Living campaigns

Living Campaigns are part marketing tool, part volunteer campaign settings, which allow people all over the world to play role-playing games in a shared universe.

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.

Much to the dismay of some, Living campaigns are rigid in their administration and do not allow for much DM caveat on rules or setting. DMs are not at liberty to change and/or ignore rules that they do not like or agree with. They are not allowed to go "off script" in adventures or allow thing int he campaign that aren't approved by the campaign staff. For some people, not having the ultimate control of a home campaign is a real turn off.

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.

Official Campaigns
Official WOTC/RPGA-sponsored living campaigns:
 * Living Greyhawk: A D&D campaign set in the world of Greyhawk. Currently the most popular Living campaign.
 * Mark of Heroes: The RPGA's Eberron organized play campaign.
 * Legacy of the Green Regent: A D&D campaign set in the Forgotten Realms. This campaign has ended.
 * Living Force: A d20 Star Wars RPG campaign. Set in the time period just after The Phantom Menace.

Third Party Campaigns
Member-enabled Living campaigns include:
 * Living Arcanis: A d20 System campaign set in the world of Onara.
 * Living Death: A d20 System campaign set in the Victorian era, based on the Ravenloft expansion called Masque of the Red Death.
 * Living Kingdom of Kalamar: A medieval fantasy setting set in Kenzer & Company's Kingdoms of Kalamar.
 * Living Spycraft: A world of espionage using the Spycraft d20 System rules, managed by Alderac Entertainment Group and Raven.

Unofficial Campaigns
There have been quite a few grass roots movements among fans to create Living style campaigns for other settings. They are called Living style because the term Living as it pertains to a persistant, multi-player, shared campaign world is copyrighted by the RPGA.

The following are known Living style campaigns that are actively running:
 * Legends of the Shining Jewel: A D&D 3.5 edition campaign
 * Heroes of Rokugan/Champions of the Emerald Empire: Uses the Legend of the Five Rings Roleplaying Game
 * Living Planar: Mixes all types of settings using D&D 3.5 edition rules
 * Iron Kingdoms: Chronicles of Immoren: A new campaign in the planning stages using the setting published by Privateer Press

Extinct Campaigns
The following campaigns are no longer in existance or have ended but still have adventures available:
 * Living Force: Used the D20 Star Wars Roleplaying Game (Wizards of the Coast) Rules
 * Living City: Set in the Forgotten Realms campaign setting
 * Living Jungle: Set in the Forgotten Realms campaign setting
 * Virtual Seattle: Used the Shadowrun rules and setting by FASA
 * Living Verge: Used the Alternity rules system and Star*Drive setting by TSR
 * Living Rokugan: Used the Legend of the Five Rings Roleplaying Game. It has since become an independant campaign known as Heroes of Rokugan