I think this is where a lot of people are getting hung up... seeing what is there now, and how you have to use it now, compared to how it will be later.
Right now, yes, to run 2 campaigns in the same world, you have to enter the same world date twice. IF you need it. I am not bothering with any more of that than I absolutely need, because of what is coming in the future (as I understand it, anyway).
The key is the Repository feature that is not in place yet.
What is coming is that you could create a REALM (not a World Almanac specifically, although all of the content may be in the World Almanac) where all of the content is nations, history (setting guidebook material). Then you could copy/share that from the Repository to two separate group-specific REALMS, one for each campaign. Changes in each would indeed be independent, so if Ostler in Hommlet "A" dies, Ostler in Hommlet "B" is fine.
What is not as clear is whether updating the "parent" Realm would cascade those changes to the other realms. The last description I saw made it sound like "no", but it is far from final and that was far from specifically stated.
The Repository is the same mechanism that publishers will use to distribute paid-for data packages (as I understand the planned setup). What is also not clear to me is how they will use piecemeal updates. Paizo, for example, often drops a name in one product, and may follow up a year or more later with a more detailed write up (ex. the City of Magnimar got a small gazetteer in the early days, then a full book of its own later; the Gods of Golarion have had several iterations now.. 1-column in one book, 2-columns in another, 8 pages in a full article, and now there's a new book in the spring updating them all). Assuming that the publishers mirror their books in their data package releases, it is not at all clear that these separate articles would be merged .. and I don't look forward to managing 6-7 versions of the same Topic made available through different sources. So that's one piece of this I will be watching keenly for more updates.
I am sure Rob or someone from LoneWolf will be along shortly to clarify, anyway
