Dimension 20: A Storytelling Masterclass

One of my many passions & the lessons I take from it

Evolution of a Form

Never heard of Dimension 20? Binged every season? Either way, welcome – this article is for you!

Dimension 20 is an actual play show featuring a cast of actors, improvisers and comedians playing a variety of tabletop role-playing games – most often, a slightly modified version of Dungeons & Dragons. The show began in 2018 with Fantasy High and has flourished ever since, with 26 seasons available to stream as of August 2025.

The show follows in the footsteps (and success) of earlier iterations of actual play, including but not limited to Acquisitions Incorporated, RollPlay, The Adventure Zone and, of course, Critical Role. (Many would argue with my inclusion of RollPlay, a relatively small and long defunct show, among this list, but it's what first got me into the space! I even wrote a little about it back in one of my earliest articles.)

Dimension 20 and shows like it are built on group storytelling, with player-controlled characters navigating a world imagined by a Game Master, who – alongside the fickle chaos of dice rolls – also determines whether the characters succeed or fail at the actions they attempt.

So what sets Dimension 20 apart, when the titanic Critical Role franchise has spawned books, TV shows, board games and far more? I'll argue that the show's strict structure, its cast & atmosphere, and its audacious imagination make it a veritable masterclass in storytelling – in addition to being so endlessly entertaining.

Dimension 20 Logo & Posters

Clearly Defined Structure

One of the most intimidating and intriguing aspects of sitting down to play – or watch – a game of Dungeons & Dragons is its open-ended nature. Players can [try to] have their characters do literally anything; the game also puts no limit on how long you play, either within a single session or across a campaign. Suffice to say that it's difficult to tell a strong, coherent story when you're never sure whether it will last two more hours or two hundred.

And that's if you've got a dedicated and focused group – it's all too easy for real life discussions or random in-game nonsense to halt or derail a story otherwise. I have a lot of love and respect for Critical Role, but it's hard to stay invested sometimes when they devote a couple 3-4 hour episodes to shopping and inter-character drama. The open-ended structure makes it hard to have confidence that the pace will pick up again soon; even less that when it does, it will be toward something I'm interested in. Of course, this is also true for many stories in other media! Whether it's a cheap TV show dangling a mystery it'll never satisfyingly answer or a book with a dismally bland sub-plot, my attention won't hold on forever.

Dimension 20 solves this problem almost accidentally. When Collegehumor (now Dropout) ordered the first season, 'Fantasy High', they specified a certain number of episodes to be filmed in a short period of time – completely normal for most productions, but surprisingly rare among actual play shows, which tend toward filming weekly. Also unique was their production budget: where even Critical Role started quite humbly, Dimension 20 featured its signature Dome, beautifully handcrafted maps and miniatures, and character art from the word go.

Between the season length and need to produce so many materials ahead of time, Game Master Brennan Lee Mulligan was forced to prepare the entire overarching story in advance – and has done so for (almost) every season he's run since. This strict structure, understood by everyone at the table, both helps to maintain a steady pace and ensures that seasons have a recognizable narrative arc. It also allows the cast's comedic chops to shine, by easing the narrative impetus from them and giving them strange and unique spaces in which to improvise and explore.

And, sidebar for those content creator enthusiasts out there, these comedic moments are ultimately one of the biggest factors in Dimension 20's – and frankly all of Dropout's – success. These amusing, approachable moments go viral like wildfire on platforms like TikTok and Instagram, attracting more people to watch the show. Whereas even the best moments from shows like Critical Role – e.g. bath, goldfish, cupcake – require a fair bit of context to appreciate fully.

Characters from Dimension 20: Neverafter, art by Giuseppe Lama and Victor Van Dort

Cast & Atmosphere

I’ve recently been focusing on injecting more life and momentum into my own fictional characters and scenes, which can otherwise feel like blank stepping stones between important moments and exposition. Dimension 20 carries a completely opposite feeling, bursting at the seams with irrepressible energy and often infecting the viewer with the same.

As trained actors and improvisers, the cast are remarkably adept at finding a tone and holding it – while also making room for their usual comedy, even amidst more serious seasons like 'A Crown of Candy' (Game of Thrones in Candyland) and 'Neverafter' (Grimm's Fairy Tales-inspired horror).

With more and more seasons piling up, Dimension 20 also offers a lesson in making a core theme and structure appealing to different audiences and in experimenting with different genres. Whether what you're doing seems to be working or not, it can be refreshing and rewarding to try something new every now and then.

Frankly, I was incredibly skeptical when I first saw the trailer for Dimension 20: Cloudward Ho! – the currently airing season of the show. It seemed like it would be overlapping a lot with previous seasons, both in theme and its characters. Hard not to, after seeing so many adventures featuring this core cast.

But it turns out it's just plain excellent. Beyond the initial familiar-seeming premise, this season has revealed itself to be powerfully focused on discovery and exploration – areas of storytelling near and dear to my heart – for the first time. They're also playing a bit with expectations by having four of the characters be older adventurers coming out of retirement and guiding the younger two, which greatly helps to distinguish the tone and cast alike from previous entries.

Characters from Dimension 20: Cloudward Ho!, art by Cait May

Worlds of Wonder

I've said time and again around here that imaginative worldbuilding can capture my attention like nothing else, and Dimension 20 is no exception. From the simple magic-as-technology of 'Fantasy High' to the hilarious Tolkien reskins in 'Escape From the Bloodkeep' and gruesomely violent food in 'A Crown of Candy', the show always offers a unique twist that you just don't see in a typical game of D&D – or in most other stories, for that matter.

This dynamic only feels like it's increased over the years and as a small team of writers has joined Brennan and other GMs in putting together these worlds. 'Cloudward Ho!' alone has already showcased a plethora of fascinating ideas – including a Roman-esque legion body-swapped into velociraptors, and a mindboggling world structure – and I'm not even halfway through the season yet.

Like most stories I love, Dimension 20 also does its best to impart a bit of wisdom and explore some complex ideas from time to time. I wrote about one such example a while back, comparing Dimension 20: Mentopolis with Inside Out: 2 and seeing what they both had to say about the workings of our minds. But even when it's more subtle and integrated into the fabric of the story and strange world, the show offers lots of useful insights and even a sense of belonging that can be hard to find when consuming other media.

The Wurst from Dimension 20: A Starstruck Odyssey, art by Amy Reeder

See you at Basrar's!

As usual, this piece turned out a little longer and a lot more rambly than anticipated – not something that would happen if I learned from Dimension 20 and planned out my writing better from the start!

A final bit of praise and reason to watch: this show and community are among the most inclusive and welcoming you'll find online. As a non-binary person who's been using they/them pronouns for almost seven years, it's sad to say that representative media is still astonishingly rare. Not so on Dimension 20, and I'll always love it for that.

Have you seen the show? If not, consider checking out the first episode here – if your mind isn't blown by the end of episode two, I'll owe you an ice cream.

Thanks for reading and until next time <3