Living campaigns, or shared 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 now defunct RPGA, many groups around the world run active living campaigns which are independent or sponsored by other publishers.
Scarred Lands is a post-apocalyptic fantasy campaign setting in which characters live in a world recovering from a devastating war between gods and titans. Initially published by White Wolf Publishing under its Sword & Sorcery brand using the d20 System, Scarred Lands is now owned by Onyx Path Publishing. In 2017 Onyx Path Publishing released an updated version of the setting using the 5th Edition Open Game License system along with a version of the core setting book using the first edition of the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game rules. Scarred Lands draws inspiration from Greek mythology.
An Adventure Path is a series of interlinked adventures (campaign) for tabletop role-playing games which can be played in succession and lead characters to advance from lower to higher levels, through a particular path of events.
Paizo Inc. is an American role-playing game publishing company based in Redmond, Washington, best known for the tabletop role-playing games Pathfinder and Starfinder. The company's name is derived from the Greek word παίζωpaizō, which means 'I play' or 'to play'. Paizo also runs an online retail store selling role-playing games board games, comic books, toys, clothing, accessories and other products, as well as an Internet forum community.
Pathfinder is a line of roleplaying game supplements published by Paizo Publishing since 2007. Originally designed for use with the revised 3rd edition of Dungeons & Dragons, they transitioned to the first edition of the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game in 2009, then to the second edition of Pathfinder in 2019.
The Pathfinder Roleplaying Game is a fantasy role-playing game (RPG) that was published in 2009 by Paizo Publishing. The first edition extends and modifies the System Reference Document (SRD) based on the revised 3rd edition Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) published by Wizards of the Coast under the Open Game License (OGL) and is intended to be backward-compatible with that edition.
Owen K.C. Stephens is a game designer who has worked on a number of products for the Starfinder, Pathfinder and Star Wars Roleplaying Game and other games.
Greg A. Vaughan is an American writer who creates material for roleplaying games.
Brian R. James is a game designer and software engineer. As a writer, Brian is best known for his online and print works for the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game published by Wizards of the Coast. In game design circles, Brian is highly regarded for his deep knowledge of the Forgotten Realms campaign setting and its extensive history. In 2012 Brian won a Silver ENnie Award for Monster Vault: Threats to the Nentir Vale and he has been nominated for other ENnie Awards and Origins Awards.
Free RPG Day is an annual promotional event by the tabletop role-playing game industry. The event rules are fairly simple: participating publishers provide special free copies of games to participating game stores; the game store agrees to provide one free game to any person who requests a free game on Free RPG Day.
Kobold Press, also known as Open Design, is an American game company that produces role-playing games and game supplements.
Amanda Hamon Kunz is an American game designer known for her work on the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game and other d20 role-playing game products.
Hank Woon is an American fiction author, game designer and screenwriter.
The Starfinder Roleplaying Game is a science-fiction/science fantasy role-playing game published by Paizo Publishing. It is built on Paizo's previous game, the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, both in its game mechanics and universe, but adapted to a more futuristic style than its fantasy predecessor; game content is intended to be easily convertible between the two systems. Like its predecessor, the Starfinder RPG supports adventure paths and other material written by Paizo and third party publishers.
Nerd Poker is a weekly comedy and adventure podcast that primarily features comedian Brian Posehn and his friends as they play the Dungeons & Dragons tabletop role-playing game.
Russ Morrissey, also known as Morrus is a British reporter, game designer, podcaster, author and owner of EN World. Morrissey founded the ENnie Awards in 2001, which he ran until 2018. He also founded the book publisher EN Publishing, and the tabletop gaming news website EN World, both of which he runs currently.
Actual play, also called live play, is a genre of podcast or web show in which people play tabletop role-playing games (TTRPGs) for an audience. Actual play often encompasses in-character interactions between players, storytelling from the gamemaster, and out-of-character engagements such as dice rolls and discussion of game mechanics. The genre emerged in the early 2000s and became more popular throughout the decade, particularly with the 2015 debut of Critical Role, an actual play webseries featuring professional voice actors.
Demiplane is a company that creates digital toolsets for playing tabletop role-playing games which can be used as an aid to playing in person or remotely online. The Demiplane platform's main services are game matchmaking, game hosting and licensed content via the Nexus digital toolset. Nexus provides access to digital rulebooks, adventures, and other supplements; it also provides digital tools like a character builder and character sheets. The platform was launched in 2020; early access to Nexus launched in 2021. In June 2024, the company was acquired by the virtual tabletop (VTT) company Roll20.
Banana Chan is a Chinese Canadian game designer and writer for tabletop role-playing games and board games. Chan and Sen-Foong Lim created Jiangshi: Blood in the Banquet Hall (2021). Chan has written for over twenty tabletop games, including the official Dungeons & Dragons campaign setting Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft (2021), Dune: Adventures in the Imperium, and the third edition of Betrayal at House on the Hill (2022).
One Shot Podcast Network is a network of podcast series about tabletop role-playing games, with many shows dedicated to actual play, interviews, and discussion. It was founded by James D'Amato to showcase a wide variety of games and systems, including indie role-playing games, as an alternative to actual play shows that focus exclusively on Dungeons & Dragons.
