Realms of Peril & Glory: A New Year of Incredible Actual Play

Realms of Peril & Glory is an Actual Play podcast of big laughs and big heart. They specialize in telling well crafted stories that have a strong cinematic feel to them. The group is made up of talented producers, voice actors, writers, tabletop players and more. Together they use a variety of TTRPG systems to create incredible quality audio drama whilst sharing the joy of playing a good game together.

I caught up with the show’s producer, Zack Fortais-Gomm, to talk about what goes into making a production like this and find out what Realms have in store for us in 2024.

Origin Story

Before Zack was producing Actual Plays on Realms of Peril & Glory, he was working in television post-production and audio drama. In 2016, he and fellow Realms’ star, James Barbarossa started his own production company: The Light and Tragic Company. Together, they created their own independent audio production; The Orphans. This sci-fi drama centered around the survivors of a spaceship marooned together on a distant planet. It was through working on The Orphans and interacting with other audio creators that he learnt about the world of TTRPGs:

So I grew to be part of a community of independent audio and drama creators. And what would you guess a bunch of nerds happened to like tabletop games?

James Barbarossa and Zack Fortais-Gomm: co-creators of The Light and Tragic Company.

One day, he was treated to a gift that would allow him to combine these two worlds. Ella Watts, the much celebrated queen of audio fiction, ran a game of 13th Age, for Zack. What made this game special was that it was adapted set in the world of Zack’s own creation; The Orphans!

This was Zack’s gateway into the world of Actual Play. Getting to experience the world he had created through the medium of a TTRPG was a real eye-opener. Inspired by the possibilities of using TTRPGs as a storytelling device, he got together with similarly minded people to establish Realms of Peril & Glory!

Actual Play And Collaborative Storytelling

I asked Zack a little more about what makes Actual Play such a good medium of storytelling.

I was always, as a storyteller, looking to get my performers… to feel as much ownership as possible over their characters and really get involved… I never found exactly the thing that I was after until I first was in tabletop and everyone was like making decisions about their characters and they had this huge sense of ownership about who that character was that I never got working with performers in scripted media.

Zack and the gang at the London Podcast Festival

The medium of Actual Play can have a hard time defining itself, especially for people who aren’t familiar with TTRPGs. For Zack, it boils down to telling a story collaboratively with your friends and using dice to decide whether or not things happen. The fact that stories can go in so many difficult directions based on the whims of the players and the randomness of a dice roll adds an extra level of drama.

What makes tabletop special as a medium is being able to experience surprise and shock and excitement at the same time as the people at the table… There’s no kind of pre-written reaction that is going to capture the same level of authenticity as someone finding out there at the table.

You will notice listening to their shows that they mix moments of high drama and convincing roleplay with the players chatting, laughing and reacting together as themselves. For Zack it was very important to keep the authentic excitement of being at the table playing with your friends.

Getting Your Players and Creating Some Drama

Being in the world of audio podcasting meant that Zack was spoiled for choice when choosing people to work with. Realms’ first, and most long running series, was Vael, a sprawling magical mystery campaign also played using 13th Age. The story was of such a scale that that Zack and James split the role of GM. Zack did the majority of the storytelling whilst James played most of the non-player characters (NPCs) in the story.

Playing the game and lending terrific character performances were Maddy Searle, Liz Campbell, Pip Gladwin and Laura Girling. The four of them worked so well together, they have become Realms’ core cast along with Zack and James.

Since then, Naomi Clarke has joined the ranks of the core cast members. She began with a standout performance as Three Card Monty in their Liminal London series. Together, the core cast have starred in many more spell-binding adventures. Along the way, they’ve been joined by guest stars from the world of Actual Play such as Shamini Bundell, Jasper William Cartwright, Grant Howitt and many more. 

Naomi Clarke as Three-Card Monty

Zack praised his cast members for their ability to improvise and develop positive chemistry together. Listening to their shows, you may think that it’s all pre-planned with the cast beforehand. However Zack shared that so many times players had made decisions that took the plot in completely different directions. 

I’m always running those mental calculations of like, adjusting the plans as new decisions are made by the characters and say “Okay, how does this factor in? How do I leverage that decision to benefit the story later, down the line?”

This works because he has players he trusts to provide great character development regardless of where they go. If they miss a plot point, it can always come in later or be replaced by something else. Ultimately, what The Light and Tragic Company was intended for was to have this range of comedy and tragedy. This comes from giving the cast a degree of free reign.

You are having character development that is just as important as plot… Honestly, those are some of my favorite scenes because I get to just sit back and watch my amazing performers!

Getting Cinematic Production Value

Of course, with great audio comes great editing! The Light and Tragic Company have a huge roster of talented audio editors. Together, they take hours and hours of tabletop fun times and turn it into quality episodic content. Perhaps one of Realms’ crowning achievements is its sound design. You’ll frequently hear the ambient sounds of, say, a bustling market, ominous footsteps, or magical portals. All this makes the action feel a lot more real to listeners. A lot of care and attention is taking into crafting these episodes. There are still so many recorded episodes that we won’t get to hear in their final form for a long time yet!

On top of that, Realms boasts an incredible original music score composed by James Barbarossa. His music is very evocative and really sets the tone for fights and encounters. It also carries meaning for characters and place. Frequent listeners of Realms will come to associate these tracks with enjoying a Wynvere Whip in Cafe Pirelli or patrolling New Harbour with Zongroff Gral’Shaaks.

When our composer James Barbarossa makes a music track, that’s so deeply connected to your character that you portrayed and makes you weep that you’re just like… there’s nothing better than this…I feel like the music is really what, like hooks you in. It’s like we’ve got this original soundtrack that like we can customize as much as we want… It wouldn’t be the same show without it honestly. 

Upcoming plans

From Monday 5th February, 2024, we will be treated to more new Actual Plays from Realms of Peril & Glory. Liminal London will be returning with the release of the first episode of its fourth mystery: Loose Change. This series will see the return of the core Liminal crew: Declan Buchanan (played by Pip Gladwin), Mags Holt (played by Liz Campbell) and Three Card Monty (played by Naomi Clarke). In this series, a power struggle has been teased that will change London’s hidden city forever!

Liminal London Series 4: Loose Change premieres Monday February 5th 2024.

We’ll also be treated to a fifth Liminal London mystery in the spring; Blood Pressure. This will feature returning guest, Shamini Bundell reprising her role as Dr. Annie Walker, a newly turned vampire seeking revenge against those who turned her!

Liminal London Series 5: Blood Pressure will premiere Spring 2024.

In the summer, we’ll have the sequel to their grim capitalist dystopian series, CY_BORG, played in the game of the same name. Like the original, Pip Gladwin will be GMing this series, giving Zack the joy/horror of being a player! Joining him will be James Barbarossa, Maddy Searle and Shamini Bundell reprising their roles as misfit mercenaries on the run from the law.

CY_BORG II will premiere summer 2024.

That is all in terms of their scheduled programming, but there is still so much to look forward to beyond the summer. Having spawned many mini-series, Vael is looking to return with a full second series in the vein of their first epic adventure. Recording has already begun on that, though getting them to Realms quality takes time. Zack and the team are also cooking up lots of other projects that he can’t wait to share with all of us!

What are you waiting for?

You can access all of Realms of Peril & Glory‘s incredible Actual Plays through their website complete with merch, details of the shows and the games they use. If you want to go the extra mile to support their work and get exclusive bonuses you can follow this link and become a patron of the Light and Tragic Company. Bonuses include shout outs on their episodes, patreon-only series’ and original soundtrack.