Raised by Wolves’ Abubakar Salim, all in tabletop roleplay

After wrapping up a long day in South Africa during the filming of HBO’s second season Raised by wolves, Abubakar Salim, who plays Cha in the film, is invited by the rest of the cast for a night on the town. But he has other plans – take part in the weekly session of the board role-playing game Vampire: The Masquerade live streaming.

His co-stars were a bit confused at first with his actual playing preference, which is to stream lengthy tabletop role-playing games in sessions that could last three or four hours together. a time. But before long, the other actors are working Raised by wolves became engrossed in his double life spent playing with his friends.

“They really care about it,” Salim told Polygon in an interview earlier this month. “They want to participate in it, and I think there is this feeling [discovery]. We’ve had the space to dig into this and dig into it. “

Now, Salim is developing his talent with board role-playing games in a different direction. Instead of a blood-sucking vampire, he takes on the role of a powerful, violent enforcer named Valkos, an evil weapon covered in ritual scars and tattoos, and says general is not a person can be deceived. He is part of the cast Haunted Citya new series based on John Harper’s Blade in the dark and broadcast on The Glass Cannon Network.

As for Salim, he doesn’t play games on Twitch for exposure. Instead, he’s there because he loves it.

Image: John Harper

“I would be an idiot to miss it,” Salim said. “This is the purest form of storytelling and also the purest form of actually entering a world and losing yourself in a world. And I think that’s funny, especially when I’m used to being on a set where you have all the costumes and everything there, and you have a script. […] There’s something about feeling like a passenger seat, but also having the steering wheel in front of you. […] As a human, it just keeps you alive. ”

Reality game shows have been growing in popularity since 2014, around the same time as the 5th edition of Dungeons & Dragons was released. The most popular example of this format is Critical Role, a troupe created by a team of professional voice actors. The multi-year reality play program recently spawned an animated series on Amazon’s Prime Video streaming service, and a second season has been ordered.

Glass Cannon Network came out at the same time as Critical Role, primarily as a reality broadcast podcast by Pathfinder. Now, the network’s CEO, Troy Lavallee, tells Polygon he’s bringing in over 1 million dollars per year on Patreon. What started out as just a show with a single player group has evolved into many different shows. He said eight new reality plays will be released in 2022 alone, adding an additional 18 touring days of live performances in front of paying audiences.

Playing in Haunted City Next to Salim are co-stars Josephine McAdam and Ross Bryant. Game Master (GM) Jared Logan only recently joined The Glass Cannon Network, putting his expertise and his regular players in lieu of his own. Blood. That acquisition helped strengthen The Glass Cannon Network’s talent pool. It recently launched another reality game called Inheritance of sanda series of films that explore Modiphius’ Dune: Adventures in the Imperium Based on the original novel by Frank Herbert. But it’s not just about acquiring a large pool of talented players. Lavalle says it’s about finding the right chemical, one that fits what can be a fickle audience.

“I’ve seen celebrities guest-star on streams where about 40 people are watching,” says Lavallee. “How come there aren’t more viewers? I look at their Twitter and it’s like they’re tweeting about it, it’s just people like it or not. And I think a lot of it has to do with whether celebrities are in the game, because you can invite any of Joe Schmo’s celebrities to play. If they don’t join the game, it will have limited profits.

“It’s about finding the right combination of personalities and continuing to create a lot of content, but [also] Make sure the cast is fun and diverse. ”

For GM Logan, it’s also about the system being played. The hobby of role-playing is more than swords and magic. Blade in the darkfor example, mixed Peaky Blinders-style heist sequentially with the occult. It also relies heavily on improvisation, empowering players to actively craft the story as they go along and creating a family of characters bound together by similar desires. That process is incorporated into the rules of the game.

“In Blade in the dark, you don’t just create your character with your character sheet, you create your gang,” says Logan. “So the book makes it clear that really the main character of the series, of the campaign, is your gang.”

With an even larger cast thrown into the perspective of the universe itself, Logan says it’s a great opportunity to swap out new players from time to time. For his part, Salim was not worried about withdrawing soon. Instead, he’s excited about the next opportunity to play.

“Above Raised by wolves I always knew the scene we were doing,” said Salim. “With this, I don’t know what will happen. It’s one of those things where you rush into it all because you want to, because it just draws you in. “

“You have to stay awake,” he continued. “It’s scary, but I think that’s what makes it interesting.”

Haunted City airs weekly at 8 p.m. ET on Twitch. You can find the entire archive of the program on YouTube.