The last time Game Rant sat down with Dimension 20 Dungeon Master Brennan Lee Mulligan, the world was a different place. While in-person Dungeons and Dragons is no longer viable due to the coronavirus pandemic, many shows have shifted to an online format, including Dimension 20's newest season, Pirates of Leviathan. Game Rant connected with Brennan once again to talk about Pirates of Leviathan and playing Dungeons and Dragons remotely.
Assembled from an all-star cast of Dungeons and Dragons personalities, Pirates of Leviathan is the first season to return to a prior campaign setting without bringing back the same characters. "It's sort of exploring an element of Spyre that we really fell in love with in Sophomore year of Fantasy High, but didn't get to spend a lot of time in," Brennan tells us over a Zoom call. Leviathan is a pirate city made up of thousands of shipwrecks, continuing the trend of Dimension 20 seasons avoiding fantasy tropes for its worlds.
Even with an established setting, Pirates of Leviathan is meant to be welcoming to newcomers, maintaining the anthology style the series has become known for. For return viewers, though, there are some nods to look out for. "What's so fun is that it's a self-contained story. You don't have to have watched Fantasy High to get a kick out of Pirates of Leviathan, but you do get all of these Easter eggs" Brennan compares it to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, elaborating that fans will see "winks and nods" but that Sophmore Year isn't necessary viewing to understand the plot.
With the campaign being remote, it seems natural that changes to the Dungeon Master process would be necessary, but apparently, that wasn't the case. "'I was like, okay, it's remote, here we go,' and then you do that first character voice, and suddenly whoosh, you're in it. When I'm DM-ing and I'm in the dome, the dome totally melts away and I'm just in that flow state, and the exact same thing happened looking at a webcam. I really found that the remote element just melted away for me."
According to Brennan, the remote-play nature of the new campaign even has its own perks. "Let's say we want to play with some people that live in New York, live in Chicago, live in England, live on the other side of the world – let's do that. That feels like a really viable thing now, because this experiment was so successful."
Before playing remotely, Brennan was hesitant that it could offer an authentic Dungeons and Dragons experience, but shooting Pirates of Leviathan has washed away those fears, and even got him playing home games with old friends. "I was being an old fogey about it, and then we did these shoots, and I was like 'that's completely inaccurate.' When I walk away from a remote session that I played with my friends, I'm not left with a weird artificial sweetener of 'I saw my friends but not really.' This technological miracle brought you and your friends to a virtual tabletop for three hours."
Brennan has become a notable figure in the world of Dungeons and Dragons, but at his core, he's still a huge fan of the franchise in general, including other popular shows like Critical Role and The Adventure Zone, both of which have had cast members play on Dimension 20. "I bought Explorer's Guide to Wildmount by Matt Mercer, and a host of other awesome writers and designers, but Matt's world. I opened up and saw my name in the special thanks... I don't know how to describe that moment, I really don't."
Throughout our conversation, Brennan reiterates how much he appreciates the show's fans, who make Dimension 20 a possibility. "Just the gift that comes with our fans [supporting] the show, which means we get to keep making the show, which means that myself and my close friends and collaborators get to go to work and try to tell stories that will impact people and bring them joy, or catharsis, or sorrow, or make them feel surprise. That gift is beyond," Brennan tells us, "The continued thumbs up from people to keep getting to do this work that I love, it's such an honor and such a privilege."
Pirates of Leviathan has a unique setting and diverse cast, but there are no plans to stop here. Tapping his fingers together, Brennan (in a villainous voice) tells us, "Oh, we have many, many plans in the works for worlds we might visit after this. There's a world we're about to go visit, we're shooting another side quest next week, that I think is gonna blow people's minds. I can't wait for people to see it."
For those holding out hope for returns to older campaign settings, Brennan notes that he "reserves the right to journey to unpredictable places, even if some of those places we have seen before."
As Brennan puts it, the sky's the limit when it comes to the future of Dimension 20, and fans may be surprised to see the cast of the upcoming side quest. That may even include up and comers in the Dungeons and Dragons scene, presenting new faces with the opportunity to be on one of the most interesting shows on the internet.
For many, Dungeons and Dragons is a respite from the hardships of the world, and even those that aren't equipped to play themselves have a place to look in Dimension 20. With a bright future ahead of it and Brennan at the helm, the possibilities are limitless.