(dice tapping on table)
- So, we find our heroes in a tavern.
The dim glow of a few sparse
candles fills the room
with an atmosphere that
is both cozy yet ominous.
As you sit there, waiting
expectantly for excitement,
a disheveled, hooded figure
bursts onto the scene
and calls you to adventure.
And I'm gonna need you to roll initiative.
(die taps on table)
Yeah, a year ago this
is about all that I knew
about Dungeons & Dragons.
I had never played before,
but I could at least recognize
that cliched intro to
a classic D&D campaign.
This kind of medieval fantasy
role playing adventure
with spell casting and sword fighting
and the potential of
encountering either dark
and mysterious oubliettes
or a mythical reptilian flying monster.
Sometimes both!
I have no idea if I pronounced
oubliettes correctly.
It's just, I was describing
a dungeon and a dragon
as a joke 'cause I'm very funny.
So last year I set off
on a quest of sorts.
I wanted to learn how to play
Dungeons & Dragons finally
and find friends that I could play with.
And maybe, just maybe,
become a dungeon master
for an adventure of my own.
From not knowing any of the
rules or mechanics of D&D
to becoming a dungeon
master in less than a year,
that's what I wanted to do.
And I know that probably
doesn't sound impressive...
(dramatic instrumental music)
(dice rattling)
I have become the master
of the plastic math shapes.
How are you doing, you wonderful nerds?
Scott here along with, uh,
(die taps table)
eh, nothing else
you can detect right now.
And from the outside
Dungeons & Dragons looks like
a complicated game that can be
overwhelming to new players.
Sure, I think we all get
the gist of the game.
Players become heroic
characters and set forth
on a collective storytelling campaign
run by a dungeon master or DM.
The DM sets the stakes and
helps guide players through
the core narrative and will
try their hardest to kill you.
Oh, and, there's dice.
(dice rattling)
But I don't know what they do.
This one's pointy.
But all right, it sounds
simple enough I guess,
but for a new player it can be whelming.
There are entire books
of rules on how to play.
Every class of character
you'd want to play
functions differently,
it's all kept track of
on this complicated-looking
sheet of paper.
Numbers, since when do I
need math to tell a story?
And what is this?
What is it?
And on top of all that,
so much of the game
takes place in everyone's
collective imagination.
Sure, you can have maps and little figures
to coordinate better in
combat, but most of the time
the only thing in front
of you while you play
is a vast wooden sea of imagination
and endless possibilities
known as a tabletop.
And more dice.
Why are there so many of these?
Which ones do I roll for what?
And why do they look so weird, I mean...
So that's a bad example,
this one looks fine.
I have always wanted to
play Dungeons & Dragons
since I was in high school.
I'd seen the game pop up in a
few shows and movies of course
and I had a few friends who played
and regaled me with
their stories about it.
It sounded like the
coolest most creative game.
I just, I didn't know where to start.
Learning how it all worked
always seemed so staggering.
So I did what I always do
when I want to learn more
about something, I searched
on YouTube, subscribe!
Nowadays there are great
channels like Dungeon Dudes
and Tulok the Barbarian
and a bunch of more
great YouTubers who dive into D&D content.
My friend Dael from the
channel MonarchsFactory
has a lot of fascinating D&D videos
that are incredibly thought-provoking,
and you should definitely subscribe.
But the first time I
searched on YouTube for info
about Dungeons & Dragons
was like, a decade ago.
And the only D&D video that
I remember finding on YouTube
was, uh, well...
(characters screaming)
- Quest with me to this den of evil where
we will find Tyraptus and drive
a stake through his heart.
- [Scott] Yeah, so this is a VHS that came
with the board game "DragonStrike,"
a kind of watered-down version
of Dungeons & Dragons released in 1993.
The video serves as a kind
of introductional guide
and teaser story for
the kind of adventures
that you can expect when playing
through this magical and
treacherous adventure
with your non-corporeal friends.
- [Non-Corporeal Friend]
Is this like a video game?
- Sort of, but uses the most powerful
information processor in
the world, your brain.
- [Scott] Wait, did the "IT Crowd"
do a deep cut reference to this?
- What is it, some sort of computer game?
- In a sense, except it uses
the most powerful processor
known to man, the human mind.
- And it's all hosted by
this charismatic turtleneck.
(dramatic instrumental music)
- Feeling brave tonight?
- Oh, hi.
- Brave enough to do battle
with hideous monsters, hm?
- Are you gonna be there?
- Close your eyes, open your mind,
and I'll transport you to another realm.
- Oh, I'm gonna need a drink.
(mug slams on table)
That feels appropriate.
In spite of this strange VHS,
my fascination with the game
actually continued to grow over the years.
I became that annoying
person who not so casually
tossed around the idea
to any and all people
who would listen that I sorta
kinda desperately wanted
to play this nearly
50-year-old adventure game.
Maybe even in part 'cause I knew
it had this controversial
history in the public eye
as a dangerous game for children.
- D&D, and it's become
popular with children
anywhere from grammar school on up.
- [Reporter] There are
those who are fearful
that the game in the hands of
vulnerable kids could do harm.
- For instance, one case,
the parents actually saw
their child summon Dungeons &
Dragons demons into his room.
- [Reporter] Police are blaming D&D.
- Obviously that controversy
was bogus, D&D isn't evil.
With all the rules it has,
it's lawful neutral at best.
But as a teenager I so desperately wanted
to be dark and edgy.
Clearly these days, I still do.
Quick, how do I become
moody and mysterious?
I bought candles, is that anything?
Anyway, so a few years ago
a close friend revealed
that he was going to run a
short D&D survival horror story.
And that sounded so
fun to me my mind raced
with character ideas and backstory
and all of the fun quirks
that I would play into.
I even worked on a silly character voice
so I could bring some levity so the dark
and sinister world that
my friend had crafted.
But that didn't work out so well.
You see, other than the DM,
I didn't know anyone else
I would be playing with.
It can feel incredible
vulnerable and nerve-wracking
to role play in front of people
that you don't know well,
especially veteran D&D players
who know their characters
and the game mechanics inside and out.
I was for sure the freshest to the game,
and any knowledge that
I had on how to play
came from a sexually-aggressive
floating head.
- Close your eyes and imagine
you are your character.
Imagine the treasure, the power!
- Every single turn I
asked a million questions,
slowing everyone and everything down.
All of the other players
were genuinely super patient
and so nice and excited
for me to play D&D,
but I was in my own head about it.
I felt like I was taking
away from their fun.
So I let my character
die after two sessions
and I stopped showing
up which in hindsight
is probably not a great way to handle it.
But my anxiety got the better of me.
I thought everyone would have
more fun if I wasn't around
and they could all play
without carrying the dead
weight of my character.
I don't know why nothing
was clicking in my head.
In retrospect, the math
behind the current 5th Edition
of D&D is honestly quite
simple and streamlined,
but at the time I just wasn't getting it.
No one was explaining to me
in a way that made sense.
And my interest in giving
the game another shot
was fading fast, but then last year
I met my girlfriend Emily.
Really early on we had
a lot of conversations
about Dungeons & Dragons.
She and her friends had been
playing together for some time
and I obviously had a lot of questions.
She told me all about her character,
Nisapossi the gnome ranger
and all the shenanigans she'd get up to
with her adventuring party each week.
And I think Em could tell
that listening to her
recount these delightful personal stories
with Dungeons & Dragons
reignited my interest.
I told her how I struggled with starting
and learning the rules.
But she assured me that
the best way to learn
was by watching others play.
She admitted herself that she'd only ever
seriously gotten interested in playing D&D
by listening to "The
Adventure Zone" podcast
and watching a new actual-play series
that she wanted me to check out.
Em swiftly grabbed the remote for the TV,
loaded up YouTube, and pulled up a show
that I had never heard of before,
but one that genuinely
changed everything for me.
- [Brennan] Welcome one
and all to "Dimension 20."
Our cast of players will assume the role
of heroic adventurers
embarking on a dangerous quest.
Without any further ado,
"Dimension 20" proudly
presents, "Fantasy High!"
(Owlbear screeches and growls)
(remote control smacks table)
- Oh my God, this show's amazing.
(energetic rock music)
"Dimension 20" is an actual-play D&D show
by CollegeHumor on their
streaming service DROPOUT.
This video is not sponsored
by "Dimension 20."
I know that that sentence
made it seem like it was.
It's not, I just really love this show
and I want to yell at you about it
because it is the show that
finally got me to play D&D.
The series features a
group of incredibly funny,
quick, and talented
performers who sit in a big,
ominous dome and play Dungeons & Dragons.
And the main cast of
Emily Axford, Lou Wilson,
Ally Beardsley, Zac
Oyama, Siobhan Thompson,
and Brian Murphy bring
their characters to life
with humor, drama, and vulnerability.
They all bring so much to
the table, which by the way,
is beautifully styled with
these unbelievably cool
and creative miniature characters
and sets masterfully crafted
by Rick Perry and his
team of wizard artists.
I mean, this stuff, look at it!
It's so (dice tapping table) rad!
And the humble dungeon
master Brennan Lee Mulligan
is this evil mastermind
pulling the strings
of these unique stories
with lovable characters
in creative settings.
With three full seasons, two
shorter side quest adventures
with fun guest players, and a live season,
"Dimension 20" has put
out a tremendous amount
of entertainment in just over two years.
But if you're like me
and you get overwhelmed
about catching up on hours and hours
and hours of content, don't panic.
Firstly, 'cause there's
still a pandemic happening
you might have time to
binge watch some stuff.
And secondly, it's an anthology series.
Every new season is a brand-new world
with brand-new characters
and a self-contained story.
I'm gonna tell you a little
bit about them really quick.
So the first season,
"Fantasy High" is wonderful.
Just imagine a bunch of John Hughes-style
coming-of-age story tropes put in a world
that mixes modern day
with fantasy adventures.
High schoolers are tieflings,
high elves, and half-orcs.
School staff are wizards and werewolves.
Estranged fathers are
sweet and caring devils.
And the halfling postal workers say ACAB.
- Bud Cubby speaks up and says,
"Laws are threats made by the dominant
socioeconomic ethnic
group in a given nation."
- [Emily] Yeah.
- "It's just a promise of violence
that's enacted and police are
basically an occupying army,
you know what I mean?
You guys wanna make some bacon?"
- [Reporter] Police are blaming D&D.
- Their second full season,
"The Unsleeping City"
is a little bit more complex.
It takes place in modern-day New York
but with a kind of secret
underground magical world
kind of hidden under it.
The season is a love letter to New York
that encapsulates a lot of
the themes of the city itself.
- [Brennan] There is a
contradiction within New York City,
which is it's this gritty
hyperrealist cynical like,
"Buddy, you better wake up," kind of place
and then it's also the concrete jungle
where dreams are made
of, the city of dreams.
If I can make it there,
I can make it anywhere.
And you're like, "How do you hold
both of those truths in one hand?"
- I can't really describe
more of this season
without giving too many spoilers away,
but it is phenomenal.
Their latest season that's
still airing new episodes
right now is called "Crown of Candy."
The setting is dark and grim
with Medieval political intrigue
and backstabbing violence
in a world where people are made of food.
Cheese warriors and vegetable politicians
and a royal family made of sugary sweets.
It's like if somebody took
a textbook food pyramid
and wrote a tome of unnecessary
"Game of Thrones"-esque lore
is great and sad.
Actually, just a little
correction from future Scott.
I said that "A Crown of Candy"
is still airing new episodes.
And that was true in April when
I started writing this video
but it's August now.
I'm bad at keeping a schedule.
The season actually just ended this week,
and it was just amazing and beautiful.
Please go watch it, and
they're also announcing
a new season next week,
so I'm super excited for that as well.
Anyway, back to the video.
Have I convinced you to at
least give this show a shot yet?
'Cause I gotta tell you,
I watched 10 seasons
of "Grey's Anatomy" while growing out
this gross quarantine beard.
So this is me recommending you
something better than that.
"Dimension 20" is, in my
opinion, the best show.
Watching it demystified
Dungeons & Dragons for me.
The combat, which seemed so
daunting and hard to parse
became infinitely more clear
thanks to the beautiful
visual language of the filming
and editing of these masterfully-crafted
miniature battle sets.
The editors popping up
graphics to track health,
temporary hit points,
and death saving throws
to make it easier to
follow and understand.
The Box of Doom intensifying
dramatic moments,
hammering home that a
simple role of the dice
can have a profound impact on the story,
especially when the
players react triumphantly
upon rolling a plastic shape onto a table
and having it naturally
land on the number 20.
From that I learned that getting a nat 20
is one of the most exciting things
that can possible happen in D&D.
- [Emily] Oh, what happened?
- To a nat 20.
(group screaming enthusiastically)
- Oh my gosh, oh my God!
- What?
- I am notoriously bad at rolling nat 20s.
It took me dozens of tries
before I captured this one
as B roll for this video.
Meanwhile, my cat Sparta casually got one
on his very first try, that show-off.
- It's a nat 20. (laughs)
- Oh my God.
Now, I know that these sound
like simple things on paper.
Mini figs, tracking HP, dice rolling.
Nothing extraordinary when it
comes to these kinds of games.
But they are executed so
perfectly in "Dimension 20."
And it's all run by a DM
who is incredibly fair
and passionate about crafting
a memorable experience
for everyone at the table.
- [Brennan] When I'm at that table
or when I'm like doing prep
work, I am only thinking
about Lou, Siobhan, Emily,
Murph, Ally, and Zac.
I don't mean to think that
we're like never thinking
about the audience, but
as a dungeon master,
it's so important for me
to be like, I am thinking
about how to make my players happy.
That that might then go out
and resonate with somebody else
is, I mean, the term icing on the cake
doesn't even begin to describe.
It's like so meaningful.
- And that's precisely what happened.
My girlfriend Emily soon
DMed a short one-shot for me
and a few friends.
A one-shot is a short, simple story
that you can theoretically
start and finish in one session
or a small handful of sessions
if the players goof around too much.
Ours took a month and a half to finish.
But it was so much fun!
It was the catalyst I
needed to start playing
other small campaigns with
friends on the weekends.
And then one of those
friends, my coworker Jordan,
started a brand new
Dungeons & Dragons podcast
with some other lovely people
and I'm on that as well!
It's called "Late to the Party"
if you want to listen to it.
It's set in an alternate version
of modern-day Miami, Florida.
I play a human fighter named Coach Tucker
who lives with his mom.
Actually, his mom lives with him.
It's an important distinction.
He loves gardening, has really
complicated daddy issues.
It's available anywhere
podcasts are found.
Link in the description.
So here I am playing Dungeons
& Dragons and I'm loving it.
I'm creating fun PCs
with deep backstories,
fighting alongside cohorts
with their own colorful characters,
exploring fantastical
quasi-Medieval worlds like Florida.
This beautiful, wonderful
game has introduced me
to new friends, new
worlds, and new adventures.
And all I think about is
the next time I get to roll
and tell stories with my friends.
Edgy teenage Scott would
be disappointed, though,
'cause they sound like a bunch of nerds.
But okay, so my quest is complete, right?
I started out not knowing how to play,
not knowing the mechanics
and thanks to "Dimension 20"
and my friends I'm playing D&D regularly.
I'm on a podcast playing this game.
Link in the description again.
What more could I possibly ask for, right?
I mean, what more is there to, oh no.
Oh, I wanna DM.
Oh, I wanna DM very badly, plea--
(energetic percussion music)
Okay, so the benefit of
starting D&D as a player
is that you only need to
know about the ins and out
of your specific character build.
All the other players can
handle their own stuff
and all you need to
worry about are the rules
that specially apply to
you and your style of play.
If you're a spell caster, learn how to use
and regenerate spell slots.
If you're a sneaky rogue,
learn how to assassinate people
in surprise combat rounds.
If you're a human fighter like me,
learn how to use your second wind ability?
Something that you have
never bothered to research.
Wait, I can heal myself?
Since when?
Level one!
(slams paper on table)
Whoops!
My point is, there's already
a lot of work that goes into
being a player character
in Dungeons & Dragons,
but it is a manageable amount of work
once you know how you want to play.
Making the jump from player
to dungeon master, however,
means that level of work and
research jumps exponentially
from this to this.
(dice tapping table)
That was a nat one.
Yeah, so here's the thing,
I have offered to DM
for the first time in two days,
and I'm gonna be doing it
on a charity livestream
with an audience so that's
already incredibly daunting.
I am stressin' out here!
I'm gonna need some help.
Thankfully I know a perfect
person I can call up
to help me prepare for my first
time ever as dungeon master.
- (laughs) Now you're working together!
- Sorry, no, wrong person.
But you and me, we're gonna,
we're gonna talk later.
Uh, no, I meant this person.
- Hello to all of Scott's
listeners and viewers.
My name is Brennan Lee Mulligan.
I'm the dungeon master for "Dimension 20."
- So I guess the kind of crux of my video
is that "Dimension 20"
is a show that I watched
before I started ever playing D&D.
And seeing all the amounts of
fun that everyone was having
and the creativity and the world-building
and the collaborative storytelling
was so enchanting to
me that I just really,
really wanted to get involved with it.
And now I'm in a space where I'm in, like,
four campaigns and I can't
find time to do everything.
- [Brennan] Yes!
- Yes.
- Yes, we gotcha, baby!
We gotcha!
- Do you think that was
secretly or perhaps not so secretly
kind of a mission of the show?
- Oh man, the premise of your question
involves a version of me with
so much more self-confidence
(laughs) than I actually have.
Like, the version of me where
I'm starting "Fantasy High"
and I'm like, what are my aims
to accomplish with this show?
What do I want my legacy?
As opposed to me just flop
sweating and being like,
don't (dice tapping table) this up.
- I also reached out to my current DM,
Jordan from the podcast,
to ask her for some tips.
- Hi, my name is Jordan Balke.
I am the dungeon master on the
"Late to the Party" podcast
on which Scott is one of
our player characters.
This is my third time being a
DM, first time for a podcast,
and I've been playing
Dungeons & Dragons since 2014.
The first time I DMed I tried to homebrew
and it just, it was a disaster.
- A homebrew, if you don't know,
is basically any kind of
content that isn't found
in the official source books.
Monsters, weapons,
spells, unique settings,
special mechanics, et cetera.
It can be daunting.
I don't have time for that.
I'm already burning the
candles at both ends
trying to figure something out.
Yeah, I don't know how idioms work,
but I do know that step one
is to find a quick one-shot
online that I don't have to mod at all
and then mod it anyway
'cause I can't help it.
- Absolutely, if it's
your first time DMing,
start with a pre-built campaign.
Once I started hosting
and DMing a campaign
that was pre-built I
was able to understand
and internalize all of the
things that go into DMing.
I was much more prepared to build my own.
- This one looks good.
There's a wizard named Finethir
who is turned into a sheep by
an evil wizard named Steven
and everyone has to fight to defeat Steven
the evil wizard and turn
Finethir back to normal.
It's very "Emperor's New
Groove" and I like that.
Oh, and it looks like
this is good for players
level four through five
so I don't see any harm
in making everyone level five.
(foreboding instrumental music)
Yep, and now to familiarize myself
with a lot of the rules that
I don't typically run into
on the player side of things.
My friend Ethan, who's going to be on
this charity live stream and is also
on the "Late to the Party"
podcast once told me
that I have a romantic but
also austere kind of mindset
about the rules and I
don't know what that means,
but I do think it's fair.
I know there's gotta
be some kind of balance
between being overly strict with the rules
and being flexible enough to
let my players be creative.
- Right, well, I think
what you're saying there,
Scott, is exactly right.
The balance is interesting
because they're the exact same instinct.
Like, that is, it looks like
it's two competing things,
but that's an illusion,
it's actually one thing
because whether you're
enforcing a boundary
or allowing a rule to break to
let someone do something cool
you're managing the same thing
which is your player's
enjoyment of the game.
- I mean, I definitely like and
appreciate the rule of cool.
- Can I hop in her backpack?
- Can I cast friends
on the liquor in my flask?
- Um, uh...
- So that anyone who drinks from it
will have friends cast on them.
- That's for sure not
how the spell is used
but I'm gonna allow it 'cause it's cool.
(players laughing)
D&D is a fun game.
(players laughing)
And sometimes people choose
to do something cool and it's great.
- [Ally] Listen up!
- But giving your players
everything they ask for
isn't the surefire way to make
sure they have a good time
'cause a lot of time people
will ask for something they don't want.
Being a kid pushing the
boundary with their parent
of what they can get away with, right?
And when kids do that,
this is like classic child psychology,
they're not always looking for a yes.
They're looking sometimes
for the boundary.
- Tell me if this will work.
- Can I jam the cameras with
like an electromagnetic force?
- Can you make up a bunch
of bull (dice tapping table)
magic in the middle of the heist?
(laughing)
- Would you say that a medicine check,
since I'm like, chest compressing
is kind of like an attack?
- Do you think reality
is strained by the fact
that a hawk is helping you
with surgery right now?
(players laughing)
How much lower do you want me to go?
As a DM you should be, I think,
a pretty solid sentinel on
the wall of consequence.
You wanna be there to make stuff matter.
So it's the same impulse, right?
Letting something break in a moment
for something cool to
happen is making sure
the players are having
the best possible time
and enforcing rules in moments
where it would drain the
stakes to not enforce them
is doing the exact same thing.
It's preserving the
necessary balance of magic
and also reality and consequence
that makes this fantastical
adventure have meaning.
- The real object of the game
is for everybody to have fun.
And if the game isn't fair, nobody will.
- And this is the same
philosophy and energy
that I want to bring into this one-shot
which is happening right
now, oh my God, okay!
(shoes stomping floor)
- We are live.
- We are live.
Today is gonna be my very
first time ever DMing anything.
I'm very excited, I'm incredibly nervous.
I don't know if we want--
- Make sure that it--
- A lot of, like, fanfare
or something before we
dive on into everything.
- Paint us a picture, Scott.
- Yeah, I'll paint you
a little word picture.
So it is a quiet, calm,
beautiful summer day.
And there is an annual festival going on.
It is a summer festival,
people are out in the streets.
Everyone's having a great time.
This town is just big enough
that there would be a
lot of local vendors.
Like, this is kind of a big...
I studied the rules and prepared
for a handful of outcomes,
but once we all got into
character and started playing,
the only thing that mattered to me
was if everyone was having fun.
And it started out great.
Lots of laughs and gags
as everyone role played
their characters brilliantly.
But then I became worried
once combat started.
Apparently, letting the
PCs start at level five
made them a little too strong
for the enemies that they encountered.
Everyone unleashed
these powerful abilities
and absolutely demolished
the bad guys with ease.
This combat is not as
challenging as I wanted it to me.
I think whoever wrote this did not intend
for you guys to do as well.
- Apparently we should
have been level four.
- Oh no, oh no.
(somber instrumental music)
This should have been level four.
Why did I make them level five?
What was I thinking, level five?
I shouldn't be allowed to
make decisions like this.
It felt like I was doing
a disappointing job
of making the stakes
meaningful and impactful.
To be completely honest, it
felt like everyone was bored.
And that's not a good
thing to feel as a DM.
I was disappointed in myself
for not making the combat more thrilling.
You all are being too efficient,
and I need there to be some
damage dealt in some capacity.
- Fair.
- Yeah, I haven't lost a hit point yet.
- So I spontaneously made
Steven the evil wizard
magically turn a bookshelf
into a splintered wooden dragon
that immediately knocked
one of the PCs down.
Croyden and Zozmak will
take 24 points of damage.
- Okay.
- Croyden, you down?
- Oh yeah.
- Is it half for everybody else?
- It is half for everyone else.
It is 12 damage for everyone else.
- I'm not doing hot either.
- So I take 12?
- Yes.
- Okay, okay.
- Um...
The tone became more serious
and dire almost immediately.
I did feel bad though.
Being the evil forces who want to attack
and kill your friends'
characters is fun at first,
but quickly becomes
emotionally challenging,
especially once I saw
their demeanor change
from happy and silly to, oh,
(dice tapping) this is serious.
I don't know, it's hard to
see your friends struggle,
especially if you are the cause.
I don't know, maybe I'm overreacting.
Is this tough for other DMs?
- It is fun for me to be the villain.
- Okay, so apparently I'm alone in this.
- There's some psychodrama to it all.
You tap into those darker places.
You get to look your friend
in the eye and be like,
I'm going to destroy you.
And then you're like, oh,
I don't get to say that in regular life.
I don't get to go to the
grocery store and be like,
hey neighbor, I'm gonna destroy you.
- Yeah, I probably should
stop shouting that out
of my window every, many times a day.
- But I think that what is
a very weird part about that
for being a dungeon master is,
you are antagonizing
your player characters.
You are thwarting them.
The villain is menacing them.
You're attacking them,
you're trying to kill them.
That still comes from a deep
place of service, right?
Because that's what people have asked for.
They want to be heroes,
and you can't be a hero
without overcoming adversity.
When I'm playing these bad guys,
I do have to tap into a
place where they are reveling
in defeating the good guys.
And I don't do my PCs any
service by pulling any punches.
Because it cheapens the victory of the PCs
if I was holding back.
The main thing that's enjoyable
about playing villains
is putting up that wall to your PCs
and knowing that they're
going to surmount it
in some incredibly creative way
that you have no ability
to predict or foresee.
Endlessly exciting.
- You know, that makes
me think about everything
that we've done on the podcast so far.
The world and story
that Jordan has crafted.
I mean, how much of it
has been all screwed up
by throwing four players and
their shenanigans into the mix?
How much have we as players
ruined your story so far?
- Um, I mean, the players
don't ruin the story.
The players help write the story.
You don't have to be the one
driving the story
forward 100% of the time.
Even as a DM, I largely am
not in, like, I'm in control,
but I'm not driving us forward.
That's all on the players.
- Aww, I don't know.
That makes a lot of sense.
As I said earlier, this is what
tabletop role playing games
like D&D are, collaborative storytelling.
The DMs out there have a
lot of knowledge and power,
but the creativity of the
players and the chance of the die
can create these unpredictable
moments of heartbreak
and triumph and self-reflection
and unbelievable luck
that completely beats all odds.
There are so many of these
moments in "Dimension 20"
and I'm not going to
feel too bad right now
when I spoil just one of them
just to give you an example
of the level of pure emotional adrenaline
that can come from this game.
If you really wanna go in fresh,
skip to this time code
below to avoid any spoilers,
but I have to talk about this
moment from "Unsleeping City"
that stuck out to me the most.
This is Sofia Bicicleta.
At the start of the story
it's clear that Sofia has lost so much.
Her husband has left
her, she's questioning
if she can trust her family,
and she drinks a lot.
- Do you wanna grab a drink or something?
- Okay, let's go.
- One more drink I'll leave.
- She's an ordinary human
who starts uncovering
this secret world of magic
in New York City and from
there starts training as a monk
in a mystical monastery to
learn how to protect the city
from the big, bad evil guy.
She learns that spirits congregate
above the Empire State Building
who are supposed to impart
power onto the chosen one,
but no one has been able to figure out
who the chosen one is.
And when they go to the top of the tower
it doesn't even appear as if
the spirits are there at all.
Sofia is met with silence.
But then she remembers what
she heard from the person
who previously attempted
to find the chosen one.
- When you get to the top,
I know what it'll seem like,
but there is someone there.
You look around.
Who is here at the top of
the Empire State Building?
(dice tapping)
- I'm here.
(explosion resounds)
- [Scott] There is no chosen one
predestined by some mysterious spirits.
There was no prophecy that
determined Sofia Bicicleta
to be this extra special warrior hero.
Everyone has the potential
to do great things
including a drunk hairdresser
from Staten Island.
- So I guess I just choose
myself to be the chosen one?
(explosion resounds)
(Brennan mimics explosions)
(Emily laughing)
- Yes! (gasps)
(liquid splashing)
One of the most ambitious
things that Brennan as a DM does
is orchestrate these
profound themes and ideas
for each season of "Dimension 20."
When I was initially writing this video
I spent like 10 minutes analyzing
the themes of each season,
but there's one overarching theme
that runs through every
season and side quest.
Radical acceptance of who you
are in the face of adversity,
whether that's your friends accepting you,
your family accepting you,
or in this case, accepting yourself.
- The moment with Sofia on top
of the Empire State Building
is a very New York moment
as well, at least for me,
which is that when you're in New York
you're under the buildings.
They're oppressively on top of you.
It's the highest population
density in America,
I'm pretty sure, Manhattan at least,
where you're just surrounded
with millions of people.
It's easy to feel like, maybe
I'm not the protagonist.
Maybe I'm not the chosen one.
Look around me, how could
I be the main character?
Look at this city.
But that feeling of defeatedness
that can sometimes come
on like a cold, gray,
rainy New York day where you're
just getting the stuffing
kicked out of you by life,
and then you just go like,
actually I can choose right now
to be the chosen one, right?
I can just choose myself.
- This moment is so powerful.
It's the kind of moment
that I want to chase down
as a player and something
that I as a DM want to create.
But "Dimension 20" accomplished
this with dozens of hours
of episodes and my one-shot
has maybe four to five hours in it tops.
I can't deliver on
satisfying character arcs,
but I could hope for at
least one memorable moment.
So back in our story,
the group burnt down the
gnarled bookshelf dragon
and knocked Steven the
evil wizard unconscious.
There was only one thing
left for the players to do.
They had to use a broken magic wand
to transform Finethir
the sheep back to normal.
And I want to be clear here,
this was not guaranteed.
In fact, it was going to
be massively difficult.
I even wrote an entire ending
where they could fail so hard
that the sheep turns into
a pile of gelatinous goop
on the ground, so failure was expected.
As I said, you will have to make a check.
And if you do it wrong, if you fail,
something horrible will happen.
- Croyden says, "I mean,
I'll take my best shot at this spell.
It's a little bit out of
my wheelhouse, but..."
- But then in a way that I
couldn't predict or account for,
all of their characters came
together and joined their hands
to channel all of their magical energy
into this broken wand.
- Can all four of us
hold the wand together?
- Yeah, you know what, all four of you
can hold the wand together.
- Do it.
- We gonna Captain Planet this?
- And then this happened.
- You got this.
- Croyden just
holds onto the wand and says,
"Well, here goes nothing."
(laughing)
That's an eight plus
three on the first one.
Okay.
- Oh, God.
- Please roll well.
- Okay, okay.
Nat 20, let's go!
- What?
(players cheering)
(upbeat instrumental music)
What?
- Let's go.
- [Scott] Let's take a
journey to that nat 20.
- [Ethan] Take a journey to right there.
- Oh my gosh!
- Nat 20.
(chill piano music)
- Very few things in this one-shot
went the way that I planned.
Jordan, Tyler, Cam, and
Ethan put their characters
into this tiny world and together
we all told a fun, hilarious,
and at times dramatic story
that I'm gonna remember for a long time.
And I feel this way every weekend
when we record "Late to the Party."
I admit that while writing this video,
this incredibly long video, it felt silly
talking about Dungeons & Dragons this much
when I've been playing the
game for less than a year.
And especially to dedicate an
enormous chunk of this video
talking about being a dungeon master
when I've done it exactly once.
But that's how fun this game is
and how much it has
already impacted my life.
Dungeons & Dragons is a game that lives
almost entirely in the minds
of you and your friends.
Sure, you can have
figures and maps and art
that you drew of your characters
that all live in the physical world,
but at its core it's a
game where you very simply
sit around a table or a computer
screen with your friends
and you just tell a story together.
For the podcast we've had to
record six-hour Zoom calls,
but when I am thinking
back to those memories,
when I'm recalling our adventures,
my mind does not bring
up me sitting in a chair,
staring at a computer for six hours.
Instead I so clearly see the
adventures of our characters
cracking jokes and doing wild
shenanigans to save the day.
- Dungeons & Dragons is
the best of storytelling
and cooperation with your friends
and playing video games that just happen,
only be occurring in your mind.
- D&D is having this
renaissance right now,
and I've been playing it
since I was 10 years old.
When I was a kid I was homeschooled.
I went to a LARP camp that
I worked at for many years.
Like, I had a very alternative upbringing.
But there's this weird thing,
I feel like, looking back
when I was like, oh, well all
I wanna do is play this game.
This is storytelling, it's doing bits,
it's laughing with your friends,
it's getting invested and
involved, and the game portion
is continually exciting and fresh and new.
Why would you do anything
else but play this game?
- And I do have to say this.
While D&D is the game that brought me
into tabletop role playing
games, it's not for everyone.
It's not going to corrupt
the minds of young players
as parents in the '80s believed,
but it is a game published
by Wizards of the Coast,
a corporation that's going
through its own real
controversies right now
for creating a hostile work
environment for People of Color.
And I want to be clear that this video
is not me giving Wizards of the
Coast a pass for any of that
just because they happen
to make a game that I enjoy playing.
If through this video I've encouraged you
to give tabletop role
playing games a shot,
Dungeons & Dragons is not
the only one out there.
There are so many great games
from independent publishers
that you can and should try out.
I'm sure you'll find many excellent
recommendations in the comments.
I encourage people to leave
recommendations in the comments.
This is simply my story, my journey
into the world of role playing games.
And I really do hope that it inspires you
to tell your own stories around
the table with your friends.
So...
(thunder crashes)
We find our heroes in a tavern.
(rain showering down)
The dim glow
of a few sparse candles fills the room
with an atmosphere that
is both cozy yet ominous.
As you sit there, waiting
expectantly for excitement,
a disheveled hooded figure
bursts onto the scene
and calls you to adventure.
And I'm gonna need you to roll initiative.
(energetic rock music)
Hello, can you tell I'm filming
this after everything else?
My shirt changed again.
I just wanted to say
thank you for watching,
and thank you to everyone
who supports me on Patreon,
especially because the
financial support helps
as I'm trying to tackle new
kinds of topics on this channel.
It's a very kind of personal,
very different kind of
video for me to make.
And if you want a reason
to support me on Patreon,
we are running a special offer right now
where you can get these
Wonderful Nerd pins.
Very D&D inspired.
I like them a lot.
Unfortunately I didn't have them on hand
to record some cool video stuff,
but just imagine they are
exactly the same quality
as this NerdSync pin that you
can get in our merch store
only with this brand-new design.
I'm so excited for these.
All you have to do is support
me on Patreon at the $10 tier
or higher, the special offer
is running from right now today
to August 25th, so very limited
span of time to get them.
Also, August 25th is my birthday.
So I would really love if
you supported me on Patreon
as a gift to me for my birthday.
And also as a fun twist, I'm
actually giving you a gift
of this very exclusive Wonderful Nerd pin.
Links as always will
be in the description.
As I said, this whole video
has simply been my experience
finding and playing Dungeons & Dragons,
but I want to hear yours in the comments.
Have you played before?
Are you still searching for a party?
Do you have a fun story
from one of your sessions
that still stands out to you?
Write it down in the
comments below to share it
with everyone and spread
the fun of this game around.
While you're doing that, I
obviously have to recommend
that you watch "Dimension
20" if you haven't already.
I promise, just watch
the first two episodes
of their first season, "Fantasy High"
and you will be hooked.
The entire season is
available for free on YouTube,
and every following season is up
on their subscription service DROPOUT.
Again, this video is not
sponsored by CollegeHumor
or anything like that.
I just think "Dimension 20" is
a beautiful and creative show
and I want it to continue for as long
as the people making it want to do it.
Links will be in the
description down below.
And I have to give a
massive, massive thank you
to Brennan Lee Mulligan and Jordan Balke
for sitting down to talk with
me about Dungeons & Dragons.
If you want to hear the full
spicy unedited interviews,
they're not really that spicy,
but they are really interesting,
they will be available
on Patreon for free.
You don't even have to be a patron
if you want to listen to those.
But if you do want to support the channel
like these wonderful scrolling names do,
that would be great as well.
People like Lori Thames, Everett Parrott,
Havelock Smiggles, Itzcuintli,
Johnathan Lonowski,
Merry and Bill Cotton, Blueberry,
and the rest of the wonderful nerds
who support me over at
patreon.com/NerdSync.
Link in the description.
So many links in the description.
If you want more story
time videos from me,
here's one about how the
Spider-Man villain Mysterio
changed my life, seriously.
But oh, what is this?
The second video here seems
to be the first episode
of Dimension 20's "Fantasy High."
Go watch it.
My name is Scott, reminding
you to read between the panels
and grow smarter through comics,
or in this case, D&D, see you.
- This is the dopest
thing we've ever done.
