The Shared universe reference article from the English Wikipedia on 24-Apr-2004 (provided by Fixed Reference: snapshots of Wikipedia from wikipedia.org)

Shared universe

Shared universe is a literary technique where several different authors share the same back-story, exchanging background information, events, and even characters, and referring to each other's stories to create one larger universe. A common device is to use false documents.

Some examples of shared universes include the Cthulhu Mythos originally created by H. P. Lovecraft, the Thieves' World originally by Robert Lynn Asprin, and the Man-Kzin Wars originally by Larry Niven, and in comics the Marvel Universe.

Roleplaying worlds are based on prefabricated shared universes where the gamemaster plans the campaigns based on some existing background material and the players respond to that story, creating more of it; fan fiction is similarly based on some existing stories on top of which fans create their own stories.

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