Fandom Promotion

[longficmod]

Many of us are already planning which fandoms to offer and request! Nominations open in about a week, which may give some of us enough time to pick up a new canon before signups begin.

Use this post to promote your canon or to coordinate nominations with other fans.

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Dimension 20: Fantasy High & The Unsleeping City

[lamiacalls]

These are a little on the longer side, but I love them enough that I want to promote them! The fandom is small (200ish fic on AO3) but extremely active and interactive.

Fantasy High
Dimension 20 is an actual play D&D show, with Fantasy High being its first season. Season 1 is 17 episodes of around 1.5 hours each, and all up for free on YouTube. It's on the longer side but it's very addictive and super easy to binge watch. Season 2 is longer, and isn't necessary to watch (since Season 1 wraps up most of its storylines nicely and there's a long canon gap before Season 2). Some of Season 2 is up on Youtube, but if you wanted to watch it all, you can get a free trial on Dropout for 7 days to catch it all.

Fantasy High's elevator pitch is "what if John Huges directed D&D?" I'd recommend giving it until the end of episode 2, when some wild shit goes down and mostly everyone gets hooked from there.

It has:
- Adorable dumbasses in spades which leads to great team dynamics and really funny cast who do a lot of incredible roleplaying work and fantastic character development
- A fantastic mystery that makes sense, is foreshadowed well, and that is puzzled out with some very awkward but accurate teenage antics
- Space for both casefic and just pure fluff or angst!
- Canon queer characters (3 in season 1, at least 7 so far in season 2), plus a non-canon m/m ship that may or may not come to fruition (PLEASE let it come to fruition)
- Really well done autistic representation in one of the love interests in season 2
- Dragons! Pirates! A nofap warlock baddie! Car chases! Sad dads! Ice cream dates! Awkward teenagers trying their best! NiceGuys(TM)! Lunch tables that could kill you! Tearful and touching moments with families! Anarcho-socialist halflings!

It's good. It's very, very good -- and accessible to those who have never played D&D before!

The Unsleeping City
Dimension 20's second season of actual play D&D was The Unsleeping City, which has the same players as Fantasy High! It's set in New York, which has a hidden magical plane that the average person can't see, as well as sixth borough made of dreams. Three player characters are well-established in the magical world, and three player characters are completely new. Among their number includes the "vox populi", the voice of the people, and the "vox phantasma" the voice and protector of the dream borough.

The first 8 episodes are available on YouTube, after that, unfortunately the rest is on Dropout (but again, you can get a 7-day free trial!).

It has:
- A fantastic cast with intense, secretive and many-layered backstories that come out over the course of play, as well as history between the characters. There's also a lot of tension between some of them, explored in a genuine and interesting way
- A villain that is obvious straight away so instead of mystery, you get all this juicy tension and find out a lot about the character. They are based on an actual historical figure, too!
- A trans player character (played by a trans player!)
- More lore than you can shake a stick out, and very lived-in feel (plus lots of NY references)
- A magical bodega cat! A battle during a broadway show! Moving and sad explorations of failed relationships! A talking dog made of light! Genuine friendships that grow over the course of the story! Revolutionary rats! Terrifying vampire clubs!

I started watching it on Saturday, I'm already just a few episodes away from the end (and I've been busy these last few days!). It's not as spontaneously fun as Fantasy High, nor as quite as charming (it's hard to be as charming as FH!), but I'd say that the story is much richer to make up for that, as well as players who have matured in their character building.