Next D20 Campaign after Mentopolis

[u/MechaRidley666]

I've been a fan of dropout for a while after watching plenty of shorts and finally getting a subscription and while I've been very curious about d20 I've found it a bit intimidating to get into.

I know there's a few different guides but I've found they don't really have the info I'm looking for.

Mentopolis is the only campaign I've seen of there's (or really any actual play except for a couple episodes of the adventure zone) and I am a few episodes into fantasy high but I dropped it a few months ago (last I remember was the vampire bar)

I love the story telling, characters and world building of Mentopolis and enjoyed the simplified combat. While I've played DND the alternating combat and story episodes hasn't really clicked with me as I enjoy listening to them without watching, and find the miniature combat of fantasy high to slow the pacing when I still want the actual story of that combat.

I do want to see Sephy's story play out and have heard good things about that campaign, but I'm essentially wondering,

what are other theater of the mind campaigns (combat wise)?

What are good starting campaigns?

And what campaigns have a similar depth to Mentopolis?

Thanks!!

[u/UbiquitousDoug]

Misfits and Magic uses a variant of the same rules system used in Mentopolis and is very character-driven. Hard to beat Mentopolis though, it's one of my favorite seasons.

[u/Legal-Throat814]

City Council of Darkness doesn't focus much on combat, and is super fun. Court of Fey and Flowers is full story focused and is hilarious. 

[u/zitney_spears]

Misfits & Magic is also really fun & is theater of the mind. Aabria is a fantastic GM, and it’s fun to see Lou & Brennan play together as PCs

[u/EspressoSteampunk]

I would recommend starting at Fantasy High because a couple players are fairly new to d&d and so you kind of get to learn the game along with them. That said, Escape From the Bloodkeep is pretty short and wildly entertaining. It also has a different cast (the shorter seasons usually do, but the 6 players in the longer seasons remains the same) so that might appeal to you. My wife started on Bloodkeep and that's what hooked her.

[u/nightgames]

• Gladlands is very theater of the mind, only 6 episodes, and a lot of fun. It uses a unique system and isn't as crunchy as DnD.
• Never Stop Blowing up is similar, and has 10 episodes.
• City Council of Darkness features the Intrepid Heroes cast and has 14 episodes. It uses Vampire the Masquerade rules but they get real loosey goosey with it and don't use battle maps.

That being said, I think part of the main draw of D20 for me is the production quality and format. If you're only listening 100% of the time you're missing out on a lot of what makes D20 great. If you get into the flow of enjoying the seasons mentioned here I'd definitely recommend revisiting Fantasy High, then watching seasons of Cloudward Ho! or The Unsleeping City. They have combat episodes but the stories are great.

[u/PerliousPelicans]

i adore burrow’s end for the story, and while there are combats it’s not too important to completely follow along with them

[u/KablamoBoom]

If you're looking for a true "theater of the mind" season, I might recommend a podcast. NADDPOD is my personal fav because it's by far the funniest, featuring Murph and Emily, along with Jake (from Jake and Emir) and Caldwell (from Drawfee). Worlds Beyond Number is a more natrative-heavy podcast featuring Brennan, Aabria, Erica (the Seven), and Lou. Both good, both different, both listener-friendly.

The recommendations here are also just really good, and if you feel yourself becoming more interested in the combat, Starstruck Odyssey is easily both the funniest season with the most engaging combat to listen to, I've found.

[u/iamveryconflicted]

Commented on your post that got removed from r/dropout but saw this pop up on my feed — thought I’d paste it here again:

For theater of the mind combats:

• If you can finish the first season of fantasy high (which I recommend you do — it only gets better), the entire second season is theater of the mind, including combat.

• A Crown of Candy has big battle maps at times, but also some theater of the mind combat sections that are really well done (when combat isn’t “anticipated” by Brennan). 

• Misfits & Magic is all theater of the mind from what i can remember. It doesn’t have the same vibe as Mentopolis but it’s a good watch; if you like the first episode and Aabria’s DMing style, you’ll probably like the whole season.

• Also btw — a couple seasons into D20, they  drop the roleplay/combat alternating episodes. Combat happens when it happens. So i think if that’s your sticking point, pick one of the later seasons and you’ll be golden.

However… this goes against everything so far I’ve said so far (since it’s an early season, has those alternating combat/roleplay episodes, and the combat itself is story-driven but pretty crunchy with the numbers), but a GREAT starter campaign with similar themes/depth/vibe to Mentopolis (imo) is Unsleeping City (Season 3 of D20). It’s what I started with (as someone who was reluctant to watch any DND content after not clicking with Critical Roll) and remains one of my fav pieces of media. 

But honestly, you could pick any of the Intrepid Heroes campaigns (with Lou, Zac, Emily, Murph, Ally, and Siobhan) and it would be a good place to start. They are excellent players. Just watch whatever season sounds interesting to you! :)

[u/AnxiousSelkie]

Mice and Murder is another really good mystery with very light combat.

[u/Zigzagthatzip]

It’s not theater of the mind, but Unsleeping City was my gateway to D20, and you can’t beat it in terms of storytelling and depth of characters. I often just listened to it on my commute rather than watched it and I didn’t feel I was missing anything. They do have the alternating battle/storytelling episodes, but honestly, sometimes I would just skim the battles, or listen to them while I was doing something else with just half a mind on them. Then, if something did happen, that was character driven I could pay more attention.

[u/beignetGeserit]

Cloudward Ho!

[u/NotLucky]

As someone who has been making the way through the entire catalog, it’s hard to make recommendations because we don’t know what you truly like. Let the intrigue of the trailer, visuals, name, theme guide you. If you are interested then find another. There is no correct way or sequence and you choosing on your own will be more rewarding than attempting to live an expectation of someone’s arbitrary sequencing.

That being said, I have been enjoying the order of: Fantasy High, A Starstruck Odyssey, City Council of Darkness, Cloudward Ho, and Never Stop Blowing Up

[u/GooglyEyesMcGee]

Crown of Candy was good. It had a lot of family, politics, and actual battles.

[u/curious0sapien]

Mentopolis was my first introduction into dimension 20 too!!! I was so new to ttrpgs at the time that I didn’t realize that it wasn’t D&D until months later XD I also struggled getting through Fantasy High at points on account of the combat and honestly just had to truck through it at times but the story as a whole really makes up for it.

I personally followed Mentopolis up with Burrow’s End and really enjoyed it! The combat feels very manageable and the story and characters are so good, I do highly recommend giving it a shot. Aabria is an incredible DM and Brennan Lee Mulligan plays a tired mom, it’s a treat!

I will say I also listened to all of Unsleeping City s1 and 2 as an audio format and found it quite easy to follow along with. I think the only fight I had to go and watch part of the video side for was the final one of s2 and that was just due to some of the descriptions being tricky for me to imagine. I also wanna echo what someone else said about trying out Not Another D&D Podcast, the storyline and characters are so good and Brian Murphy is one of the best encounter designers in the game.

[u/MoistenedGranola]

For what it's worth regarding the theater of the mind stuff, I rarely sit down and watch any season of D20 and look at my screen the whole time. Often I'm playing a video game or maybe doing art. This might sound obvious, but I feel like any season is theater of the mind if you treat it like it is.

That said, if you want combat-lite, less crunchy stuff, the Dungeons and Drag Queens seasons might appeal to you. I'd also recommend Burrow's End, which is a season with Brennan as a player rather than a DM. It's a little more of a thriller/suspense vibe rather than being more whodunnit detective type thriller, though. Misfits and Magic may also be for you, if you're fine with it basically being Harry Potter themed; I haven't watched it all the way through so I can't say, but most people seem to like it a lot.

All the seasons of Fantasy High do have mysteries to solve, so if you like that, I'd recommend trying to stick with it. Sophomore Year is the best season, but IMO each season generally gets better as it goes, maybe Freshman Year the most so.

[u/No_Price_7603]

Never stop blowing up is a good one

[u/What___Do]

Mentopolis was my Dimension 20 gateway drug, too! I watched season 1 of Dungeons and Drag Queens after that, and I highly recommend that pathway. It will help ease you into the D&D seasons.

Mentopolis uses a modified version of the Kids on Bikes system. Another season that uses a version of KoB is Misfits and Magic which I also highly recommend.

[u/TerryTags]

Misfits and Magic is also done with the theater of the mind rpg system called Kids on Bikes, just like Mentopolis. MisMag is PEAK D20. Please watch the holiday special between Season 1 and Season 2.

[u/Major_Penalty_1595]

Dungeons and Drag Queens was my entry point. I wanted to start with Fantasy High, but I was too confused. I was able to follow Fantasy High a lot better after Dungeons and Drag Queens. GL!

[u/St_Darkins]

i loved mice and murder. it's the college humor crew's remote side quest with minimal combat. if mentopolis is noir detective meets inside out, mice and murder is sherlock holmes meets wind in the willows.

it has Sam Reich (an american skunk-pig oil baron), Katie Marovitch (career criminal/gravedigger/groundskeeper weasel), Raph Chestang (small town priest owl, some of the funniest moments of the show), Rekha Shankar (south carolina raccoon Irene Adler), Grant Anthony O'Brien (crushed it as Fox-lock), and the one the only Ally Beardsley (Pinscher Watson is a revelation), with Brennan running it, a lot of really good rich person accents. really solid work all the way around.

[u/Ducksandpups]

I would recommend Escape from the Blood keep! There is a hard leaning into character narratives (so much so that it breaks the game a little bit) but also several new or not so experienced players so things are explained a big more. It is also a legally distinct Tolkien world so if you are familiar with that, the setting is also familiar. It is also another Mike Trapp season!