Dimension 20
There was a time, however, when the idea of recording yourself playing “Dungeons & Dragons” was a tough sell.
In 2018, Mulligan pitched the idea to his then-CollegeHumor team to film a group of his friends playing “Dungeons & Dragons.” It was a daring gambit for a young actor who’d mostly become internet-famous for playing unhinged CEOs melting down in interviews.
When the idea was greenlighted, Mulligan gathered a crew of six other comedians — Emily Axford, Ally Beardsley, Zac Oyama, Brian Murphy, Siobhan Thompson, and Lou Wilson. Together, they debuted “Dimension 20’s” first season, “Fantasy High,” a 17-episode series set in a high school where the kids slay monsters. Mulligan took on the role of dungeon master, guiding the narrative and playing all the non-player characters that “Dimension 20’s” group of “intrepid heroes” meets.
“Dimension 20” is shot in a dome, with special effects and projections. Its campaigns are also shorter than those of other stream-based “D&D” shows like Critical Role, which consistently runs campaigns with more than 100 episodes. Some “CR” episodes can run for six hours, but “Dimension 20” episodes tend to be around two hours long, topping out at three.
Fast-forward to 2024, when “Dimension 20” is coming off a sold-out tour of live shows in the UK. Months from now, the crew will be heading to Madison Square Garden on January 24 for their “Gauntlet at The Garden” live show, continuing where they last left off with their “Unsleeping City” campaign.
“We’re going to come out where the Knicks play, and we’re going to play ‘Dungeons and Dragons,'” Mulligan said. “It’s silly, it’s amazing, it’s beautiful, and it’s all dedicated to the hard work of all of our amazing cast and crew.”
Oyama told Business Insider that the idea of playing “D&D” live in an arena of nearly 20,000 people still hasn’t fully sunk in. But he says it’s definitively “surpassed any benchmark” of what he thought “Dimension 20” could do.
Dimension 20
“It felt like that scene in ‘Howl’s Moving Castle’ where the whole castle falls apart, and it’s just the two little legs running around,” Mulligan said. “Now Dropout is as vibrant and alive as it’s ever been.”
Dropout has managed to keep the streaming machine humming. Reich told BI that the subscriber count stands in the mid-high six figures, with 65% of its subscribers coming from the US. Subscriptions start at $5.99 monthly and $59.99 annually.
“Near-term, we’re hoping to take advantage of what we know about our audience, as well as our in-house development process, to produce more shows in our sweet spot: unscripted and in the studio,” Reich said. “Longer-term, we hope to put other formats back into the mix.”
Notably, in 2023, the company did well enough to share its revenue with its creative staff and said it planned to double the number of programs on its platform — though Mulligan’s “Dimension 20” remains one of its major draws.
Anti-capitalism and found family — with dragons
One thing that’s remained consistent with the more than 20 campaigns “Dimension 20” has run is Mulligan’s motivation to highlight real problems in the world through comedy and fantasy role-playing.
In the “Unsleeping City,” for instance, an angelic embodiment of the American dream is corrupted, and in “Fantasy High,” the students have to fight a libertarian dragon.
Dimension 20
Mulligan told BI he’s still in a state of “bewildered gratitude” that a kid from New York would one day find a way to bring “Dungeons & Dragons” to Madison Square Garden, close to where he used to work.
Mulligan is also looking forward to paying homage to New York, which he calls “the greatest and best city in the world,” one that he saw a lot of with his father.
“We would travel all over the city up and down, and my dad would constantly impart stories about the history of New York. And his love for that city is very reflected in every chapter of ‘Unsleeping City,'” Mulligan told me.
He’s also raring to revisit the plotlines in “The Unsleeping City,” where “Dimension 20’s” games last left off.
“I think there are going to be some pretty huge twists,” Mulligan said. “There are a couple of little tricks up my sleeve that I don’t feel I can spoil here, but I can say people should get ready for a surprise.”
Fans of “Dimension 20” can also expect more content featuring its cast of seven intrepid heroes.
“I have multiple text messages from the Intrepid Heroes on my iMessage account, like, ‘I can’t stop thinking about the next season. I have four character ideas I want to pitch,'” Mulligan said. “This is going to be so much fun.”