Get a rare look into the making of Dimension 20’s D&D series

When I ran the game for my local Dungeons & Dragons group, I always prided myself on bringing something handmade every time we met at the table. Maybe it was a leather-bound book full of vintage Tomb of Horrors illustrations by David Sutherland, or a 3D map of some rooms of Castle Ravenloft with just the right selection of miniatures from my collection. As a lifelong fan of D&D, Rick Perry knows this impulse well. But as a production designer and creative producer at Dropout’s Dimension 20he operates on a scale that is on a completely different level.

Season 21 of Dimension 20, a real-life theatrical show on streaming television service Dropout, will premiere on January 10, 2024. It’s an incredible run that shows no signs of slowing down, and Perry’s work has contributed significantly to his popularity. To celebrate his influence, Dropout released a documentary titled The legendary Rick Perry and the art of Dimension 20. Ahead of publication, Polygon sat down with the longtime Texan, now based in Washington state, to discuss his work.

Image: Dropouts

While world-class dungeon masters like Brennan Lee Mulligan, Aabria Iyengar, Gabe Hicks and Matthew Mercer lead every game at the start Dimension 20 In a season with top-level creative direction, it’s up to Perry and his team of skilled artists to bring this miniature vision to life on the table. This means creating hundreds of centimeters tall figures from scratch using clay and sculpting tools; Transform dozens of scale models into fantastical landscapes to anchor the viewer in the world; and creating dynamic, multi-stage battle maps where experienced improv actors can spice up the set.

Just like the props you bring to your home games, it’s actually a lure that he intentionally uses to lure players – and spectators – closer to the center of the complex story he’s trying to tell.

“Dimension 20 [requires] “A tremendous amount of creative genesis to create a 20-episode series,” Perry said.[one that] This takes place in a whole new world where we don’t know what color the sky is or what foods people eat. So there is a tremendous amount of creative activity that has to start at the very beginning and that takes a lot of time.”

The documentary describes how this creative work begins on his homestead on Lopez Island in San Juan County, Washington, on an outdoor pool that his father-in-law first put together in the 1970s. Then it moves to a converted three-car garage that once housed farm equipment but is now filled with containers labeled for the miniatures inside – a box of trolls here, bogeys in the corner. Only after weeks, sometimes months of effort on the farm with an entire team of designers are the larger pieces packed into boxes and shipped to Los Angeles. Often, Perry says, that’s where the real work begins.

Image: Dropouts

The trick, he continued, is to remain agile – even when creating maps for tabletop encounters that won’t take place for weeks.

“It’s part of the DNA of Dimension 20” Perry said, “because in the very beginning when we decided that we wanted to have these eight custom battle maps that had, say, a mix of high school and fantasy, it’s not something that we can just develop very quickly.” We need to know in advance to create skater gnomes and all that stuff.

“That means we have to map it all out in as much detail as possible,” Perry continued. This type of on-rails gameplay is unfortunately anathema to modern roleplaying, which emphasizes the creative freedom of the Dungeon Master as well as The players at the table. It’s always a challenge, Perry said, to keep things on track. But with a miniature set that often costs the same as an original set, it’s up to everyone involved to make sure the trains run on time.

“That tells the Dungeon Master that these are landmarks,” Perry said. “This [scenes that we are building] are places where you have to steer the ship through these little hoops. We try to build in as much flexibility and opportunities for improvisation as possible, which means that sometimes if a battle card drops, they could swap places or we could cut one. We try not to cut any of them because they cost money to make. And it’s a business venture, the show, and we want all the production value to show up on screen.”

The nearly 45-minute film goes even further in its exploration of Perry and his work, delving deep into his childhood and college years as a member of a group of performance artists. For fans of Dimension 20it is a rare look behind the scenes and shows how the special style of storytelling is brought to life. But for artists, craftsmen, or just casual hobbyists who paint miniatures for fun on the weekend, it’s the story of a kindred spirit who found an important, transformative role in the creative industry.

The legendary Rick Perry and the art of Dimension 20 is now streaming on Dropout.