From Newsgroup: rec.games.frp.dnd
https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/rs-gaming/dungeons-and-dragons-dimension-20-madison-square-garden-1235258992/
ItrCOs a frosty January night in New York City, but Madison Square Garden
is red hot. You feel the heat when pillars of flame spit out from black
butane tanks that encircle a half-domed stage. The thunder of swag rock
is drowned out by the dog-whistle cheers of 20,000 people alive with electricity. Under the tiled roof where Knicks and Rangers banners hang, between walls that often echo with Billy Joel and Taylor Swift, an epic
game of Dungeons & Dragons played by Dimension 20 is about to get rolling.
An arena spectacle with WWE auras is unusual for Dungeons & Dragons, the famously nerdy tabletop game of fantasy heroics and lucky (or unlucky)
rolls of dice. ItrCOs also unusual for Dimension 20, a show where Los
Angeles comics play serialized D&D games. It is the flagship show of
Dropout (formerly CollegeHumor), a streaming service whose organic brand
of comedy and feverish fanbase make it agile against lumbering corporate giants. At the center of Dimension 20 is Brennan Lee Mulligan. His ringmasterrCOs charisma, chameleonic voices, and occasionally viral socio-anarchist zingers work in concert with his encyclopedic knowledge
of Dungeons & Dragons Fifth Edition to qualify him as arguably the
greatest Dungeon Master alive. Normally MulliganrCOs games are filmed in
an L.A. studio, on a domed set that looks like a spaceshiprCOs interior
where players sit around a U-shaped table. But tonight theyrCOre inside
the Garden, standing where Frazier upset Ali, waving to a roaring crowd
on a 360-degree stage illuminated by a pattern of LED triangles under a waterfall of golden stars. Tonight, these jesters are turned into rock
stars in the heart of midtown.
Since its launch in 2018, D20 has survived a gauntlet of uncertainty,
rocked by layoffs from its corporate owners just before a pandemic sent
them all playing virtually in isolation. Now Dimension 20 thrives as one
of the most popular tabletop role-playing games (TTRPG) shows on the
internet. Their sold-out MSG event, rCLGauntlet at the Garden,rCY slated to premiere on Dropout later this year, affords Dimension 20 bragging
rights as the hosts of the single-biggest live game of D&D ever. ThatrCOs
even bigger than when fellow D&D troupe Critical Role sold out their
Wembley Arena show in October 2023. While MSG is a one-night-only affair
that D20 just might outperform themselves later this year rCo they have
more live events set for Los Angeles, Seattle, and Las Vegas rCo a
capacity crowd in the rCLWorldrCOs Most Famous ArenarCY for a tiny streaming show centered around a 51-year-old game is proof that an online audience
can and will log off and show up. It is revealing of Dimension 20
itself, an oasis of warmth in an unmagical and increasingly frightening
cold world.
rCLEveryone understands storytelling on a profound level,rCY Brennan Lee Mulligan tells Rolling Stone. rCLEvery culture in the world uses it to
talk about what matters, to talk about being human. What makes people
come back [to watch us], season after season, rests on characters people
love and stakes they feel in their spine. They feel the weight of these journeys.rCY
Mulligan sets the scene during rCLGauntlet at the GardenrCY at MSG.Cole
Wilson for Rolling Stone
rCLGauntlet at the GardenrCY is ineffable for what might still seem like a niche hobby, a game still played mostly on kitchen tables. As the music
fades and the cast take their seats, the jumbo screens that normally
display Knicks scores now sport the blown-up faces of Dimension 20. Surrounding the headliners are grumpy arena security, who spend the
night wearing baffled expressions watching a sea of adults cheer and
laugh and applaud over imaginary characters engaged in battles no one
can actually see, and rolls of acrylic dice just 16 millimeters in size.
D&D is a game of the imagination, but with the right pieces, the allure
for stories that unfold with total spontaneity is no fiction.
With his castmates before him, Mulligan, a 37-year-old improv performer
with bouncy theater kid energy, ginger-red hair, and an AM radio DJrCOs
voice, greets his hometown of New York City. rCLHello, one and all!rCY he booms, ringing through arena speakers like the voice of God.
Actually, playing God is kind of MulliganrCOs deal on Dimension 20. He is
its resident Dungeon Master, or DM. ItrCOs a complex task requiring many
hats at once: story writer and narrator writer, rules referee, ensemble
actor. (Mulligan is a virtuoso of impressions, with midwestern dads and
drunk bachelorettes a few personas herCOs adopted as DM.) DMs, like
Mulligan, kick off games of D&D by verbally describing the story rCo who, what, why? rCo before painting more vivid descriptions of the worlds the characters exist. The players, in turn, describe their actions and
converse in-character, and so it can go for hours, even days, across
campaigns that can last years. ThatrCOs the cadence of D&D, and to watch others engaged in it is akin to watching actors at a table-read, except without a script.
rCLOn a primal level, IrCOm asking: WhatrCOs going to make my friends happy?rCY
Mulligan says. rCLTelling stories with friends is perennial. It refreshes itself because people are refreshing themselves.rCY
rCLEveryone understands storytelling on a profound level,rCY Brennan Lee Mulligan tells Rolling Stone. rCLEvery culture in the world uses it to
talk about what matters, to talk about being human.rCYCole Wilson for
Rolling Stone
To be a good DM is to have a third eye for creativity. ItrCOs not just describing worlds that arenrCOt real with the clarity of a dispatched reporter. ItrCOs bringing to life characters born in that instant. ItrCOs unspooling lore and unraveling plot twists with little preparation. rCLGauntletrCY had rehearsals for lighting and music, but no one knows how
the story will end. Not even Mulligan. rCLThere is no way to practice,rCY he says. rCLYou can do lots of planning, but you cannot practice. Nothing recreates the environment of being there, in that room, with that
audience, until you are there.rCY
Around Mulligan are the rCLIntrepid Heroes,rCY D20rCys stars from the L.A. comedy scene. ThererCOs Lou Wilson, a teddy bear of a man who announces
for Jimmy Kimmel Live; Siobhan Thompson, a peppy Brit with cat eye
glasses and a blonde bob with writing credits on Rick and Morty; Zac
Oyama, a soft-spoken soul whose sharp cheeks house a boy band smile;
Ally Beardsley, a nonbinary individual with a cropped mullet and a skateboarderrCOs zen; Emily Axford, a New York native with undertones of Bettie Page and Tina Fey; and Brian Murphy, an ex-MTV host with
horn-rimmed glasses and gelled hair whose habit of bad dice rolls can be appropriately called MurphyrCOs Law. (Axford and Murphy are married, and played versions of themselves on Adam Ruins Everything on truTV.)
After a roll call where each reveals their imminent reprisal of
fan-favorite Dimension 20 characters rCo including a Staten Island
divorcee, a wisecracking pizza rat, and a drug dealer still coping from
a breakup rCo the game begins. With painterly narration, Mulligan whisks
the audience (mentally) back to The Unsleeping City, a story first
explored in 2019. It is an urban fantasy, a glittering New York like the
one just outside on Seventh Avenue. But in MulliganrCOs vision, a secret parallel world is teeming between the cracks of concrete.
rCLWe go to other worlds not to escape, but to imagine what this world
could be and should be,rCY Mulligan tells me later. rCLWe tell stories about heroes to understand how to become them. WerCOre looking at frightening
times. My goal with Dimension 20 is to make the best show I can. If I
thought stories did not motivate action, I would stop telling them.rCY Thompson, as Misty, asks audience members to bless the die for the final
roll of the night.Cole Wilson for Rolling Stone
DIMENSION 20, SO NAMED FOR its multiversal anthology format and the twenty-sided die of D&D, is a leader in rCLactual plays,rCY also called live plays, where people play Dungeons & Dragons for an audience. Other
prolific actual plays like Critical Role, Acquisitions Incorporated, and
The Adventure Zone star voice actors or comedians rCo professions suited
to D&DrCys role-playing. Dimension 20 seizes on the synergy, what Mulligan says is rCLsuch a clear marriagerCY of improv comedy and fantasy. rCLIt is something that seems so clear in hindsight, but has become a surprise in
this boom of actual plays,rCY he says.
Dungeons & Dragons was created in 1974 by midwestern gaming legends Gary
Gygax and Dave Arneson. Players adopt alter egos, from warriors to
sorcerers, who traverse worlds of mysticism and monsters. The outcomes
of challenges, like slicing orcs with axes or smooth-talking tavern
maidens, are decided by dice. The higher the rolls, the better the
result. Twenty is the highest possible number, and to roll it naturally
(a rCLnatural 20rCY) is a soaring success. Roll a one, however, and that is
a critical failure. Whatever players do, itrCOs up to the DM to reinforce
the guardrails and impose stakes, building suspense, exerting godlike
control while yielding to the power of chance created by players. Such
is the joyous tension of the game.
rCLThe game is the tool. Story is the most important part,rCY says Thompson. rCLSometimes failing and losing is more interesting than succeeding.rCY At MSG, Thompson reprises her role as Misty Moore, a Broadway diva prone to calling strangers rCLdah-ling.rCY In fan art, Misty is often illustrated in color palettes of glamorous gold and white. As a Bard (her character
class) Misty casts magical spells through singing rCo and at Level 12,
sherCOs very good at it.
Zac Oyama, who role-plays a himbo firefighter named Ricky Matsui, says
he considers it rCLkind of a giftrCY that D&D allows their improv training
to shine. rCLIt lets you know what yourCOre supposed to do,rCY he says. rCLIf you jump across a skyscraper, you roll one and fall, itrCOs funny. You
embrace that. Rolling in the middle is boring.rCY
Siobhan ThompsonCole Wilson for Rolling Stone
Lou WilsonCole Wilson for Rolling Stone
Emily Axford (left), with Ally Beardsley (center) and Zac Oyama (right)
in the mirrorCole Wilson for Rolling Stone
Brian MurphyCole Wilson for Rolling Stone
ItrCOs surreal to see the golden age of actual plays when you know the
baggage that used to follow D&D. In the 1980s the game was engulfed in
the Satanic panic, attracting accusations of perverting youth with
witchcraft. In 1982, a young Tom Hanks starred in Mazes & Monsters, a made-for-TV movie about a deluded college student who becomes
dangerously obsessed with D&D. In the climax he nearly leaps off the
Twin Towers, believing it to be a gateway to a magical realm. While this notoriety is a key chapter in the gamerCOs cultural mythos, today, D&D is valued intellectual property owned by Hasbro.
The stars aligned for actual plays to rise in the 2010s, owed to a
zeitgeist where geek became chic. The success of the Lord of the Rings
and Harry Potter films were the overture for Game of Thrones to become a
smash HBO show, to say nothing of the books that spawned them.
Meanwhile, a generation of Hollywood writers with fond memories of D&D featured it in shows like Community and Stranger Things. During
Covid-19, Dungeons & Dragons saw a prodigious surge in interest as
isolated friends reconnected by playing the game remotely, which is
possible over online platforms like Roll20 and communication tools like Discord.
Actual plays also found a sizable audience in 2020. For Dimension 20,
its existing library of pre-pandemic games attracted people who maybe
craved togetherness and lighthearted escapism. rCLIrCOve heard from people that during those lonely times, we were there to keep you company,rCY says Beardsley. In the green room of MSG before the show, Beardsley says the
live events Dimension 20 is embarking on rCLis completely about people fighting back against isolation.rCY rCLCovid pushed us into a deep
loneliness being separated from people,rCY they say. rCLThis is a moment
that could never have happened during that time.rCY
rCLStories like this help people make sense of uncertainty,rCY says Oyama. rCLWhere you donrCOt know how yourCOre gonna get out of situations, itrCOs nice
to see the bond of this group. How we can rely on each other and push
through anything.rCY
In the actual play scene, Critical Role keeps a high profile with institutional footing. The show, which airs as an internet livestream, features cartoon voice actors led by their DM, Matthew Mercer. Since its premiere on Twitch in 2015, Critical Role now boasts 3.78 million
subscribers across Twitch and YouTube, mountains of merch, and a Prime
Video animated series. For comparison, Dimension 20rCys YouTube channel
has just 997,000 subscribers. (Dropout, their primary streaming
platform, does not disclose viewership numbers.)
But Dimension 20 is no underdog. It is a major endeavor by Dropout, the
comedy streamer sprung from defunct website CollegeHumor and has a cult subscriber base. D20 is defined in the space by its unique brand of
feel-good antics and top-shelf production. Where most shows simply stick
a camera on a tripod, Dimension 20 lends immersion as its moving camera
weaves over arrays of painted miniatures. Inch-high avatars stand to
scale in lush 3D sets of magical forests, hellish underworlds, even high schools. Cinematic sound mixing, from the glimmering metal of swords to
the rumble of grenades, add texture to MulliganrCOs phlegmy mouth effects.
rCLThe amount of artistry Dimension 20 has behind its scenes to show the
world of our imagination have set us apart,rCY Mulligan says. rCLThe
editors, the people that design the miniatures, the list goes on. I
cannot articulate the pride I feel. The people we are competing against
are none of our fellow shows. WerCOre competing against ourselves, from
the last season.rCY
Dimension 20 tells stories that detour from the known roads of
Tolkienesque fantasy. Rather, a D20 campaign might look like a John
Hughes drama (Fantasy High), or a mishmash of 1980s and 1990s action
movies (Never Stop Blowing Up), or a bizarre concoction of Game of
Thrones with Candyland (A Crown of Candy). Dungeons & Drag Queens is an increasingly popular sub-series under Dimension 20 where a bedazzled
Mulligan holds court over RuPaulrCOs Drag Race alumni. If yourCOre sick of dungeons with dragons in them, Dimension 20rCys laugh-out-loud campaigns
are a panacea.
The show came to life in 2018, when comedy website CollegeHumor launched Dropout as a streaming service to platform more ambitious content than
their output of digestible sketches on YouTube. Mulligan, a staff writer
and performer at CollegeHumor, was invited by then-Chief Creative
Officer Sam Reich to adapt his home games of Dungeons & Dragons for a
show in the vein of Critical Role. Most of the cast assembled were
already CollegeHumor colleagues. rCLIt felt like a no-brainer,rCY remembers Thompson, adding Lou Wilson came from another game run by Mulligan.
Beardsley was a rCLlast-minuterCY replacement for comedian Rekha Shankar,
who joined CollegeHumor in 2017 and is now a regular on other Dropout
shows like Game Changer. (Shankar has since played in various seasons of Dimension 20.) rCLAlly has put a huge stamp on the show,rCY comments
Thompson. rCLI donrCOt know what the show would look like without Ally.rCY
Mulligan knew from the second episode they were on a different level
than their competitors. Stepping into the domed set for the first time
was one thing, but rCLwatching players grab their miniaturesrCY based on
their characters was another. The engrossing camerawork by
cinematographer Kevin Stiller, who plunged eye-level to a battle inside
a high school cafeteria, gave Dimension 20, well, dimension, according
to Mulligan. rCLWhen you see the jib arm moving through the space, we were bringing something to the potluck thatrCOs not there already,rCY he says.
rCLWhen Dimension 20 began, our goal posts were, rCyLetrCOs be the funniest TTRPG show,rCOrCY says Sam Reich, who was made CEO of CollegeHumor in 2020. Reich echoes Mulligan, believing episode two was when he knew it had
sauce. rCLIt shocked me to attention,rCY he says. rCLI got the same laughs I get watching comedy, the same sense of immersion I get reading a novel.
A byproduct of comedy is that it lowers audience defenses. When defenses
are down, yourCOre more susceptible to emotionally resonant storytelling. Between those spaces are where you can hook people.rCY
DURING THE MSG SHOW, the audience is invited to roll along a few times.
A QR code will pull up virtual dice, and the most common number rolled
by the audience is displayed in jumbotron-sized glory. This happens
early on in the night when the multiverse ruptures to allow two
characters from other campaigns to cameo. ItrCOs a crowd-interactive
rCLChoose Your Own Adventure,rCY with MulliganrCOs agility as DM to move with it. After two bummer rolls, a benevolent Mulligan gives the crowd rCLadvantagerCY on another rCo a stipulation that allows two rolls of a 20-sided die instead of one. ThererCOs a pause, and then itrCOs there, blown up for all to see: rCL20,rCY in glowing gold over an onyx die. The audience comes unglued, drowning out MulliganrCOs introduction of cult favorite characters rCLPlug StruttrCY and rCLAyda Aguefort,rCY who enter through the rift. Once again, there is nothing to actually see, but such is the spellbinding power of a good story.
The first show of its kind at MSG, rCLThe Gauntlet at the GardenrCY brought
a WWE-level spectacle to tabletop gaming.Cole Wilson for Rolling Stone
Later in the night, the heroes stand against a rCLbusiness dragonrCY named Kalvaxus whorCOs taken over Wall Street. Mulligan invites Thompson rCo after her Misty used magic to compel the dragon to dance as a distraction rCo to roll for the dragonrCOs power to resist it. (This is a rare case where a
low roll is desired.) Mulligan hands Thompson a comically oversized
20-sided die, a boulder in ThompsonrCOs petite arms. As he explains the stipulations of the roll to the audience Thompson runs up to fans in the
front row, inviting them to rCLbless the die.rCY
It is the final roll of the night, lest the audience want a reroll.
rCLJust start chanting reroll,rCY Mulligan calmly explains to a buzzing
crowd. Thompson rolls a 19. The crowd boos before chanting for the
reroll. Will the dragon dance because of a powerful Broadway superstar?
Or will the center of the universe succumb to a snarling, fire-breathing beast? At last, Thompson rolls, and rCo well, thatrCOs a spoiler.
There lies what might be the real spell of Dimension 20. Sure, the
miniatures and the pyrotechnics are neat. And yes, the talent of the
stars, their magnetism and comic timing are a draw. But itrCOs the moments
of hushed suspense, when the die is cast and no one can predict what
will happen. ThatrCOs been the story of Dimension 20, too. ItrCOs an
unlikely thing, where the pieces and the elements come together to
create something that still defies words. One might call it magic.
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