as we've come to the end of the season, it's time for me to give you all an update on what our stats look like at the moment.
overall stats:
d20 episode count: 299
all d20 content episode count: 652 (653 including tomorrow's adventuring party)
total runtime: 647:21:44, or 26 days, 23 hours, 21 minutes, and 44 seconds of dimension 20 to date.
average episode length: 2:09:54, which isn't far from the median of 2:08:55
cloudward, ho! runtime: 44:14:43
cloudward, ho! average episode length: 2:12:44
longest episode: episode 20: outward past beyond (3:14:23)
shortest episode: episode 15: run-in with the ruinous queen (1:39:19)
cloudward, ho! is the third longest intrepid heroes season to date, just behind fantasy high junior year (44:44:20) and fantasy high sophomore year (52:13:31).
it also has the 4th longest episode with the finale, after the finale of fhsy, mismag ii, and the mismag holiday special
player stats:
brennan has been in the dome for 25/27 seasons, and 288/299 episodes
lou has been in the dome for 14/27 seasons, and 204/299 episodes
ally has been in the dome for 13/27 seasons, and 200/299 episodes
siobhan has been in the dome for 12/27 seasons, and 193/299 episodes
zac has been in the dome for 12/27 seasons, and 189/299 episodes
emily has been in the dome for 11/27 seasons, and 184/299 episodes
murph has been in the dome for 10/27 seasons, and 176/299 episodes
the intrepid heroes have a solid lead in terms of seasons now, in contrast to last year, given the time quangle episodes as well as cloudward, ho!. for context, the next in line is aabria, with 59 episodes over 7 seasons. unfortunately i don't think we're getting a q4 aabria season this year, since there are a few live shows that have yet to come out and she's been doing the 10/11 ep seasons for a while now.
character stats
the zephyr crew are a primarily martial party, with all of their magic coming from multiclasses or partial casters. they also used epic level 6 progression instead of standard leveling for most of the characters, which allowed them to expand their capabilities laterally instead of linearly. this means they have some of the highest stats, with many of them running around with 22's for casting/fighting stats.
they've brought up the ranks of fighters to 20, and rogues to 25.
at the end of the season, here's how each of the wind riders has progressed:
daisuke 'pappy' bucklesby: fighter (gunslinger) 6
feats/epic epiphanies: tinkering project (repeating shot), fastest gun in the west, duck & weave, dive for cover, ability zenith (dex)
feats/epic epiphanies: down but not out, dig in, underdog's grit, moment of genius, dive for cover
xp leveling
even though they were doing epic level 6, it's still fun to see how the progression would have gone. this progression matches up pretty well with some of the other intrepid heroes seasons--they've gotten it down to a pattern. any adjustments are made for environmental factors, the number of enemies, etc.
the path out of gath: straightforward airship combat.
eisengeist brutes: CR 3. total of 8 of them, with a 1.5 multiplier for the number, gives a total of 8400 XP
lord kensington cosgrove mordecestershire: CR 4, for 1100 XP
mech brute: CR 5, for 1800 XP. would have been a major threat but got thrown off just so easily.
total XP count: 11300 XP
a tussle in tabira city: a fighting ring!
porcoro: CR 5, for 1800 XP
barney ballast: CR 6, for 2300 XP
brachiosaurus: CR 5, based on brontosaurus stats because that’s the most similar beast that i could find. 0.5x modifier because monty made friends with his handler. 900 XP
total XP count: 5000 XP
raptors at ramansu: just so many velociraptors.
legatus dromarcus petronius: CR 2, for 675 XP
legio rex: CR 1, using deinonychus stats. total of 10 directly defeated, for 3000 XP
imperasaurus rex: CR 8, whether by t-rex or t-rex zombie stats. 5850 XP
total XP count: 9525 XP
skirmish above the swirling sea: slicing and dicing up viking bankers.
bank of fehujar fighters: CR 3. I counted 8, but there might be more. 1.5x modifier for number, total of 8400 XP
rolfgar halvorson: CR 6, based on his damage output. equivalent to barney ballast, which is deeply funny. 2300 XP
ornithopters: CR 4. I counted 4. 1.5x modifier for number and their ability to get on the zephyr. 6600 XP
total XP count: 18450 XP
eyeless crisis at katur: underwater mindflayer cult.
langostrum gargantanex: CR 6, basically splitting the difference between a hulking crab and huge giant crab, 2x environmental modifier, total of 4600 XP
eyeless hand cultists: their statblock essentially combines the vampiric mindflayer with the cultist fanatic. CR 5, and there were of 12 of them, 2x environmental modifier, total of 43200 XP
lord kensington cosgrove mordecestershire: not the same statblock as last time; a combination of the mindflayer psion and spellcaster statblocks. CR 8, 2x environmental modifier, total of 7800 XP
tazgw'agwa: if we use a kraken statblock, tazgw'agwa is CR 23. I used a 0.25x modifier because they did not defeat him, and he did serve as an ally for van. total of 12500 XP
total XP count: 68100 XP
a fraught forge in zern: build your own mech night.
medium naughtomata: all the unspecialized fighters (forgies/foot soldiers). CR 3, with 13 defeated and a 2x environmental modifier, total of 18200 XP
dreadnought: CR 5, with 2 defeated + 2x modifier, total of 7200 XP
motorcycle: CR 3, 2x modifier, total of 1400 XP
bell: truly awful. i'm calling it CR 5 based on the damage output it inflicted via the extra attacks. 2 of them, 2x modifier, total of 7200 XP
wheelbarrow: CR 4, 3 of them, 2x modifier, total of 6600 XP
snake: CR 5, 2 of the,. 2x modifier, total of 7200 XP
laser turret: CR 2, 2x modifier, total of 900 XP
pulverizer: CR 5, 2 of them, 2x modifier, total of 7200 XP
crab: CR 3, 2 of them, 2x modifier, total of 2800 XP
megatron: CR 15, but they didn't actually defeat it, so 0.5x modifier, total of 6500 XP
total XP count: 65200 XP
outward past beyond: fighting the straka while all of your loved ones arrive to kill you.
undead ludmila ryczanek: CR 15, based on her damage output and legendary actions. 1.5x modifier. total of 19500 XP
straka: CR 23 hellbird. essentially a type of colossus. 1.5x modifier. total of 75000 XP
longspot gotch: CR 6. 1.5x modifier. total of 3450 XP
hatwell gotch: originally was going to be graded higher but then i realized how stupid he is. CR 3, 1.5x modifier, 1050 XP
naughtovermin: CR 1/4, 6 of them, 1.5x modifier. 450 XP
dire naughtovermin: CR 2, 3 of them, 1.5x modifier, 2025 XP
corrodi primarchs: i calculated based on their damage output, spell list, AC, and HP. really not as powerful as i thought they would be. overwhelming if you're alone with them. CR 3, 4 of them, 1.5x modifier, 4200 XP.
total XP count: 105675 XP
season XP count: 283250 XP, which is enough for the wind riders to collectively get up to level 8
and that's all for this round-up of thisisnotthenerd's d20 stats! i hope you enjoyed it! if you'd like more details on how i ran these stats, you can check out my spreadsheets:
thisisnotthenerd's d20 stats [general stats; class breakdowns, player attendance, seating chart data, dimension 20 deaths, etc.]
d20 xp leveling analysis [xp leveling for the intrepid heroes, and maybe some other parties later down the line]
d20 episode randomizer [randomly generate a d20 episode, or peruse other listings; alphabetical, episode order, runtime by season, anniversary style]
or check @d20episodeoftheday for the dimension 20 episode that corresponds to every day of the year!
I have only counted d20 rolls, and only by the players as it is pretty much impossible to track Brennan's rolls. I only counted nat 20s, nat 1s and "other rolls" since the players do not consistently announce what they got on the die. I also kept track of advantage and disadvantage but I am sure some of those slipped by me unannounced.
ALL ROLLS:
As you can see, the vast majority of rolls by the players are skill checks — just over 60%.
PERCENTAGE OF NAT 20s AND NAT 1s:
This chart is really the star of the show! It is why I started this whole godforsaken mission in the first place.
NOTE: This chart is tracking percentage of each player's individual rolls! It is not representative of raw numbers, but instead each column is relative to that player's total d20 rolls this season.
For this one I factored in the advantage and disadvantage rolls, and any way you slice it Zac still rolls the most nat 20s by far.
What surprised me was that Ally rolls proportionally the most nat 1s. That has somehow not entered into the consciousness of the fandom at all, maybe because they roll the fewest dice so the raw number of nat 1s isn't the highest. Conversely, Emily rolls the fewest nat 1s! Murph has rolled more nat 20s than Lou, but he also rolled the most dice so he rolls proportionally fewer 20s.
ATTACK ROLLS:
Gorgug and Fabian go toe to toe in most number of attacks made overall, and both get to make multiple attacks per turn. Riz shoots his arquebus a decent amount. Fig and Kristen barely attack, instead relying on spells that require saving throws. Adaine has some offensive spells, as well as an affinity for fisticuffs.
SKILL CHECKS:
The players roll perception checks more often than any other kind of check, followed by insight and investigation. They don't make any nature or survival checks. As a mystery that takes place in a large town, that absolutely tracks.
ABILITY CHECKS and SAVES:
Sometimes Brennan asks the players to make a check based on a prime ability score. Not very often though.
The saving throws the players make the most often are Dexterity and Wisdom. They don't roll any Intelligence saves.
DEATH SAVES:
There is not a single nat 20 death save in Fantasy High season 1.
OTHER ROLLS:
It is probable that Siobhan made 14 portent rolls — however, she only uses 13 of them. In the house party fight she rolls a d20 three times to see if she is able to use Blink. (Two succeed.) Lou and Emily each make a luck check this season, and in the finale Murph rolls to see if the police get there a total of 10 times. During the fight on the Bloodrush field Emily makes one joke roll to see how gross her spit is. And of course, Ally rolls an absolutely wild nat 20 in part 1 of the finale.
That's it for now! Follow for more Dimension 20 stats, and stay tuned for Bloodkeep.
stats-wise, this is another kids on bikes variation as far as i can tell
when attempting distinct actions as opposed to skill checks, the characters making postapocalyptic mayhem rolls, which are d20 tests performed at advantage. sort of like the difference between making an attack roll / saving throw and a skill check if i had to put it in dnd terminology.
the bummerometer measures failures and stresses in the gladlands. I would hazard a guess that it can affect DCs.
the good goo measures the overall positivity of the gladlands. unused boo-boos get added to the good goo to increase positivity.
successes result in the completion of the action, sometimes with complications, i.e. a 16+ is a full success, 10-15 is a success with complications etc.
failures result in boo-boos, which can be used to adjust rolls in the following ways
add a die to the roll (roll 3 take the highest instead of 2)
add a flat modifier to the roll
when sharing with another person, add 1/2 the die value of the associated skill
they take the place of failure tokens, which have been used in prior kob seasons.
it's not technically using the nsbu system, given the lack of explosions.
i'm not completely clear on the exact mechanics of a bungle, but maybe if they roll below the initial result it can subtract from the roll?
if a character rolls a nat 1 on their postapocalyptic mayhem roll, they immediately & irretrievably die.
It's the first day of 2025, so it's time for a look back at this year of Dimension 20.
General Stats:
We saw a total of 47 Episodes of D20, across 3 seasons and a live tour in the UK. This counted for 98 hours, 50 minutes, and 30 seconds of time on screen, or just over 4 days.
We are now up to 268 total episodes, with 6 more coming starting next Wednesday, January 8th. If we count all of the Dimension 20 content on Dropout, including Adventuring Party, Adventuring Academy, Dimension 20: Behind the Scenes, and Dimension 20 Animated, we're up to 585 episodes.
We got a threequel with Fantasy High: Junior Year and our first sidequest sequel with Misfits and Magic: Season 2.
We also saw the use of a new system in the dome for two seasons: Never Stop Blowing Up. This mix of Kids on Bikes with Murph's Awful Dice Game made for some absolutely insane moments of game-breaking hilarity.
Cast:
We only saw one new cast member in 2024: Jacob Wysocki.
Other than that, we had a plethora of returning cast, with Fantasy High: Junior Year and the Time Quangle live tour featuring the main cast:
Emily Axford
Zac Oyama
Siobhan Thompson
Lou Wilson
Ally Beardsley
Brian Murphy
and Brennan Lee Mulligan as the GM
Never Stop Blowing Up, featuring:
Izzy Roland
Alex Song-Xia
Jacob Wysocki
Ify Nwadiwe
Ally Beardsley
Rekha Shankar
and Brennan Lee Mulligan as the GM
Misfits and Magic: Season 2, featuring
Lou Wilson
Erika Ishii
Danielle Radford
Brennan Lee Mulligan
and Aabria Iyengar as the GM/Magic Mommy
Production:
As always, the dome keeps leveling up with each new season, as we saw:
brand new interactive projections
tons of props and tokens
physical character boards
a moving orrery in the middle of the table
a written test in the middle of a fight
and some of the best battle maps in Dimension 20 history
if you want to see more of these stats and where they come from, feel free to check out the spreadsheets:
thisisnotthenerd's d20 stats for general stats, mechanical breakdowns, seating charts, and more
D20 Episode Randomizer for all the watch orders you could ever want, from chronological, to alphabetical, to utterly random selections at the click of a button.
that battle was hard won. a lot of bad luck in general. i think brennan really upped the difficulty on this one, given that they pretty handily won their previous fights with pretty middling luck.
i'll have to go back for a recount at some point, but i think there were 10-12 cultists, plus mordecestershire, plus tazg'wagwa towards the end. xp-wise:
eyeless crisis at katur:
langostrum gargantanex: the crabberation. CR 6, with a 2x environmental modifier, for 4600 XP
eyeless hand cultists: using a reskinned vampiric mind flayer stat block (CR 5), at a conservative estimate of 12, plus a 2x modifier for the environmental conditions, they come out to 43200 XP
lord kensington cosgrove mordecestershire: a reskinned mind flayer psion (CR 8), with a 2x modifier for environmental conditions, gets 7800 XP
tazg'wagwa: i'm using kraken stats here (CR 23_, given that we only saw tentacles, and i'm applying a 0.25x modifier since we did not see much of it. it's comparable to the terrible dogfish from neverafter. it's funny to me that that was also episode 13, but destiny's children were level 5. 12500 XP
total xp count: 68100 XP, or 11350 each. a CR 24 encounter, compared to the previous (13, 9, 12, 16). it's enough to get their xp leveling for this season to par with their actual level. olethra should be level 6 after this battle, and maybe get her own epic epiphanies.
the tentacles coming out at the end killed me. this week's adventuring party is going to be all tentacle, mark my words.
we're halfway through the season, and since we have a break week i thought it would be a good time to take a look at the combats so far and how they measure up xp-wise
cloudward, ho!
the zephyr crew are doing epic level 6 progression for the most part; instead of gaining levels, they get feats and other combination features to enhance their characters instead.
the party is very martial-heavy; most of the magic tends to be read as technological, with the exception of van, as a warlock.
the path out of gath: the first combination ship / individual combat of the season. lots of fun mechanical intros, and the party being startlingly effective.
eisengeist brutes: CR 3. total of 8 of them, with a 1.5 multiple for the number, gives a total of 8400 XP
lord kensington cosgrove mordecestershire: CR 4, for 1100 XP
mech brute: CR 5, for 1800 XP. would have been a major threat but got thrown off just so easily.
total XP count: 11300 XP
a tussle in tabira city: not a setpiece battle, but very fun nonetheless, all of the enemies are great. party splits between being in combat and making wild swings to distract from the battle.
porcoro: CR 5, for 1800 XP
barney ballast: CR 6, for 2300 XP
brachiosaurus: CR 5, based on brontosaurus stats because that's the most similar beast that i could find. 0.5x modifier because monty made friends with his handler. 900 XP
total XP count: 5000 XP
raptors at ramansu: a totally individual battle. extremely fun. i loved the puzzle mechanics and general tomfoolery involved in this battle. give me some of the yeller. everything has a 1.5x modifier to account for the number of enemies as well as the environmental mechanics. i didn't make it higher because they cut off the entrances.
legatus dromarcus petronius: CR 2, for 675 XP
legio rex: CR 1, using deinonychus stats. total of 10 directly defeated, for 3000 XP
imperasaurus rex: CR 8, whether by t-rex or t-rex zombie stats. 5850 XP
total XP count: 9525 XP
skirmish above the swirling sea: back to the ship. honestly this one came down to a combination of good tactics and the wind riders being full-blown insane. the reason there are not more modifiers on this fight comes down to the number of allies that the zephyr crew had, between bert, wealwell, dawderdale, diaz, polaximus, freyja, torse, little one, and ghost dog.
bank of fehujar fighters: CR 3. I counted 8, but there might be more. 1.5x modifier for number, total of 8400 XP
rolfgar halvorson: CR 6, based on his damage output. equivalent to barney ballast, which is deeply funny. 2300 XP
ornithopters: CR 4. I counted 4. 1.5x modifier for number and their ability to get on the zephyr. 6600 XP
mid-season totals
overall, the zephyr crew is looking at 43125 XP, for a prospective level of 5. something interesting that i noted is that olethra's individual progression has run pretty close to the xp progression of the party. it works out regardless of whether she's doing xp or milestone leveling.
we've officially cracked 600 hours of dimension 20 with the final episode of titan takedown! 25 days (+ 46 minutes + 53 seconds) across 26 seasons (including oneshots & live shows).
over all those episodes (278 to be exact), we have some fluctuating averages:
the overall average comes to 2:09:40, with the highest full season average coming from fantasy high sophomore year at 2:36:41*, and the lowest coming from fantasy high, with 1:39:43. titan takedown runs close to average with 2:06:18.
it's also interesting to look at our overall runtimes; the main cast seasons count for over half of the run time**: 341:23:22, or 14 days, 5 hours, 23 minutes, and 22 seconds.
i'm excited to see where we go from here! see you on june 4th for cloudward, ho! check out the spreadsheet for raw data!
*the official highest is the MisMag oneshots, but given that they are oneshots, i'm counting them separate from the full seasons.
**including the oneshots and time quangle liveshows that have been released on dropout. 320:37:46 without.
i'm finally back to live* watching these after being away for a while and boy what a fun one to come back to
not a ton mechanically: everyone is pretty much at the same spot as they've been since around episode 3, but we're likely to see new epic epiphanies by episode 8.
the new thing: van's story penalties. as of now, she takes damage while making nonstandard use of her prosthetic in particular environments. the ocean and the moon have notably affected it, and it shows up differently to olethra's mech than other stuff. my hunch is that comfrey created it with stuff from zood/got it directly from zood without telling van, and now she's getting into some of the issues with it.
their approaches to potential enemies are so funny. everyone except max tries to lie at first encounter, and max is usually telling their enemies relevant info.
also, i've been doing xp calcs along the way. 800 velociraptors (cr 1/4) plus a t-rex / t-rex zombie (cr 8) flat, with no human intelligence would be a cr 22 encounter just by flat xp count (43900), but that number jumps to cr 28 (131700) with contextual modifiers for the horde. adding human intelligence** makes it well over cr 30 flat (163900).
just 12, by my estimate makes it somewhere between cr 5 and 7 depending on how high you make the contextual modifiers for the environmental hazards and puzzle elements. i'll come back to this next week once the fight has concluded with more details.
*watching on premiere night when i can get to it
**velociraptors are made cr 1 but t-rex is left flat because it's mostly dead and directed by the legion
