as Erika said, "we're evil but we understand communication and consent"

@zeusdemi6858

2 жыл бұрын

Yeah, just not consent when it comes to people not being torn apart by an Orc horde or having their home overtaken by swarms of giant spiders

@erickmejia4602

2 жыл бұрын

Just because you understand something doesn't mean you can't ignore it

@raymondfisheriii791

2 жыл бұрын

@@erickmejia4602 if anything it means it’s easier to ignore, because you know when you hear it and can decide you don’t want to hear it anymore much faster

@kstar1489

2 жыл бұрын

@@zeusdemi6858 that’s indeed the joke

@fenixmeaney6170

Жыл бұрын

There are a non0 amount of heroes who don't understand communication and consent, just saying

So the oracle screaming "YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO BE VILLAINS, WHAT YOU ARE DESCRIBING IS GOOD" was ACTUALLY Brennan... noice.

@nicholascordero6600

2 жыл бұрын

And effy did kill the oracle, dies that mean she should have become the new dm

@nunbeam

2 жыл бұрын

When/what ep was this?

@triccele

2 жыл бұрын

@@nunbeam I watched it a long time ago, but if I'm not qrong, is in the last episode of "Escape feom the Blood Keep".

@nicholascordero6600

2 жыл бұрын

@@nunbeam it's one of the adventuring party episodes, I think specifically for blood keep's finale

@sirloinofchateaumarinade9312

2 жыл бұрын

@@nunbeam the end of the penultimate episode, so I think ep.5

TBH "thwarting Brennan" was like the the biggest component of the entire Bloodkeep campaign, so it's no surprise.

@Dreamer19138

2 жыл бұрын

To be fair, thwarting Brennan is a big component of D20 in general.

@redstorm8373

2 жыл бұрын

Thwarting Brennan, and Matt rolling poorly

@patchworkgolem

2 жыл бұрын

"I cast relentless hex"

@Hatmis

Жыл бұрын

To be fair, thwarting Brennan is a big component of life in general

@logicaloverdrive8197

Жыл бұрын

@@Dreamer19138 "Sometimes you make a villain, and they get killed in 2 turns." This entire campaign was that quote, but instead of the final fight, it happened in the very first fight

I mean, they were good in the beginning when they said “Join the Evil side, we have unions.”

@DeathnoteBB

2 жыл бұрын

Damn they unintentionally foreshadowed not going PVP at the end! They wouldn’t, they were a union!

@The_Jovian

2 жыл бұрын

@@DeathnoteBB no union busting in the bloodkeep

@maxthescarecrow4038

2 жыл бұрын

"The throne? I hope our entire worker co-op can fit on it because that is one hundred percent what we're fucking doing."

@iantaakalla8180

Жыл бұрын

When the throne is a symbolic Game of Thrones-style throne but they like it because it gives everybody the chance to sit on it, side by side

@ladywaffle2210

Жыл бұрын

Don't you just love it when people are so good at heart that they can't be evil even when they intend to be?

so Brennan was defeated by the power of love?

@_viridium_

2 жыл бұрын

He was the true villain all along 😂

@kingskelett6265

2 жыл бұрын

And the power of friendship.

@bodenking

2 жыл бұрын

Evil love and evil friendship, but yes

@bradenjuengel9104

2 жыл бұрын

and Jer'em'ih

@romxxii

2 жыл бұрын

@@_viridium_ Brennan's all the bad guys, he's said this before.

It's actually kinda funny because in Ep 5 you can see that Brennan starts to instill the idea in certain players that their character would be best for the throne, but about half-way through he gives up. For example, when two of them are falling from the airship, Brennan says that whilst looking at the endless wastes of the kingdom, they both realise that nobody else really cared about their ambitions/all the stupidity of the previous leader led to this unnecesary death

@DeathnoteBB

2 жыл бұрын

Lmao that’s great. Sadly for Brennan’s plans, the power of friendship was too strong XD

@kingskelett6265

2 жыл бұрын

And the best is, I think they took it to heart in the „let’s do it better this time!“ way.

@devinberry4472

2 жыл бұрын

It's hard to fight for your lives together and risk your lives together without forming a super deep bond. Sometimes even enemies would form a certain level of respect after spending years going back and forth and risking their lives. Something about almost dying makes you realize your humanity.

@cydude5856

2 жыл бұрын

And then Lilith interprets this as "None of this would have happened if everyone in the bloodkeep wasn't friends that all loved each other."

@danielaabadia7490

Жыл бұрын

Erika picked up on it and tried, but then the power of friendship got to her character 😅

I feel like to comedic tone of this campaign played into them not fighting eachother in the end, because having these evil characters, who want to do terrible things, having very positive interpersonal relationships is funnier that them all being dicks who betray eachother

@notjohnbruno1522

10 ай бұрын

@@user-tx7bm7kl2yhey man have you ever considered self-reflecting and maybe changing and growing as a person

@ronburgundy244

9 ай бұрын

​@@user-tx7bm7kl2yThis is a sign you're probably a shitty DM, because you literally can't have anything but your way. Your players doing things that go an against your plans isn't shitty roleplaying.

excellent thwarting. the power of brennan has been evaded for now.

@matthewevans5486

2 жыл бұрын

I choose to think the power or Matt Mercer cancelled it out

@Cendar

2 жыл бұрын

I swear Brennan tries to come up with a plan and everytime, his players just decide to fuck it up

@stuarthutzler6670

2 жыл бұрын

@@Cendar Welcome to Dungeons & Dragons, my friend!

@Cendar

2 жыл бұрын

@@stuarthutzler6670 I'll say this as the forever dm since my high school days. I know it all to well my friend, lol

As someone who's met and made polite conversation with this kind of people, I can say that the Vile Villains perfectly represent how truly evil people who happen to be nice and respectful really are. They're pleasant company, and they have their own values, it's just that "killing people is wrong" ain't one of these, so I'm truly not surprised they ended up banding together.

@Vespuchian

2 жыл бұрын

Lawful Evil at its finest.

@vickylikesthis

2 жыл бұрын

That happens to be most heroes too!

@quartzintherough

2 жыл бұрын

@@Vespuchian Counterpoint, not only is Markus, a Chaotic Evil PC, arguably the nicest of them, the people in real life I'm basing this analysis on are textbook Chaotic Evil, and I first noticed it in fiction with Bill Seacaster, who is also Chaotic Evil

@Chrjstheshadow

2 жыл бұрын

@@quartzintherough THANK YOU! I don’t know why so many people put Bill as chaotic neutral when the man’s literally condemning souls to hell as a capitalist warlock patron for fun! I don’t think it’s ever even established that Bill gets anything out of the wealth he hordes since the economy of hell might not even function off mortal currency

@cadenmcerlean4920

2 жыл бұрын

Man I'm doing this in a D&D game right now and it's funny as hell when my character walks in, chats with lower class people, enjoys the town fair, and the heroes who are supposed to stop me at the big noble dinner later that night end up actually helping me because I'm nicer than the people I'm planning on overthrowing

The power of love transcends all moral boundaries. And the power of fucking with Brennan.

Man. I wish we could get this cast back. Immediately after watching this series I started it over again. Matt was amazing as a player and there was some natural chemistry between all of them. A lot of fun. Really hoped for more, or at least another series sort of like this.

@TheUncannyDani

2 жыл бұрын

This was hands down the funniest show Dimension 20 has brought me.

@FictionRaider007

2 жыл бұрын

They were pretty great. But having watched more Dimension 20 now, they always get good people in. I may have missed this dynamic in particular but because of the sort of people the show brings in, I've found others I like just as much or even more. Like I love Dimension 20 now and looking back I find it hard to believe Lou Wilson - whose pretty much always my favourite player at the D20 table - wasn't even in this mini-season!

@dalynbratcher9888

2 жыл бұрын

@@FictionRaider007 Lou is fuckin great. Love that guy. "Toxic masculinity IS DEAD-AH" Having Matt here was great, if we could get brennan AND matt in the same game as players it would be a series on par if not better than this one.

I present to you my evil found family when we all wear mascara and other types of eyeliner

It's truly a miracle that the baby, Je're'mi, and Ol' Pickering survived the campaign.

@bloodyhell8201

2 жыл бұрын

But Ole pickering Didnt :(

@CitanulsPumpkin

2 жыл бұрын

@@bloodyhell8201 damn, I need to rewatch the finale. I could have sworn he survived perched on Lilith's back the whole time.

@SyrinoxNight

Жыл бұрын

But did Galfast? And did Leiland ever get his pic-a-nic dinner?

@ob2kenobi388

Жыл бұрын

@@SyrinoxNight Not yet, but here's how I imagine it went down: Deep, deep in the Ruckland, far beyond the rolling green hills and past the babbling brooks, there's a quaint little Halfling nursing home. In one of the rooms is Galfast Hamhead, the Halfling who nearly destroyed the Forces of Darkness almost single-handedly, at the ripe old age of 130-one of the oldest Halflings there's ever been. She sleeps in her wheelchair, the sun coming through the window and illuminating her face. A hand gently touches her shoulder, stirring her from her slumber. A woman's voice, "Galfast. Galfast, you have a visitor!" and Hamhead gives a groggy, senile "Oh... that's... that's nice, then!". She looks up, and sees the devilish visage of Maggie staring back at her. Hamhead's eyes go wide and she turns back towards her door, and the ghostly form of Leiland steps through, his arms crossed. "Hello, Galfast" he says, as he chuckles and unsheathes his runeblade, slick with the blood of the nursing home staff left in his wake. He slowly closes the door and begins stepping towards Hamhead as she begins screaming, before everything fades to black.

@Swordsman1425

Жыл бұрын

​@@CitanulsPumpkin He was, but then he was killed by, I think one of the orcs, and his body fell into the bottomless pit.

I'm more shocked that Brennan is like that 24/7.

@EverTheFractal

2 жыл бұрын

oh yeah according to his fiancee he's like that all the time. I love it, brings a genuine energy to episodes.

@DeathnoteBB

2 жыл бұрын

Brennan is all chaos

@sampogmore6655

Жыл бұрын

Brennan is somehow Lawful Choatic because he seems to be normal until he opens his mouth. Izzy is definitely chaotic chaotic

That was what made Escape From the Bloodkeep so awesome, though! It went totally off the rails and the spectators were left honestly rooting for the bad/not so bad guys!

@Jstaman

11 ай бұрын

Honestly the whole time I had to keep reminding myself wait these are the villains lol

Never underestimate the power of Brennan as a common enemy

The greatest magic of all is the power of friendship

@hotshootful

Жыл бұрын

No it's not you fool It's chronomancy

@solosynapse

11 ай бұрын

It's absolutely chronomancy

In a way, the players enhanced the story by not only just making a better plot, but making our antagonists like Olag dark mirrors of them, with how much Olag is devoted to one single person, but that devotion is obviously misguided. Olag is really like if Leiland never had any friends in a way.

Matt being like 'this is beautiful' speaks volumes. Like, it's nice for him to be on the other side of it happening. Xp

"Wait. This isn't how this was supposed to go. You were supposed to kill each other in a desperate attempt for power!" "But I love my homies" *Friendship is Magic*

@Mr.Bubbles42

3 күн бұрын

Be careful, saying that kinda of thing is very triggering for a certain wizard

Escape From the Bloodkeep proved that the greatest evil in the world is the power of friendship.

Maybe the real evil were the friends we made along the way

It was absolutely beautiful to watch these amazingly wholesome villains find they were more than allies, they were friends and family.

Escape from the bloodkeep: LETS DO FRIENDSHIP! A crown of candy: LETS DO TRAUMA!

The level of evil that the world is never ready to face. The band of villains powered by the power of love and friendship.

And then you get the pirate campaign where they go into pvp in the first episode 😂

@walkabeast

2 жыл бұрын

There's a d20 pirate campaign?

@SoraJack

2 жыл бұрын

@@walkabeast Pirates of Leviathan, a side quest set in the same world as Fantasy High. They recorded it remote.

@QtPieMarth

2 жыл бұрын

@@walkabeast As above stated, Pirates of Leviathan! I strongly suggest watching Fantasy High Freshman and Sophomore Years first, though, as you'll understand the world a lot more. It's not _required_, but if you plan on watching them, you'll be spoiled for certain things and Leviathan is a decent chunk of Sophomore Year along with important NPCs.

@Kewlausgirl

2 жыл бұрын

Oh really! I haven't seen that one yet lol. Maybe I should watch that one xD

@DeathnoteBB

2 жыл бұрын

@@QtPieMarth Didn’t sophomore year come after the leviathan campaign?

Being thwarted as a DM is both frustrating and heartwarming because it shows your players are having fun and truly care about telling their characters story

Absolutely love the cast of this show

Unprompted? Every battle was a goddamn rollercoaster of emotion lol😂

Perhaps the real PVP was the friends they made along the way

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, Ironically stone gaze is also in that eye...

@Nethr

11 ай бұрын

I feel like such a nerd for getting that joke.

@judem.2333

11 ай бұрын

@@Nethr It gets better when you realise you have always been one.:D

@Nethr

11 ай бұрын

@@judem.2333 I know I've always been one, I just didn't know I had it so bad that I would get somewhat esoteric DnD jokes even though I haven't even played DnD before.

@Dimension 20 Shorts, I don’t know who is in charge of selecting these excellent grabs but y’all are doing great work and every time I see one of these posts it is a delight. I want to whole team to know that you’re appreciated and doing a great job! Spring Break, I believe in you.

This campaign had such a wonderful Addams Family vibe to it

We usually end up with the same alignments at the end of the campaigns, which are us bonding together, but when we all have split alignments and dont mention it. It always ends in bloodbaths. One i lost halfway to our paladin as a warlock, along with everyone else. but my ranger fighter won against our party of mage, warlocks, and bard.

The power of friendship wins no matter what side it is on.

the power of friendship wins yet again

This is still one of my like, top three favourite seasons. I know it was a side quest but damnit it deserves a sequel

Good advice for any DM: Never underestimate the Power of Friendship.

@thefracturedbutwhole5475

2 жыл бұрын

I'm pretty sure Chronomancy is the greatest and most powerful magic. kzread.info/dash/bejne/ZniHvNFyZqurmc4.html

@jsmountain

2 жыл бұрын

@@thefracturedbutwhole5475 Friendship is friendship! Magic is magic! Did they use magic to avoid a mega-PVP battle? No, they used friendship!

Brennan had to have known that the player characters were never going to fight. The actors playing the characters were constantly shying away from the characters being actually evil 😂

@kumonoameai

Жыл бұрын

It's not that they aren't evil, they're just evil for work but maintain healthy relationships with their coworkers.

The heroes' academy Principal: And remember the greatest magic of all is -Chronomancy- The villans: *FRIENDSHIP* Like WTF!!!

@shadowlord1418

Жыл бұрын

We all seech for what we lack. What do villains lack most of all

@clickpause8732

Жыл бұрын

@@shadowlord1418Chronomancy

Something like this happened in our dark sun game. We were all evil but just the constant near death hazards forced us to work together like better than we had in previous games

To be fair Brennan did make all but like one of the Heroes that they were fighting against terrible people in their own right.

I'm gonna translate this into English 'Fuck all you, you are wonderful, and I treasure each and every one of you.'

The sequel: 6 villains and a baby too.

Brennan: "OH, I'M CRAZY FOR IMAGINING THAT SIX VILLAINS WOULD FIGHT FOR POWER?!" Well, when you put it that way...

@ApequH

11 ай бұрын

To be fair Sokhbarr wasn't "that" evil, and with the way Leiland was rolling he would never make a grab for power

No no, you see, THAT’S the most villainous thing they could have done - subverted their own natures in order to bring ruin to the Big Guy In The Sky!

escape from the bloodkeep holds a special place in my heart forever. definitely my favorite sidequest

When the party uses the power of friendship to avoid a dark destiny.

Sometimes it's the psychotic friends you make along the way. 🖤

It was truly the most fun in my opinion, not the most thematic or the longest, but those PCs just jamming out was amazing

Would kill for a sequel lol or at least these players again

@MorganBondelid

2 жыл бұрын

+eleventy million YES, PLS, SEQUEL

It just goes to show that "hero" and "villain" are often no more than a matter of perspective.

are these candid clips from inside the dome common? I can't remember seeing many, but I love them and hope they get published more frequently

Escape from the Bloodkeep is probably my favorite D20 show, I come back to it every few months or so

the real treasure were the friends we made along the way (and messing up Brennan's plans)

"6 Villains and a Baby" - the new heartwarming comedy coming to theatres near you

They may be villains, but they're not monsters

The key thing to understand is that evil is selfish. And that means protecting the things you care about at the expense of others. They casually killed tons of people, but cared about each other. A hero will sacrifice themself to save someone they love. A villain sacrifices someone else to save someone they love.

You could see Brennan trying to lead them towards hating each other throughout the episodes

I'm so deeply curious as to whether or not Rekha discussed her character's pregnancy with Brennan before the game got going, or whether it was an in game audible. Because - to me - that was the clenching factor. The PCs now had a way out that didn't involve collapsing into PvP and infighting. Leland Jr. became a...diavolo ex machina? An evil deus ex machina.

@romxxii

2 жыл бұрын

I think they covered the topic on their "cast reunion" videos, on their Dimension 20 site. kzread.info/dash/bejne/aGeoxaZrj8vOeLg.html EDIT Included a timestamp for your convenience. Rekha informed Brennan about the pregnancy beforehand.

I love that Brennan puts love, family, and friendship in the campaigns but I know this man is bloodthirsty and is barely sustained by pvp moments (whether in or out of combat) in different seasons (disclaimer: this is a joke and not to be taken seriously)

Escape from Bloodkeep is my favourite D&D actual play ever. I need a sequel!

It’s even funnier because Rekha, who I think is playing her first game ever, was the one responsible for fucking it all up. If Maggy didn’t have that baby, what would have changed?

“oh, I’m crazy for imagining that six villains would fight for power?!”😂😂

Interestingly I’ve seen this once before in a different DnD show where all the players were also supposed to be evil, bad people and it didn’t really work out, and then some time later the DM said "That was one of the weaker sessions because we forced them to be evil when they didn’t want that."

Literally defeated with the power of love and friendship. Glorious.

I love how Matt's just sitting there like "things are getting good"

Matt with the closeup there was great.

I'm a dropout subscriber, is there more behind the scenes like this I can find somewhere on dropout? I've seen the interviews post game for the wrap ups but I would love more of these with Brennan from the DM perspective of what was happening within the games. In particular I loved the Crown of Candy saga!

@swimteamizzle1114

2 жыл бұрын

There's Adventuring Party, which are discussions filmed after every episode of Dimension 20 going back to A Crown of Candy, and there's Adventuring Academy which is Brennan talking about running D&D campaigns more generally. There's also a 27-minute "Behind the Scenes of Dimension 20: A Crown of Candy" under "Bonus Content" for that season.

@romxxii

2 жыл бұрын

Pretty sure this right here is taken from a BTS of Escape from the Bloodkeep, plus Brennan did two more post-game videos with the cast. The latter two are on -College Humor's main channel.- EDIT: I found them on the Dimension 20 channel.

The power of friendship works in mysterious ways

I gotta rewatch Escape From Bloodkeep. It was a great campaign

Mercer just enjoying that it's not his plans getting thrown out.

I love this every time it pops up.

All the beautiful friendship aside, That would be an amazing end battle

Well it was more peace-war-game than prisoners dilemma at multiple places.

I blame the baby lol.

@DeathnoteBB

2 жыл бұрын

Yeah I think the baby really helped unify them. Also all the characters largely liked each other a lot and it probably felt ooc to attack each other. Also maybe they didn’t even consider it, since usually D&D is about fighting NPCs, not players

..."and Ol' Pickering" 😂

“She came down in a bubble dude” energy 😂😂

Thwarting the DM is the true evil.

You are bad guy but this does not mean you are bad guy

It's kinda beautiful the fact that no matter if you're good or evil the power of love and friendship will always prevail. :p

The power of friendship wins again 🤟

Instead this group was the most wholesome group of all of Dimension 20.

The power of friendship thwarts all

Yeah, with how things went, the PVP's just not happening.

It was always going to be really hard to get Pcs in a D&D game to actively try to kill each other (as a group...getting them to kill one PC who tried to take their stuff and kill them, not so hard. This is especially true without a long rest in there. Even more so in a short form campaign and with new players. Anyone who can cast invisibility has to die first, otherwise they can just go invisible and wait for everyone to kill each other before using a magic missile or fireball or whatever to finish off the remaining PCs. (this usually doesn't happen in actual games, because most people don't have the patience for their mage to not do anything for the entire game). Next is the druid. This largely depends on the type of druid being played, but a Circle of the Moon Druid who can Polymorph and wild shape is going to just cause havoc. Anyone who can Polymorph is basically the next target that has to be taken out. Even more true if the Circle of the Moon Druid has gotten a short rest in while the rest of the party has already taken damage. Warlocks probably have to be taken out next due to having abilities that allow them to attack from significantly far distances for impressive damage. This make an organic fight that much more difficult since you have to start with the magical party members, but story wise that may not line up very well. This brings us to the next major hurdle and that is that in any large group of powerful people, you may have someone who wishes to seize power, but they have to do so sneakily. At the end, having any one PC turn on the rest, is more likely to result in that PC dying and the rest solving the issue. Effectively to get a fight, you have to have a situation where everyone is going to turn on everyone, and that is a lot harder to do, especially with new players who may not feel comfortable starting something like that. Like PVP is interesting, but D&D is not really the game for it. Anyone who can cast invisibility and allow everyone to kill each other is the favorite to win, and even then, its hard to beat a circle of the moon druid who can cast polymorph. A 10nth level druid can cast polymorph 5 times to become a CR 10 beast. Then wildshape twice. So really hard to pull off a right between PCs Unless someone starts the game off knowing they are going to betray everyone and conserves spells. Rogues are probably the worse class to be if you are going to be participating in PvP, and that is because getting sneak attack is going to be really hard, because of whether or not people are going to be counting as an "enemy" of the person you are attacking or not. Its not a reliable means of damage output. The best hope for PVP in the game would be if they had become two factions that were competing against each other. I think a longer form game would be helpful to allow for the connections between characters to be made to make PvP a bigger possibility.

That's such an awesome premise tho. I can't imagine playing a campaign like that and then suddenly you get to turn on your friends and all all-out brawl starts

Honor among villains! :) A beautiful tale!

Never forget ol'pickering.

Oooo what about doing another villain campaign, but like the villains are all in control or separate factions trying to take over the world instead of the same faction to begin with. And they make roles and send out minions and armies and such and spread their influence. While at the same time have a group of player characters exploring the land who are played by a separate group. Then when the player character group goes and completes some quest to liberate a village or something, when next you meet with the villains you give a summary of how well the various missions and territory expansions are going and if anything has been set back. Like the back story to how we get to the blood keep where all these villains of various types come together under a single banner and their rivalries with the heroes. But yeah, P v P dueling role play games between a hero group/groups and none-aligned /aligned villain group/s

I love Brennan he’s so funny

Bloodkeep was my introduction to Dimension 20!!

When things couldn't get worse, but in the act of becoming the worst, it becomes something far better than you could have possibly imagined. This is why I love table top roleplaying games.

I love how Brennan enjoy chaos and anarchy...smae

Cannot stress how much I want a Bloodkeep sequel. Maybe centered around Marcus's sky Kingdom and his attempt to take over? I just, I need more of these characters! Not to mention there's potential to bring in new players or at least have some players play new characters. I'd argue that Efink and Sokhbar's arcs are kinda done, but the other are left at the end in a good midpoint of their arcs. Look I'm just saying if you make a sequel and it has a million fans I'm one of them. If it has one fan I'm that fan. If it has no fans I have shed this mortal coil. I need this so badly in my life.

He was defeated by the power of friendship

This is the moment when a DM has to realize that they are not getting the spectacle they had hoped for, but a really good story-moment.

I'm rewatching this now and it's hilarious

Were it not for Matt’s dreadful roles, they wouldn’t have had the catalyst for their union

As Jeremy, I can tell you this is accurate.