How D&D Took Over Sports Arenas with Brennan Lee Mulligan

Factually! with Adam Conover

Headgum

Comedy

4.4 • 2.2K Ratings

🗓️ 11 June 2025

⏱️ 91 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In the past several years, the tabletop roleplaying game Dungeons & Dragons has firmly made the leap from subculture to pop culture. Massively popular “actual play” shows like Dimension 20 now sell out arenas like Madison Square Garden, a feat which would have been unheard of not so long ago. This week, Adam speaks with Dimension 20 creator and game master Brennan Lee Mulligan about the stratospheric rise in popularity of D&D, the changing entertainment landscape, and what the insidious machinations of capitalism have to do with a game about goblins.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	This is a headgum podcast.
0:05.0	I don't know the truth.
0:08.2	I don't know the way.
0:10.8	I don't know what to think.
0:13.6	I don't know what to say.
0:16.6	Yeah, but that's all right.
0:19.4	That's okay.
0:22.0	I don't know anything.
0:28.5	Hey there, welcome to Factually.
0:29.8	I'm Adam Conover.
0:30.7	Thanks for joining me on the show.
0:31.9	You know, this is going to be a bit of a shocker for you, but I was a nerd as a kid.
0:36.7	I loved video games.
0:37.9	I loved computers.
0:38.7	I loved books.
0:39.4	I also loved collectible card games like Magic the Gathering, and I really loved Dungeons
0:43.5	and Dragons.
0:44.4	You know, I used to buy D&D source books, the Players Handbook, the Dungeon Master's Guide.
0:49.4	I would pour over them.
0:50.7	I bought the box sets of the different campaign settings like Dark Sun and Ravenloft.
0:55.5	I even got into more niche role playing games like Innominee and GERPs. I was deep into this
1:01.2	shit. But there was one big problem I didn't have anyone to play with because I had no social
	...

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