#Dimension20 is SO REAL

[verosvault]

I need Dimension20 Fan Friends 😭✋

I really need Dimension20 Fan Friends to talk to. 😭😭

I want someone to talk with about my dying love for Sklonda Gukgak and Cathilda

I want someone to talk with about how I Love The Unsleeping City so bad and how it's currently my favorite D20 season even though I haven't watched all of them yet. 💀

I want someone to talk with about how BAD I LOVE Aelwyn and Adaine's sister relationship! 😭✋

I want someone to talk with about how HOT Garthy O'Brien is! 😭✋

Also like...Sandra Lynn??!! She's AMAZING!!

I want to have long talks with someone about Riz Gukgak and Baron and Kalina and how Murph always manages to make characters that punch me in the gut of my emotions (looking at Riz Gukgak, Kugrash, and Gerard)

I want to talk with someone about my love for Sokhbarr! And Je'er'em'ih! And John Feathers! And how DOPE it was when Sokhbarr summoned a lava mog!

I'm- This show has me in shambles just- CONSTANTLY! It's on my mind 24/7 and I can never get rid of it. Brennan Lee Mulligan and the Intrepid Heroes. 7 people that really know how to ruin my life in the BEST way POSSIBLE. 🥲🥲

I've been watching Dimension20 in Chronological order as well as trying to keep up with the new stuff when it comes out. So yeah- I'm on Mice&Murder rn and it's already gonna be one of my top favorite seasons. I can already just tell. 🥲🥲 it's- Yeah....I have no one to talk about it with though and I'm going onto episode 7 hopefully soon. 🥲🥲

I need more D20 friends. 😭✋

I haven't watched all the seasons so I don't wanna get spoiled from future seasons but I need people to talk with. It hurts to keep all my fangirl thoughts about this show inside. 😭 That's why I started up this blog in the first place tbh. 😭✋

I'm desperate. Help. 💀

I also have Instagram and Discord. 🥴👌

[sunflowerdragonsunny]

Welcome to Dimension 20 in this episode our intrepid heros are taking a real fucking standardized test. Flip over your scantrons.

[isit-allover]

she’s so real for this

(ID: a screenshot from siobhan thompson’s instagram story, a repost from @/dimension20.memes of the simpsons ‘do it for her’ meme edited to have pictures of emily axford)

[easays]

To Ragh; or, On Fatness

Hi! Below is an actual play mini-essay. These are written as part of a personal writing practice of thinking critically about actual play. I hope you find this reading engaging and know that all I write reflects my own interpretations rather than as an official representation/canonization of these shows. Keep reading for my interpretation of Ragh Barkrock's fatness as part of queer representation in Dimension20.

Ragh Barkrock may be one of the most beloved NPCs in Dimension20. It would be easy for Ragh, a bloodrush player good enough to potentially play professionally, to be presented as hypermasculine. In fact, the freshmen year art for Ragh, when he was antagonist rather than beloved ally, showed him in a muscular, inverted Dorito shaped body typical of a jock.

He's, obviously, built, and his cut jaw and cheekbones only bolster that image. As Ragh comes to terms with being gay at the end of Fantasy High, his countenance changes. When we see him again, the new art reflects a chubbier, happier Ragh.

The show aligning weight gain with acceptance and happiness already works against prevailing stereotypes that use weight loss as a quick metaphor for improving yourself and being the "real you." Moreover, connecting Ragh's acceptance of his sexuality with what seems like a larger comfort in his own body is a strong indictment of hypermasculine gay culture. As Gabriel Arana writes, gay men "must reconcile their sense of masculinity with their failure to conform to its heterosexuality." Not doing so has negative mental health outcomes, as Arana points out, and contributes to a culture that devalues fat queer people (see the popular "no fats, no femmes, no Asians" that often is touted in masculine gay subculture).

All of this, I think, is why Ragh's art for Junior Year was particularly impactful for me as a fat queer person. If being a gay man (or half-Orc, in Ragh's case) means having to situate your life in relationship to failing compulsory masculinity, then it seems there is an inherent queer aspect to embracing, celebrating, and showcasing a beloved NPC in an explicitly fat and happy body.

FHJY Ragh art by @caitmayart

Ragh is still strong and he is still fat. His body radiates a commitment to the power of fat bodies to exist in spaces they are often violently unwelcome in, such as gyms. Existing in gyms and sports spaces as fat people means dealing the "impossible standard that rejects nearly all of us" and upholds a diet culture rooted in impossible, Eurocentric and colonial body standards. In TTRPGS or actual plays, there is a unique opportunity to think about how bodies might exist in worlds different from ours, to imagine bodyminds as otherwise. However, as queer critics like Paul Preciado have noted, sci-fi and fantasy representations of cyborgs and other transformative bodies often lean into "fixing" disabled people or moving gender nonconforming bodies more easily towards technologies upholding a normative standard rather than questioning the standard all together.

Spyre is a world that deals with similar issues to ours, even without direct one-to-one correlations, so it, too, is a place where the narrative and artistic choices should be examined in how it helps us interpolate the world the audience resides in. From the Applebees cultish adherence to a deity-based nationalism to the various representations of parental neglect and abuse and every side story in-between, Dimension20's flagship show does not shy away from difficult realities even when recasting them through fantasy. Ragh, as a half-orc gay son of a disabled single mother, then, I see the arc his fat body goes through as meaningful and intertwined with his self-acceptance and queerness. He moves away from the toxic masculinity engineered into his blood rush team to instead pursue coalition comraderie with his friends to the point that he and his mother end up joining a communal living situation with those friends and their parents. Ragh's body expands as his family does, as his ties to community do, and to me, the gift of his fatness is the invitation to expansion that it holds out to us as viewers.

[ekgfiction]

Hi, I'm back?

...Hello everyone ! This is a very much needed update after a long time of not posting... sorry.

First of all, thank you from the bottom of my heart to everyone who sent me a kind message, you are angels and I'm so sorry it took me this long to answer your questions.

For those who don't wish to read a long text that looks too much like a page from my diary, here is the summary. I'm officially back working on OLYMPUS. I don't promise you much, but one update a month for now (not necessarily a game update, but an update on me working on the game...yay?).

My 4 goals for January are a lot of ground:

Finish the character pages

Relearning twine

Update the outdated info on Tumblr / itch.io

Fix prologue (because of changes in the outline)

And for those who are nosy like me and want to understand what I was doing until now, buckle up !

I started this blog in the summer of 2021 and posted the demo for OLYMPUS exactly three years ago, in 2022. At the time, I was living alone in the US, with no life outside of work and this project, which was very dear to me. It was my first "real" creative project I wanted to be serious about. I was also very depressed, being alone and away from friends and family sucked.

When I came back to France in the summer of 2022, I was determined to work on the game again. But then, real adult life happened ! My health issues, that I didn’t understand yet, started to really affect me. I lost two dear family members, saw my best friend become a mother and discovered that being a teacher is a fucking hard job. I was an intern teacher and had a final exam at the end of the school year to be a "real" teacher. So I focused on that, and it was a success. A couple of days after that, I decided to go back to OLYMPUS, and that’s when my laptop broke.

The one I had since I was 18 years old. Which contained not only all my class materials from my first year as a teacher, but also my essays and memories of my college years, and all my writing. And I mean, all my writing. From my very first bad fan fiction on Amour Sucré (or My Candy Love in English) that I wrote when I was a teenager and that I managed to save on my laptop, to all my documents on OLYMPUS, a project which had 5 years at this point. I was devastated.

Moving to the Paris suburbs for work didn’t help. I was finally back living somewhere close to my friends and family, when my job made me move far away again, to one of the most expensive and yet hardest place to work as a teacher in France. Because of the very high rent, I was first in a shared apartment, which was not the greatest. Work was even harder to manage. At the end of 2023, I felt stuck, watching life around me move forward while I barely kept up.

In 2024, things began to shift. I let go of some things and people, but made new friends, joined a DnD group, traveled, and even saw Dimension20 live in London (how crazy is that !). I moved out of my shared apartment into a cozy studio, traveled around France to see my loved ones, and finally got a diagnosis for my autoimmune disease, which helped me understand and manage my health. I also bought a new computer and started writing again !

Not on OLYMPUS though, no. Not at first.

The thought of returning to it felt overwhelming. The asks in my inbox, the followers, and the questions on itch.io made it feel like an impossible task. I convinced myself it was too ambitious of a project for a beginner like me. That no one cared anymore—not even me. It’s better if it stays a a silly little daydream I think about on my way to work.

Then, someone left me a kind comment asking if I was still working on the game. It wasn’t the first time someone asked me that, but something clicked. I thought of the me that posted the demo in 2022, how she felt and how I feel now. Maybe, if I started again now, it would be alright? I feel better, healthier. Instead of seeing the project as a burden, something I didn’t accomplish, a very public failure, I wanted to give it another shot. And if I failed again, so what? At least I'd tried. I don't to give up on this story.

I had to start from scratch of course, because everything but the demo on itch.io was lost. Rewrote the world building and the outline. I haven’t finished everything, but I finally feel like I am at a good place to start working on it again. Like, actually working, writing it. Not just my world building, or the outline. I am sure I made a lot of changes from plans I had before, and will probably change it again at some point. But that’s fine. You're pretty much having the first draft of the game anyway, and it'll be easier to rework things than to start anew every time.

This time, I’m being realistic: I’ve set aside four hours a week to write, balancing work, hobbies, friends, family, and my health. It doesn’t sound like much, but to me it sounds manageable, and adaptable to my work and my health. It means I could update you once a month on things I plan to do and have done.

So, for January ! The plan is to finish the character pages, which should take a week. Then, I want to spend some time on twine to relearn how to use it and eventually redo the prologue to fit the new outline. I also have to update itch.io and tumblr as well. Basically, a lot of ground work to let me start the final week of January with the first work path of chapter 1.

Anyway, if you read everything and reached this far, omg thank you so much and sorry I know it was way too long.

Really, thank you. I can't explain how much you, and all of this means to me. Your likes, comments, asks kept this project alive when I didn't believe in it nor in myself.

Love, Elena

[faejilly]

Tangential 2.0

Or something like that? In the interests of beginning as one would like to go on, I am trying to get back into writing and fandom and remembering to talk to my friends online rather than doomscrolling, so!

#Tangential Tuesday: Semi-organized prompt requests a la @alexanderlightweight's "Writing Wednesday", with the caveat that whatever I come up with may bear very little resemblance to whatever you thought you had in mind, and/or I may refuse a prompt if I don't think I can do it justice. (I will let you know if that happens.)

I am accepting:

Writing Prompts: You may cruise my #prompt requests tag for ideas if you'd like, just be sure to tell me which meme if applicable.

Meta Questions: Unfortunately I do not have a specific tag for anything except Shadowhunters, but I am delighted to flail about lore/worldbuilding questions/headcanons for just about anything you've ever seen me mention. I have lots of thoughts about all sorts of nonsense, promise.

Podfic requests! (one-shots/short!fic please)

Would you like a fanmix? Companion to a specific fic or character/fandom feels are fine; I'll absolutely include a terrible cheesy canva cover and track-list to go with it🎵

If you would like a podfic/fanmix/sequel-fic/etc. for someone else as a surprise/present, I can only do that if they've got a blanket/fanworks permission statement. If you don't care about the surprise part, I will ask and let you know. (For an example, my permission statement is on my AO3 profile.)

Primary Fandoms:

Shadowhunters (TV): I tend to write Malec, but I enjoy the entire extended cast so anything goes.

BioWare: Mass Effect, Dragon Age, Jade Empire

Dimension20: Especially The Unsleeping City & Ricky/Esther

I have done the occasional meta/fic/podfic/fanmix for everything from Heyer Regency Novels to Stranger Things to 7kpp... so if you've got an idea for something else, especially if you've seen me reblog a gifset or ten, feel free to ask!

That is honestly the real goal here, to remind people they can ask, and I'm absolutely including myself in that, I have gotten terrible at it, for which I am very sorry and maybe we can all work on that together?

Reference Links Because I Am A Nerd:

Writing: AO3 / #jilly writes / #not on AO3 / #wip posting Other: Spotify / AO3 pseud / #jilly is bad at music / #jilly talks

[muchanmocha]

Thanks for tagging @atrophiedemotion !

Last song — Pit-a-Pet; extremely addicting, the song and the video and especially both together. I started looping it while drawing Mizi for the collab and it has worked wonders

Favorite color — Light blue, though I'm partial to whites and greys too

Last book — "After Crossdressing and Provoking Long AoTian" (translated webnovel) I know how the title sounds haha but ngl this one turned out to be a real treasure; it manages to avoid a lot of common writing/characterization/plot pitfalls, and it often subverts your expectations in subtle but interesting ways. Love it

Last movie — Ponyo; trying to work my way through the Studio Ghibli movies

Last TV show — Shangri-la Frontier (anime) the protagonist is so weird (/pos) I've been enjoying it!

Sweet/spicy/savory — Sweet!

Last thing I searched online — "keyless remote battery low" haha I wonder if I'll be stranded somewhere bc I can't get into my car...

Current obssession(s) — Alnst has had me in a death grip [waves a hand at this blog and multiple other concurrent Alnst projects], Game Changer and Dimension20, BOTW/TOTK

Looking forward to — the Alnst blind boxes!

Ten people I'd like to know better — (I think some have been tagged already but uh double tagged is fine right? haha) @crysiris @lichenous-lair @k9punkout @mirrorcatcreditcard @aesthetic-watermelon @dulcekek @xintre @cloverandstuff @iri-desky @geospiral (Tumblr refuses to let me ping you ajskdk so if you see you see lol)

[yourheartinyourmouth]

whoever does the captioning for Dimension20 is doing a real bang up job. the captions are so descriptive, especially when people are doing silly voices or miming things with a vocal component. it’s the first time i’ve seen captions that actually captioned what’s happening, and that include the people relying on captions into the jokes and fun. it’s fantastic and i love the crew for this show so much, they’re all doing excellent work.

[figuerockfaeth]

the full dndads crew on dimension20 agenda is so real

they keep appearing on dropout i promise you it is coming

[theobscurepotato]

Dear Yuletide Writer 2024

Dear Yuletide Writer:

First off, thank you! I hope you are as excited about your assignment as I am to receive it. Hopefully the lateness of my Yuletide letter didn’t panic you too much! I enjoy a wide variety of fic, and these are truly some of my favorite canons, so really you can’t go wrong...but if you are looking for a spark of inspiration, I hope this letter provides it.  

General Likes/Dislikes: 

Things I love in a Yuletide fic: M/M, UST, hurt/comfort, banter, happy endings. When I look at the canons I chose, one consistent theme is that they all end on a note of hope, yet the characters I chose within these canons don't always get to experience that. I think, more than anything, what I would love to see is a chance for these characters to catch a glimmer of it for themselves (or for each other, in the canons where I've selected a pairing). 

Things I generally don’t like in a Yuletide fic: AU’s set outside of the canon setting (coffee shop, etc), MPREG, graphic gore, body horror, unhappy endings. That being said, if you have a wild idea that goes against these, these are definitely more loose guidelines than DNW’s. 

___

Coldfire Trilogy

Damien Vryce/Gerald Tarrant Not sure if there will ever be a Yuletide where I don't request CFT fic. I do write frequently for this fandom, but just because I write in a certain style, please don’t restrict yourself to my “usual” topics. For this canon especially, I’m excited to read what you want to write.  I’m starting my millionth re-read of the trilogy, so I am excited to read anything set either during canon, or a post-canon fix-it. Give me all the banter. Give me all the UST. Give me Gerald Tarrant doing something kind (while doing mental gymnastics to justify it to himself as FOR SELFISH REASONS ONLY). Give me Damien forgetting to agonize over what GT is and just enjoying a moment with him (bonus points for him Prophet!fanboying). Give me physical contact of some sort between them, give me the soul bond! I ship these two hard, but I am happy to read pre-slash/gen.

Dimension20: Escape from the Bloodkeep

Leiland (Kraz-Thun) I watched Escape from the Bloodkeep 2 months ago(?) and once I was done, I immediately restarted it and watched the series again. Bloodkeep has some of my favorite Dropout cast characters, but of course it was Matt Mercer’s Leiland who stole the show for me. Someone on Reddit summed up Leiland as “All that dark power and regal lineage turned into a benny hill skit” and in response I can only say, that’s exactly why I’m here. I am happy with both pre and post-canon fic, gen or shippy (and not picky on ship). I’d really love to see Leiland navigate how to be Leiland, and not Kraz-Thun, and getting more comfortable in the “evil” found family he has created. Galfast Hamhead, while not requested, is of course 1000% welcome in any story.  Yoroiden Samurai Troopers (Ronin Warriors)

Shuten/Rajura

This was my first real fandom, well over two decades ago now, and Shuten/Rajura was my first ship. I definitely carried a binder plastered outside with the Masho chibi from Amanda Swiftgold’s page and stuffed to the brim with too much printed fic from Mink’s Yaoi Cake archive. This was a rare ship even then, and I am absolutely fine with gen, and fics that include all the Masho. I would of course love a fix-it fic, but I am open to exploring missing canon scenes also. I would enjoy a fic either from Rajura or Shuten’s perspective that grapples with their encounter out on the tracks, and that sprinkles in some of their shared complex history. Feel free to bend canon details in terms of what the armor enables. 

Uprooted

Solya/Marek These two have taken up residence in my brain and will not leave me alone. They truly enable each other in a way that is absolutely toxic, but I would love a fic that lets them attempt to do better by each other. I would prefer that Marek lives in your fic, whether that means exploring pre-canon events, or a missing scene during their story, and I would definitely enjoy a fix-it (just think of the hurt/comfort possibilities!) where they get to figure out their version of a happy ending. How do they navigate a world where they both wield less power? Would they be able to make their peace enough with that to carve out something new? Or would they chafe against that lack of power, and it would be that struggle that entwines them further?

[verosvault]

🚨SPOILERS FOR FANTASY HIGH JUNIOR YEAR EPISODE 6🚨

Dimension20 "Fantasy High Junior Year"

Episode 6 "Party Politics"

Timestamp: 1:46:15

Video Length: 45sec.

Jawbone is an angel! 😭✋

Jawbone has a giant cup of tea. He's in his cardigan with some workout shorts and fuzzy bunny slippers! 😭✋

Adaine: "Thank you. Thank you." *Takes his tea*

Jawbone: "Oh, Uh-oh! Uh-oh, what do we got going on here?"

Adaine: "There's so much sugar."

Jawbone: "Late night study party, huh?"

Kristen: "A real dark night of the soul."

Jawbone: "Hey now."

Kristen touches Jawbone's neck so hard! 😭✋

Adaine: "Kristen got re-dumped." 😭✋

Jawbone: "My niece can be a piece of work. Come here, kiddo."

Kristen: "She was actually kinda nice about it. I love her."

The awesome caption team: (Brennan cringing) 😭✋

Jawbone: "Maybe when the sun's not out, we go on a nice little ride, maybe get a little picnic, PB&J's out on the grass, sunset."

Kristen: "Who's this man? Who's this angel?" 😭✋

[gorgugplushie]

tumblr user gorgugplushie. how would i become familiar with gorgug. i know he’s from dimension20 but im a little confused… is he from fantasy high ?? unsleeping city ??? sorry if this is dumb

Heelllloo! Yea gorgugs from fantasy high, the unsleeping city takes place in the real world/modern times. Fantasy high is uh... a fantasy realm.

I recommend watching fantasy high free on youtube . I especially recommend watching till episode 2 or 3 of the first season at least. After that if ur still not interested ur free to drop it or watch another d20 season.. The eps are an hr or 2 long tho. Its a dnd actual play if that sounds like something youd like! They all are : )

Theres also the fantasy high webcomic on webtoons which is beginner/newcomer friendly its up to chapter 5 rn i think. But also i HIGHLY recommend trying the original live play. Its very funny and the later seasons (also free on yt i believe) are so. Profoundly beautiful to me. The webcomic does change a lot bc of its format. (Also i personally believe the art style .. isnt the best. Its very webtoony.)

Also you can listen to fantasy high s1 in podcast form on spotify but once again. The video vers are more enganging and attention holding if u have trouble w that.

Have fun w it!

[dumpster-fire-sapphic-failgirl]

Okay, so, due to the nature of Dimension20 and Fantasy High specifically, most of the NPCs live in a space between trope and caricature

Brennan being Brennan (and the Intrepid Heroes being the Intrepid Heroes) those tropes are often turned on their head and the caricature belies something deeper, but as a starting point, they are all larger than life, none more so than Arthur Aguefort himself

Which brings me to Worlds Beyond Number, and the Wizard Sly

Aguefort is a cartoon character. He wouldn’t feel out of place in a sitcom (with or without laugh track)

Sly, in the 30 minutes or so of screen time we’ve got so far, feels like a fully fleshed out, real person. Eccentric but not played for laughs.

and i’ve been thinking that, for the last day or so, there’s this thread between them (something more than “magical old black man”) and i think i landed on it

Time

What is chronomancy but divination turned up to 11?

These two men seek to make the world a better place through their knowledge of time. They can be gruff, but give good advice. They mentor multiple generations of young heroes. They both have red birds that seem near and dear to them.

The more i think about it, it’s not a thread that binds them. They, thus far, seem like two sides of the same coin. The Wizard Sly seems very much to be Arthur Aguefort freed from the hijinks of Solace and burdened with a more grounded world

… you know, with his capacity for shenanigans, i wouldn’t put it past Arthur to have dimension hopped and found himself having to run a long con

it’s like, super unlikely

but…

[howlbear]

I'm going to be so real rn if Ayda doesn't win I may just burn everything down please don't ruin this for me

[Image ID: a promo for Dimension20's "The Pinners circle" pin of the month voting bracket]

[milkmaidovich]

✨Tag Game Tuesday✨

Thanks for the tags @transmickey @metalheadmickey @heymrspatel @such-a-barbarian!

name: kat

age: newly 33

how many hours of sleep did you get last night? 7? Which is pretty good cause the ADHD related insomnia has been real bad recently

which do you use more: tumblr mobile or desktop? Mobile, always. Since I got my very first Tumblr in 2009 it's always been mobile more than anything.

a hobby you’d like to pick up: sewing, I think. Or gardening?

if you were a crayon, what color would you be? Is pthalo green a crayon option? Seems like the crayons have so many colors now

what was your average screen time last week? Shhhhhhhhhhh we don't need to talk about this (am I reading fic AND watching a dimension20 campaign mostly on my phone? Who's to say)

a song you put on every playlist: not a specific song but you will always find a track by Arctic Monkeys on every playlist

something on your bucket list: palace tour of Versailles with my bff

you’re invited to a costume party, what are you dressing up as? OOOH hmmmmmm I could manage a Lost Boys style vampire with little prep if need be. If I had the time, probably Nadja from WWDITS

what show takes up the most space in your brain? It changes based on what I'm into atm (hyperfixation babeeeeyyyyy) but it's The Bear rn with shameless just running in the background, cause it knows I'm coming back lmao

and finally, share something you’re looking forward to: I have a big week in September with my bff and our dnd group! Our first in-person dnd session as an adventuring party, a ren faire, and three concerts in three cities (Arctic Monkeys twice and then Greta Van Fleet)! Last year bff and I spent 5 days in NYC around a HSLOT show so we're making this a September tradition

Tagging @harrowhark-a-vagrant @callivich @bawlbrayker @crossmydna @krystallouhoo & @depressedstressedlemonzest and anyone who wants to play!

[rathockey]

2. 3 movies you have rewatched many times

6. 3 characters that inspire you

3 movies you have rewatched many times

palm springs - a go to movie of mine, i am a SUCK for time loop shenanigans and this one is so fun i looooove it. silly, goofy, heartwarming. i rewatch it constantly

10 things i hate about you - i am a sucker for a rom com and a double sucker for a shakespeare adaptation rom com so this just hits. it also has heath ledger in it who i am in love with so. a W

ferris bueller's day off - this is just a good time all the way through. shenanigans all the way around no real problems at all, and a fun musical number for no reason. 10/10

3 characters that inspire you

Bobby Nash - this is a new one! i've recommitted myself to stop drinking and well. quite frankly there just are not a lot of characters that dont drink in media. But they do such a good job showing his struggles that it definitely inspires me and i will absolutely cling to that

okay i'm bringing it back around to ferris bueller bc honestly i wish i could have that level of chill and creativity about life so yeah. Ferris Bueller inspires me to just fucking enjoy life

wildly out of left field but - Pete Conlan aka Pete the Plug from Dimension20 (a dnd show) who is canonically a trans guy and was. instrumental in me figuring out I was a guy. Inspired me to go all in on my transition and made me really excited about it!

send me a number!