Under the stadium lights at Madison Square Garden, people cheered on Brennan Lee Mulligan, the game master of “Dimension 20” and the most recognizable face of the Table Talk role-playing game show.
The show is run by Dropout, a media company spun off from the former CollegeHumor, and features Mulligan and other game masters weaving fantastical tales of adventure and magic.
Mulligan would not have been able to put on hours of games, either in the stadium or in the taped format of the show, without his guardian of lore, Skye Smith.
When Business Insider asked Smith to summarize her work, she described herself as “the Google or Wikipedia of ‘Dimension 20.'” She’s responsible for knowing the program’s vast, encyclopedic history, from timelines to facts, and making sure she’s communicating it all correctly to her bosses and their players, too.
Game Master’s Right Hand
That’s one reason shows like “Dimension 20” and “Critical Role” need lore keepers. Because there are too many things to remember. “Critical Role” has streamed hundreds of episodes and thousands of hours of tabletop gaming over the years.
Dimension 20’s seasons are short, but game masters rely on their assistants to get the plot points and facts right.
“A filming day for me is very different from a normal 10 to 6 work day. It’s always at least a 12-hour work day. I get to set the same hours as GM Brennan, and I stay on set until pretty much the last person leaves the set,” Smith said.
“Dimension 20” shoots multiple episodes a day, and she and Mulligan maintain a “consistent slack” during filming.
Smith takes notes on the ongoing matches and answers questions submitted off-camera.
Tidying up
To keep track of the evolving lore, Smith uses Airtable for most of her notes.
She also uses some good old sticky notes.
“I usually have a printout of the materials used at the table for the games we play, or the visuals of the world we’re in,” Smith said. “And I always have a notebook with me.”
Beyond keeping the lore, Smith is involved in the creative process for the new season of Dimension 20’s, including planning and ideation.
“So you know early on what the food is,” Smith says.
AI questions
When asked if his job would be at risk from an AI note-taker, Smith said his job revolves around listening, spotting human mistakes, and understanding the lore of a fantasy world being created in real time.
“A big part of this job and why it’s important has to do with human error,” Smith said. Therefore, fixing “errors” with machines will never work. Because what you need is another human eye that knows the pitfalls of making something creative and knows where the weaknesses are, and you can’t train electronic artificial intelligence the same way you train human intuition. ”
Smith added that she enjoys the “difficult parts” of her job that others might find burdensome or that she might have a robot help with, such as “taking hours of notes.”
“It’s a double-layered answer. You’ll never be able to do it as well as I do,” Smith said. “On the other hand, given the impact AI will have on the environment, it might not even be worth trying.”
How to get gigs
Smith jumped at the chance to work on “Dimension 20” when he was offered the role by The Dropout in 2023, when he was promoted from an entry-level job as a production assistant to a keeper of lore.
Highlights of her career include working behind the scenes at staff Madison Square Garden shows and presenting her writings.
“This is not where I originally thought I would end up, but if I had focused on what I wanted, I would never have gotten here,” she said. “The closest advice I can give to rebuilding the path that got me here is to just do what you love, do it well, and focus on the opportunities that come from it.”