We’re So Back! A Dimension 20: Fantasy High Junior Year Review

That’s right y’all, school’s back in session! Dimension 20’s Intrepid Heroes are back with a new season Fantasy High Junior Year! The original campaign from the Dropout hit Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) actual play is back for a third season, where we see the Bad Kids (Emily Axford, Zac Oyama, Siobhan Thompson, Lou Wilson, Ally Beardsley, and Brian Murphy) going back to class for their third year at Aguefort Adventuring Academy… that is, if they can defeat the apocalyptic Night Yorb first! Led by game master and show creator Brennan Lee Mulligan, the first episode opens with the Bad Kids finding themselves in media res, already injured mid-fight with the giant, sun-blotting manta ray known as the Night Yorb as it rockets through the desert. “Fan favorite” characters join the Bad Kids in their pursuit as they attempt to save the world… again!

Fantasy High is an important campaign for Dimension 20 and Dropout, the streaming service for which Dimension 20 is a marquee program. As the first campaign, whose first episode dropped on the first day of Dropout’s service on September 26, 2018, it marked the beginning of a new moment in actual play programming. At this point, Critical Role had been on the air for a few years, but largely the actual play space was still in its infancy. Fantasy High saw the biggest entry into this genre since Matt Mercer’s high fantasy campaigns, but there was something different in what Mulligan was bringing to the table. Fantasy High had all the markings of a traditional D&D campaign: elves, dwarves, oracles, dragons, devils, swords, and sorcery, but it also had high schools, motorcycles, ice cream shops, and suburbs. Mulligan and his players were willing to do something different and forgo the traditional medieval-esque fantasy and set their campaign in a 1980s high school movie.

And fans ate it up! What was so unique about Dimension 20 was that they were often fighting their own mistakes as often (or more often, let’s be honest) as they were fighting bad guys. For many people, myself included, Fantasy High was their first introduction to D&D and tabletop roleplaying games (TTRPGs). There are so many of us out there rolling dice and casting spells because of Mulligan and his crew of Intrepid Heroes. Dropout capitalized on this and created a second season, filmed and broadcast live on Twitch, which takes place in the Bad Kids’ Sophomore Year and ending just as the pandemic upended in-person filming. Two spinoff side campaigns set in the same world as Fantasy High have also been produced: Pirates of Leviathan and The Seven.

Almost four years after the end of Sophomore Year, the Bad Kids are finally back. The Intrepid Heroes (the main cast of Dimension 20) have brought us to the Game of Thrones-esque Candia in A Crown of Candy, returned to a magical New York City in Season 2 of The Unsleeping City, seen us in the stars in A Starstruck Odyssey, and wrenched out the horrors of fairy tales in Neverafter (plus countless side campaigns game mastered by Mulligan and several guest game masters). But now we are returning home to Elmville and the group of misfits that led so many of us to loving TTRPGs. And brought us back they did! The story begins in the middle of a fight. The Night Yorb, a villain created whole cloth out of bit by the cast, is on its final pursuit to bring about the end of the world unless the cast has anything to say about it.

They are level 10 now (a higher starting level point than any previous D&D campaign on Dimension 20) and are more than capable of dealing with a threat like this (assuming they can get around their own poor decision-making). We are thrown immediately back into the world of Spyre and the story, having missed the majority of the Night Yorb adventure. This is a clever idea from Mulligan, showing what Dimension 20 does best: recognizing and incorporating the goofs and bits that the cast is so prone to including in their roleplaying and improv, while not letting it dominate the story. What is also so cool to watch is just how good these players are at D&D; Beardsley, whose first game of D&D was the first episode of Fantasy High for example, is now a master tactician pulling out clutch moves to save their teammates in critical moments. Dimension 20 is continuing to evolve in every way, and Fantasy High Junior Year feels like a natural progression in that evolution.

I know I am biased towards this group of weirdos rolling dice together, but Dimension 20 is, truly, one of the best shows on television. The strength of the story that Mulligan and his players create is breathtaking, even more so if you consider how much of it is crafted through improv and dice rolls; this show is both heartfelt and hilarious, touching on important topics and allowing for the joy of playing games with your friends to shine. Fantasy High Junior Year already feels like an ode to fans. From the incredible detail of the sets and effects from Rick Perry and his art team to the cast of characters we’ve already seen (who we, of course, absolutely, totally, definitely remember from past seasons!), it is clear that the team at Dimension 20 is dedicated to bringing us what could maybe be their best season yet. Regardless, this first episode of Fantasy High Junior Year was already as fun as I had hoped, and I cannot wait to see what shenanigans the Bad Kids are going to get into this year!

Episode one of Dimension 20: Fantasy High Junior Year and its accompanying Adventuring Party episode are out now on the Dropout streaming service. All previous seasons of Dimension 20, Adventuring Party, and Adventuring Academy are available on Dropout, with select seasons and episodes, including the first full season of Fantasy High, available for free on YouTube.