Dimension 20: Gladlands' cast on surviving the apocalypse with kindness

That’s the tagline for Gladlands, the latest season of Dropout.tv’s actual-play series Dimension 20 — and it isn’t just flavor text. From the moment the season opens, with its heroes racing through a sandstorm to deliver thank-you notes to donors who participated in a blood drive, Gladlands makes a bold, subversive argument: The apocalypse doesn’t have to be cruel, and survival doesn’t have to be violent.

That philosophy is baked directly into the season’s rules, its tone, and even the way the cast plays at the table. They fight, but only to survive so they can spread more joy. And all of their energy is spent trying to help other people living in the irradiated wasteland live better, happier lives. Speaking with Polygon via video, cast members Jacob Wysocki, Oscar Montoya, Vic Michaelis, and Kimia Behpoornia described a season built not around dominance or optimization, but around trust, sincerity, and showing up for one another, both in-character and out.

“There was no fear going into this one,” Montoya told Polygon. After appearing previously in the fairy-court intrigue season A Court of Fey & Flowers, he approached Gladlands with confidence and trust in his fellow party members. “I’m going to make big swings with this character without doubting or having second thoughts, because I know that I’m going to be supported by the cast.”

Wysocki echoed that sentiment, describing Dimension 20’s high-tech studio set, the Dome, as intimidating the first time around. He first played in 2024’s Never Stop Blowing Up, a high-octane season inspired by epic action movies. This time around, he said role-playing with his friends has become liberating. “You get to learn that a lot of it is just play,” he said. “And you get to relax a little bit and really just have fun.”

Unlike so many D&D actual-play shows, Gladlands isn’t driven by combat. Mechanically, it uses what appears to be a modified version of the Kids on Bikes TTRPG system, which Dimension 20 has explored before in the Misfits and Magic and Never Stop Blowing Up campaigns. But Gladlands focuses on emotional and social traits.

Instead of strength or dexterity, characters roll stats like charm, warmth, creativity, awareness, resilience, and determination. Each is represented by a die ranging from a d4 to a d20. Failure generates more than frowns: When players bungle a skill check, they earn adversity tokens rebranded here as “boo-boos” that can be spent to boost future rolls, and they’re more effective when you cash them in to help a friend in need. Gladlands GM Brennan Lee Mulligan has noted that the rule was intentionally designed to reinforce kindness and mutual support, which in turn shapes how the party behaves.

Characters built on kindness

Wysocki’s character, KoKoMo, is a towering figure with a soft, hairy back, described by the actor as “Snorlaxian” and “Totoroian.” Montoya’s Poppy Persona, by contrast, is a flamboyant drag queen built from scraps, glamour, and resolve. She’s something of a scholar who works for an organization called the History Heap, and manages the group’s Truthbrary. (That’s what people in the Gladlands call book repositories, rather than “lie-braries.")

Jacob Wysocki plays KoKoMo in Gladlands.Image: Dropout

“KoKoMo isn’t a house, he’s a home,” Montoya said of Wysocki’s character. In a brutal setting, the comforting presence he provides is its own kind of a survival tool. For Wysocki, playing that role required grounding himself rather than chasing spectacle. “I have had to tell myself multiple times in my life, ‘I’m a regular guy. Just get in there,’” Wysocki said, referencing his iconic viral rant from Dropout’s Make Some Noise.

Wysocki referenced improv more broadly with his comment, but also quickly noted how the same principles apply when riffing at the table for Gladlands. That same sense of trust carried through for first-time Dimension 20 players Vic Michaelis and Kimia Behpoornia. Both initially feeling nervous stepping into the Dome, but being surrounded by close friends quickly put them at ease.

“It was the safest place to do this,” Behpoornia said. “We built this together, and I felt so safe to make all the choices.” Those choices included having her character Tess Tubes, a shredded mutant with a cockroach head, try to surf the sandstorm to shift its trajectory.

Vic Michaelis plays Hugi in Gladlands.Image: Dropout

Michaelis described her character Hugi, who wears half of a plague doctor mask and is almost eight feet tall, as “almost not a person” who exists between life and death. “They’re trying so hard to access humanity, but Hugi is also big and looming — and a little scary-looking.” Despite that crisis of identity, Hugi still strives to always do the right thing. Michaelis echoed Behpoornia’s sentiment about feeling safe at the table despite being a newcomer, and said working with Mulligan and a table full of close friends removed the fear of failure entirely. “There really is no way to fail,” they said.

That safety allows Gladlands to tackle heavier ideas without collapsing under them. As a character, Hugi explores the nature of grief and death in the apocalypse. Behpoornia praised Michaelis’ performance, noting how humor and intelligence make difficult topics more approachable.

“To see someone so funny and so smart deal with a big idea almost makes it easier to think and meditate on that big idea,” Behpoornia said.

As the season continues, Gladlands leans into community-building rather than conquest, as the characters help out with a chili cook-off, support their neighbors, and maintain small pockets of joy in a broken world. It’s an unexpected focus for a TTRPG, when most games usually fixate on the more violent aspects of adventuring.

The cast agrees that this difference makes Gladlands special, because the show builds a system where caring for others is the most reliable way forward. Visually, the landscape and the game’s characters evoke typical grimdark post-apocalyptic stories, but as soon as anybody opens their mouth, there’s no fear or anger or threat of violence — just joy. In that way, Gladlands feels like a radical statement: Even the end of the world doesn’t have to mean the end of decency.

Dimension 20: Gladlands premiered on Jan. 7, 2026 on Dropout.tv and Dropout’s subscription YouTube channel. New episodes drop every Wednesday, and the season will run for a total of six episodes.