It's been almost 10 years since The Glass Cannon Network first took its Pathfinder podcast on tour. CEO and cofounder Troy Lavallee tells me their debut show was staged "at a games store in Queens that isn't around any more". "It was only 50 tickets, but it sold out", he says. "People flew in from all over the country to watch us do a four-hour one-shot." "That's when we started to realize: 'oh, something is happening here'.
The Glass Cannon Network began its actual play journey in 2015, the same year as industry giants Critical Role. A decade of work has brought almost 70,000 YouTube subscribers and multiple successful live tours. However, the actual play industry has changed a lot in that time.
"There's so many more people making actual play than when we started", Lavallee tells me. "Even though we've been doing this a long time, and we have employees and health insurance, and we're able to support our families with this, we're still scratching and biting and clawing to get even a tiny percentage of the overall market."
Despite their tenure - and perhaps because of it - Lavallee and the Glass Cannon team are still looking to "push the limits" of their actual play series. "I'm interested in constant change and evolution", he says. Those are the driving forces behind Glass Cannon's latest venture: Call of Cthulhu Live, a series of one-shots running from March to December.
Glass Cannon has always championed games like Call of Cthulhu, who see less actual play love than TTRPG market leader, Dungeons and Dragons. "We started with a Pathfinder podcast, because that's what we were playing at the time, but little did we know, it would help us carve our niche", Lavallee says.
"As others came in, they just tried making more and more D&D podcasts." "Our detractors sometimes say we should play D&D to get a larger audience, but I don't know if that's necessarily true", he adds. "I think we'd just be making a lot of noise in a very large pond."
Many of Glass Cannon's previous live tours presented ongoing stories, of which the audience would only catch a fragment. Plus, Lavallee tells me, they were designed for the group's established viewers, who had an existing knowledge of the Glass Cannon back catalog.
"It was getting untenable for the audience", Lavallee says. "We had a recap at the beginning of each show, but there was no way we could bring new people in to discover what we're doing."
That's all changing with Call of Cthulhu Live. "Audiences don't need to be prepared beforehand", he tells me. "For the most part, characters and cast will be different from show to show."
Call of Cthulhu Live may have a new format, but Lavallee says it still captures the high-stakes, high-chaos storytelling fans expect from a Glass Cannon show. In fact, the Call of Cthulhu system is well-designed for such a style.
"It's my personal favorite TTRPG these days", he tells me. "If I'm running D&D or Pathfinder, I kind of know what's going to happen: the players will attack, either with sword or magic." "I might test their strength, but they're going to win that encounter", he says.
"In Call of Cthulhu, these aren't heroes; they're just run-of-the-mill people." "There's so much danger in just comprehending, let alone being physically attacked by, these otherworldly horrors", he adds. "When we get out there, I watch shit hit the fan and come up with ideas on the fly to tell a cohesive story." "There's no way I could have planned what was going to happen."
On opening night, Call of Cthulhu Live's cast found themselves trapped on a plane whose pilot had been lost to eldritch horrors. "The best piloting skill among the investigators was somewhere around 5%", Lavallee tells me. "It was interesting, because after dealing with the otherworldly terror, they then had to do the mechanical work of landing the plane, and all sorts of things could happen on the way down."
From a falling plane to a Sacramento railway, each Call of Cthulhu Live presents eldritch abominations in a unique setting. Ahead of Chicago's show, Lavallee also tells me he'll be running a corporate Cthulhu adventure. "There are these people who went insane at work, a stressful Silicon-Valley-like environment, but the investigators are hired because there's something very strange about the way they went insane".
Lavallee says live shows like this "help build a deeper connection with the fanbase". It might even bring new fans into the fold - though if Glass Cannon is to really grow, Lavallee thinks it needs to look beyond the realm of TTRPGs.
"We have to find a way to expand beyond our boundaries, because I think there's a ceiling for TTRPGs that, right now, only the stalwarts have been able to scrape." "The rest of us are left with the scraps", he says.
"When we started, you could count on one hand the number of people doing this", he tells me. "Since you and I started talking, five or more actual plays have probably launched." "Over the years, you've had companies with millions of dollars behind them come in, so they've shot to the top and stayed there - whereas we've just coasted around 10th place."
"The gap has gotten wider and wider", he adds, "so I'm always trying to throw rocks at the setup." "We're trying to increase our footprint in the market while also expanding into other markets."
"Like, I'd say that people who enjoy comedy can listen to us, even if they don't like gaming", Lavallee says. "If you enjoy a good story but could care less about dice, you can listen to us."
You can find out more about Cthulhu Live on the Glass Cannon Network's website. Or, if you want to chat with fellow fans about the best tabletop RPGs, join us in the Wargamer Discord.