Q: What is Living Crusade?
A: Living Crusade is a unifed metaplot that allows input from LARPS, Convention games, fiction, home games and email games.

Q: What is Living Crusade's Relationship to Holistic Design?
A: None directly. Living Crusade has no direct link to Holistic Design, though Bill Bridges gave his support to the concept in abstract and John Bridges was kind enough to create the Living Crusade logo.

Q: Shared Metaplot?
A: One of the awesome things about Fading Suns is that you can make it your own. Nearly all of the events that happen take place 'horizontally', that is to say that all of the new supplements that come out tell you more about what is happening in the ever present 'now' of the universe and leave it up to the GM to move things forward. Living Crusade exists as a 'Vertical' meta-plot much along the lines of Shadow Run or Living Greyhawk in the RPGA-it will allow the plot to 'move forward' without actually interfering with how Holistic does its business or how anyone running a home game runs theirs.

Q: So what is possible in Living Crusade?
A: Anything. Literally anything is possible. The Vuldrock could invade the Hawkwood. Contact with a lost world could send shockwaves rippling through the Empire. Granted, some things are much more probable than others, for example, the odds of the Inquisition succesfully hunting down a heretic are much more likely than say-the Empire winning a military invasion against the Vau.

Q: Who runs it?
A: Good question. For now, a Triumvarate of three people who have shown their interest in the Fading Suns universe, and their willingness to be proactive in projects to further its development. Those three people include

Mareen Gobel
Founder of the Fading Suns Wordsmith's Guild, Professional Author and Official Judge in the 2001-2002 Fading Suns Science Fiction Contest

Gabriel Zarate
Author of 'Decados Fiefs', Heavy contributor to the Fading Suns email list.

Thomas Ricks
Contributing Designer to 'Fading Suns d20', 'Afghanistan d20' and 'Somalia d20'

Q: What do you mean 'For Now' or 'Why should I care?'
A: Six months from now, a second organization that controls and directs the Living Suns campaign will be created called the Regency Council, modeled after the group of the same name in the computer and RPG Empire of the Fading Suns. This group will conist of the 35 individuals who most contribute to the campaign and advancing the story plot. The Regency Council will decide and vote upon major events that take place in the campaign. Ultimately, those who contribute the most will decide what direction the campaign takes.

Q: How do I become a member of the council?
A: Membership will be determined by contribution. A given amount of points goes to certain acts.

Some examples

Writing a Module for use in a convention or home campaign-20 points
Running Fading Suns at a convention-5 points per table [Up to 20 points per 6 months]
Running a Home Fading Suns Campaign [1 point per 4 sessions up to 20 points]
Writing a Short Story for Wordsmiths that fits within the Living Crusade Continuity [10 points per story up to 20 points]
Writing a Fading Suns interactive LARP event for Passion Play [50 points]
Writing a Fading Suns interactive LARP event [10 points per 8 hours played, up to 80 points per 6 months]

These events will all be designed to let the players decide the outcome. So for example, if you play in a LARP at a convention, you know that the decisions that your character makes will have an impact on not just the game that you're playing, but the entire Living Crusade continuity. It will matter in the long run.

Q: What can I do to help/contribute right now?
A: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FSCampaigns is the place to join if you have ideas. Much of this structure is including this website.