January 7, 2025

Q&A: Dimension 20 and Desiquest!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

And thanks to everyone who submitted a question about Dimension 20 or Desiquest! Here are my answers.

Do you think you will DM? Would love to see you create a world with small stories, and your take on the whole thing.
I would LOVE to try to DM but am TERRIFIED. I am still so shaky with the rules of DND so to create a world for other people seems really daunting. But maybe I should just freaking try and do a home game with a few people and start at level one.

Followup: You're so good at keeping scenes moving, I feel like you could definitely herd some chaotic gremlins through an adventure.
Okay wow firstly THANK YOU, and this is exactly what appeals to me about the idea of DMing :D I wanna make lil guys for you to mess with.

I would love to know when you first got introduced to D&D in a way that made you want to play? That is, when did someone say "do you want to do this?" and you said "yes", also why did you decide it was something you wanted to try?
I was FIRST first introduced to it by my favorite episode of Community. I was then ACTUALLY introduced to it by Brennan Lee Mulligan and Michael Schaubach when Dimension 20 was just getting started in 2018 or so. I did a test game or two with the idea that I would join Fantasy High, but my schedule did not permit it unfortunately.

What made me want to play is that during those test games Schaubach asserted how much everyone who was there was meant to be there, and that we all had something to bring to the table. There is no part of me that thought that, so it was nice to hear.
I don’t see a lot of people who look like me in DND, and I didn’t know it was something that could appeal to me even if I didn’t have a huge interest in fantasy. So when Brennan explained that DND was just improv with dice telling you if you succeed or not on a choice, I was like wait… improv I can do. Rolling dice I can do. They both stripped down all the lore and Crunchy Rules I couldn’t grasp to just make it about having fun. And we DID have a ton of fun during those games. I think when I got asked to do Escape from the Bloodkeep I was nervous but knew that I was supposed to be nervous and sort of an “in” for anyone who wanted to try DND but was skeptical. So I think that helped too — knowing I was literally supposed to be a novice to encourage fellow novices!

Recently, in DesiQuest, Never Stop Blowing Up, and others, you have played old women. Your movie script even seems to involve the elderly! What is it about these characters that interest you (comedically + dramatically)?
I love the elderly. I was half raised by my grandparents and was always surrounded by Aunties, so I have a lot of experience with older people and lovingly find a lot of the things they do hilarious. I also think there is something about elderly Indian immigrant women that I just so profoundly connect with: they are HYPER HYPER competent, and yet typically grew up in societies that devalued them, so they have built up a lot of armor that is very useful to them and can sometimes be pretty comedic to me.

I also always love playing a batty character with a heart of gold — some sort of core that a viewer can sympathize with, underneath all the layers of insane-person. And both those characters have that, to me.

[…] My favorite improv moments tend to happen with people who have created characters who have a thing and they are so focused on that thing that it shapes their worldview and reactions entirely. […] Can you describe the headspace you are in when you are improvising as a character like that? Are these characters able to have their minds changed while you embody them […]? 
Well you’re in luck because that’s ENTIRELY how I play DnD! I love to have one small thing to go off of, and build from there, asking myself “if that’s true, what else is true?” For example: “Katja Cleaver is a rich girl with horses? Great. What kind of girl has horses? A wealthy one, a nature-obsessed one, one whose parents can AFFORD horses… Ah, okay, the parents. Why does she have so many horses? Maybe they give her horses because they can’t be there themselves? Bingo.”

And I think they can change their minds in so far as the core of them remains the same. For example, if Katja somehow HATES a horse all of a sudden, something fundamental must have changed about her: she’s being possessed, she has depression, a horse killed someone she loves (ex: Carl, her dad), a horse behaved like someone she hates (ex: Jana, her mom), something like that. There’s always room to break your own rules for a character, but still use the logic you set up to break them.

If you stripped the premise of D20 the way Brennan runs it down to the studs and rebuilt the concept of the show, what would you change? What mechanics do you feel are limiting to making the game a bit more accessible? I really love the show as is, but I am always trying to build my own modes of game play into my own games that kinda say, “Hey! I promise this isn’t as weird and hard and convoluted as it seems!”
I would focus more on roleplay than mechanics. I LOVED using the Kids on Bike system in NSBU because I felt like it really let us explore our characters without having to stop and ask too many questions about what we were allowed to do. 5e is awesome, but it’s hard to feel like I can ever catch up to MASTERING it the way others have, whereas Kids on Bikes and other systems are a little more user-friendly/exciting for a newbie in my opinion.

Do you find it harder to play characters less close to your own personality? And if so (I assume so) how do you make it easier for yourself to assume the role of someone with a different worldview? (For example playing a character that hates big butts and Yoshi)
I don’t like high fantasy so I can’t imagine a character that hates big butts and Yoshi.

I DO find it hard to play characters that are less close to me. Daisy D’Umpstaire was SO hard for me because I am NOT a high status person and I do NOT always think I can figure everything out.

But I really tried to hang onto and discover the elements of her that I could find relatable. For instance, when I kept being outsmarted by Grant’s Sylvester Cross, Rekha the player said to herself, “I feel dumb.” And putting that through a Daisy filter, I thought: “I can never shine as long as this guy is around.” And that led to the whole reasoning behind why she left him at the altar (we had not planned the reason ahead of time, we just knew she left him). So finding that one kernel of truth and relatability in a character so different from you is my best tip!

Between Dimension 20 and DesiQuest you've played in seasons that were just theatre of the mind and those that used minis, both physical and virtual. Do you have a preference for a specific type of D&D gameplay?
I really love physical minis because it helps me keep track of what is going on better. I LOVE theater of the mind but as you MAY BE ABLE TO TELL, I can lose track of pertinent details fairly easily (e.g. how close am I to something? Who else is in the room? How can I get creative given the parameters in how to defeat the Big Bad?). Virtual is cool too! I loved using Tailspire for The Seven.

Mice and Murder is by far my favorite season. Do you think another one is coming, or at least another murder mystery season?
I have to imagine writing a murder mystery is the hardest thing one can write, so to my knowledge, there isn’t going to be another mystery season, at least anytime soon. But thank you for the kind words on M&M!

In playing TTRPGs, improv is a large part of the game. What have been some improv moments from D20 that stand out to you, as many of the other players and dm are trained in improv? Do you have any tips for people who want to get better at improv-ing dialogue at their own table?
My favorite improv moments from D20, in no particular order:

• Becca Scott and the “The Most Secret Man in the World” who was dressed in one pant leg and kept shitting himself in The Seven

• “What’s so wrong about wanting to keep your bones?” from Escape from the Bloodkeep

• Izzy throwing a grenade and then trying to catch it because she thought it was a mistake in Never Stop Blowing Up

• Planting an object in Sylvester’s hat early in Mice and Murder (though I never knew what it was gonna be, until he needed a lock pick toward the end)

• Getting to name the baby Leiland Jr. in Escape From the Bloodkeep - I was originally going to name the baby John Feathers Jr., but during a break on set I heard Mercer talk about how bad his rolls were and thought it would be way cooler to give his character a huge win/point of honor in the story

If you want to be a better improviser, it always starts from good listening. It can also help to ask yourself, “what would my character think about this?” I also highly recommend taking improv classes at UCB! It loosens you up and makes you think in the moment.

What was it like playing at Brendan’s tables in the past vs playing at the Never Stop Blowing Up table? Asking based on the sheer amount of chaos that amounted from each episode vs other seasons.
All the D20 seasons I have done were awesome, and NBSU was really special because we got to be EXTREMELY stupid without worrying too much about if it would take us off the rails. So that was REALLY freeing. I also loved using Kids on Bikes for that, because I thought it helped facilitate being insane.  

Is there a dropout cast member that you would like to do actual play with that you haven’t or would like to play with again? 
I’d love to do an actual play with with Jess Ross. She is one of the funniest writers and people I know and I think I would laugh my ass off. I’d also love to do another season with Becca, Mercer, and Trapp!

Do you do Internal Family Systems therapy???? Because when I saw the whole 'little Katja' thing in the Seven I was like OMG REKHA HAS AN IFS THERAPIST. Or maybe you're just good with your inner child in general.
HAHA. I see an MFT! But I do think I think about my childhood/the childhoods of people I love a lot, too.

These questions were AWESOME! Thanks so much for submitting them. Hope your new year is off to a great start.

More soon!

Rekha

And if you want to see me LIVE, then check out:

01/08/25: Art Begets Show at 7p PT (hosted by ME and Sandeep Parikh) @ UCB Franklin (for those not in LA, livestream tickets ARE available!!!!!!! Featuring LOU WILSON and JORDAN MYRICK!)

01/15/25: The Multitude at 7:30p PT (hosted by Priyanka Mattoo) @ The Elysian