Q&A with Brennan Lee Muligan About D&D and DIMENSION 20

I was recently gifted the opportunity to ask some questions of Brennan Lee Mulligan who is the DM on the Actual Play show Dimension 20 on DROPOUT. The first season features many of the cast from College Humor and the second season will once again have many College Humor members along with others. The full cast includes Erika Ishii, Matt Mercer, Ify Nwadiwe, Rekha Shankar, Mike Trapp, and Amy Vorpahl. If you want to watch the first half of the first season of Dimension 20 it is available on YouTube and you can learn more from my previous post about the series, however, it feels like you don’t need the first season to get into the second as it features a brand new cast.

Below you’ll find my brief Q&A with Mulligan and his answers were delightful. I’m going to be looking forward to trying out the second season, dubbed Escape from the Bloodkeep, when it releases on April 30.

Do you prefer to be a DM or a player?

“God, they’re both so fun, and such totally different experiences that’s it’s hard to compare them! I would love to play more as a PC, but the truth is that DMs are in such high demand that once word gets out that you run games, you are almost always going to be the one running them! Endlessly happy to DM as much as possible, there is no joy as rich as introducing someone new to trpg’s for the first time, but would be lying if I said I didn’t want to go on some adventures myself!”

What's your favorite part of being a DM?

“To me, being a DM is an act of service. You’re kind of like a genie, in that you have all this “power” at your disposal, theoretically, but that power is intrinsically intended for the benefit of someone else. The ability to fling monsters at your heroes, summon tempests, start wars, all of it is for them.The story of a D&D campaign is the story of the PCs. For all the vast cosmic might of a Dungeon Master, your narration begins and ends at what the PCs can sense and understand. The narrative focus, the “camera” of the story, doesn’t follow the DM. It follows the PCs. The best part of being a DM is getting to use the vast authority and power of that role to make wishes come true in a sense, to summon every ounce of your skill for storytelling, improvisation and the game’s mechanics to let your friends feel the palpable experience of living inside a story.”

Have you ever dealt with not all players making it to a session? How did you handle that?

“Definitely, and I think it’s always situational. Most often, the DM will take over that character as an NPC for that situation, and they usually end up having a “quiet day,” talking and interacting much less, because they’re being played by someone A) who doesn’t normally play them, and B) is also running every other NPC. Sometimes another player at the table can run them in combat. For certain campaigns, it makes more sense or is more seamless to find an in-game reason why the character is not present, and as long as it doesn’t mess with the story, this is actually the option I prefer. Much easier to do in a West Marches style game, or in a game that is more episodic and less one, long, uninterrupted quest. I have also played games though where the next session was going to be so critical that we all agreed to reschedule, as no one felt it was worth doing unless everyone was present. Whatever works best for your game is completely acceptable, and as with everything else, should be a dialog between everyone at the table!”

How much do you prepare ahead of a session and how much do you change/make up on the spot?

“With many years of practice, I find myself relying more on improvisation mostly because I’m getting better at realizing which bits of preparation tend to be essential and which tend to never actually improve the quality of play. The things you need going into a session are stat blocks for monsters or NPCs, maps of locations you intend the PCs to explore, the names of some key people and places, and a loose idea of what the people in those places are trying to do. More preparation than that is totally admirable, but it quickly becomes a case of diminishing returns. You’ll never use all of it. Your PCs will visit 2 or 3 taverns in this city, not 8-10. If the PCs start trouble with some NPCs you didn’t stat out ahead of time, you can open the Monster Manual and use the stats for Bandit and no one will be the wiser. If over-preparing for your games brings you joy, do it! (Preparing for sessions has the same meditative quality as tending rock gardens or doing a coloring book, I find!) But, if you’re pressed for time, prepare the fundamentals and improvise the rest. Not only will it save you time and effort, it will focus your storytelling on the areas that actually demand the PCs’ attention, and keep you in the moment because you’re tapped into what the PCs are interested in, which is really what you should be focusing on anyway!”

How does it feel being a DM for someone as big in the D&D community as Matt Mercer?

“A goddamn honor and a joy. You will not find a kinder, cooler, more thoughtful or good-hearted soul on this planet than Matt. We find ourselves in a renaissance of Actual Play storytelling, and a gigantic portion of the credit for that rests squarely with the incredible cast of Critical Role, and Matt being one of the most gifted storytellers alive. Also, and most importantly, Matt loves this game with everything he’s got! There’s nobody you want at your table more than someone with a genuine love for stories, and especially if that person rarely gets a chance to play, it’s such a privilege getting to run a game for them.”

Do you have a favorite player to DM for?

“Nice try, Mr. Williams, but as Admiral Ackbar once said, “It’s A Trap!” Like a doting father, I love my players profoundly and equally. ;)”