Misfits and Magic

• Aabria Iyengar as the game master
• Erika Ishii as XxBrokenDreamxX, who goes by Dream
• Brennan Lee Mulligan as Evan Kelmp
• Danielle Radford as Samantha Butler, who is also known by her streamer name Sam Black.
• Lou Wilson as Whitney Jammer, who goes by Jammer

Misfits and Magic departed significantly from other seasons in Dimension 20 in terms of production. Rather than Dungeons & Dragons, Misfits and Magic uses the Kids on Brooms system. Rather than Dimension 20's regular arrangement of minis, battlemaps, and heavy editing, this season mostly utilizes theatre of the mind.[1] The season was Brennan Lee Mulligan's first season as a player – he regularly serves as the show's game master.[2]

Misfits and Magic is inspired by, and a reaction to, the Harry Potter series and contemporary changes in its public perception. The reputation of the Harry Potter series slipped in the decades after its release, as various new analyses shone a light on elements of the series – and public statements of its author, J. K. Rowling – that have been criticized as bigoted. Creative director Orion D. Black told The Daily Dot that the season sought to counter Harry Potter's lack of diverse representation in its central cast. At the same time, Black and Aabria Iyengar both felt that the series still had a meaningful impact on them, and wanted to tell a story that captured that. They also sympathized with those who chose not to watch the season because of its connection to Harry Potter.[2]

To that end, Misfits and Magic emulates many aspects of Harry Potter, sometimes as a tribute, sometimes in mockery. In a similar line to Harry Potter, the season follows four Americans with no prior magical ability as they attempt to navigate the culture of Gowpenny, a secret school of witchcraft and wizardry meant to serve as the parallel to Hogwarts. But the characters also rebel against the source material – for example, during the sorting ceremony, they disrupt the scene with criticism of Gowpenny's (and implicitly, Hogwarts's) tracking of students into "houses", and particularly the existence of the "evil" house. The setting itself did also deviate from the source in some ways: the kitchen, for example, was not staffed by slave labor akin to the house elf.[1] And in what the creators and actors saw as a departure from the Harry Potter series, Misfits and Magic focuses primarily on actors and characters of color, with the season featuring a majority-black cast and a non-binary character.[3]

Michael Crider of PC World reviewed the season favourably, complimenting Brennan Lee Mulligan's performance as Evan Kelmp and his character's arc, which foils Dream's. He also wrote that the show's format makes it "a great introduction to the actual play format".[1] Theo Kogod of Comic Book Resources recalled Misfits and Magic when Wizards of the Coast, the company that publishes Dungeons & Dragons, released a supplement for Harry Potter-based gameplay in D&D called Strixhaven. Kogod noted that Misfits and Magic had seen the need for a Harry Potter actual play system well before.[5]