The new Dimension 20 season of Dungeons and Drag Queens follows a new gang of adventurers, The Questing Queens, on an all-new adventure. Princess, Troyánn, Gertrude, and Twyla are traveling together to the underworld, each with a different mission in mind, some hoping for answers, vengeance, a way to help their people, or even peace. However, not all is as it seems, with people from each of their pasts involved in a larger conspiracy.
Dungeons and Drag Queens is the seventeenth season of Dimension 20 and will consist of four episodes. It stars Alaska Thunderfuck, Monét X Change, Bob The Drag Queen, and Jujubee from RuPaul’s Drag Race as Princess, Troyánn, Gertrude, and Twyla, respectively. Brennan Lee Mulligan serves as Dungeon Master.
Brennan Lee Mulligan spoke with Screen Rant about the new season of Dimension 20: Dungeons and Drag Queens. He discusses how Bob the Drag Queen inspired his look in the series and how the “death drop” in RuPaul’s Drag Race inspired the quest. Mulligan also breaks down the character creation process and how the Questing Queens surprised him.
Brennan Lee Mulligan on Dimension 20: Dungeon and Drag Queens
Screen Rant: Oh my god, I love this season! I have watched the first episode three times.
Brennan Lee Mulligan: Oh my god! That makes me so happy! Caitlin, that came out two days ago. Oh my goodness.
It’s so fun.
Brennan Lee Mulligan: Oh, thank you! That makes me so, so happy to hear!
And you look fantastic in it! Did Izzy help you with your look?
Brennan Lee Mulligan: The look was managed by two incredible professionals: Denise Valentine, who’s our head of hair and makeup. Our key hair and makeup artist at Dimension 20. She is a day one Dropout original. I’ve known her for almost six years now, and she’s just phenomenal. And Jenny Newman, our amazing costume designer. Her work is all over the TTRPG space. She’s phenomenal. So they put together the costume, the makeup, the look, and everything. It was a joy.
I loved it! I loved it so much, and it’s such a funny dichotomy going from The Ravening War into this.
Brennan Lee Mulligan: Yes. Incredibly serious Eldritch Horror combat war, and now here we are with Alaska, Monet, Jujubee, and Bob. How about it?
What did you learn from the experience of playing in a world you had created that you took into this that kind of changed your world-building style?
Brennan Lee Mulligan: This was one of those seasons where we knew the cast before we knew the world. So, we were talking about going to the cast and basically saying, “It’s dealer’s choice. Whatever kind of world you want to play in.” And I had this hunch from just having run games for a lot of people. I was like, “Dollars to doughnuts, we’re gonna go in there, and we’re going to offer them this variety of worlds to play in. Some of them we’re going to offer are: do you want a fantastical drag setting? Do you want it to be like drag race but with magic? Dollars to doughnuts, they’re gonna go; I want classic D&D.” I was exactly right.
We went and talked to them, and all of them, of course, love drag. It’s their entire life. They’re the best drag performers in the world, but it’s also like your day job, right? You can talk to anybody who’s at the top of their artistic craft. What they wanted was to do D&D. They’re like, “I want to be an elf. I want to be a sorcerer; I want to be a barbarian.” People want to be these classic things and participate. So, we talked with Rick Perry, our amazing creative producer and production designer, and as we’re talking about the look of the setting. What kind of setting it should be, and I remember going like, “One thing, because people think of Dungeons & Dragons and drag performance as being very different, but there are shared pieces of DNA between these two art forms, between these two cultures and communities. And one of them is camp.
Camp is a huge important part of both, and the campiest D&D stuff is the old school. So you had a bunch of the world’s best drag queens saying, “We want the classic D&D experience.” When you go to classic D&D and you get stuff like the cover of the old D&D Player’s Handbook with the incredibly oiled-up barbarian that has lats and obliques that are all baby oiled. You’re like, “Why did you put on baby oil before we go into a dungeon? Why don’t you have a shirt on? Your unarmored. You have a horned helmet. You look like Fabio!”
It’s like the kind of fantasy world that you would see spray painted on the side of a van in, like, the 1970s, with a bunch of stoners riding around with a muscular wizard on a Pegasus with golden lightning going everywhere. That is camp! So we made that classical, almost Conan the Barbarian swords and sorcery kind of fantasy world, specifically to be the classic D&D experience that the queens were asking for. While also providing a look and tone that they would hopefully find a lot of comfort and familiarity in because it’s so extravagant, campy, and over the top.
I think it’s so much fun. I love all the characters. I was curious: was there anything you took from Matt’s style after playing with him that you brought into your own DM style?
Brennan Lee Mulligan: Matt’s DM style has been informing everybody in the world’s DMing style for years. Matt’s imprint on the game is undeniable and so hugely, hugely influential. Also Matt, by the way, unrelated, huge fan of Drag Race. Matt Mercer, enormous fan of drag. I got very sweet messages actually from Marisha as well about the season and how exciting it is.
In terms of the style for this game, this one actually is way more influenced by (my) experiences running games for new players in my youth. So that’s really the thing I was leaning on more than anything was my experiences as a camp counselor. Taking people who had never played the game before (and) running it for them for the first time. Also, it’s a very comedic setting, but these are some of the best comedy queens in the world. So a lot of experiences running games for improvisers at UCB. That’s sort of where the experience is being drawn from.
I love how you would roll with their choices and jokes, like the fact that Twyla just fully thinks she can go invisible and can’t. And that has become a running bit is one of my favorite things.
Brennan Lee Mulligan: It’s so fun. I feel like you have to keep the forward momentum going, but people are also learning the rules for the first time. So having that flexibility and fluidity to kind of move with the tide as new pieces of information are being discovered. It’s really, really significant.
Yeah, I love how you introduce players to the game. It’s a different performing style than we normally see. Did you learn anything from playing with them that you would want to bring into your future games?
Brennan Lee Mulligan: The Queens are so incredibly talented, so funny, and so engaging. I think the impact that they brought for me was getting to go back because I’ve been playing with such incredible players for so long that are so familiar with the game. One of my favorite experiences is getting to watch people fall in love with the game for the first time. Seeing that at the table and having a season now that, it’s very short, only four episodes, and you get to watch these incredibly talented performers fall in love with the game and also learn the game for the first time.
So I feel like the impact that they had on me is we now have this season of the show that, yes, it’s done as in drag queens, we’re all in these amazing costumes. It’s this wild fantasy adventure, but I almost think that it’s kind of going to be my go to season now for if you really have no idea what D&D is. Come and watch this season and see, for the first time, these people learning the rules in front of you. It reminded me in a lot of awesome ways about Fantasy High: Freshman Year. Ally was learning the game for the first time, and it made me go, “Oh, there’s something really beautiful watching that experience play out.”
I completely was thinking of that when I was watching it. It’s that perfect fun, especially when you could see them really click into the game, like with Princess punching the goblin or snapping Wallace’s spin.
Brennan Lee Mulligan: Incredible! truly incredible. Blam.
It’s so violent so quick.
Brennan Lee Mulligan: So so funny. Oh my god. I love it. But it’s great. It’s exactly what Alaska should have done. That’s the dream. That’s the promise of D&D. I’m gonna go to a tavern. I’m gonna meet someone annoying. I’m gonna punch them through a window. Great. Here we go. We’re playing, baby. We’re doing it.
Can you tease a little bit of what we’re gonna see with this larger conspiracy that seems to be at play because it seems like a lot of their enemies are kind of connected?
Brennan Lee Mulligan: Well, I think that we’re seeing a lot of that play out. We ended the last episode, they’re heading into the underworld. And I think there’s going to be a really fun now that they’re all together and seeing that, without spoiling anything I will say, the Queens are very quick to embrace that the enemy of my enemy is my friend. There’s a lot of fun in seeing them realize that all of these individual enemies are all coming together, and that kind of draws them closer together. So that’s, I think, a very fun theme you’ll see manifesting in the episodes to come.
And then I love the hints we got to Gertrude’s storyline, where her reasoning for wanting to go the underworld is completely different than everyone else’s. What was it like to build that kind of character arc for her versus the other ones where it’s very, “I have a mission” or “I’m taking vengeance”?
Brennan Lee Mulligan: It was beautiful, and it’s all Bob. Bob came fully formed with that quest and that idea. He’s just so wildly talented and wonderful. Bob, by the way, also the person who suggested the look I ended up with in the season. That was an early conversation that we had with the Queens. It was really wonderful where I was like, “Hey, what’s my best way to support you in terms of what are the looks that you’re going to be coming with? How do I best support all of you? Do you guys want me in drag? Do you guys want me in normal button up? What is it? What’s going to make you feel the best at the table?”
And Bob said this thing that was really impactful: What is your drag? Our drag is this very high feme thing and has the big hair that big, whatever, but that’s not necessarily your drag. Drag can be anything. And so, sort of talked through the idea of being this half elven adventurer kind of character. Very, very awesome. Bob is a truly unique performer and incredibly gifted storyteller. I can’t wait for people to see where Bob is gonna go this season.
What surprised you the most about this season compared to the other seasons you’ve done?
Brennan Lee Mulligan: It wasn’t a surprise, but I was blown away. I was not surprised because I knew how talented these four were. I was still blown away by how fearlessly they dove into a completely new experience and excelled with flying colors. It was really remarkable.
I also love that this came out at the end of Pride Month. That made me so happy because one of the things I love about D&D is that a lot of LGBTQ kids that play start figuring out their identity through it. I thought it was very cool, especially when the Queens are talking about it on Adventuring Party and getting to tap into stuff that they thought about when they were kids. What was the most fun part of that for you in bringing them into this world?
Brennan Lee Mulligan: The power of this game, and specifically, I have so many friends and loved ones who have said some version of, “My characters were into women, before I was, or my character was a woman before I realized that I was.” That’s a huge part of tabletop and role-playing experiences for people.
Dropout our core values, our beliefs, our ideals are all right out there in the public square for anyone who wants to engage with them. I think showing not only our belief in the talent of and our passion and joy for drag as a performance art, but also showing our solidarity and support for that community, which is us and our community. We have so many LGBTQ people that are both in front of and behind the camera. And our community is eternally devoted to standing in, with, beside, and amongst them forever and ever.
Getting to kind of go back to the OG Dungeons & Dragons, because one of the things that’s great about Dropout is how it mixes genres, but this is very cool because it mixes drag with OG Dungeons & Dragons. What, for you, was your favorite part of returning to that type of D&D versus the different ones?
Brennan Lee Mulligan: Ease! E-A-S-E, ease! That’s my briar patch, that I was born and bred in. I can’t tell you how easy it is to make stuff up in this world. I have a program in the middle of my brain. You click and it goes on and it goes, “Ah, high fantasy, blah blah blah,” and then a bunch of stuff comes out. It’s great. So my favorite part, when people are like, “We want a straight-down-the-middle, high fantasy experience.” And I go, “Oh, well, okay, great. Give me 20 minutes. I’ll be back. Yeah, no worries”. That’s truly a lovely part of it was being so in my lane to give an experience to these Queens who wanted something classic. That’s the world I grew up in. So, it was very fun to be able to provide that and to be able to do so quite expeditiously.
I do want to shift gears for one second because I’m also a huge Critical Role fan. Did you warn Matt about Emily Axford, or did you let him go into that blind?
Brennan Lee Mulligan: Listen, the only warning I would have to give is that she’s one of the greatest D&D players that has ever lived on this planet! The reason that she is so highly sought after as a D&D player has played in all of the biggest D&D shows is because her talent, her gift for storytelling, all of it is just so undeniable. She is a gift at every table that she plays at, so I’m very glad that Matt got the opportunity to play with one of the all-time GOATs of actual play D&D performance.
I loved when she popped on. I was like, “Oh, we’re gonna get Hilda Hilda in Critical Role. Let’s go!”
Brennan Lee Mulligan: Let’s go! Let’s go. It’s very fun. I was just recording with Emily, and she was talking about the difference between going to Critical Role and having the experiences there. There’s so many fun different tables and opportunities offer within the actual play space. So, I’m so glad for Critical Role fans to get to see Emily Axford and see all of the amazing stuff that she is capable of doing. It’s awesome.
Yeah, I very much lost my mind when she popped up. That was so great. And then I know you wanted to like tap into the OG D&D and high fantasy, but what was it about the underworld specifically that drew you to that aspect of it?
Brennan Lee Mulligan: Truly, Caitlin, I’m gonna tell you something really dumb. Just the pun death drop. That’s it. That’s why. That was literally it. Cause high fantasy, there’s so many locations you can go to, but thinking about the thing that really inspired my kind of thinking was, I used to play this poor game called Hero Quest that’s very much in the vein, of this kind of world we’re living in.
It’s like Dungeons, the underworld, whoo, going into the ground. It’s like such a classic fantasy thing. And then I was like, “Oh, the underworld as a big purple, rocky dungeon kind of place.” And then thought about dropping into that. And I went, “Oh, dropping into death. Okay, here we go. Let’s do it.” And the rest, as they say, is history. It was just a joke that made me laugh a little bit one time. And then we did a whole giant shoot about it. And that’s how it goes over a Dimension 20.
That’s the best thing I’ve ever heard. A pun got you there. That’s perfect!
Brennan Lee Mulligan: Exactly
What was one of your favorite dynamics to play because, in the first episode, there are so many fun ones like Twyla and Alvin and Troyánn and her mother? What were some of your favorites with that?
Brennan Lee Mulligan: I mean, honestly, any of the dynamics that I was playing at the table had to take a backseat to just the incredible chemistry between these Queens. Watching Bob and Monet antagonize each other. Watching them all take these shots and do these bits. It’s just really, really funny. They’re all so incredibly talented as comedians, but I think that the relationship between the NPCs was really, really fun. Loved Bump Williams and Princess. Loved Alvin and Twyla. It was all deeply, deeply gratifying, but I would say too just even walking through narrations. Doing the narrations of spell casting and magic and stuff like that, because that’s all second nature and it moves through that filming, but just having people at the table where I’m starting to narrate a spell and looking at these four.
It was such a funny thing to just improvise the description of a spell, and have Jujubee go like, (mouth wide in amazement) at a narration of a spell. I look and be like, “I’ve watched you do a triple backflip into a split, and glitter pops out of your wig. You’re giving me a level of, “Wow, man, that was incredible.” I’m just talking. I’m literally just constructing sentences in English, and I’ve seen everyone here do things that I would describe as physically impossible.” So it was very fun. The Queens were all very, very kind in terms of their experience of the show. Especially coming from people who I’ve seen do feats of performance, that stagger the mind and leave the brain reeling in disbelief was very, very meaningful.
I will say two things. One, I think Jujubee’s reactions are one of my favorite parts of the season. And two the fact that you described creating a world as just putting sentences together is maddening, just so you’re aware. You’re like, “Everyone can do this. Why is this special?” No, sir. That’s not true.
Brennan Lee Mulligan: Well, dang, thanks, Caitlin.
When you were like, “Eh,” it was so funny to me. I’m like, “Excuse me!” I watch a lot of professional D&D, but for DMs and players that’s not true. Come on.
Brennan Lee Mulligan: Hey, you gotta stay humble, but I deeply appreciate it. It’s a real honor working with all of them and it’s very deeply meaningful. I hope that Dimension 20 fans, go check out all of these Queens amazing work. Go see them live and in person/ Go see their shows and their tours. Go watch Drag Race. They’re incredible! And I hope that for people that are discovering Dimension 20 for the first time, that are fans of these queens, that you feel really welcome in this space and get to fall in love with an amazing type of storytelling.
Oh, it’s so fun because I’ve literally been able to introduce some of my friends to Dimension 20 through this. One of my best friends his D&D campaign did an impromptu drag brunch in the game.
Brennan Lee Mulligan: Oh my God!
Immediately sent him the trailer to this. I’m like “Send this to all of your players. You’re gonna love this!”
Brennan Lee Mulligan: Oh, my God, that’s so good. That makes me really happy to hear. That people feel invited. They should! We want them to.
What was maybe a moment that was improvised by them that really shifted the game for you where you had to almost change the direction you were expecting to go?
Brennan Lee Mulligan: Was not expecting famed American music producer Mark Ronson to die in the show. Was not expecting Earth to be real. Was not expecting any of that. That was all very new information. It’s wonderful. Listen, if you’ve played with Ally Beardsley as much as I have, you have to be ready at the drop of a hat for some arcane piece of modern Americana pop culture lore to show up in your fantasy world. So, when Mark got there, and Paul Abdul was not far behind. I was ready. Yeah, thank you for this gift. “Yes and…” That’s what we say. So that was surprising to say the least. But it was, of course, perfect and wonderful. And we had to roll with it.
I also just love the moment where you have Twyla say “I’m here to avenge my people,” and then Princess going, “Yeah, me too.”
Brennan Lee Mulligan: That’s gonna happen from time to time. That’s gonna happen.
That felt so true to D&D for me. Multiple people’s motivation is vengeance, but because they’re adventurers, they don’t have this big, grand way of expressing themselves.
Brennan Lee Mulligan: Well, it’s interesting. I think you’ll see as the episodes go along that there are subtle, yes, both of them have experienced loss and grief. But I think there’s still very (different arcs). Twyla is carrying the seed of the Allblossom and still has this sort of potential to be the savior of her (people). There’s a last bit of hope there that she’s holding on to.
Whereas I think Princess’ story is a little bit more bloodthirsty. There’s a classic revenge storyline there. So, wait and see, but I think it’s very gripping. But yes, there was a little flashback to LARP camp when I used to run. We’d have a team of all loners; everyone would be a loner, and you go, “Well, we can’t… If we’re all loners, how are we on this team together?” A bunch of 11-year-olds that are all raised by wolves.
One of my favorite stories you’ve ever told is the kid who was avenging his wolf parents, not his human parents.
Brennan Lee Mulligan: Yes, only the wolf parents are getting avenged. I would say if you have an 11-person team in a LARP game, four of them have wolf parents. There’s just classes; there’s backstories we all want. They’re popular. They’re our best sellers, best-selling backstories.
You talked about it a little bit in Adventuring Party, but are there any pieces of backstory that you weren’t able to get into for these characters that you really would have wanted to?
Brennan Lee Mulligan: No, thankfully for the four people at the table. Also, I’ve made enough seasons of the show to have a good estimation of what’s possible to get in and what’s not. I think that the reason I got everything was because I made my first priority the character’s backstory, and that fundamentally, part of the reason this conspiracy is all made up of these characters from their backstory is to ensure that we get their backstory in there.
For any DMs that want advice if you’re doing a one-shot or a four-episode miniseries or something like that and you have characters that want backstory, villains, and nemeses. That’s the plot. Don’t even include your own plot. Don’t be like, “Yeah, each of your nemeses, but also this guy. That’s my guy that I think you should fight.” Honestly, when they made their backstories, a big part of me was like, “Great, that’s the story. Thank you. There we go.” Once again, ease, ease.
It’s so great. I can’t wait for the rest of the episodes. I love Dimension 20. It’s just my comfort D&D show. Except for Crown of Candy and Ravening War, which scarred me, so thank you for that.
Brennan Lee Mulligan: You’re welcome. You are welcome. There you go.
Garbage disposal, not okay.
Brennan Lee Mulligan: Matt, what are you doing to me?!? Yeah. Deus-Pa’Zhul. Well, dang, thank you so much for the kind words, Caitlin. I really appreciate it.
About Dimension 20: Dungeon And Drag Queens
Alaska Thunderfuck, Monét X Change, Bob The Drag Queen, and Jujubee of RuPaul’s Drag Race will jump into the world of fantasy in a new adventure led by Dungeons Mast Brennan Lee Mulligan. The Questing Queens are on a mission to the underworld. Each Queen is in search of something different including vengeance, help for their people, and peace. However, a larger conspiracy brews with people from each of their pasts that could put their quests in jeopardy.
A new episode of Dimension 20: Dungeons and Drag Queens airs July 5 on Dropout.
Source: Screen Rant Plus