This study’s purpose is to explore the online medium known as “Actual Play” through the perspective of both content creators, who work within the format as well as their audience who consume and interact with the content. This is a qualitative interview and observation study on the subject of Actual Play. The empirical material consists of four interviews with participants who are in one way or another involved with Actual Play content creation or distribution, an entire episode of an Actual Play series has also been analyzed to demonstrate the concept to readers unfamiliar with Actual Play and/or role-playing games. The questions this study has sought to answer regard what Actual Play is and looks like in practice and what the interactions between participants within Actual Play as well the interactions between these Actual Play creators and their audience looks like. The study’s findings show that the interaction between the different social actors within Actual Play is similar to that of improvisational theater. To maintain the trust between the participants, social contracts that employ safety tools are often used. The interaction between the Actual Play content creators and their audiences seems more personal than average, since they’re all able to inhabit and interact over the Internet. The audience also seems to enjoy that aspect of getting to know the Actual Play actors and/or creators on both a personal level and through their characters. Finally, Actual Plays main appeal appears to be based around being a way to share and engage with others around a shared interest.

Despite their sudden growth in popularity, the role-playing actual-play podcasts have either been ignored or grouped with the genre of audio drama in prior scholarly works. Examination using frame analysis shows, however, that these podcasts are distinct in their engagement of the audience on multiple, simultaneous levels; levels which correspond with well-known media genres such as Documentary, Fiction, and Game Play. Each frame has its own layer of identities, conduct, and avenue for appealing to audiences just as these genres have their own distinct appeals. Through the combinations of these frames, familiar tropes and techniques such as Short-Form Improv and Campbell's monomyth are broadened and challenged, and identities become entangled in this post-modern medium. Delineating the features of these frames and exploring their interactions and interconnectivity not only helps to distinguish the actual-play podcast as its own distinct podcast genre, but also highlights the potential for using such frames or frame analysis in other media forms.