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Misfits and Magic
Misfits and Magic is the tenth season of Dimension 20, an actual play anthology web series which features various tabletop role-playing games. It aired from June 30, 2021 to July 21, 2021 on Dropout with two specials released in December 2021 and August 2022. The season was reviewed favorably, with a sequel season premiering on September 25, 2024 as the 23rd season of Dimension 20.[1] Inspired by Harry Potter, the show features Aabria Iyengar as the game master with the player cast of Erika Ishii, Brennan Lee Mulligan, Danielle Radford, and Lou Wilson as Americans who are invited to a Hogwarts-like school to study magic. However, the show deviates from and criticizes its source material for perceived bigotry, making modifications to some aspects of the material and highlighting the absurdity in other aspects. In addition, Misfits and Magic sought to rebut Harry Potter's lack of diversity in its central casting, making its own cast and characters majority-black. The second Misfits and Magic season is a continuation of the original campaign set three years later, in which the pilot program members reunite to investigate the disappearance of magic from the world. Cast and characters
PremiseMisfits and Magic is inspired by, and is a reaction to, the Harry Potter series and contemporary changes in its public perception. The reputation of the Harry Potter series slipped in the decades after its release, as various new analyses shone a light on elements of the series—and public statements of its author, J. K. Rowling—that have been criticized as bigoted. Creative director Orion D. Black told The Daily Dot that the season sought to counter Harry Potter's lack of diverse representation in its central cast. At the same time, Black and Aabria Iyengar both felt that the series still had a meaningful impact on them, and wanted to tell a story that captured that. They also sympathized with those who chose not to watch the season because of its connection to Harry Potter.[2] To that end, Misfits and Magic emulates many aspects of Harry Potter, sometimes as a tribute, sometimes in mockery. In a similar line to Harry Potter, the season follows four Americans with no prior magical ability as they attempt to navigate the culture of Gowpenny, a secret school of witchcraft and wizardry meant to serve as a parallel to Hogwarts. However, the characters also rebel against the source material; for example, during the sorting ceremony, they disrupt the scene with criticism of Gowpenny's (and implicitly, Hogwarts's) tracking of students into "houses", and particularly the existence of the "evil" house. The setting itself also deviates from the source in some ways: the kitchen, for example, was not staffed by slave labor akin to the house elf.[3] Further, in what the creators and actors saw as a departure from the Harry Potter series, Misfits and Magic focuses primarily on actors and characters of color, with the season featuring a majority-black cast and a non-binary character.[4] ProductionMisfits and Magic departed significantly from other seasons in Dimension 20 in terms of production. Rather than Dungeons & Dragons, the first season of Misfits and Magic uses the Kids on Brooms system, and instead of Dimension 20's regular arrangement of minis and battle maps, it mostly utilizes theatre of the mind.[3] The show was developed by game master Aabria Iyengar and Dimension 20 creative director Orion D. Black.[5] The season was also Brennan Lee Mulligan's first season as a player, as he usually serves as the show's game master.[2] Seasons of Dimension 20 are broadly divided into Intrepid Heroes campaigns and Side Quests campaigns;[6] Misfits and Magic was the first Side Quest campaign to receive a second season.[7] The first season of Misfits and Magic was the tenth season of Dimension 20; a second season of Misfits and Magic, Dimension 20's twenty-third season, premiered in September 2024. The cast reprise their roles in the second season, which picks up three years after the events of the first season.[1][8][9] This campaign uses the Never Stop Making Magic system, which is a custom mix of the Kids on Brooms system and Dropout's Never Stop System. Like the first season, the second does not utilize battle maps, but instead features other set elements.[10] EpisodesSeries overview
Season 1 (2021)
Specials
Season 2 (2024)
ReceptionMichael Crider of PC World reviewed the season favourably, complimenting Brennan Lee Mulligan's performance as Evan Kelmp and his character's arc, which foils Dream's. He also wrote that the show's format makes it "a great introduction to the actual play format".[3] Brandon Zachary, for ScreenRant, similarly thought that Mulligan as Evan Kelmp was the show's "highlight" within the entire "delightful" cast.[12] Zachary noted that "among the elements of Harry Potter the series takes deliberate aim at is the inherently evil 'Dark Lord' archetype" and Misfits and Magic "subverts Voldemort's lack of a true character arc by giving their take on that character a far more compelling storyline".[12] Theo Kogod of CBR recalled Misfits and Magic when Wizards of the Coast, the company that publishes Dungeons & Dragons, released a supplement for a magical university called Strixhaven which is inspired by "Harry Potter and other stories about magic schools". Kogod noted that Misfits and Magic had seen the need for a Harry Potter actual play system well before.[13] References
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