“Dimension 20” kicked off their 2025 U.S. tour of live shows in New York City to a sold-out crowd at Madison Square Garden. Dungeons & Dragons celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2024 and only continues to grow in popularity. 2025 is chock full of live shows from Critical Role, “Dimension 20,” and many others. Not to mention the off-Broadway show Twenty-Sided Tavern which offers a new adventuring experience to audiences every night. However, “Dimension 20” has found a way to take the D&D live show experience to the next level.
Part of this was in pairing the setting for the one shot with the city of New York itself. “Unsleeping City” is native New Yorker Brennan Lee Mulligan’s love letter to New York and the magic of the city. He brings the five boroughs to life through magical realism with a true understanding of both the genre and the setting. Bringing the “Unsleeping City” to life in front of the biggest audience for a D&D live show in history at Madison Square Garden took on a special meaning to “Dimension 20’s” Dungeon Master as he explained to Temple of Geek.
Playing At Madison Square Garden Is “So Meaningful And Such A Gift” For Brennan Lee Mulligan
Brennan Lee Mulligan: “What the hell’s going on? That’s my honest reaction. The honest reaction is its like it cannot be processed. It can only be experienced. You know the litany against fear in “Dune,” Fear is the Mind Killer? Processing is the mind killer. Experiencing the events of your own life is the mind killer. Got to keep your head down and keep moving forward because it’s so meaningful and such a gift that I stagger at the ability to articulate what it means to make this setting come to the city. It is a love letter with my closest friends and our amazing crew and all these incredible artists and professionals to put on a show at Madison Square Garden. I used to walk by there to go work.”
Seeing a D&D show live with an audience has always had a different energy than watching it on screen. The players, who often have a background in acting and/or improv, feed on the audience’s reactions. This can manifest in bigger swings and excitement on stage, like the cast running across the stage in excitement when Ally Beardsley rolls a natural 20. However, “Dimension 20” managed to take that energy a step further. This was accomplished not just by the cast, but the work of the crew behind the scenes. Lou Wilson and Beardsley share not only how they prepared for the sheer scale, but the new experimental part of the show.
Lou Wilson: “The scale alone just jumps out. We are over quadrupling the size [of the UK shows]. We have to get special earplugs because we are assuming it’ll be too loud. We’re absolutely terrified by the idea that we don’t need them, but hopefully we will. We have quadrupled the scale of the audience that we are interacting with. But I think also with that, the show is going to be a lot more, there’s going to be a lot more spice in the show. There’s more musical elements.”
Ally Beardsley: “Visually, a lot of animation, there’s a lot of cool stuff that different departments contributed to. So that’ll be fun to watch, that get set off.”
Lou Wilson: “It feels like we are taking the improv and the play that is our heart and that we were doing confidently in Europe. We are bringing it here, doing “Unsleeping City” in New York City, and we’re putting on a gosh darn show. It is multiple departments. It’s not just us. Rick Perry, everyone’s coming together to meet this moment in a really amazing way.”
Ally Beardsley: “I think also with the Euro tour, we accepted the space exactly how it is and we went, Okay, we’re going to set up our tables and this is a theater and we’ll just be speaking. And with MSG, we’re like, what are all the things that we can do to make this a little bit different than we sit here and play? So that’s going to be fun to see too. It’s experimental.”
These experimental elements included not only music and animation, but also intense pyrotechnics. “Dimension 20” also incorporated a unique audience participation aspect somewhat akin to the experience of Twenty-Sided Tavern. The live audience was able to directly impact the story within the “Unsleeping City” similar to the players themselves. Mulligan explained what they have learned from the UK tour in 2024 and how it inspired their Madison Square Garden show. He also shared what they hope to bring into the other 2025 live shows from this experience.
“We’re Doing A Lot Of Experimental Things”
Brennan Lee Mulligan: “Looking at what we learned from the UK and Ireland shows, they were such a blast. They were so, so fun. I think it’s the playfulness. There’s so much more playfulness in a live show because there’s this gregarious energy coming from the audience. There’s one liners, you’re doing bits. Roll a Nat 20 and people are running around the stage. It’s so physical and there’s so much energy being poured into it. So that’s a great thing to learn from there.
What I hope to learn in this one is we’re doing a lot of experimental things. The very first time there’s going to be a music bed under everything. Without spoiling anything, I would ask the audience to come to the show with fully charged phones, there’s going to be a lot. We’re trying a lot of stuff for the very first time. And I couldn’t be more excited for it. I think seeing what works and what doesn’t work. Of course, the funny thing is you’re like, well, we have to be able to rehearse. We have to be able to experiment and try this before. And you go, how can you possibly recreate the circumstances of a live stadium show? You can’t. The only way to learn it is by doing it. So that’s a thrilling portion of that and I can’t wait to get that.
My honest to God, favorite part of the UK and Ireland tour was two things. Seeing the physical community created by fans of the show as they saw each other’s cosplay, saw each other’s cool gear and made friends at the shows. And then for me, any ability to put my back into learning a new skill. Learning how to do this in a stadium. I cannot wait to find the sea legs. I want to know how to do this well. And the only way to learn is by doing it.”
One of the hurdles of live D&D shows can be making it inclusive. The “Dimension 20” team wants to not only cater to longtime fans, but also entice new fans as well. The UK tour used “Time Quangle” for this with each cast member playing one of their characters from a different campaign. This was decided by chance at the beginning of each show. This allowed audiences to experience never-before-seen combinations in a unique one-of-a-kind story.
The Madison Square Garden one shot needed to find a way to have this same balance. The “Unsleeping City” can seem daunting to new viewers with two seasons of nearly 40 episodes of complicated lore. However, Mulligan’s workaround for this was setting the one shot fairly early in the first season. This also brought back beloved characters Kugrash and Misty Moore.
One of the key components of “Dimension 20’s” storytelling is how they balance the role playing and combat of D&D. In their shows this is accomplished by switching between the two each episode. However, that is not possible in a one shot which also has a fairly tight time limit. Mulligan needs to find a way to balance combat, role playing, the energy of the arena and cast all while keeping to a hard out. He broke down how he approaches that balance, specifically his stance on combat in one shots.
Brennan Lee Mulligan Breaks Down Battle Strategy In A Live Dimension 20 Show
Brennan Lee Mulligan: “I think that the combat in live shows is really interesting. We have our amazing editors and our camera people and our amazing art department. Combat has a ton of technical craft put into it by the show. In a live show, you’re not getting any of that artistry from post or from the camera crew. So, combat becomes even more about ensuring that every combat move is also a story beat, right? Every combat move is also in some way propelling something into the audience or bringing some energy to something. I think that combat in live shows is best served by being very impactful and done judiciously. If there’s a way to solve a problem through role playing or through a quick skill check that’s going to be best, unless the battle is the plot significant battle of the Live Show.”
“Dimension 20’s” show at Madison Square Garden is the largest audience for a D&D live show to date. While this could be a daunting task, the entire team on and off stage brought their all to the show. Pulling out all the stops with audience participation like never before, iconic characters and settings for this one-of-a-kind experience. Zac Oyama is not only one of the original cast members aka Intrepid Heroes he also has played in multiple “Dimension 20” side quests. He shared how it feels to come together with the original core “Dimension 20” cast and why that was important for the scale of this show.
Playing With The Intrepid Heroes “Feels Like Coming Home” For Zac Oyama
Zac Oyama: “It totally feels like coming home. I think what’s exciting about doing a side quest is you’re playing with new players and feeling out new vibes of people that maybe you’re not as familiar with. There can be fun surprises there, but doing so much improv and performing so much with these people, it feels like we can do no look alley-oops. Alley-oops to the other cast members and set people up in a way and have a certain level of trust that makes me feel very comfortable.
I think I feel at least comforted [playing with the Intrepid Heroes at Madison Square Garden]. I know I’ll be so nervous when we get out there that I’m feeling like just the element of being able to lock in with the folks around me, look at each other, and try to take it in together. I’ll feel so grateful to be doing it with them.”
“Dimension 20” is nowhere near done, with the West Coast leg of their U.S. tour kicking off this summer. Playing other iconic locations including the Hollywood Bowl and MGM Grand Garden Arena. Madison Square Garden was a triumph with pyrotechnics, animation, audience participation, and more. This could be only the beginning depending on what they take from this experience into the next batch of shows. “Dimension 20” has found a way to elevate live D&D shows like never before and certainly sets the bar high for the others this year.
