#dimension 20 fireside chat

[queerlyvictorian]

I don’t know how often Brennan brings up this analogy, since despite the amount of Lee Mulligan content I feel I’ve consumed, I’ve only recently dived into Dimension 20, but in Episode 4 of Adventuring Party for A Crown of Candy at 01:04:12, Brennan mentions a thing he learned about chess recently and related it to DMing and I was like, “Wait, I’ve heard him say this, and recently.” It’s the exact analogy he threw out as a taunt in the most recent Fireside Chat for Episode 22 of The Wizard, the Witch, and the Wild One on the Worlds Beyond Number Patreon, about how so much of his “planning” as a DM is just developing enough material to move aspects of the narrative into the good positions to be used later-

These two talkbacks are nearly four years apart in their release date, and I coincidentally listened to them less than four days apart from each other. It just goes to show, I think, how deeply Brennan thinks about DMing and his philosophy towards the art form and practice of it. He pulled the same reference out of his brain years after he learned it, and expressed it in a totally different tone and context. He really is so good at this game.

The understatement of the century, I know, but I just think it’s neat.

[secretlyofthefeywild]

i rly cannot give enough praise to dimension 20, the adventuring party, world's beyond number, the fireside chat, etc etc. not only are they immensely entertaining and enjoyable to watch/listen to, but they have given me such a deeper understanding of the person that i want to be. i know that its "just a dnd show" but the philosophical, ethic, and moral discussions that they get into have genuinely helped me to discover who i want to be. ive never had any of these types of "role models" (for lack of a better term) and im so grateful for this environment where i can learn new vocabulary and grow into my best self. even if that environment is alone in my room watching a dnd actual play

[betemperate]

Starting a TTRPG club for kids in my community, but I’ve been at a loss which type to use. After hearing the sneak peak for A County Affair and researching Roll For Shoes, I knew it was exactly what I was looking for! Thank you so much, Erika! Beyond stoked!

[adainesfroggieboggy]

bold is ally, underlined is siobhan, :( is emily, italics are brennan, and both italics and bold is zac.

watch the fireside chats after smoking i implore you. i literally dare you. it was the funnest thing i’ve ever done high i took notes on the character endings for a fic and although mostly unusable, they’re hilarious. have them. there is some usable things before i got so far off my ass that i was transcribing the episode badly as seen above because it was funny and i thoroughly enjoyed it. i will be watching “thinking about true clowns” the next time i’m high because it’s pure hilarity almost the entire time.

[dabidagoose]

Ok I've yet to watch any of the bonus content stuff but i am not emotionally ready for the finale so I'm gonna skip ahead to fireside chat (the one from 3/24) cause it says it aired right before the finale

[achorusofnonsense]

Of Stoats and Systems

Things are getting heated on various platforms but rather than @ anyone and contribute to the engagement spiral I thought I'd just lay out the various pieces of information that have caught my attention about Dimension 20's upcoming season, and the inferences and assumptions that I'm bringing to them, and see whether any of it resonates.

Evidence

Exhibit A: In the first Fireside Chat, the talkback show for actual-play podcast Worlds Beyond Number, Erika Ishii references a "cyberpunk Watership Down" concept, and is hushed by Aabria Iyengar, who says that it may be coming up sooner than Erika thinks.

Exhibit B: In the SAG-AFTRA production signatory database, a season of Dimension 20 is listed with the working title of Stoatal Recall.

Exhibit B.5: The 1990 film Total Recall (as well as the 2012 remake), based on a 1966 short story by Philip K. Dick, "We Can Remember It for You Wholesale," concerns a man who undergoes a memory-alteration procedure which may or may not turn him into a superspy, depending on whether the events of the movie are all in his head or not. The important part here is the theme of ability enhancement.

Exhibit C: Once the Burrow's End trailer was released, the two pieces of media that were officially referenced by Dropout as inspirations for the season were very obviously Watership Down (1972 book, 1978 animated adaptation) but equally consequentially, The Secret of NIMH (1982 animated adaptation of the 1971 book Mrs Frisby and the Rats of NIMH).

Exhibit C.5: The central premise of the NIMH stories is that experiments done on rats by the National Institute of Mental Health gave them human-like intelligence, organizational capabilities, and (in the movie) access to magic and the use of weapons.

Exhibit D: Aabria, in both a Bluesky post and a Tumblr tag essay which have been widely shared, has explained that she chose 5th Edition Dungeons & Dragons as the system for Burrow's End not due to comfort with a familiar system or to commercial pressure to not deviate from what fans are used to, but because particular elements of the system design lent themselves to the specific story she wanted to tell in ways that no other TTRPG she knew could.

Cross Examination

Now, many people have taken this to mean that intense and recurring violence is a central aspect of the season, since one of the most obviously robust elements of D&D is its battle simulation mechanics. (There are, of course, many TTRPGs which incorporate mechanics for drawn-out, granular combat, several of which position small woodland creatures in a big dangerous forest instead of traditional fantasy races in a fantasy realm as the protagonists.)

Others have suggested that D&D's elaborate magic system is the key element, since bits of the trailer suggest that the Stupendous Stoats are granted some kind of magical abilities by the Blue. (Games where woodland creatures specifically use magic are rather thinner on the ground, but there are again many TTRPGs that support a wide variety of magical abilities with a high degree of customization.)

I've even seen people proposing that D&D's fundamental origins as a killing-and-looting game rooted in 20th century imperialist narratives in which powerful people go into uncivilized lands, plunder their treasures and are considered heroes for it, is the point, especially since stoats are predators that take over the burrows of animals they kill, and are an invasive species in some parts of the world. (Other games about imperialist conquest and the ramifications of power achived by violence do exist, although it would be untrue to say that D&D is not the market leader there.)

Closing Argument

But if I'm looking at the themes of the works that appear to have been the most direct inspiration for Burrow's End, there's something else that D&D does more completely, if not actually better, than just about every other system.

A fundamental theme of the cyberpunk genre is the use of technology to exceed current human limitations, whether through biohacking, neuromancy, or even merely robotics so advanced as to be indistinguishable from humanity. Even if the technological element does not seem to be overtly present in Burrow's End, exceeding limitations does.

As a film, Total Recall was deeply influenced by cyberpunk, which was itself deeply influenced by Philip K. Dick's work, but the concept of a procedure which could endow a normal man with the capacity for action-movie violence and a deeper awareness of the reality behind the façade of the everyday is, obviously, older than cyberpunk.

In Watership Down, rabbits whose mental abilities exceed those of other rabbits often attribute them to a kind of mystical communion with deific figures in rabbit mythology; in the NIMH stories, the rats' enhanced abilities are more straightforwardly attributed to human experimentation.

In every case, the concept of abilities that increase over time and exceed the natural physiology of the protagonist species is an essential part of the worldbuilding of the source material. And what D&D does more of than almost every other system, perhaps what it does to excess, even to the exclusion of design elements that would better contribute to a satisfying narrative, is power leveling.

Speculation

As you might expect from the foregoing, I take the position that power leveling is, in itself, not particularly compelling as a central narrative (unless your horizon for compelling narratives is limited to video-game RPGs and shonen anime, I suppose), even though it's endemic as a narrative device. As I sarcastically noted elsewhere: "it's impossible to have adventure without also having power fantasy, I've been told by every media property aimed at boys since the Carter administration."

But the tone of the trailer for Burrow's End is hardly that of a shonen anime or Schwarzenegger film. And as a listener of Worlds Beyond Number I can't really believe that Aabria just wants to level up her stoats to a point where the dangers of the forest are trivial and even the dangers of whatever human institution (there are camo-covered trucks tucked away in the DM screen) may be responsible for their ability score increases are managable. What I can't stop thinking about, what tantalizes me, is the possibility of power leveling as a narrative device that can go both ways. What if deleveling is also on the table?

And the work I haven't seen anyone else reference but has always been paired in my head with Mrs Frisby & the Rats of NIMH since I read them both as a tween, one of the supreme works of sci-fi psychological horror (even though it isn't usually discussed in those terms), is Flowers for Algernon.

[themostunoriginalpersonever]

I just finished Fantasy High Sophmore Year, and while I know there is the fireside chats, the live con shows, the college vist, and boys night that I can watch, it's still the feeling of finish with the content thst i am hyperfixated on, knowing that there isn't actually that much fic content, and you've already gone through the tumblr tags.

I don't know how to describe it, but since the last half hour of the finale, I've been trembling like I do when my blood sugar crashes. I've tried everything, and I think I'm just going to have to ride it out. Or find a new hyperfixation to replace it.

I am going to watch The Seven and other Dimension 20 stuff though, so that should help.

[prof-telperion]

I can't believe the entire Dimension 20 cast are all in the Axmurph mansion, but making it look like they're all in their own homes

[queerlyvictorian]

Because I was freaking out about WBN being referenced on the new season premiere of Um, Actually, I have to shout out the fact that I'm watching Burrow's End for the first time and in the Adventuring Party, Erika cites Aabria's "What is the lie this person/this world tells themselves?" from one of the Firesides (and early one, but I can't remember which one). It was really neat.

[secretlyofthefeywild]

between fhjy and wbn the amount of time in a day i spend shouting "hey brennan? what the FUCK?" is truly astonishing

[whirlwindsworld]

On Adaine, asexuality, aromanticism, trauma, and how much I love Siobhan Thompson

Siobhan recently answered my question on Adaine being ace/aro on the fireside chat stream, and boy do I have emotions and a lot of things to say.

I had my worst traumatic experiences when I was fifteen. They involved school and many panic attacks. I am also on the asexual and aromantic spectrums, so yeah, Siobhan’s answer means a lot to me. Adaine’s story surrounding anxiety has always hit really close to home for me, and hearing a well thought out acknowledgment of the way mental illness and trauma can affect orientations almost sent me bawling. So few people ever mention asexuality, let alone aromanticism in storytelling. Doing both in the same breath as talking about trauma is just wonderful beyond words.

I’m aspec, and while I love it, if my labels change one day, that’s alright with me. If Adaine considers herself aspec, that’s amazing and that representation matters. It’s also okay if her labels change as she grows older, because knowing that she had that journey is representation too.

I’ve followed Siobhan since her time running Anglophenia (my favorite video is the accents one) and the more I’ve seen of her, the more I admire her. As a writer, as an actor, as a roleplayer, and as a person, she continues to astound and inspire me with her talent and thoughtfulness.

I’m MistyPower, a handle that was previously chosen at random, but I feel like redefining it now. It’s now in honor of one of Siobhan’s other wonderful characters, Misty Moore.

I don’t know if Siobhan will ever see this, but I was quite serious when I said I love you in the chat. A good friend told me to remember that I am resilient as hell, and maybe it’s the projection, but I hope Adaine recognizes that quality in themselves too. Thank you for everything.

[thebloggerbloggerfun]

The absolute dead silence that followed Siobhan telling Emily that her character wasn’t going to marry her high school girlfriend was......extremely funny

[vraska-theunseen]

mr lou wilson sir the sentence "If I went +12 con, can I eat lightbulbs?" is very probably the funniest thing i've ever heard in my entire life

[night-yoarrbe]

“if i went plus 12 con, can i eat lightbulbs?”

lou wilson, you are a gift.

[macaroni-rascal]

murph accidentally using they/them pronouns for kristen applebees is v wholesome to me