- I can move through the wall. I tried to make one of those OkCupids. My daughter, she fell in love with a bird. Playing multiple different characters in a setting like this is
one of the oldest parts of my identity as a person. Any facility I have at improv
or sketch comedy is related to my ability to do goofy
voices running a game of D&D. The Unsleeping City was
mashing up D&D tropes with New York specifics. And one of the creative
things that we decided was we wanted to go to a darker,
little bit more adult place, like magic garbage cans
cursing people out. Oh, I'm just a trash can? And you're just a piece of (bleep). Clock gnomes in Grand Central Station, oh, well hello there. Living in New York, it is magic, even when you are being
ground into the dirt, but it's also funny, because there's something
inherently unfantastical about New York. So to make it a fantasy setting, you know, hey, I'm questin' here, feels like yeah, that hits a comedic button for me. Let's play some D&D? - Yes, spicy, D&D. - Hell yeah, some spicy D&D. So a timeline for a season
of Dimension 20 starts with me coming up with pitches for what the concept of
that season's gonna be, and as soon as possible,
we do character creation with the cast members. After character creation,
we'll do a cast cohesion, which is just a sort of session zero, no camera's rolling, where the
players play their characters to kind of get in the vibe, so that the first time their
voicing these characters they're not here at the table. And then, it's months
and months of editing. - And so if the rats are
doin' magical damage, can I hit someone with a rat? - You wrap a rat around your fist - Can I wrap a rat around my fist? - The biggest challenges
with Dimension 20 come from time management. That's the thing that
separates it the most from the home game. I have a lot of practice running D&D. I do not have a lot of practice where we have time
restrictions on episode length and getting to story points
that we need to get to in a certain order. If you wanna give me a slight
of hand to do some rat chucks, um, we can see about that. And doing that, without
railroading players or ignoring their choices,
is really challenging. So what ends up happening
is instead of cutting short the decision of a PC, I usually end up cutting
short my own ideas. We are going to take a pause. - You're kidding. - Starting at third
level, in Unsleeping City, we had five different spell casters, and then Emily
multiclassed, so we had six, which means that concentration
checks were a big part of this season. I was like mapping my initiative
out a lot more clearly. That is stuff that honestly I
could bring to my home games, but it's never come up because
home games are more relaxed and more chill. It's not a big deal if you
like crack open a rule book in a home game, and take a
minute to like look something up. It's a big deal when there's a whole crew and camera's are rolling. Do you currently have
less than 100 hit points? You watch Pete's life leave his body as he falls to the ground dead. Death is wild. It sucks to lose a character, but in order for choices to matter, there has to be the threat of death. A lot of it has to do with tone, like if you look at
the Wall Street battle, it's vampires, it's very scary. I've set up the villain to be
this really no-joke character. There's things you do
that, I think as a DM, communicate to your players like, hey, death is a very real prospect here. - Oh my god.
- Oh no. - Gorgug is dead. - With that battle,
with Kristen and Gorgug in the first season, they were fighting these
little corn people, and they were being dumb(bleep). They were not fighting well. - What the (bleep) is happening? - Y'all callin' 'em corn cuties. - You may have been (bleep) around, cause you're like hey, we're comedians, this is the silly battle. Well, it was a very real combat encounter. To have both those characters
be dead, permanently, in the first battle, didn't feel right. But you are gonna pay for this by losing two NPCs that you like. The price must be paid, bam. Gorgug and Kristen, you come back to life. - What the (bleep)? - I was very ready for a character to die in The Unsleeping City. I thought someone would die
in the Wall Street fight, and they played the hell out of it. We're making 20 to 30 hours of content. What that means is a season arc for all these characters. You have eight different battles, you can cater to certain characters in certain ways to help them realize their character concept. If, as a dungeon master, you're constantly in this space of like everyone's
gotta share equal spotlight all at the same time, I think you actually do a little bit of a disservice to your players. Sophia, - Yes! Pete. - I run over to Priya. - That being said, at the art
show at the burning building, the main villain is Sophia Lee's
nemesis, Isabella Infierno. It's a burning building, and Ricky's our New York firefighter, and it's set at Priya's art show, which is a story culmination
for Ally's character, Pete. So I think, in all of those, you're highlighting
multiple different things. Isabelle Infierno is destroyed. - More like Isabelle Outfierno. (cheers) - What'd you say? - This show is a (bleep) dream come true. The fans for this show are
the nicest and coolest people in the world. The fan art that's made for
this constantly staggers me on an emotional level. This game at this table
is like no different from anyone's game at their table in terms of our love and
passion for this dorky hobby. That's been The Unsleeping City. Thank you all so much for tuning in, we'll catch you in season three. Take care! (applause) I just want everyone to know that I get being a dungeon master for your job is the goofiest
(bleep) in the world. And while I have pride
in the work that I do, if you and me were in the same room, and you were like what the (bleep) dude? I would be like I know dude, it's crazy. It is a stroke of good fortune that no human being
can be said to deserve. Thank you.
