The newest adventure in the dome, “Dimension 20: Gladlands,” explores the idea of a post-apocolytpic world filled with kindness and caring. While the aesthetics are familiar especially for fans of “Mad Max,” “The Last of Us,” or “The Walking Dead,” the tone is vastly different. When society breaks down the genre has trained fans to expect chaos and anarchy, but instead “Dimension 20” shows the resillience of the human spirit and desire to care for one another.
Brennan Lee Mulligan leads “Dimension 20: Gladlands” as the Game Master. The cast includes Intrepid Heroes Ally Beardlsey and Zac Oyama along with returning players Jacob Wysocki and Oscar Montoya. Newcomers to the dome include Vic Michaelis, of Dropout’s “Very Important People,” and Kimia Behpoornia. The twenty seventh season of “Dimension 20” will consist of six episodes.
In an exclusive interview with Temple of Geek Michaelis and Behpoonia reflect on how the players helped create the world of “Dimension 20: Gladlands.” Michaelis also discusses Hugi’s awkwardness including the Chili Cook Off blunder. Behpoonia explains the inspiration behind Tess Tube5
Vic Michaelis Reflects On Hugi’s Chili Cook Off Interruption
Temple of Geek: This season is so much fun. The second I started, I was like, oh, I’m in, immediately in. Amazing, before I get to the questions, I do wanna say, Vic, the decision to stop the celebration of the Chili Cook Off.
Vic Michaelis
“I can’t talk about it!”
Temple of Geek: So sweet and so off in the best way.
Vic Michaelis
“And, I do think unfortunately, even though it was my friends going to sort of razz me a little bit, I do think it also is like pretty indicative of Hugi as a character in a way that’s nice. Where it’s like, Hugi just like is so confident when it comes to death and comforting people and in those like moments where it matters and is so charming in those moments and is able to comfort people.
But the warmth, and we sort of had talked a lot about the difference between like charm and warmth and warmth being like the ability to connect with people. And Hugi just has an absolute inability to do that. And I think that that is like very indicative of their D4 in warmth, just an absolute inability. It was a fun move to then go like, “Oh yeah, no, of course you’re not having this moment privately.”
It was Hugi who like in their mind was like, “This is gonna be amazing.” I’m gonna like have this little aside with my friend, but then is not paying attention to any of the surroundings and then sort of like in this moment where Thagomizer has like tried his whole life for this, Hugi is giving an award to Kokomo.”
Temple of Geek: So funny. It was so funny. It was so sweet. Cause it was this moment of my friend feels bad and I’m gonna make them feel better. Sadly to the detriment of everyone else in the room.
Vic Michaelis
“Everyone else in the room.”
Kimia Behpoornia Shares The Inspiration For Tess Tube5
Temple of Geek: Tess Tube5 is so cool. Surfing the sandstorm away was the coolest thing I’ve ever seen. But I also love these little emotional beats we got with the flashbacks and everything. Can you talk to me a little bit about your inspiration when building Tess Tube5. And how you wanted them to fit the duality of this world that is very scary post-apocalyptic, but also just very warm and kind towards people.
Kimia Behpoornia
“Yes. I love that we’re doing this season that deals with a lot of emotions and a lot of what feel like bigger ideas. So, I wanted to play that through a really dumb guy because often when we boil down big ideas into simple ideas it’s more bite-sized and it’s easier to resonate. Feel something, feel reflected and learn something from something like that.
And so, I picked this, someone else called him a himbo and I’m going with it. In the post-apocalypse he’s part cockroach which means he’s survived everything which can be very lonely. And also, there’s a lot of pressure put on someone in an apocalypse who kind of can survive all radioactive things because now he’s really needed. He’s forced to help. And when you are the helper and you are needed that doesn’t make you any less lonely even though you are going around meeting and helping all of these people.
And that is such a simple idea to help and also to feel lonely and to want family. And it just felt like it fit in a way where I just wanted people in this kind of time where I guess people are feeling they need their communities and maybe they are feeling lonely and not knowing how to help, that even if you’re a dumb little guy there’s always something simple you can do to help people out.”
Vic Michaelis
“That was beautiful. That absolutely tracks.”
Temple of Geek: This is the first season for both of you in the dome what was your thought process going in and was there anything about the experience that maybe surprised you that you were not anticipating?
Vic Michaelis
“I think Kimia said this earlier and I’m just stealing it which is that I think how emotionally grounded, as crazy as we all get together too because I’m like as cooky as we can be on stage I think when we’re just like doing bits together it can really spiral into something that is a tornado of inside jokes and it just moves at like a breakneck speed.
And so, there’s a lot of moments this season where they just like really just like drill into the ground and are like, no we’re gonna play the emotional reality of this situation. And I knew we could get there. It’s a group of not only my favorite improvisers but a lot of my favorite actors. And I think we’re already seeing it with Tess. I just think Kimia is such a brilliant actor.
And again, getting to see just like the hurt and the heartbreak of trying to figure out who you are and then the joy of finding that family. I think it also makes the comedy pop harder cause I think getting to really connect with these characters then all of a sudden, you’re sitting at the table with us and you get to be wrapped up in that too. I think it makes the funnier things funnier it makes the grounded things more grounded.”
Kimia Behpoornia
“Yes, and it makes the messages and the big ideas easier to swallow especially. Well, you’ll see it but with Vic’s character, Hugi it’s kind of like one of the biggest ideas anyone can go through which is, you know grief and loss and things like that. And to have it done through such a funny and smart perspective, hopefully we’ll make a lot of people feel seen.”
Temple of Geek: Vic, one of the things I found really interesting about Hugi especially in the most recent episodes was kind of the realization that this is a character almost built for burnout. And I feel like part of it is like this need to be positive but it’s also the taking on other people’s grief and trying to do something productive with that. Was that something you anticipated when you were creating the character or was that something that kind of came about naturally and you went, “Oh?”
Vic Michaelis
“It was a huge part of the character creation. I think this is a character that really feels the weight of when you’re uniquely qualified to do a big job that is of utmost importance and necessity. Literally the Gladlands stops working if death stops meaning anything. You know what I mean? I think we see it all the time when you don’t take the second to mourn what you’ve lost. It’s really hard to see the value in living. It’s so intertwined.
I think Hugi as a character really deeply feels the weight that they are the only person that provides this for the Gladlands. There’s absolutely nobody else. And so, it is something that we had talked about a lot. And I think they’re desperately trying to find connections in life and are not doing a great job at it as much as they’re trying to make medals. They’re trying to hand them out and it is just not panning out for them. But they’ll keep trying. They’re gonna keep trying.”
Kimia Behpoornia
“Yeah, that character really got me like the burnout thing. I was above the table sitting there being like, “Well, we have to choose the thing that helps us win.” But then you remember what type of story we’re telling what type of characters are here. And then I was like, “Oh, my friend is smarter than me. This is what we need to be doing. We don’t have to win this moment. We have to show what this feels like.””
Temple of Geek: The moment where Hugi is confronted with the fact that no one is able to do this for them when they’re gone was rough to drive by really quickly.
Vic Michaelis
“Yeah. Maybe we’ll see it later. Who knows? Hard to say. Maybe it’ll come back. Impossible to say.”
How The Players Helped Build Dimension 20: Gladlands
Temple of Geek: One of the things I thought was really interesting with the Chili Cook Off itself was the fact that Oscar made the choice in his character to completely sabotage Ash. And I was curious, Kimia, kind of what your moment in that was because you not only wanted to help Ash because you kind of adopted this character as your character’s little sister, but just the sabotage aspect itself felt very anti-Gladlands to me in a way.
Kimia Behpoornia
“Well, that’s the thing about what we were dealing with in the Gladlands is that it is so many levels. There’re so many different people to be thinking about all at once. Your brain is kind of stretching. You zoom in to think about your personal community, the Carervan, you zoom out to think about the community you’re helping at the Chili Cook Off, and you’re just like doing this switch back and forth.
And in that moment, it was such a smart choice because we’ve almost adopted Ash into the Carervan. And so, though it’s like a small child, kids are so smart. It was a moment to be like, you will understand what we’re doing. Sometimes you do stuff for a greater good. Sometimes you make a choice for the zoomed-out community. And we, as your zoomed in community, will help hold your feelings.
So, I thought it was a really cool thing to show, and it was so smart on Oscar’s part. And then on the flip side, we got to say like, some days you do things that hurt your feelings, but make somebody else feel better, and your feelings matter too, and the people next to you are here to hold them for you. And then everyone can feel help.”
Vic Michaelis
“I love that. And also, on the flip side too, it is like being a part of the Carervan means, especially in the way in which we’re doing it, is like the way in which we do a lot of personal sacrifice for the good of our community. And so, this is kind of like Ash’s, like this is what being a part of the Carervan means, is that like, we’re gonna work on taking care of each other, but it’s a lot of personal sacrifice for a community.
And so, Ash then going, okay, I wanna be a part of that still, I think is like a cool moment of being like, okay, I see it. I see it, I get it, and I wanna do that. I wanna be a part of that. So, it sort of is that moment of initiation. It’s sort of going like, “If this is not for you, no problem. You can win the Chili Cook Off, you can figure it out, you can probably have a life here in Rock Glob, that’s totally fine too.” But it was a moment of Ash choosing to be a part of this. Yeah, choosing to be a part of the community.”
Temple of Geek: Oh, I love that so much. One of the things I think is so cool about this season with the Adventuring Party is that you guys are building the towns we’re going to explore. Like it brings that therapy of D&D to the next level and almost gives us these mini storylines where we get to see where the town is created and the weaknesses and strengths and how that plays out. And I loved how we saw it play out here with our first kind of like mini arc with that. What was your guys thought process of getting to be a part of the world building, maybe even more so than any other game you played?
Kimia Behpoornia
“It was so smart to think about these towns as their own characters because going in as the Carervan, we are interacting with kind of the soul of the town. So, to know what the character of it is helps us play how we can help them when we get there. So that was such a cool, helpful mechanic for storytelling, I think.”
Vic Michaelis
“Yeah, it’s also really fun in that like, I think because it’s stats that mirror our own stats, it also is fun to see like how being in an area really affects us. I think like this was a really great test because as we move forward, I think that that really comes into play. So, it’s really interesting seeing how the stats mirror our own.”
Temple of Geek: Yeah, and not asking for spoilers or anything, but the thing to me that stood out with it is, because you’ve talked about like how this town kind of mirrors Hugi in an unexpected way is will Hugi take the lessons that were taken from this town of, it’s okay to be vulnerable and open up about needing help. Because it seems like Hugi is not great at that.
Vic Michaelis
“Yeah, I think it’s certainly like always something to look at. And I think it’s like often easier to give a lesson and to understand something logically. And it’s a lot harder to internalize that and have that play out on an emotional front. So that’s what I’ll say on that.”
New episodes of “Dimension 20: Gladlands” debut on Dropout on Wednesdays.
