Dimension 20 doc reveals ‘legendary’ artist Rick Perry’s impact on its D&D show

polygon.com:

Back when I was running the game for my local Dungeons & Dragons group, I would always pride myself on bringing something handmade each time we got together around the table. Maybe it was a leather-bound book filled with vintage David Sutherland illustrations of the Tomb of Horrors, or a 3D map of a few rooms from Castle Ravenloft with just the right assortment of miniatures from my collection. As a lifelong fan of D&D, Rick Perry knows that impulse well. But as production designer and creative producer on Dropout’s Dimension 20, he’s operating at a scale that’s on another level entirely.

Season 21 of Dimension 20, an actual play program on the streaming television service Dropout, will premiere on Jan. 10, 2024. It’s an incredible run that shows no sign of slowing down, and Perry’s work has been integral in its popularity. To celebrate his impact, Dropout has released a feature documentary titled The Legendary Rick Perry and the Art of Dimension 20. In advance of its release, Polygon sat down with the lifelong Texan, now a resident of Washington state, to discuss his work.

While world class Dungeon Masters like Brennan Lee Mulligan, Aabria Iyengar, Gabe Hicks, and Matthew Mercer lead each game at the start of each Dimension 20 season with a high-level creative direction, it’s up to Perry and his team of skilled artists to bring that vision to life in miniature on the table. That means creating hundreds of inch-tall figures from scratch using clay and sculpting tools; kitbashing dozens of scale models into fantastical landscapes to anchor the viewer in the world; and crafting dynamic, multi-tiered battle maps where skilled improv actors can chew up the set.

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