#are you kidding me erika ishii??????

[tsuki-in-faerun]

K TANAKA FOR-FUCKING-EVER

[samcat18]

Congrats to erika ishii for rolling the new highest roll on dimension 20, a

71

I am so impressed 🤣🤣🤣

[mongeese]

Listen. I was a Harry Potter kid. I read those books over and over again for probably a decade. I get it, okay? But any and all virtues that people ascribe to them are true of countless other children's book series. Many of which are less intensely bigoted. Obviously, the fact that Harry Potter became so insanely popular is indicative of something in them, whether that be engaging characters, entertaining worldbuilding, whatever, so I won't say that they're totally bad with no redeeming qualities. But they simply aren't that unique! Stop saying that they're groundbreaking or complex for whatever reason! They aren't! And like, if you have the books and want to keep rereading them or whatever I'm not gonna tell you to stop, you aren't hurting anyone. But I am begging people to recognize that the reason they like them is nostalgia, and that they are not the fucking holy grail of fantasy or children's writing. You want kids books which tackle the way adults can be wrong and hurtful and ignorant? Read A Series of Unfortunate Events. You want the escapism of being whisked off to an extraordinary world underneath this one? Read Percy Jackson. You want magical boarding school? Read A Wizard of Earthsea. There are so many other series to choose from stop fucking praising JKR her books aren't that impressive

[goblin-king-jay]

i recently rewatched all of the unsleeping city and am now onto unsleeping city chapter 2, and you know what

i used to think of cody as a joke, the dorky sword kid, but i forgot how absolutely fucking real he was

if i had been the person i wanted to be when i was a teenager, i would've ABSOLUTELY been a cringey overenthusiastic goth kid like cody walsh is.

i'm on episode 2, where pete turns the devil that cody sold his soul to (very quickly and willingly lmao) into a chest tattoo for him, and murph is like, "cody never smiles and so he's trying SO HARD not to smile right now". cody tries to be SO CHILL about the fact that he just found out less than 24 hours ago that MAGIC IS REAL and DEVILS ARE REAL and he meets these awesome fucking adults, one of whom takes the devil he sold his soul to (again, he offered his soul to this devil immediately) and turns it into a CHEST TATTOO with MAGIC.

I would be fucking LOSING MY GODDAMN MIND if that happened to me as a senior in high school. Cody, and Murph by extension, truly is all of us fuckin nerdy kids from high school who wanted to swing swords around and wear spiked collars and (bleem tim curry voice) CHAIN WALLETS and just like

IMAGINE if you were cody walsh!!! I would be vibrating out of my fucking SKIN by then. I would want to hug Pete and never let go.

"no one has ever been this happy. this is just fucking -- normal stuff --" for you guys, he probably meant to say, because he's so overwhelmed by these 2 grown-ups he just met who like, give a shit and want to know what his deal is and help him for some reason?!? they don't even want anything from him they just??? genuinely want to help him out of the fucking goodness of their hearts???

that would have turned me religious on the SPOT I would believe in magic and the power of friendship more than ANYONE like goddamn. I would be like k / dream / karen tanaka (the cutest fuckin name btw erika ishii ilu) like, trying to have a dark aesthetic but right below the surface i would be squealing like a fangirl in a puffy pink dress.

ANYWAY cody is trying to be SO CHILL around these badass adults who are very blasé and normal about this whole magic thing so he's trying to match their energy and be chill

and ally is laughing their ass off, loving murph pulling faces like he's trying so hard to not smile it's like his face is spasming, but then they get into character and take him SO seriously and when cody says thank you Pete is just like, "for sure man i got you."

i love ally so gd much for that, like. because now i can also see the situation from pete's perspective of this fucking edgelord kid who you just want to ruffle his hair or something but he's SO CHUFFED because MAGIC IS FUCKING REAL but he matches cody's energy and is just like for sure dude, we're very cool and chill about this because bros don't show emotion or whatever lmao. it's so cute I love them and can't wait to re-experience how their friendship evolves over the season.

anyway if you got this far thank you for reading, I wrote this while high and just felt screaming about cody walsh.

[gluzzo]

Brennan Lee Mulligan during the fireside chat for The Wizard, The Witch, and The Wild One - Episode 9

[Image ID:

Screenshots of excerpts from the transcript of the Worlds Beyond Number podcast’s fireside chat on The Wizard, The Witch, and The Wild One - Episode 9.

Brennan Lee Mulligan: And, to me, that describes so many heartbreaking situations, where something deep and true does come, like- the number one belief I have, in terms of like, whatever my secular morality is— is that there's a weird attitude in some parts of our culture, that like, impulses are sinful, and morality is like a structure?

Aabria Iyengar: YES!

Brennan Lee Mulligan: And that bullshit. Moral impulses are incredibly real. Nobody needs to explain what's wrong with-think of the first age you are, where someone's mean to another kid, or an animal, and something in you goes, "Wrong!!" And that's primal.

[…]

Brennan Lee Mulligan: And like it's-it's brutal! It's very Imperial. It's like this oppressive weight, from a very smart opponent, who is convincing themselves. Like, the reason the arguments have that urgency, is that Suvi is also self-indoctrinating, and it's part of that thing that comes back up. And I think the big, sinister part of, of….. The idea of principle. Like, what, in principle, is different from a demon being bound in a circle of salt, and what you saw happening to Naram out under the derrick. This is-I don't have time to explain this in this talk back. I have issues with the philosophic concept of principle, point blank.

[…]

Brennan Lee Mulligan: Yes. And I think that the idea of principle, from-especially to a wizard, who is all about organization, taxonomy, patterns, and systems-principle is this idea that, maybe is built on sand, right?

Aabria lyengar: Yeah.

Brennan Lee Mulligan: When we think about "what are your principles," we use it as a synonym for being a good person. "Are you principled?" But the idea of principle being like, maxims, axioms, "What are some rules that I can ALWAYS follow?" And speaking of them, like, if you go back to Aristotle's Golden Mean, maybe living by principles produces bizarre, immoral edge cases.

[…]

Brennan Lee Mulligan: So it's this idea of, like-but it's unexamined by Suvi in that moment, and the reason it's unexamined, is because I think it's one of the main tools of the indoctrination of the Empire. What have you already accepted? Right? I see this in ethical discourse all the time, which is why whataboutism is so powerful, in modern philosophical discourse, is people go like, "Okay. You've made a moral point. You've made a call to action. You've said, 'we need to do something to make the world better.' So what I'm going to do is find some other moral failing of yours, hold it up in front of you and say, 'but you did this bad thing like this,' or this other situation occurred that was similar to this, where you did not act. So wouldn't you in fact, be a hypocrite by acting or not acting in a similar way this time?'''

Brennan Lee Mulligan: Which sounds, when you see it in the world, like sound moral reasoning, and it's garbage.

Taylor Moore: [Laughs]

Brennan Lee Mulligan: Because it's basically saying, like, "Instead of helping, why don't you be consistent?" And it's like-

[…]

Brennan Lee Mulligan: It's like stupid. What the fuck is the point of consistency? Like principle as a measurement of consistency, and the Fox's whole deal would be like, "Yeah, yesterday I did something bad and today I'm going to do something good because I want to." That's all.

Erika Ishii: Yeah.

Brennan Lee Mulligan: And someone would be like, "You're a hypocrite." And he'd be like, "Okay! I'm gonna get some fish slurry."

End ID.]

[erasedcitizen2]

ALRIGHT TUMBLR I HAVE FINISHED DRAGON AGE THE VEILGUARD

AND SO I RETURN

and here are my thoughts under the cut, WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS so don't click unless you're ready for that.

messy AND VERY LONG thoughts on the game in no particular order here we go:

y'all i am so torn about this game. i don't love it. i REALLY wanted to love it. I went in with a truly open mind and honestly pretty damn hyped, nothing i had seen before release had managed to taint my opinion going into this. but i did not love veilguard. I didn't necessarily HATE it either, but it's the type of game i really am not sure if i'll ever be able to bring myself to replay.

For those interested it took me roughly 90 hours of playtime to finish the game (have not counted me playing the character creator for 4 hours into those 90 hours lol... lmao....). I have done every quest (except for 1 very minor side quest when at the end i felt fucking DONE), I have explored not 100% of every area but like 85-90% of all statues and chests and shit found in all areas. And I have 92% of achievements in that first playthrough. So I was fairly thorough cause I could tell I might never touch this game again but I'm not a completionist.

My Rook is named Valeria de Riva and she's an elven rogue and an antivan crow. And I love her face to bits she's short and adorable, those 4 hours in character creator was worth it lmao but oh boy do i regret the voice I picked. i'm sorry but Erika Ishii's voice acting did NOT click for me in this, the delivery felt terrible 85% of the time. but I have that problem with inquisition too so whatever.

I also had headcanoned that Valeria de Riva was originally born as a slave in Tevinter, and bought by the Antivan Crows as a kid. As we've been told since origins that the crows buy kids (see Zevran). BIG FUCKING MISTAKE to make headcanons like this for veilguard. nothing about Rooks antivan crow intro contradicts this kind of headcanon but the game will randomly spring information about your character on you depending on background you've picked, Rook isn't a blank slate but you also don't get to know what character you're fully playing from the start which annoys me.

The antivan crows have also imo been extremely.... idk?? softened?? white washed???? and that frustrates me a lot as someone who wanted to play a character that was a little bit at war with the faction they were from. It annoys me that the antivan crows are now just freedom fighters and heroes according to the narrative and you have no chance to ever question how they do things. it also feels like a weird thing to say but there is too little racism in this game. by which i mean we finally get to see Tevinter and we don't really ever get to see how elves are treated within Tevinter. The only slaves we ever see are the mustache twirling evil venatori sitting on some poor dudes in that one scene.

which bring me to the fact that THERE ARE NO INTERESTING VILLAINS IN THIS GAME. none. (Besides Solas, depending on if you see him as a villain or not I guess.) everyone is just evil and crazy. I'd have loved Elgar'nan actually as a villain, and I'm fine with him (and Ghilan'nain) specifically being evil and crazy, he does come across as imposing and scary to me and a better villain than corphypants. BUT SINCE EVERY FACTION WE FIGHT AGAINST IS JUST CRAZY AND EVIL, it kinda falls flat to me. I'd have liked to see more people side with the gods for more ambiguous or misguided reasons I guess, like maybe the elves?

I wanted more conflict and tension between the races of thedas from the fact that the elven gods are the ones causing all this. some consequences from the narrative? but there's nothing like that.

the writing is in a lot of places at best bland and at worst... bad. i love how much we get to interact with our companions in the lighthouse and that they have their own relationships and conversations, but quantity does not beat quality. I'd love this system of having conversations if the companions and the romances were more interesting. A lot of the companions feel bland to me cause they start out mostly perfect from the get go, there's not a lot of room for character growth or you know... any form of character arc?

I romanced Taash and it's an alright romance, I like Taash. and I guess the reason I like them is cause they are one of the few companions that aren't perfect and I've already seen Discourse about hating them for it. I guess sometimes they are A Little Bit Difficult??? They're not sure who they are at the beginning and isn't great at expressing themselves, they have very short responses and I felt at least in the romance path they learned to get a little bit better at this with Rook. But I really wish this could've been expanded on MORE, their problems with dealing with their emotions are just something they mention to Rook but it's not really shown.

AND ALSO... despite the game being more 'handcrafted' with 'less filler'.... I STILL think it has too much fucking filler and boring quests??? the combat was fun in the beginning but overstayed its welcome imo.

BUT AFTER ALL THIS DISAPPOINTMENT.... I still leave the game with an alright feeling I guess cause what I DID ENJOY OF THE GAME WAS EVERYTHING THAT HAD TO DO WITH SOLAS. INCLUDING THE ENDING THAT I GOT. I think they nailed how to do him in this game, and his dynamic with rook, and the lore around him and the ancient elves and the titans etc etc. I'm extremely satisfied with the happy solavellan ending I got and it felt fucking good to have the three important women in his life (lmao) convince him to redeem himself. and that he didn't get an easy way out, like dying for that redemption.

SO THIS IS THE FIRST TIME I THINK I'VE EVER EXPERIENCED MOSTLY KINDA DISLIKING A GAME/FINDING A GAME BLAND BUT LOVING THE ENDING???? usually it's the other way around with bioware games??? so... yeah.

[unsleepingtales]

Finale Time!!! This is a LONG one containing many emotions. Thank you for bearing with me through all of these reaction posts lol. See you next season. <3

Ooh only episode of the season to have the content warning in the episode not just in the description

They all look so cool!!

Return of stupendous stoats :)

Siobhan <3

The time you have left is such an ominous way to put that thanks!

Yayyyyyy

That’s just gonna be an existential crisis every time they say it

This is fun. They’re besties

Brennan is really hitting the murder bits

This is old Tutu coming back lol

Actually???

This radio bit is unhinged and I love it

I love her

Oh fuck shit pants motherfuck

He’s leaning SO hard into the contrast between the desire for peace and the murderous bloodlust

I do not believe her. I don’t think that’s how people work.

DAMN. That impression is actually really good

I love how you can see the astonishment go from Aabria-as-Tara being impressed to all of them legitimately being impressed

He said the name of the thinggggg

Okay but actually Brennan saying “that’s a pro” probably meant So much to jwc because he’s such a fan of D20 and I’m emotional thinking about it

I have lost track of what’s happening. I’m keeping up with what’s important! But the bits and jokes are so simultaneously interwoven and distracting that I am a bit lost.

(Group laughs at this motivational speech turned threat)

Oh good lord

Is that the map?

Real Pinocchio pole dancing on his nose vibes

DO THEY HAVE THE FORCE???

Yeah it makes sense that if the stoats have magic the humans do too. Or maybe this is Phoebe from inside Wenabocker.

ONE HUNDRED FEET???

The least energetic singing of grease 😂

Oh god

He’s hot 😭

Why did they have to make Wenabocker hot guys.

HELLO?????

What the fuck bitch

Oh my god that is the worst thing I have ever seen.

Well. He’s not hot anymore.

Carlos 😭

Oh my god. Aabria warned us not to eat dinner during the show but jesus

Awww the mini upgrades <3

That’s so sick actually

Brennan is pulling no punches for the finale

Humans don’t have a dick bone but they’re about to! (group laughs at the threat of dick bone violence) Do you have a dick bone inside you? Would you like to??

Oh god Brennan

What does that mean. Aabria. Aabria what does that mean.

Okay. Okay.

There are seams in the mini that remind me of MeatWolf. Does this fucking thing do the ship of theseus thing too. Because I will lose my goddamn mind.

The stroke vibes ARE so real right now Aabria you’re so correct.

I’m so stressed

LUKAS’S HAT

FIFTY DAMAGE BITCH

The art team is knocking it out of the fucking park with the spell effects

Oh right. Guns.

Oh god ouch.

Nice

Aaaaaaaaaaaaa

HAPPY BIRTHDAY?????

Please

Oh no oh no oh no

The only thought you’ve ever had

JESUS

Aabria came for pvp and she is getting it

What the fuck

I’m

upset

About this

HOW is he still up tbh

Oh god

Oh thank god but oh no

The most hollowed out a person has ever been. Oh my god

This is soul crushing.

Aabriaaaaaaaa

Uh oh!

Izzy I think you’re on the right track with the MeatWolf comparison. The mini having seams makes me nervous

Sorry I think Brennan not being able to perform that is actually gonna haunt me more than if he had. Here is this brilliant actor and improviser whom I admire so much and even he is so troubled by this that he cannot fathom how to portray it.

This is fine

Siobhan you’re brilliant actually

Get roasted

Aaaaaaaaa

Why would you provoke him

WHAT

Okay but that bullet is not as small as they’re miming. A bullet from that gun is like the size of a stoat’s hand, minimum

Erika Ishii your mind <3

ONE HUNDRED AND NINE DAMAGE TO. THE GROUND.

Hm. Troubling.

Oh damn okay.

Why the ny accent lmao

Noooooooooooo

Rules lawyers <3

Send the kids to camp!

Ey

Lair action????

Jasper that was the funniest thing I’ve seen in my goddamn life

This fucking map I’m losing it

This is all so upsetting Izzy you’re right.

Fucking shitting fuck Siobhan you’re right.

Siobhan just smiling sadly at Brennan. Augh.

This is all so deeply bad.

Yeah boiiiiii

Aabria asking are you okay. Babe what do you think??

Holy SHIT Rashawn

So many numbers

It would be completely fine if we did crack right now :)

Holy fucking shit what the fuck oh my god he’ll cook in forty minutes oh my god Rashawn Nadine Scott you’re incredible

I would believe that she can use a human gun

OH she’s actually letting her shoot a human gun that’s wild

ANOTHER ONE?

Erika is gonna cry

The dimensional dome I don’t think I’ve ever heard that but I love it so much

This is fucking incredible

WHAT

Viola just fucking killed two humans in one turn and hasn’t even taken her bonus action yet

You ARE so hot.

Ooh Aabria finally gets to do the remaining hit point reveal

YES BITCH KILL THEM ALL

The little sticking of the post it to her forehead <3

(Group applauds Rashawn as they should)

Erika legitimately is near tears god

Oh god

Oh

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Oh no

Uh oh?

Uh oh

UH OH

The suicidal ideation is real with this one folks. This is. Bad!

Oh FUCK

Brennan I’m gonna cry

Joining Erika and Jasper in the near tears club

“It’s not obligation. It’s believing that you can put your head up, and look for a day where you won’t be so tired anymore.”

I’ll be honest, I fully paused the episode and cried for a few minutes after that line. I don’t talk about my mental health a ton on here because this is a d&d blog. But that really hit me so hard.

Okay. Going back to rewatch the couple minutes preceding. We’re gonna finish the episode and it’s gonna be fine.

Everyone’s just fucking recovering from that Jesus.

It actually was his birthday??

Okay. Okay okay.

I do not have immense faith in the humans tbh but ok

Jasper

Jasper please

Ooh ok

The WORLD?

Oh good god okay. There’s no way that could go wrong. Yeah okay.

They’re just. Giving it to them? Ok! Cool!

Awww

Aaaaaaaaaa

Sobbing actually

Eyyyyyyyy ok not sobbing anymore

Back in her ho days! Do that lil dance you do!

Blood for the blood gods 😭

Hell yeah Ava. Fix the system.

Hell yeah baby

What

Just straight up. Incredible

(Cast loses it over Jaysohn the Sport Stoat)

THIRTY ONE

They go to the fucking Olympics

BRIGHTER THAN THE SUN SWIFTER THAN THE WIND

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

What a fantastic season. Aabria, thank you for being such an incredible GM. You have once again blown me away. <3

[sugaldean]

Watching Erika Ishii play and talk just gives me hope constantly.

Like yeah they are pushover kids that can grow up to be a bit tougher and not let other step on you.

You can be grow in confidence

You can learn to tame you self criticism into something a bit more healthy.

An yet at the same time you can have those real issues and not have them figure out and still do amazing things.

I'm still young, I can still grow and yeah misfits and Magic was awesome to watch. And yeah some of the things they all said especially hurt me because it was like "well here is a big school of pushovers" and I had to sit a bit and be like "you're working in your own rhythm, you're getting better, you are a people pleaser but they are also all 7 years older than you and have more things figure out IT'S Okay"

But yeah Erika Ishii is probably going up there on the people I'm finding inspiring and who help me so much.

Dropout TV really is setting up amazing people who are building my mental health and confidence so thank you to all of them.

And thank you Aabria for such an amazing season, I knew you were a genius after Burrow's End but discovering an other part of you genius is amazing.

[kdinjenzen]

kdin I know you're like chetney's #1 fan and also like laudna, but what are your thoughts on the rest of the bells hells + dorian?

Chetney is 100% my fav, and as much as I wanna say "BECAUSE HE'S A WEREWOLF", it was actually waaaaay before that when I was like "yeah, no, he's the fav for me."

I haven't seen the one-shot where he was originally introduced, so Campaign 3 was the first time I was introduced to him.

Travis just gets SO into it with Chet that it's way too fun to watch. Especially as a fellow voice actor, seeing Travis just maintain Chet's energy throughout the entire session - dropping it the least frequently of the cast - really is just something really fun to experience.

Plus Chet is just... he's a little WEIRDO but he's also super honest.

"YOU DON'T EVEN KNOW ME! I COULD BE ARMED TO THE TEETH!" "...are you armed to the teeth?" "Yes!"

First of all, hilarious and also like he's RIGHT they just kinda blindly trusted him for no reason and he's like "bruh, you guys gotta be more careful"

And also FORESHADOWING! He IS armed to the teeth... LITERALLY!

And then when his werewolf form gets revealed to the rest of the party he just:

I won't lie. There are some things that I haven't told you yet, but I'm trusting you more, and I have selfish desires. There are people that need to die, and things that need to be righted, but that's down the road.

MAN, THAT FUCKS ME UP IN A LOTTA WAYS AND I LOVE IT.

And don't even get me STARTED on when Dorian asked if Chet had friends and he replied "I do now..."

These, the constant screaming of "BALLS!", and much more are why Chet has maintained being my fav since I first was introduced to him.

THAT SAID!

Laudna and FCG were my original two favs, and we are currently up to episode 36 (paused right at the ROLL FOR INITIATIVE part before bed last night) and I am ALL KINDS of not okay about SO MUCH.

As time has gone on, I got pretty attached to them all and my "order of favorites" has shifted around.

Chet is still #1 with Laudna being #2.

Orym (accompanied by the many heartfelt moments of his portrayal by Liam) have brought him up to tie with Laudna in the #2 slot.

FCG used to be my #3, but I feel like Fearne has swapped with him. So FCG is #4 and Fearne is #3.

Imogen is #5 on my list and is a great constant for the group. The thing I really appreciate about her, especially as someone who has followed Laura's career since I was a kid and took my very first VO class EVER with her when I was 14, is the fact that she's playing really close to her natural voice for this character which - honestly - I don't hear much in a lot of the stuff Laura is cast for. It's really nice!

I feel bad saying Ashton is my #6 on the list, he's a fun character, he's got a lot of stuff going on and he's super interesting and I love his agency but he's just not a character type I tend to enjoy much. That said, I appreciate him a lot.

Additional Temporary Party Members (That I've Met) Time!:

I MISS DORIAN SO MUCH HE WAS SO GREAT!!! I love that Orym and him are keeping in touch using the stones because those little messages give me LIFE!

And I really really REALLY loved Erika Ishii as Yu/Dusk. Like Erika RULES and they are legit one of my favorite people ever and I'm blessed to have been able to chat with them as many times as I have and their energy IN GENERAL is so fucking RAD and gets me hype - so Yu/Dusk will remain a favorite forever for these reasons and many many more.

[tracichee]

I'm in the last act of the KINDLING audiobook, and I've been absolutely floored by the narrators, performing their own characters as well as each other, making for this intricate, seamless tapestry of voices, handing off the story to each other, one by one by one.

CATHERINE HO anchors the story in Leum's voice, as curt and grumpy as I always imagined her. She's a flawless introduction to the kindling world, invoking all the harshness of it, the jadedness, the frustration, the complication and beauty.

JEANNE SYQUIA plays our general, Amity, to perfection. That haughtiness! That power! (That denial.) Jeanne moves Amity effortlessly between the calculating leader and the frail human and always lands, somehow in both. Her last chapter? LITERAL CHILLS. I'd follow her into battle any day.

As Ket, AMIELYNN ABELLERA *gets* the rhythms of these ghost narrators, *gets* their pacing and musicality--her readings feel exactly the way the narration always felt in my head. (Plus, she takes the lead in voicing Tana, the girl who brought the kindlings together, whose seriousness and determination and brightness she brings to life so well.)

I already shouted out JOY OSMANSKI for knocking me out with a particular excerpt from a particular character, but her delivery of Emara is equally impressive. Thanks to Joy, Emara's chapters are always a party, bubbling over with humor and life.

ALLISON HIROTO's performance as Ben is as delicate as the character is, evoking the same lightness in her voice that Ben has on her feet. I'm in love with the way her reading pulls to the forefront Ben's contradictions and fragility: a killer desperate not to be a killer; a warrior in search of perfection; a fallible, terrified kid.

ERIKA ISHII was our first and only choice for Kanver, and I'm so thrilled they were available! They so perfectly capture Kanver's softness, their dreaminess, and, at the same time, their quiet clear-eyed criticism. Listening to Erika read Kanver *feels* like being in Kanver's head--drifting, drifting, always drawn toward beauty in what can be such an ugly world.

Siddie would be an easy character to dismiss as something of a child, or a clown, but FERDELLE CAPISTRANO makes it impossible to write her off. In her hands, Siddie is naive and stubborn and, yes, childish, but she's also intelligent, diligent, empathetic, and her last chapter, where she at last comprehends the reality of being a kindling, brought me to tears.

Thank you so much to HarperAudio, this incredible cast, and director RAMON DE OCAMPO for bringing such energy and nuance and *life* to these characters and to this story. It's been a pleasure and an honor hearing you read these words!

[Video description: Various shots of jagged mountains and high vistas, moving from sunrise toward sunset, overlaid with a twangy guitar soundtrack and a female voice reading the text, "HarperAudio presents KINDLING by Traci Chee" and "Ahead of you, that vast and jagged border looms--sharp, immense, severe. The fortresses of gods or the gods themselves, at the tail end of summer and still capped with snow. The Candiveras are all that stand between you and the kingdom of Ifrine beyond--the rest of the world beyond. You pause. You kneel. Scratch your dog behind the ears and adjust the tiny silver medal you wear around your neck. If you had to take one last look at your country, you couldn't ask for a better view than this." and one last shot of a horse and rider meandering off into the sunset with the text, "Performed by Catherine Ho, Jeanne Syquia, Amielynn Abellera, Joy Osmanski, Allison Hiroto, Erika Ishii, Ferdelle Capistrano; Directed by Ramon de Ocampo; audiobook available now."]

[utilitycaster]

I never got into D20 because I really didn't like Fantasy High, but I started Neverafter and I really like it so far. What non Fantasy High campaigns would you recommend?

Depends on what you're into! I've done my best but also given you an overview of all D20 campaigns in case you want to browse, and also in a possibly futile attempt to stave off people recommending things that I would not recommend in the notes which usually happens with D20 recs.

Recommended For You(Based on the fact you are liking Neverafter and did not like Fantasy High)

A Crown of Candy is a full-length campaign with the same cast as Neverafter (often referred to as the Intrepid Heroes Cast) that is, essentially, what if Game of Thrones, but everyone is food. It's very good and it's the first season where they switched up the earlier RP/Combat alternating rhythm, and they have never looked back (thankfully)

Escape from the Bloodkeep is their first sidequest, so it's short and sweet. Premise is "What if the villains of LOTR were the main characters, and also Sauron just fucking died". Notable for Matt Mercer playing When The Gay Baristas Get Mean Witch-King of Angmar and Erika Ishii playing Wine Mom Shelob but the whole cast is incredible.

If you like horror-inflected games or Dracula Daily, Coffin Run is REALLY good and is also a sidequest. Jasmine Bhullar is a fantastic guest DM, the set design is stunning, and Zac Oyama is unbelievably funny in this one.

A Court of Fey and Flowers was extremely popular on Tumblr a few months ago and for good reason. Feywild Regency Romance vibes. A hack of Good Society was used but it was mostly D&D. My favorite Aabria DM-ing yet. Mid-length season (longer than Bloodkeep/Coffin Run, shorter than A Crown of Candy or what Neverafter will be.)

The Unsleeping City is also a full-length campaign with two seasons. Urban Fantasy set in modern day New York City, some of my favorite characters of the Intrepid Heroes Cast, but the first season does suffer from alternating RP/Combat. The second season is in my opinion much stronger and I like the two characters who switched, but the first season is still pretty good.

Maybe?

Pirates of Leviathan. It takes place in the same world as Fantasy High but it's mostly adult characters. It was filmed during early lockdown, remotely, which means the entire cast is people they trusted to be very comfortable with D&D, and also meant they could actually get Matt, Marisha, B. Dave Walters, Krystina Arielle, Aabria, and Carlos Luna to coordinate schedules. It's a short season and it's very fun.

Probably not your thing because they are teen-centric/too close to Fantasy High

Obviously you said fantasy high wasn't your thing. I do think season 2, their only ever live season, was much, much stronger than the first season (which had plenty of growing pains) and it takes place outside of the school (it's spring break and they're on a quest) so if your issue was specifically the format of RP/Combat or being in a high school, and not that it was teen characters (valid to not want) then skipping to that one might be fine, but if the issue was the characters then skip this too.

The Seven is also in the Fantasy High setting, also with teen characters, though they also are on a quest outside the school.

Misfits and Magic is a (trans-inclusive) Harry Potter-influenced game run in Kids on Brooms. Fun and done well, but I'll admit I'm just kind of too over HP to be that into it and it is also about teens again.

Shriek Week is in a dating sim game designed and run by Gabe Hicks. Fun and silly and short and sweet, again with a great cast, but not remotely like Neverafter and if you're not interested in a school/young adult setting (the characters are seniors in college) then skip.

Not my faves, personally

I know a lot of people like Mice & Murder and again, the cast is great, but the low magic and the mystery run in D&D just doesn't do it for me; I do like a British manor mystery even, but D&D is just. it's not the right system. Everyone's a fucking low-level rogue. There's almost no combat. I do always love Rekha though and I want to see Sam Reich play D&D again.

Tiny Heist - the monologues I just posted aside, the premise just didn't work for me, even though, as always, the cast is great. I just think that if you are playing D&D and the cast is mostly rogues and fighters and you're like level 3, you should really just probably run a different system.

I like this one but I truly have no idea when to recommend it

Starstruck Odyssey: I like Starstruck Odyssey a lot! It's also in a different system (SW5e) and it's in a very different space opera setting, and it's truly a ridiculous and convoluted plot even for Brennan, so it's one of those things where it's like, if you are down with all those things please go ahead! But it's not the season I'd spring on a newcomer unless I knew they loved space opera or labyrinthine plots or SW5e.

[dimension20quotes]

[Image 1 description: over the Erika Ishii as Ava’s introductory screen card, the quote written reads “'Kids, Jaysohn, you look at me! You look at me! You jump off another thing while I am around and I swear to God! Emotional damage!’ - Burrow's End, Episode 1” in a white font color]

[Image 2 description: over the Dimension 20 logo card, the quote written reads “’Kids, Jaysohn, you look at me! You look at me! You jump off another thing while I am around and I swear to God! Emotional damage!’ - Burrow's End, Episode 1” in a pale blue font color]

All quotes from Burrow's End, Episode 1

[bored-trans-orchidsexual]

Also like, we don't *know* there are no trans/hebrew people involved in the creation of the show, do we? Or do people really assume the players and DM are the only ones deeply involved in the creation of the show?

Needing to out the genders and ethnicities of an entire crew to please the internet sure sounds a lot more racist than just doing a show taking down HP without an affirmative-action level casting a trans person or hebrew person only to fill an arbitrary quota. ...I Typed before I remembered ERIKA ISHII is on the fucking cast are you *kidding me* their character literally transitions to nonbinary in the show god I need to wake up before I respond to shit

NON-BINARY PEOPLE ARE TRANS DAMNIT I'm sorry it doesn't slot into the clean "man become woman" or "woman become man" but my fucking god if you can't figure that shit out you're closer to JKR's mindest than you think

i think it's strange that D20 fans are/were upset that no trans women were involved in the making of MisMag because JKR is a TERF when JKR's primary targets were, for the longest time, AFAB trans people. that's where all this bullshit started. it was her fake concern for poor beautiful young women mutilating their bodies & taking evil hormones & becoming nasty ugly men.

I saw someone say the show needed a trans woman or a Jew. So people don't even think JKR harms AFAB trans and intersex people to the extent she does Jews with the goblins in her book and denying non-Jewish elements of the Holocaust.

[goatsghost]

kinda sad about the departure of gandy dancer, but ABSOLUTELY ECSTATIC about the introduction of lulu kageyama

[natjennie]

I really want to get into dimension 20 and most people recommend starting with fantasy high but what’s your recommendation !?

this is a great question! when I started watching dimension 20, only fantasy high even existed, I finished it about a month before escape from the bloodkeep came out. so I only really have the experience of watching all the seasons chronologically. if you don't have access to dropout, fantasy high is a really smart place to start, because I believe all of freshman year and some of sophomore year is on youtube? someone correct me if that's wrong.

so tldr: fantasy high is probably the most logical and satisfying place to start, but there are lots of other stories that might catch your interest in different ways, so I've detailed that below the cut

it depends on your genre preferences and if you vibe with the cast of the seasons too.

fantasy high, sophomore year, pirates of leviathan, and the seven all exist in the same universe which is sort of modern fantasy? d&d races, fighting dragons and golems, but the characters have cell phones. that kind of vibe.

escape from the bloodkeep is a parody of lord of the rings but from the villains' point of view, which is really fun, high dark fantasy that they don't take super seriously.

the unsleeping city as well as the unsleeping city chapter 2 take place in new york in which there exists a parallel magical version of new york, so your characters include a hairdresser and a firefighter instead of like, halfling wizards.

tiny heist is a "the borrowers" style robbery/heist/oceans 11 deal with tiny people and living toys and bugs and stuff, that's got the mcelroy brothers and their dad in it if that intrigues you.

a crown of candy is game of thrones but all the people are food-inspired.

similarly, mice and murder is clue/a murder mystery with anthropomorphic animal people.

misfits and magic is a super short miniseries that is a direct satire of the harry potter universe full of diversity and commentary.

and I belieeevee that's all of them. so fantasy high, unsleeping city, and a crown of candy are the more substantial main seasons with the original cast, they're a little longer season-wise. bloodkeep, tiny heist, pirates of leviathan, mice and murder, misfits and magic and most recently just starting, the seven, are shorter, mostly self-contained stories if you're looking for something with less commitment.

there are lots of clips and the beginning episodes of seasons on youtube if you aren't confident enough in your interest to invest in dropout, which is the streaming platform all of dimension 20 and the rest of collegehumor's content is on if you don't know, so those might help you narrow down which season grabs you.

they are all dungeons and dragons fifth edition, dm'd by brennan lee mulligan with the exception of misfits and magic which uses the "kids on brooms" system, is gm'd by aabria iyengar, and features brennan as a player instead.

if you can't really narrow it down by genre or universe, it might be useful to look at the guest casts to see if anyone there jumps out at you as someone you really love, the mcelroys in tiny heist, erika ishii is in numerous seasons they're amazing, matt mercer, amy vorpahl, rehka shankar, lily du, a bunch of other collegehumor folks, there's been a ton of people.

so yeah I think ultimately, fantasy high is a smart place to start and work chronologically. I believe a crown of candy was maybe the most "popular" season, if not, it was at least the most rife with engagement, but other than that I think it's really up to what story resonates with you or what universe you find interesting!

[simplyirenic]

hi hello my friend made me watch escape from the bloodkeep and now I’m obsessed with dimension 20, what should I watch next?

YESSSSS HI HELLO i am so glad you enjoyed escape from the bloodkeep, welcome to d20 hell! i am going to use your ask as an excuse to dump this primer i’ve been working on for the last few weeks. sorry about that

There are two categories of D20 campaigns: main quests and side quests! Main quests are campaigns which feature the main cast (Zac Oyama, Emily Axford, Brian “Murph” Murphy, Lou Wilson, Ally Beardsley, and Siobhan Thompson) and side quests feature guest players (Matt Mercer, Erika Ishii, and some College Humor regulars in Escape from the Bloodkeep, the McElroys in Tiny Heist). Main quests are longer (17-20 2-hour episodes) and side quests are shorter (6 2-hour episodes). Depending on your level of time commitment, you may want to start with another side quest or just hop right into the main quests!

A good chunk of D20 can be found on their YouTube channel, but if you’re enjoying it I highly recommend subscribing to Dropout if you can afford it. It’s only $5 a month and you get so much good content for the price.

MAIN QUESTS

FANTASY HIGH D&D high school AU but, like, in a truly good ‘80s movie sort of way. A Breakfast-Club-esque assortment of freshmen is thrust into a massive conspiracy that threatens their world. Player characters include a preppy wizard elf with anxiety, a half-orc barbarian who was adopted by gnomes, and a Jesus Sol camp cleric who is about to run full force into a lesbian awakening. NPCs include a warlock greaser who isn't allowed to fuck and a truly incredible family of anarcho-socialist halflings. The confusingly labeled second season is called DIMENSION 20 LIVE, which takes place during the party's sophomore year. Also this is the season with two live episodes where Griffin McElroy plays a stoner druid and Brian David Gilbert plays a goliath theatre kid, so I feel like that's also very important to mention.

Also very important to mention: if you’ve watched the first episode and enjoy it but aren’t really feeling it yet, please watch until the end of Episode 2. This is a rite of passage for anyone who starts with Fantasy High. You gotta be Episode 2′ed.

You can watch the full first season of Fantasy High here. The liveshow with BDG can be found here; Griffin’s is on Dropout. The first four episodes of Sophomore Year are available here; the rest can be found on Dropout.

THE UNSLEEPING CITY Urban fantasy campaign set in New York City! This was the one I started with; I understand that as a NYC resident myself I am super biased, but I genuinely believe it’s the best campaign of the lot. A little more adult in tone than Fantasy High, but in a good way. Player characters include a Staten Island hairdresser drunken master monk, a perfect himbo firefighter paladin, and a literal rat who is also a druid. NPCs include the patron goddess of bodega cats and also Stephen Sondheim. Fantasy High is kind of the flagship campaign of D20 but Unsleeping City is hands down my personal favorite because everyone is just...enormous cynical disasters who don't form a found family immediately so much as dance around each other warily as they come together to fight capitalism, and that feels right for a New York campaign.

This is also the campaign for which a Dropout subscription is absolutely essential. The first eight episodes are on YouTube here, but the swearing is censored and IMHO a NYC campaign is absolutely not the same when you can’t hear the fuck word being yelled at full volume.

A CROWN OF CANDY Just complete as of yesterday!! Candyland setting where everyone is whimsical brightly colored food people, but with Game of Thrones level politics and murdering. It is very good but also very different in tone compared to TUC and FH (it’s a campaign with permadeath, no revives, and extremely limited heals), so I don’t generally recommend it as a starting point.

The first episode is available on YouTube here; the rest is on Dropout.

SIDE QUESTS

Side quests are probably not the best place to start if you want actual longform narratives because they're pretty short, but they might be good if you're short on time? I guess? I do love the main quest cast a whole lot so i'm biased sob

ESCAPE FROM THE BLOODKEEP  (You’ve watched this already but for the sake of completion:) Evil campaign where a dark lord's lieutenants have to try and figure out what to do after his unexpected defeat. Quickly devolves into a workplace comedy. Amazing and great if you're in the mood for a thinly veiled but masterfully done Lord of the Rings parody. Feat. Matt Mercer of Critical Role fame.

This side quest is available in full on YouTube here.

TINY HEIST The Borrowers meet Ocean’s Eleven, feat. the McElroys! Griffin and Justin especially are i n c r e d i b l e in this one (especially Justin as always). It's a ton of fun, the sets are incredible, and I watched all of it in a week despite (full disclosure) suffering from near-constant Travis fatigue, so you know it’s good.

The first episode of Tiny Heist is here on YouTube; the rest is on Dropout.

Hope that helps! If I absolutely had to pick a next season I would go with Unsleeping City, but again, I am deeply biased. Both Fantasy High and Unsleeping City are great starting points :V