# Ancient Web: David Roomes Built Khoras Into a 1997 Fantasy World David M. Roomes turned a 1990 college-era fantasy setting into Khoras, an extensive free and system-neutral online campaign world launched in May 1997. 2026-09-26 :: Switchboard Tech Services ![Ancient Web: David Roomes Built Khoras Into a 1997 Fantasy World](https://switchboardtechservices.com/static/images/defaults/articles.webp) Part of the [Ancient Web Collection](https://switchboardtechservices.com/articles/ancient-web-collection/). Some game masters buy a fantasy world in a boxed set. David M. Roomes spent years building one and then put the whole place on the Web for anyone to explore. [Visit the World of Khoras](https://www.khoras.net/) The front page still warns that its navigation uses frames, which is a useful clue to the site's origins. More conclusive evidence comes from [Roomes's own FAQ](https://www.khoras.net/Community/FAQ/faq.htm): Khoras went online in **May 1997**, then moved to its independent domain on **April 16, 1998**. The author dates the earliest pieces of lore to **December 1990** and describes building the setting in earnest for a 1992 college role-playing campaign. Khoras is not a multiplayer computer game. It is a place for tabletop characters to live, travel, fight, and make decisions, with detailed people, cultures, kingdoms, religions, geography, and history available through hyperlinks. ## Build the world, leave the dice to somebody else Roomes made a deliberate design choice: Khoras is **system-neutral**. The [FAQ](https://www.khoras.net/Community/FAQ/faq.htm) explains that a strong character should be described in ordinary prose rather than locked to a specific numerical strength score. A group could use Dungeons & Dragons, GURPS, RuneQuest, or another game and translate the setting as needed. That makes the site's huge body of information useful even when a particular rules edition becomes obsolete. The [cultured-races overview](https://khoras.net/Khoras/Races/Overview%20of%20the%20Races.htm) illustrates the density. Alongside humans and familiar fantasy peoples are invented lineages such as **Guldra**, **Saurians**, **Skrell**, **Vothen**, **Aswani**, and **Karthasians**. The page distinguishes natural evolution, magical creation, and visitors from other dimensions or star systems within the world's fictional history. The [game-master tools](https://www.khoras.net/Community/DM%20Tools/DM%20Tools.htm) offer short adventure hooks, full campaigns, player information packets, and optional rules. Its entries link back into the fictional encyclopedia so a prospective adventure has actual places and people behind it. The archive remains maintained: one tools page carries a **March 2026** update notice. That is not a reason to call it a new site. The same long-term personal publishing project has survived changes in browsers, rules systems, and web design. Khoras shows how a home campaign can become a freely shared reference world without needing a commercial game release. [Read how Khoras began](https://www.khoras.net/Community/FAQ/faq.htm) and [explore its game-master resources](https://www.khoras.net/Community/DM%20Tools/DM%20Tools.htm). Part of the [Ancient Web Collection](https://switchboardtechservices.com/articles/ancient-web-collection/). - Categories: [Ancient Web](https://switchboardtechservices.com/articles/categories/ancient-web/) - Tags: [#ancientweb](https://switchboardtechservices.com/articles/tags/ancientweb/), [#webhistory](https://switchboardtechservices.com/articles/tags/webhistory/), [#roleplaying](https://switchboardtechservices.com/articles/tags/roleplaying/), [#worldbuilding](https://switchboardtechservices.com/articles/tags/worldbuilding/), [#fantasy](https://switchboardtechservices.com/articles/tags/fantasy/) [Articles RSS](https://switchboardtechservices.com/feeds/articles.xml "Subscribe using an RSS reader") --- Canonical URL: https://switchboardtechservices.com/articles/ancient-web-david-roomes-built-khoras-into-a-1997-fantasy-world/ Language: en-us Content type: article Author: Switchboard Tech Services Published: 2026-09-26T18:39:16+00:00 Modified: 2026-10-18T21:01:41.495751+00:00