Campaign

Campaign is an Canadian-American web series produced by RaGE Media Group (later Firebasket Studios) for Livestream, Ustream, Twitch.TV and VRV. It follows a group of employees and executives of RaGE Media/Firebasket Studios who play table top RPGs. The series started in 2008 on Livestream.

Background
Each season is usually about 60-100 episodes and last either a year or two, and each episode usually is 120-150 minutes. Special episodes are 135-210 minutes long. For the first three campaigns, episodes were pre-recorded on Sunday afternoons at around 4pm, then episodes are edited and streamed live on Ragestream on Tuesday nights at 5pm PST. Campaigns four onward are done live every Tuesday night at 6pm PST (later changed to 5pm PST). Starting with the 20th episode of Campaign 8, episodes were changed to Wednesday nights at 7pm PST due to complications of schedules of the staff.

Campaigns

 * 1, Dungeons and Dragons: Argoak [Livestream, 2008-2009]
 * 2, Dungeons and Dragons: Argoak: 20 Years Later [Livestream, 2009-2011]
 * 3, Cyberpunk 2020: Nuclear Fallout Retrieval [Ustream, 2011-2012]
 * 4, Custom Zombie Survival Campaign [Ustream/Twitch.tv, 2012-2014]
 * 5, Custom Fantasy Campaign [Twitch.tv, 2014-2015]
 * 6, Dungeons and Dragons: Lessoge [Twitch.tv, 2015-2017]
 * 7, Dungeons and Dragons: Argoak: The Return [VRV Live/Twitch.tv, February 2018-December 2019]
 * 8, Starfinder [VRV/Twitch.tv/Vision Network, December 2019-present]

Studio
For episodes 1-88, the production was filmed and produced inside James's own house. Starting with episode 89 production was moved to James's own studio which he had contracted back in early 2009. The set included some steampunk elements, with a few cameras positioned around the set, including the famous "table" camera. The set was used for a long time during the lifetime of Campaign. In November of 2017, it was announced that the studio will not be used for the 7th campaign, due to James wanting a bigger studio for Campaign. So for the 2018 year, they will be situated in the Manhattan Center TV Studio 1. Tickets were open the first week of January with a limit of 300 (changed to 100 starting in 2019) people per event, this will be the first instance of a regular episode having a studio audience.

It was announced in October that the new set will be unveiled at the end of the 7th campaign.

During the end of the 7th campaign in December, James did a live unveiling of the new studio which was decked out in sci-fi props, LEDs, and a spaceship table. He also announced that campaign 8 will be recorded in 4K, but livestreamed in 1440p.

On screen graphics
The first season had a basic set up with a wide table shot of the players, with a camera just for the DM. An info tab was also visible.

The second season had a slight change from the first layout, with the table shot smaller and the info tab was bigger.

Live episodes
Starting in the fourth campaign, there was an occasional live event at a theater or small arena. The first event was the 42nd episode of the fourth campaign at the Irving Plaza in New York City. The following are the other live episodes. Live episodes are livestreamed on Ragestream at around 6pm local time for the venue. Episodes are shorter, usually lasting 100 minutes, which include two 45 minute halves with a 10 minute intermission.

Animated series
Based off the high viewership of the show, in 2012, the crew of Campaign hired animators from around the world to help animate Argoak for television. The episodes were 22 minutes long and the series lasted 52 episodes, and aired in syndication.

Firebasket Television currently holds syndication rights for it.

Reboot
Another series, based off Argoak and Argoak: 20 Years Later, was greenlit in October 2018. The show was produced by Firebasket Studios, Beta Cartoon, Typewriter Productions, and Nelvana. Vision was set to be the broadcaster, and to be aired in mid 2019. However, it was delayed to the summer of 2020 and moved to Vision Network as an original. Firebasket Television and Vision Originals Library holds the broadcast, streaming, and home media rights.

Television broadcast
Starting in November of 2011, RaGE has broadcasted 88 minute versions of the first campaign on weekdays at 4am. The second campaign started airing in April of 2012 on RaGE. The third campaign started airing in the spring of 2013, with the show only airing on Monday, Thursday, and Sunday mornings at 4:30am. The fourth campaign started airing in the winter of 2014, shortly after the final episode of the fourth season on weekday mornings at 3:45am, with a 95 minute episode edit. The fifth campaign started in the fall of 2016 as a primetime show on Friday nights at 10pm, the earliest it had ever aired.

Viewership
In the first season, the average amount of viewers was 1,600. In the second season, this went up to 6,200. The third season, due to the popularity of the show, went up to 19,000 average viewers. The season finale of the third season had a total of 27,000. Due to the popularity spike, James and his company shopped around to find a venue in his hometown, New York City to host a special live episode. The episode sold out with online viewership peaking at 55,200. This prompted two more events being scheduled. The fourth season average was about 63,000.