Friday, October 30, 2020

The Unsleeping City Gets a Season Two!

 Dimension 20, the College Humor-based D&D "actual play" show, has had several seasons, most exploring new characters and concepts. They did return to the original campaign, Fantasy High (which is awesome and hilarious) and it looks like now they will be returning to the Unsleeping City.

The Unsleeping City takes place in a version of New York City where the effects of the Dreaming World allow magic to exist in the Waking World. It's an epic D&D campaign built on themes of American ideas and the nature of the very idiosyncratic NYC, and I highly recommend checking it out (the first season of it is releasing weekly on YouTube, or you can watch it all immediately on Dropout.tv for a subscription fee.)

I am super, super excited to hear that there's more of this, as I absolutely love the alternate-style fantasy that is deeply rooted in NYC history.

The basic premise is this:

New York is the home of a special phenomenon called the Umbral Arcana. You know how New Yorkers have a reputation for ignoring bizarre things happening around them, given how jaded the city makes them? Well, in this case, that kind of attitude has created a sort of psychic shroud for supernatural beings to get about without being noticed as long as it's within NYC.

Additionally, New York has a "Sixth Borough" known as Nod, which is the realm of dreams. Less a physical location than a plane unto itself (with a dream-version of all of New York in it,) this is the place where dreamers literally go when they sleep and also is the source of all potential and possibility for aspirations and ideas.

At the center of the setting is the relationship (and often conflict) between the Waking World and the Dreaming World. Sometimes, an individual is imbued with powerful magic by one or the other, becoming the Vox Phantasma, if empowered by the dreaming, or the Vox Populi, when empowered by the waking world. And as it turns out, two of the player characters occupy these roles.

It's the sort of game where you can get a bagel with schmear with an orthodox Jewish golem, attend a wedding with the pixie mafia, find out that Elaine Stritch (or her equivalent) is a body-surfing ageless fairy, or face down literal bloodsucking monsters from Wall Street.

I haven't caught up on the original season (because I'm a cheapskate who hasn't subscribed to Dropout) but I absolutely adore the modern setting and surreal fantasy on which the show is based.

If you're caught up on Critical Role, or perhaps want something a little more unconventional in tone (or something a little tighter - seasons go only about 16ish episodes and each episode is only 2 hours long) I really cannot recommend Dimension 20 enough.

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