranks of Electrum, like A Drop of Nelson’s Blood, Bride of the Wilds, The Haunted Grove, Kane’s Tone, Pop Goes the Weasel, and The Tunnel People. Then there are the newly minted Gold Sellers like The Art of Hygge, Bad Tidings, and Unremembered. Impressively, Miskatonic Playhouse’s TA Newman hit the mother lode with The Prisoner’s Dilemma, Secret Santa, and Be My Valentine all advancing to Gold. I do not intend to revise any of the previously reported figures, but I want to acknowledge the accomplishments of these creators.
This series was intended to be both informational and promotional— Prospero House has seen over 1,000 clicks leading to these Miskatonic Repository titles on DriveThruRPG since the end of June. We hope these posts led to some sales and, more importantly, more folks playing these great scenarios.
Along the way, Ranald the Gamester shared his handy spreadsheet of Gold (and now Electrum) titles on Reddit. It provides useful information like page count, price, period, number of players, and estimated play time. We highly recommend checking this out for reference. He may be so kind as to continue updating it over time.
Some found the previously reported data and limited analysis dry, so we wanted to offer some closing thoughts and a more subjective assessment in a handful of bullet points.
- Tiers are simply information. They are numbers. They do not impute quality. They do not increase the intrinsic value of the product.
- There are incredible products that have not yet hit Electrum. See recent Ennie award winners Los Hobos and the Wolves of Carcosa and William Bailey’s Haunted Mansion. And so many more. Explore the Repository.
- Creators, time is your friend. Be patient. Don’t expect to hit Gold instantly. Or in a year. Most Gold Sellers have been on the Repository for over two years.
- Seriously, time is your friend. The average Electrum Seller sits at nearly three years…that doesn’t mean they aren’t making the steady climb to Gold.
- Price-per-page benchmarks are useful. Most best-selling scenarios hit somewhere between 9 to 12 cents per page. We priced our last release, Deliver Us From Evil, accordingly.
- Price-per-page benchmarks are useless. Many bestsellers reached their tier by sales, bundles, and discount codes. I priced my first release at $1 to reward early buyers instead of pushing for numbers later by sales.
- Handouts are a great feature, but not critical to becoming a bestseller. Refer to The Idol of Thoth, Grindhouse Collection, and Shepherd of Moths.
- Well-made handouts for classic published scenarios are a boon to creators and Keepers. Many offer these resources free elsewhere, but handouts for popular scenarios could be a real area of growth on the Repository (looking at you Doors to Darkness, Dead Light, and Amidst the Ancient Trees).
- Want more sales? Consider Solo and Investigator-facing material. Look no further than Heinrich’s Already Classic Guides or The Solo Investigator’s Handbook.
- More sales often means more work. Lee Wade’s Alone Against Nyarlathotep recently hit Electrum. It’s 340 pages. The same number as Heinrich’s Guide to Carcosa. These are big projects.
- The right sourcebooks can be explosive. Producing Japan: Empire of Shadows took great effort but was rewarded handsomely with a rapid rise to Gold. There is a clear thirst for more of these titles.
- Classic is certainly the most popular setting on the Miskatonic Repository.
- The 70s and 80s follow close behind thanks to the efforts of Alex and Ian, as well as the generational distribution of many Call of Cthulhu players. (I’m ready to see the rise of the 90s. Who is with me?)
- The Dark Ages, Pulp, and Down Darker Trails settings are underrepresented. Would love to see more of these titles getting attention.
- Platinum Bestsellers don’t care about setting. They are widely varied, but two are player-facing (see above).
- Most bestsellers have not bothered with a VTT conversion. My Roll20 Module for Swamp Song has sold less than 50 copies despite being part of a generous bundle.
- Reviewers are helpful for sales. For many, getting a best-seller requires serious promotional efforts on social media. Reviewers amplify that effect.
- Some reviewers are very, very helpful for sales. Seth Skorkowsky is an institution. He deserves substantial credit and recognition for driving all Call of Cthulhu sales from the system itself to the Miskatonic Repository.
- Podcasts and actual plays are fantastic promotional venues…and highly receptive to fellow creators.
- This community is superlative and supportive. The more you genuinely connect with this community, the more success you will see in your creative efforts.
Even more information is hidden in the numbers, and I’d love to hear some thoughts and reflections from creators/readers in the comments.
There are also plenty of unanswered questions. While the number of titles on the Repository has drastically increased since its inception, it’s unknown to me whether or not sales continue to steadily grow. Has interest waned since the recovery from Covid or is the Repository continuing to gain steam? Is the number of buyers increasing? Does it keep pace with the growing number of creators? Will the release of Gaslight lead to increased sales (and production) of Miskatonic Repository Gaslight scenarios? Can creators expect a similar effect with other setting materials (Lovecraft Country, etc)? What happened to Chaosium’s Miskatonic Monday on their blog (the last post was April 8, 2024)?
Most importantly, does any of this matter? Of course not— you should make what brings you joy. I’ll keep on reminding myself that.
And please come and join all of us this year at Miskatonic Repository Con!