Worlds Beyond Number

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Worlds Beyond Number
Presentation
StarringErika Ishii, Aabria Iyengar, Brennan Lee Mulligan, Lou Wilson
Genre
Created byErika Ishii, Aabria Iyengar, Taylor Moore, Brennan Lee Mulligan, Lou Wilson
LanguageEnglish
UpdatesBi-Weekly
Length60 – 150 minutes
Production
No. of seasons4
No. of episodes53
Publication
Original releaseMarch 1, 2023
ProviderFortunate Horse (2023)
Related
Websiteworldsbeyondnumber.com

Worlds Beyond Number is an actual play audio drama podcast created by Erika Ishii, Aabria Iyengar, Taylor Moore, Brennan Lee Mulligan, Lou Wilson and narrated by the same group (minus Moore). The first season was released to the public on March 1, 2023. The podcast is produced by publisher Fortunate Horse.[1] Paid Patreon subscribers are able to enjoy exclusive content only produced on that platform.[2]

History

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Worlds Beyond Number is an actual play audio drama; their initial story, entitled The Wizard, The Witch, & The Wild One, premiered in March 2023. It follows a trio of friends on their adventures through the fantastical world of Umora, a campaign setting created by Brennan Lee Mulligan.[3][4][5] Mulligan serves as the initial gamemaster, while Erika Ishii plays the character of Ame, a witch; Aabria Iyengar plays Suvi, a wizard; and Lou Wilson plays Eursulon, a spirit.[6] The first book of this campaign ran for four seasons with the finale scheduled to air in August 2025.[5][7]

The next campaign will be set in space and will feature Iyengar as the gamemaster.[5][7] It is set to premiere in January 2026. Additionally, the show will record from a new studio.[7]

Production

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Worlds Beyond Number airs on a biweekly schedule on various public podcasting platforms.[1][8] The show also has exclusive content for their Patreon subscribers; this includes their behind-the-scenes Fireside Chats aftershow.[2][9] Taylor Moore, of Fortunate Horse, is the producer, designer, and composer.[1][8][9] Moore creates the "soundscape" to accompany Mulligan's game descriptions; he uses Pro Tools.[8] Moore stated that they chose audio as their storytelling median due to affordability. On the podcast's creation process, Moore explained that it starts with "a few story meetings, writers meetings" between him and Mulligan before Mulligan speaks "with the cast, usually one-on-one".[8] From there, Moore builds "a recording studio in the bedroom of an Airbnb" in Los Angeles and they "record a bunch of episodes in there"; he then cuts these episodes with his assistant editor Jared Olson.[8]

Game system

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The first campaign, The Wizard, The Witch, & The Wild One, uses Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) as its role-playing game system.[3][9] Mulligan explained that they "edit out a lot of the dice rolling and the doing math and me looking up an ability. But people, especially people that are familiar with the game will see the mechanics at work right away".[9] On picking D&D as the first campaign's system, Mulligan highlighted that its "mechanical offerings", such as "adventure, high-stakes combat, mystery, intrigue, skill checks, a very well-designed codified magic system", allow "for a certain kind of problem-solving and cleverness".[9] Iyengar and Wilson play as a wizard and a paladin, respectively. Ishii uses the witch character class which was created for the show by designer Mazey Veselak with additional design by Brandes Stoddard.[9][10] A playtest version of this class was then released to the show's Patreon subscribers in October 2023 before it went on sale in December 2024.[11][12][13]

Campaigns

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The Worlds Beyond Number storyline occurs across campaigns that either consist of story arcs played over multiple episodes, or in one-shots recorded all at once.[14]

Campaigns
Title Episodes Gamemaster Info First aired Last aired
Main campaigns
The Wizard, the Witch, and the Wild One 54 Brennan Lee Mulligan First campaign (seasons 1–4) March 1, 2023 August 12, 2025
Specials
Children's Adventure 8 Brennan Lee Mulligan Prequel to The Wizard, the Witch, and the Wild One; patreon-exclusive March 1, 2023
A County Affair 2 Erika Ishii One-shot June 29, 2023 July 13, 2023
Space Cram: Reasonable Hoop Dreams 2 Aabria Iyengar Patreon-exclusive September 14, 2023 September 28, 2023
Twelve Brooks 1 Brennan Lee Mulligan Interlude set in the world of The Wizard, the Witch, and the Wild One April 2, 2024
The Clearing 1 Brennan Lee Mulligan Interlude set in the world of The Wizard, the Witch, and the Wild One September 17, 2024
Matsuri 1 Erika Ishii Interlude set in the world of The Wizard, the Witch, and the Wild One September 30, 2024

Reception

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On February 1, 2023, more than 2,500 people watched the cast livestream on Instagram as they launched the Patreon page for their podcast.[15] The podcast is ranked first in the Patreon 'Games' category and tenth among all Patreon accounts by number of paid supporters, as of April 2024.[16]

Henry St Leger, for Dicebreaker, described The Wizard, The Witch, and The Wild One as a "D&D campaign that feels half Critical Role, half radio drama, enjoying the machinations of its original fantasy world like children watching clouds scroll by above them, occasionally interrupted by a storm".[17] He praised the slow pace where it took eight months for the main characters to increase a level, noting that "it feels removed from the usual pressures of levelling-up as fast as you can to save the world in the nick of time. The minutiae of character development is as important – if not more important – than how many spell slots you have, and the ability to defuse or sidestep situations, to find alternative ways forward when you know your strength isn’t enough, is crucial".[17] He highlighted that this "original fantasy setting by Mulligan" focuses on "everyday people caught in the middle of insurmountable geopolitical tensions" and takes the time "to flesh out the life of the world at its own pace" which allows the audience to "luxuriate in the details".[17] Charlie Hall of Polygon highlighted the lack of combat in this campaign, noting it has sparked discussion on why the show is using Dungeons & Dragons as its game system. Hall commented that "while the many D&D materials published by Wizards of the Coast are heavy on the combat – including major campaigns and some anthologized adventures – there's nothing in the rules that stops players from working together to tell stories and build the kinds of interconnected narratives on display in Worlds Beyond Number".[18] He opined that "the non-combat interactions in Worlds Beyond Number are some of the best I've experienced in any actual play".[18]

References

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  1. ^ a b c Carter, Chase (January 12, 2023). "Tabletop RPG actual play allstars join forces on Worlds Beyond Number podcast". Dicebreaker. Archived from the original on June 10, 2023. Retrieved February 9, 2024.
  2. ^ a b "TTRPG Alums Form New Tabletop Podcast Venture Worlds Beyond Number". Gizmodo. January 1, 2023. Archived from the original on September 26, 2023. Retrieved February 9, 2024.
  3. ^ a b Zambrano, J. R. (March 1, 2023). "Worlds Beyond Number, The D&D Podcast You Didn't Know You Needed Is Here In A Big Way". Bell of Lost Souls. Archived from the original on March 30, 2023. Retrieved February 9, 2024.
  4. ^ Hall, Charlie (February 28, 2023). "Worlds Beyond Number is the next big breakout actual play podcast". Polygon. Archived from the original on November 1, 2023. Retrieved February 9, 2024.
  5. ^ a b c Zambrano, J. R. (October 8, 2024). "'Worlds Beyond Number' Makes Big Changes After Its Next Arc". Bell of Lost Souls. Retrieved August 4, 2025.
  6. ^ Hall, Charlie (March 25, 2024). "Worlds Beyond Number is teaching me things that no D&D book can". Polygon. Retrieved April 20, 2024.
  7. ^ a b c Brennan Lee Mulligan [@brennanleemulligan.bsky.social] (August 2, 2025). "For fans of Worlds Beyond Number, we are *one episode away* from the finale episode of Book One of The Wizard, the Witch and the Wild One, followed by a fall chock-full of adventure, kicking off with murder most foul from the mind of Erika Ishii! Keep a look out for vids from our BRAND NEW STUDIO before the one and only Aabria Iyengar takes us to the stars in January!" (Post) – via Bluesky.
  8. ^ a b c d e Shachat, Sarah (May 13, 2025). "How 'Worlds Beyond Number' Broke Battlefields, Hearts, and Also Pro Tools". IndieWire. Retrieved May 14, 2025.
  9. ^ a b c d e f Galvis, Michael (March 1, 2023). "Interview: Brennan Lee Mulligan on Worlds Beyond Number". D&D Beyond. Retrieved August 4, 2025.
  10. ^ "Buy "Worlds Beyond Number Witch Class" on Patreon". Patreon. Worlds Beyond Number. December 2024. Retrieved August 4, 2025.
  11. ^ McCauley, Tara (October 22, 2023). "Worlds Beyond Number Releases Brennan Lee Mulligan's Homebrewed Dungeons & Dragons Witch Class". CBR. Retrieved August 4, 2025.
  12. ^ Zambrano, J. R. (October 26, 2023). "'Worlds Beyond Number' is About to Make Your D&D Games Much More Witchy". Bell of Lost Souls. Retrieved August 4, 2025.
  13. ^ Worlds Beyond Number [@worldsbeyondnumber]; (November 1, 2024). "We are so proud to present the NEW and UPDATED Witch Class! Thanks to everyone who played the first version and submitted feedback! The design team reviewed all the playtest data and revised the class and spells ... and also had fun writing some witchy magic items. Patreon subscribers get first dibs, and non-Patreon audience members will be able to purchase this class outside of a Patreon subscription in early December". Retrieved August 4, 2025 – via Instagram.
  14. ^ Friedman, Em (November 1, 2023). "For the cast and crew of the Worlds Beyond Number D&D podcast, time is on their side". Polygon. Archived from the original on August 5, 2024. Retrieved August 26, 2024.
  15. ^ Silberling, Amanda (February 1, 2023). "The biggest names in D&D are going independent on 'Worlds Beyond Number'". TechCrunch. Archived from the original on March 24, 2023. Retrieved February 9, 2024.
  16. ^ "Worlds Beyond Number: Patreon Earnings + Statistics + Graphs + Rank". Graphtreon. Archived from the original on May 29, 2023. Retrieved February 9, 2024.
  17. ^ a b c St Leger, Henry (February 19, 2024). "Worlds Beyond Number is the slow-burn D&D actual play I didn't know I needed". Dicebreaker. Retrieved August 4, 2025.
  18. ^ a b Hall, Charlie (March 25, 2024). "Worlds Beyond Number is teaching me things that no D&D book can". Polygon. Retrieved August 4, 2025.
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