As she has finally made her glorious first appearance in our D&D campaign, I can finally share. Meet Charlotte, former enchanted lamp, now an unholy combination of opossum and seagull, and soon-to-be warlock familiar.
Many, many thanks to @spindlewit, who yet again took a bizarre prompt from me and turned it into something absolutely amazing.
The gradual degradation of Brennan's costume in Never Stop Blowing Up is a common environmental story telling trope in 80s action movies where the main character get progressively more injured but doesn't let it slow him down as he keeps fighting.
In a horror movie, these injuries would be slowing the character down, putting them in more peril, showing weakness and anguish.
In Action, it (at least) borders on comical how little injuries can matter - as Brennan showed in the hospital scene. Action is defiance of and triumph over death, it's about feeling like you're insanely tough, a badass who can defeat and overcome anyone and anything (physically).
The art and make up team here are telling a story. This is a character who exists parallel to our main story who is going through his own action journey, patching himself up when he can as he goes but bleeding through those bandages later as he rips a wound open that probably needed stitches but he doesn't have TIME to get a much needed blood transfusion, goddamnit, he's gotta get to the thing with the thing before the bad thing happens.
There's so many little interesting details unraveling in the story the make up is telling, like having one side of the body clearly have gotten exposed to an explosion. Meanwhile the cut on his left arm goes from open, to cleanly bandaged, to bleeding through the bandage. The latest episode brings us to the point in the movie where he finally just throws off the torn and bloodied dress shirt.
Which is part of action stories too, where the main character moves further and further from someone who was trying to be a Business Adult in the Real World before shit hits the fan and the battle can't be fought by a civilized man in a suit and tie, it's gonna get fuckin messy.
(as always please be mindful and respectful anytime you think about commenting on a performer's appearance).
I think you can clearly tell which fantasy high fans have never actually played a session of any TTRPG from the reaction to the Junior Year final battle alone
New Episode: All the King's Goblins with Brennan Lee Mulligan
There is an ancient code, an iron-clad oath held sacred among the royal knights of the Goblin King…
“First, we Fuck Around. Then, we Find Out.”
Party of One is an Actual Play podcast focused on two-player RPGs. Every episode, host Jeff Stormer sits down one-on-one with a friend; they play a game, laugh, shed a few tears, and have a great time. Learn more on our website!
I kinda like that not all the Dimension 20 campaigns have well-rounded finales or lessons the characters learn. It can be a little underwhelming as a viewer, but I think it's sort of a nice reminder about the medium being improvisational and on the players parts at least pretty unplanned as a whole. Sure, the DM knows what's going on and has a story in mind, but sometimes that gets hijacked by players just trying to do what feel both right and fun in the moment, which can happen a lot in TTRPG. Yes, Dimension 20 is a show being produced for entertainment, but it's also a group of nerds around a table just playing a game, and its imperfections and occasional goofiness give it charm