Living campaigns

Living Campaigns are a gaming format within the table-top role-playing game community that provide the opportunity for play by an extended community within a shared universe. In contrast to traditional isolated role-playing games, living campaigns allow and encourage players to develop characters that can be played at games run by many different game masters, but which share a game world and campaign setting, as well as a plot line that is overseen by a central core of professional or volunteer editors and contributors. Many living campaigns serve a dual role of providing a creative outlet for highly involved volunteer contributors while also serving as a marketing tool for the publisher of the game system that is the focus of the living campaign. While the earliest living campaigns were run by the RPGA (Role Playing Gamer's Association), now a division of Wizards of the Coast, many groups around the world run active living campaigns which are independent or sponsored by other publishers.

Overview

Living campaigns are a shared campaign setting with a codified set of rules for the campaign that govern how to build and advance characters as well as how the campaign will handle rules elements of the setting. Campaign staff create, distribute, and manage new adventures in that campaign setting, and quite often administer a player database and promote various products. A living campaign lets players build and advance characters, develop their personalities, and forge relationships. Living campaign games are run at conventions, game days and other gatherings. The rules for character tracking allow a player to take their PC they created for the campaign to any of these gatherings and play it in the adventures offered. It is still common for adventures to be offered at conventions with premade characters that fit to the story, but Living campaigns allow for additional options.

The original Living campaign was the Living City, set in the Forgotten Realms city of Ravens Bluff. The campaign ran in its original form in Polyhedron magazine starting in the mid-1980s, and continued until shortly after the advent of 3rd Edition Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) in 2000. It then restarted under the auspices of the company Organized Play, but lasted only two years under that license and then reverted in 2003 to Wizards of the Coast.

What is a Campaign-Style Game?

Wizards of the Coast began, with Legacy of the Green Regent, to offer a living style campaign that was a slightly different play experience. A campaign-style game follows many of the same conventions as other Living campaigns such as Living Greyhawk, but differs in a couple areas:

1. All accounting/book keeping is done on the RPGA website.
2. The campaign provides periodic level bumps so everyone in the campaign is the same, or nearly the same, level.
   1. In traditional Living campaigns you cannot level without gaining experience from playing in adventures.
3. Characters in the campaign are not static, meaning players can change many of their character's details between adventures.

Campaigns

RPGA Living Campaigns

WOTC/RPGA-sponsored Living campaigns:

• Living Forgotten Realms: Announced at Gen Con 2007, this campaign was launched at Gen Con 2008. LFR uses D&D 4th edition rules and is set in the Forgotten Realms campaign setting.
• Ashes of Athas: Announced in late 2010 and first released at D&D Experience 2011, this story-driven ongoing campaign uses the D&D 4th Edition rules and is set in the Dark Sun setting. Chapters of three linked adventures premiere at each of the D&DXP, Origins Game Fair, and Gen Con gaming conventions. Adventures are available for wider play six months after their initial release.
• Living Divine: Announced at D&D Experience 2011, this campaign is launching at Gen Con 2011, with sneak previews at five regional conventions. LD uses D&D 4th edition rules and is set in its own campaign setting. Modeled after Living Greyhawk, it is a regional campaign with geographical restrictions.

Non-RPGA Campaigns

There are many campaigns that are run either by the members or by non-WOTC companies responsible for the game world. Some of them were at one time part of the RPGA.

• Living Arcanis: A d20 System campaign set in the world of Onara. No longer part of the RPGA as of 2007.
• NeoExodus Chronicles: A new campaign in the planning stages using the setting published by Louis Porter Jr. Design
• For Queen & Country: A UK only campaign started after Crafty Games announced that Living Spycraft was ceasing. Uses the Spycraft v1 rules.
• Spymaster: The Spymaster campaign is community run and independent of Crafty Games but still uses the most recent Spycraft rules. Living Spycraft characters can be directly converted for play in Spymaster.
• Pathfinder Society Organized Play: The Pathfinder Society campaign is managed by Paizo and uses the most recent Pathfinder RPG rules.
• Shadowrun Missions: Catalyst Game Labs sponsored SF campaign, set in various cities based on year.

Extinct Campaigns

The following campaigns are no longer in existence or have ended but still have adventures available:

• Dave Arneson's Blackmoor: Campaign set in the "original D&D setting" updated to 3.5 edition and 4th edition. Currently this campaign is on indefinite hold due to licensing issues. Note that older adventures for the 3.5 version of D&D may still be available.
• Living City: Set in the Forgotten Realms campaign setting
• Living Spycraft: A world of espionage using the Spycraft d20 System rules, managed by Crafty Games.
• Living Greyhawk: A D&D campaign set in the world of Greyhawk. This campaign has ended, but adventures can still be ordered and played until the end of 2009.
• Virtual Seattle: Campaign run under RPGA auspices using Shadowrun 1st edition rules, set in the city of Seattle.
• Living Force: Campaign run under RPGA auspices using the Star Wars RPG d20 System rules.

External links

• Series of articles on the history of role-playing games
• Parenting forum article to inform mothers about PGs
• History of roleplaying
• Article on RPGs as therapy
• List of Shared World campaigns and links
• Fannon, Sean Patrick. The Fantasy Role-Playing Gamer's Bible, 2nd Edition. Obsidian Studios, 2000.
• Gygax, Gary. Roleplaying Mastery. New York, NY: Perigee, 1987.
• Gygax, Gary. Master of the Game. New York, NY: Perigee, 1989.
• Gygax, Gary. "Editorial." Dragon Magazine 95: 12. (on influence from Tolkien)
• Jaffe, Rona. Mazes and Monsters. New York, NY: Delacorte Press, 1981.
• Schick, Lawrence. Heroic Worlds: A History and Guide to Roleplaying Games. Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books, 1991.
• BBC article on the history of Dungeons & Dragons
• Gamespy's 30th Anniversary of Dungeons & Dragons special
• The Acaeum – detailed information on pre-AD&D2 editions of the game
• Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary V1.0
• Opening the Dungeon – an article about the conflict over the proprietary or open-source nature of Dungeons & Dragons
• Classic Gaming Feature on SSI