Are you a Keeper looking for new scenarios and story elements? A player looking for something mysterious to spark a character idea? Is your group looking for eerie ideas to use in your game? The Miskatonic Repository is where you can find —and create —self-published material for the Call of Cthulhu roleplaying game. -Chaosium
The Miskatonic Repository provides a trove of resources, scenarios, and, most importantly, a thriving creative community, for Call of Cthulhu enthusiasts. Since its launch in 2018, this partnership with DriveThruRPG allows independent creators to self-publish their materials for the classic investigative TTRPG. By 2024, the Miskatonic Repository hit a milestone of 150,000 titles sold. Thanks to information provided by Community Ambassador Nick Brooke about the English-language bestsellers, we are looking at the Miskatonic Repository’s current Electrum, Gold, Platinum, and Mithril scenarios in a series of posts. There are currently over 1,400 Call of Cthulhu community content titles (969 English-language) for sale on DriveThruRPG through the Miskatonic Repository.
While scenarios comprise the majority of bestselling content, there are a total of 31 non-scenario Gold and Electrum English-language bestsellers currently on the Miskatonic Repository. To qualify for Electrum a title must sell between 251 to 500 copies; Gold requires 501 to 1000. Of these six titles, 17 are supplements, nine are map packs, three are handout packs, and two are art packs. You will find a complete list of these titles and their creator below.
Supplements:
Of the 17 supplements, there are two Gold sellers, David Trotti and Amy Kate Connolly’s 400-page Classic-era sourcebook Japan: Empire of Shadows and Jon Hook’s 12-page Visceral and Emotional Damage combat accessory. The number of pages in these supplements varies widely with as few as three and an average of 46. These best-selling supplements have an average cost of $3.92 with an average price per page of 15 cents.
Only five of these supplements are available for Print-on-Demand. This is understandable given the brevity of many of these titles. In addition to Japan: Empire of Shadows, the Cinematic Environs series from Alex Guillotte and Davae Breon Jaxon are all available for print purchase with lengths ranging from 32 to 62 pages.
These 17 supplements have spent an average of 4 years and 35 days on the Miskatonic Repository with a median of 4 years and 70 days. The Japan sourcebook is the most recent arrival, released just over a year ago. The next latest title is Zgrozy’s Dracula, the Great Old One with over a year and a half since upload. The oldest title is Stephanie McAlea’s supplement The Prepared Investigator hit the Repository in July 2018.
With their four Electrum-selling Cinematic Environs titles, Alex Guillotte and Davae Breon Jaxon have the most best-selling supplements. Jon Hook has three best-selling supplement titles, including his contribution to Occupation Kits: The Bundle! Marek Golonka’s additional Zgrozy title, The World of Necronomicon, brings his total to two, and Michał Gralak and Emilian Sornat’s Devilarium: Thornen Servant adds a third best-selling Zygozy title.
Eight of these supplements apply to any Call of Cthulhu setting. Six are intended for use in the Classic era with Zgrozy’s Dracula providing both Classic and Gaslight content. Pulp Cthulhu: Heroes’ New Talents! and 100 Encounters on the Road in the Dark Ages are the only additional setting-specific offerings.
Handouts & Art Packs:
The two Gold sellers here are handout packs for The Haunting by the Cultist Armoury ($4.99) and Ivo Eduardo Zanin (PWYW). The Cultist Armoury set provides 18 bonus handouts to supplement the scenario’s essential eight. Zanin’s Electrum-selling Crimson Letters handouts are also available as Pay What You Want for 33 files. The two art packs produced by Anna Zadrożna are for Masks of Nyarlathotep’s New York and Peru chapters. These titles are offered in a bundle with the Silver-selling London and Egypt chapters currently available for $2.50.
Map Packs:
Every Electrum and Gold best-selling map pack on the Miskatonic Repository is produced by Lovemaps. Seven of the packs are for each of the chapters of Masks of Nyarlathotep. It’s no surprise that this category’s Gold-sellers are for the first three chapters: Peru, New York, and London. Except for Peru ($9.90), all these MoN packs cost $14.90. The complete set is available in a bundle. The Electrum-selling Corbitt House pack ($6.90) provides 14 maps plus tokens for The Haunting. Lovemaps honors Greg Stafford by making the maps for The Lightless Beacon PWYW.
Supplements
- Japan: Empire of Shadows (G) – David Trotti & Amy Kate Connolly
- Visceral and Emotional Damage (G) – Jon Hook
- 100 Encounters on the Road in the Dark Ages (E) – Ryan Sheehan
- 100 Rumours to Hear in Miskatonic Country (E) – Adrian Kennelly
- Cinematic Environs: Arctic Lands (E) – A. Guillotte & DB Jaxon
- Cinematic Environs: Desert Wastes (E) – A. Guillotte & DB Jaxon
- Cinematic Environs: Mountains (E) – A. Guillotte & DB Jaxon
- Cinematic Environs: Survival (E) – A. Guillotte & DB Jaxon
- Devilarium: Thornen Servant – Zgrozy (E) – Michał Gralak & Emilian Sornat
- Dracula, the Great Old One – Zgrozy (E) – Marek Golonka
- Monophobia: Rules Light Solo Roleplaying (E) – Peter Rudin-Burgess
- Nasty Little Curios (E) – Rob Leigh
- Occupation Kits: The Bundle! (E) – Multiple authors
- The Prepared Investigator (E) – Stephania McAlea
- Pulp Cthulhu: Heroes’ New Talents! (E) – Davide Quatrini
- Shade of Yog-Sothoth (E) – Jon Hook
- The World of Necronomicon – Zgrozy (E) – Marek Golonka
Handouts & Art Packs
- Cultist Armoury: Handouts for The Haunting (G) – Cultist Armoury
- The Haunting Handout Pack (G) – Ivo Eduardo Zanin
- Crimson Letters Handout Pack (G) – Ivo Eduardo Zanin
- Post Card – Peru – Masks of Nyarlathotep (E) – Anna Zadrożna
- Art for New York: Masks of Nyarlathotep (E) – Anna Zadrożna
Map Packs
- Cthulhu Maps (Masks): Peru (G) – Lovemaps
- Cthulhu Maps (Masks): New York (G) – Lovemaps
- Cthulhu Maps (Masks): London (G) – Lovemaps
- Cthulhu Maps (Masks): Cairo (E) – Lovemaps
- Cthulhu Maps (Masks): Kenya (E) – Lovemaps
- Cthulhu Maps (Masks): Australia (E) – Lovemaps
- Cthulhu Maps (Masks): Shanghai (E) – Lovemaps
- Cthulhu Maps: The Haunting: Corbitt House (E) – Lovemaps
- Cthulhu Maps: The Lightless Beacon (E) – Lovemaps