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Common questions
Who created Dimension 20 and when did the show launch?
Brennan Lee Mulligan created Dimension 20 and the show launched in 2018. The series emerged from the ashes of CollegeHumor when the streaming service Dropout launched to save the brand.
What are the Intrepid Heroes in Dimension 20 and how many seasons have they played?
The Intrepid Heroes are a recurring group of six players who form the backbone of the show's longest campaigns. As of 2025, there have been nine Intrepid Heroes seasons featuring Emily Axford, Ally Beardsley, Brian Murphy, Zac Oyama, Siobhan Thompson, and Lou Wilson.
When did Dimension 20 hold its first live event in Ireland and the United Kingdom?
Dimension 20 held its first live non-canonical events titled Time Quangle in Ireland and the United Kingdom in April 2024. These events allowed performers to roll dice to determine characters and settings from past campaigns.
What happened during the Gauntlet at the Garden event on the 24th of January 2025?
The Gauntlet at the Garden event occurred on the 24th of January 2025 at Madison Square Garden and continued the story of The Unsleeping City. Ticketmaster surge pricing algorithms caused tickets to briefly sell for thousands of dollars before Dimension 20 opted out of dynamic pricing for future events.
How many cameras does Dimension 20 use during filming and who is the director of photography?
Dimension 20 typically uses five cameras during filming to allow for closeup overhead shots of maps and miniatures. Graham Sheldon serves as the show's director of photography and oversees the camera setup.
Dimension 20
In 2018, a geodesic dome made of colored panels became the unlikely centerpiece of a revolution in tabletop role-playing entertainment. This was not a standard studio set but a deliberate homage to the polyhedral dice that define the genre, designed to shift from a frosty fantasy atmosphere to a Fortress of Solitude sci-fi vibe depending on the story being told. The show, Dimension 20, emerged from the ashes of CollegeHumor, a company that had pivoted to Facebook video with disastrous results and was facing imminent collapse. When the streaming service Dropout launched in 2018 to save the brand, Dimension 20 was one of its flagship programs, created by Brennan Lee Mulligan, a Dungeon Master who had been running games since he was ten years old. The format was unique because it did not follow the live multi-camera convention established by Critical Role. Instead, the cast performed in front of several cameras that were presented full screen, allowing for a cinematic experience that could incorporate elaborate projections, character art, and animated battle terrain during post-production. This approach added significant cost to the production but removed the pauses typical of live play, creating a tightly edited narrative that felt more like a television show than a recorded game session. The dome itself, later updated with curved walls and an LED projection system, became a character in its own right, serving as a canvas for the show's shifting genres and tones.
From CollegeHumor to Dropout
The origins of Dimension 20 are inextricably linked to the financial collapse of CollegeHumor, which had suffered from a strategic pivot to Facebook video in the late 2010s based on inaccurate metrics. By late 2019, the company's owner, InterActiveCorp, was exploring the sale of the brand, and in January 2020, the Dimension 20 cast was laid off as part of larger cuts. Mulligan was left as the only creative staff member on payroll, yet the show continued production remotely as California's stay at home orders were put into effect. The series launched in 2018 with the first season of Fantasy High, a campaign set in Elmville, an odd, anachronistic town resembling a high-fantasy John Hughes movie. A sequel to this campaign, titled Fantasy High: Sophomore Year, premiered in 2019 and was streamed live on Twitch, unlike the pre-recorded and edited style of other campaigns on Dropout. The season concluded with a two-part finale titled Spring Break! I Believe in You!, which was streamed remotely due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The show's survival was not guaranteed; it was among the few programs that kept the fledgling streaming service afloat. When Dropout was officially rebranded from CollegeHumor, it continued to produce content, heavily focusing on Dimension 20, which became the anchor of the new platform. The show's ability to adapt to remote production during the pandemic set a precedent for its future resilience, proving that the core cast could maintain their chemistry and storytelling prowess even without a physical set.
The core of Dimension 20 is the Intrepid Heroes, a recurring group of six players who have formed the backbone of the show's longest campaigns. These players include Emily Axford, Ally Beardsley, Brian Murphy, Zac Oyama, Siobhan Thompson, and Lou Wilson, who have appeared in multiple seasons, including Fantasy High, The Unsleeping City, A Crown of Candy, A Starstruck Odyssey, Neverafter, and Cloudward, Ho!. The show's format divides seasons into Intrepid Heroes campaigns, which feature a recurring group of six players, and Side Quests, which feature guest players. The Intrepid Heroes campaigns are generally between seventeen and twenty episodes in length, and a campaign setting is sometimes revisited in additional seasons. As of 2025, there have been nine Intrepid Heroes seasons, with the players drawing randomly from their past characters using bingo machines to set up each show. The show's first season, Fantasy High, set the tone for the series, featuring a group of students at Aguefort Adventuring Academy who were learning to become adventurers. The second season, The Unsleeping City, took place in a magical version of modern-day New York City, where a group of New Yorkers protected its residents from knowing about the underlying magic in their city. The third season, Fantasy High: Sophomore Year, saw the Bad Kids leave Elmville to retrieve the Crown of The Nightmare King for 60% of their final grade. The fourth season, A Crown of Candy, was set in a Candy Land-inspired kingdom of Candia in a Game of Thrones-inspired setting of violence and political intrigue. The fifth season, The Unsleeping City: Chapter II, returned to the magical New York City setting, while the sixth season, A Starstruck Odyssey, took place in a sci-fi universe co-created by Mulligan's mother, Elaine Lee. The seventh season, Neverafter, was marketed as the horror season, featuring classic fairy tale characters whose stories had become twisted and violent as their land was corrupted by dark forces. The eighth season, Fantasy High: Junior Year, was a continuation of the original Fantasy High campaign, and the ninth season, Cloudward, Ho!, was a steampunk-themed game. The show's ability to reinvent itself with each season, while maintaining a core cast, has been a key factor in its longevity and success.
Side Quests and Guest Stars
While the Intrepid Heroes form the backbone of Dimension 20, the show's Side Quests have provided a platform for guest players and rotating Game Masters to shine. Aabria Iyengar is the most recurring guest Game Master, having appeared in the role four times, while other guests have included Matthew Mercer, Griffin McElroy, and notable contestants from RuPaul's Drag Race. The Side Quests are generally between eleven and fewer episodes, and they often feature a rotating cast of players. The show's first Side Quest, a parody of The Lord of the Rings, featured a cast of villains trying to hide the death of their Sauron-esque leader from the rest of his evil armies. The second Side Quest, Dungeons and Drag Queens, featured notable contestants from RuPaul's Drag Race, including Alaska Thunderfuck, Bob the Drag Queen, Jujubee, and Monét X Change. The third Side Quest, a comedic vampire road trip, saw Dracula's entourage trying to return a nearly-dead Dracula to Transylvania. The fourth Side Quest, a Regency era-inspired Fae Court, featured several of the realm's most prestigious aristocrats attending an event known as the Bloom. The fifth Side Quest, a high fantasy adventure, saw four adventurers, played by stars of RuPaul's Drag Race, descend into the underworld. The sixth Side Quest, a homage to hard-boiled detective stories and film noir, was set inside a human brain. The show's Side Quests have been a key factor in its ability to reinvent itself and span a vast variety of genres, styles, and tones. The show's ability to incorporate guest players and rotating Game Masters has also been a key factor in its longevity and success, allowing it to bring in new voices and perspectives while maintaining the core cast's chemistry.
Live Events and Cultural Impact
Dimension 20 has expanded beyond the screen to include a series of live non-canonical events titled Time Quangle, which were held in Ireland and the United Kingdom in April 2024. At the start of each live show, performers rolled dice to determine the characters and setting, pulling randomly from five past Dimension 20 campaigns. A series finale called Quangle Quest was held at the Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle on the 20th of July 2025, and released on Dropout on the 10th of December 2025. A performance at Madison Square Garden entitled Gauntlet at the Garden, continuing the story of The Unsleeping City, occurred on the 24th of January 2025. As the venue's ticketing is managed by Ticketmaster, a surge pricing algorithm meant that tickets were briefly selling for thousands of dollars, at higher prices than comparable Taylor Swift tickets. Dimension 20 issued a statement afterwards, indicating that they had been unaware Ticketmaster was operating its dynamic pricing system for the venue, and that they had opted out of that system for all future events. Given that 15,000 tickets sold in four days, the event was expected to be the largest actual play show in the United States. A live event set in the world of Fantasy High called Battle at the Bowl took place on the 1st of June 2025 at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles, billed as a canonical event during which either Fabian Seacaster or Chungledown Bim would die. The show's ability to expand into live events has been a key factor in its cultural impact, allowing it to connect with fans in a more personal and immersive way. The show's live events have also been a key factor in its financial success, with proceeds from auctions of miniatures from previous seasons going towards funding future seasons of the show, as well as to charitable causes.
The Art of Storytelling and Production
The production of Dimension 20 is a complex process that involves multiple cameras, elaborate set design, and post-production editing. The show's director, Michael Schaubach, has overseen the quest for a different, even more articulable jib, updated cameras, an LED projection system that can add shadows and animation onto the walls of the set, and, in Burrow's End, audio recordings presented as artifacts. The show's director of photography, Graham Sheldon, stated that they typically used five cameras when filming the campaign with a setup that allowed closeup overhead shots of the maps and miniatures. The show's format does add cost to the production, but the approach allows for the removal of pauses and the inclusion of post-production elements such as character art, illustrations, and footage of the battle terrain. The show's ability to incorporate these elements has been a key factor in its success, allowing it to create a cinematic experience that feels more like a television show than a recorded game session. The show's production team has also been a key factor in its success, with producer Carlos Luna stating that they are not game designers and that the systems they use are not designed to stand the test of time. The show's ability to create unique and memorable stories has been a key factor in its cultural impact, with critics praising the show's positive LGBTQ representation, its diverse voices, and its socially relevant themes woven into the framework.