Getting Started
Sculpting Realms
A realm is more than a session container. It's a living world that grows richer every time you play.
A realm is a persistent world that holds your entire campaign history. Sessions, transcripts, compendium entries, entities, and the relationships between them all live inside a single realm and accumulate over time. The longer you play in a realm, the richer and more interconnected its archive becomes.
Think of a realm not as a game session, but as the world itself: an ever-expanding tapestry of adventures that your party is actively weaving together.
The most important decision when starting out is whether to keep playing in an existing realm or create a new one. The answer depends on whether the story continues.
Continue in the same realm
If your party is playing the same campaign or returning to the same world, stay in one realm. History compounds: transcripts stack, the compendium deepens, and the archive reflects the full arc of your story.
Start a new realm
If you're beginning a new campaign, a new story, or playing with a different group, create a fresh realm. Each realm's archive is self-contained, so a clean slate keeps things organized. If your world carries over, you can export your compendium from the old realm and import it into the new one.
Realms of Shod doesn't care what ruleset you use. Bring D&D, Pathfinder, Call of Cthulhu, a homebrew system, or anything else. The platform captures your story regardless. RealmsOS is built around the narrative, not the rulebook.
As your session is transcribed, the compendium listens. Existing entities are automatically linked in your live transcripts, and new ones are identified and created as they emerge from the story. Relationships between entities are discovered in real time.
The compendium builds itself while you play, so you never have to stop the adventure to take notes. The world takes shape around you as the story unfolds.