Exclusive: RAID: Call of the Arbiter executive producer talks adapting hit fantasy game

DR: One of the challenges with video game adaptations is incorporating not only the lore and characters, but also honoring some of the mechanics of the game. I was wondering how your team approached this for Call of the Arbiter?

ND: We didn’t try to cleave too closely to the literal game mechanics. RAID is a turn-based game that would be pretty rough to watch. We tried to stick to some of the key ideas — teams are composed of characters from multiple factions, and they aren’t necessarily “good guys.” This is a core concept in RAID. You might have paladins fighting alongside vampires or necromancers, and we thought this was important to bring into it. Another big one is how they fight. Whenever there’s a major fight scene, you’ll see the characters working in concert. One launches an attack right after being buffed by magic from a teammate. One character casts a defensive protection to counter a boss attack and buy time for the others in the fight. Plus, we tried to keep the magic and signature moves pretty close to what they do in the game. I think the end goal is to walk that line where it’s fun to watch, and also believable as a representation of the game world. I feel like we did a pretty good job of that.

That said, we will absolutely hear about how the cooldown on the A2 attacks of some characters was unrealistic, and I am bracing myself for it.

DR: Along those same lines, were there any champions, characters or items that your team felt it was especially important to include in the Call of the Arbiter animated series, and why?

ND: Before we started, we did a lot of early thinking about which characters to include in the writing brief, and ended up with a shortlist of about 60 to pick and choose from as possible main characters.

Our first rule was that we wanted to include characters that most players would have encountered within their first few weeks. The Arbiter and the four starting characters; Galek, Athel, Elhain, and Kael were first picks — if nothing else because people know them from the commercials — but we also built a data-based chart for the writing team showing which characters players used the most within the game, and in which places. There were also characters that were just audience favorites with the community — either because of very cool artwork, personality, or cult-favorite status. For example, Deathknight got a cameo, because our community would rise up and revolt if we didn’t. Plus, we love the guy.

Overall, we made a conscious decision to avoid Legendaries for most of our main characters. This was to make it so players at all levels could see their lineup reflected, and to keep the story around characters players remember starting the game with, when each victory was a big emotional moment.

We wanted RAID players to feel like they could connect emotionally with characters who had been with them since the beginning, and new viewers outside the RAID community to be able to encounter the series’ stars almost immediately upon playing the game.

If we ever go to full series, expect the Legendaries to have their day in the sun.

For the secondary characters and background extras, this was really between us on the game team and our director, Jay Oliva — picking out fan favorites that made sense in each setting and context. Having a god-tier Orcish warlord as “background grunt #2” would look weird, so their prominence played a big part in informing us on how we cast them in the series.

Finally, some we chose for production reasons, either because they rounded out our color palette or had a cool weapon feature that would look badass in a fight scene. We also came up with some entirely new characters to add to the game at launch as a special bonus for the hardcore fans.

DR: I have to ask, because your bio mentions that you provide the voice for the orc in the RAID commercials: were you able to lend your voice talents to Call of the Arbiter at all?

ND: Haha, not this time. It definitely felt weird recasting myself, you know? But Chris Tergliafera, the actor behind our Galek in COTA, is hands-down the man for this take on the character. But! I’m in a new commercial that goes live the same day as the first episode, voicing the “commercial” version of Galek while he reacts to seeing the Call of the Arbiter Galek at a red carpet premiere for the first time. It’s gloriously self-indulgent and meta and we had a lot of fun with it.

When we were recording for the series, Chris and I had a ton of great footage of us trying to out-Galek each other, with old Galek super salty and taking swipes at new Galek. Very much a “three Spider-Men pointing at each other” situation. It was good times.

DR: Ending on a fun note, what are some video games you’ve played recently that you really enjoyed?

ND: I exclusively play RAID: Shadow Legends all-day, everyday! It’s in my contract!

Joking, but I really do play it a lot even after four years. I’m also playing a new game we’re working on called Nova Legends. It’s work related, but I love it even when I’m not doing it for work reasons. Off mobile, I’m finally catching up and playing Cyberpunk 2077 now that they’ve shaken most of the bugs out. Also playing Warhammer 40k: Darktide (our composter worked on that one too), Diablo IV, Company of Heroes, and just in the process of introducing my daughter to our Nintendo Switch and Mario Brothers World 3D.

DR: Nick, thanks again for stopping by to tell us more about RAID: Call of the Arbiter!

ND: Thanks so much! We really hope people love this as much as we loved making it. See you at the premier on May 18!

RAID: Call of the Arbiter drops the first of its 10 episodes on YouTube on May 18.