The Game

Compendium is a freestyle multi-genre RPG being hosted on Hi5. It features heavy influences from the steam-punk and fantasy family of RPGs but strives to incorporate all genres into a seamless collective of worlds that would not ordinarily be featured together. The main goals of this RPG are incorporation, variety, and to create an environment where everyone is a part of the games development.

Where it came from

The compendium was originally created during my days in high school as characters from an RPG I was GMing and characters from an RPG my friend, Evan Rimmel, was GMing began to cross over from one game to the other. Although we could have allowed this to slip by as something outside of the game we elected to make it a part of the game by blending our games together and introducing the concept that not only our RPGs but several others were all actually taking place in a sort of continuity, a set of dimensions that had begun to bleed through onto one another. We all continued to play our separate games but they became influenced by the other games that were going on around us. Eventually other GMs joined us in our pursuits and before long we had a veritable army of players and GMs all coordinating with each other to create a lush and semi-unified world filled with races and worlds so different no one would have ever thought to have them interact.

In my end of the Compendium were three dimensions. Epcilyus the stereotypical Steam-Punk/Fantasy, Robbie land a whacked out RPG combining cutesy imagery with twisted satire and at times excessively dark undertones, and finally The Net a huge network of energy channeling machines that were able to bend dimensions to their will and create life off of a whim.

In Evan's end of the Compendium there was but one world, a highly detailed world known as The Imperium. I have to say The Imperium was the most well thought out and truly unique game setting I have ever come across. The Imperium was the home of a race called the clones that are as the name implies a race of super-human clones that had been banished from earth do to a series of unfortunate events and the intervention of several deities none of which were overly pleasant. I would give more detail than this but there is no way I could fit even the most key points into this page, you'll have to discover this fantastic world on your own.

In the portion of the Compendium ruled over by my then Girlfriend Tiffani Barner, who was also a heavy contributor to the Compendium concept, more than a few realms but the most memorable was the world of Darkfire a place filled with shape shifting dragons and a saga which ended up filling several hundred pages worth of text as it continued to unfurl.

All went great as our numbers swelled and Evan and I were placed in charge of all the other GMs as the two people who should spear head development and see to it that all of the integration was kept fair. All went great until the day Evan and I were forced to graduate and split away from our brethren. Although we continued to participate for some time after we graduated it was never to the degree we had been able to before and eventually things died off for us.

Evan went off to college and found himself too busy with his education and lovely girlfriend (Who is a possible fiancé if you ask me.) to continue with our games even in private but I continued to ponder their development in the back of my mind, poking and prodding around are old content until I finally couldn’t take it any more and launched the Compendium again on a small scale message board, which to my surprise grew like wildfire.. Leaving the need for this site and a hopeful stab at taking the Compendium into a glorious new future.

I do hope you'll help us with that last part.

-Robert Gaines