Jasmine Bhullar On Matthew Lillard, Dimension 20 & Baldur’s Gate 3

Summary

• Faster, Purple Worm! Kill! Kill! features comedy and tragedy as first-level characters face impossible threats and fight until the end.
• The DM, Jasmine Bhullar, had to balance player interactions and ensure each character had a meaningful moment before their inevitable demise.
• The episode stars Matthew Lillard and showcases his love for D&D, while the scary two-headed Demogorgon and horror-comedy elements add to the thrilling story.

Faster, Purple Worm! Kill! Kill! continues to tell stories of comedy and tragedy as first-level characters take on impossible threats. The newest episode follows a group tasked with protecting their home’s sacred relic, the purple ear of envy, from a dangerous enemy. The episode stars Matthew Lillard, Anjali Bhimani, Michael Irby, and Omega Jones, with Jasmine Bhullar serving as the Dungeon Master.

While these heroes may perish in the end, they will fight until their last breath to complete their task, with unexpected acts of heroism and sacrifice coming through. The series was created by Beadle & Gimm’s founders, Lillard, Bill Rehor, Jon Ciccolini, Paul Shapiro, and Charlie Rehor. Each episode features a new cast of heroes, including Aabria Iyengar, Seth Green, Anjali Bhimani, Skeet Ulrich, Sean Gunn, Mica Burton, and Patton Oswalt.

Screen Rant interviewed Jasmine Bhullar about her new episode of Faster, Purple Worm! Kill! Kill! She discussed playing with Lillard, Bhimani, and first-time player Irby. Bhullar also shared what she wants to take from this experience into future games, including her series DesiQuest, and teased many more ideas for Dimension 20 seasons after Coffin Run.

Jasmine Bhullar Talks Faster, Purple Worm! Kill! Kill!

Screen Rant: Faster, Purple Worm! Kill! Kill! This episode is a shock compared to all of the others, which is a lot to say because all of the episodes are shocking. I’m very excited to talk to you about this, Jasmine, and break it down. I think my first question is, as a DM, how is this different going into a game knowing you have to complete the full story in an hour and that it’s going to end in a TPK?

Jasmine Bhullar: Yeah. It’s very different. It’s very different. Normally, I am a very chaotic dungeon master because I don’t ever have set points in my story. I will even change things drastically compared based off of what my players are reacting to or what they’re excited about. It’s quite funny. Michael Schaubach who’s the director of Dimension 20.

And he’s in every season of Dimension 20, but he also does DesiQuest often says in that regard of all the DMs he’s worked with and he’s worked with some of the greatest, he says I’m like a poet. And for this, I had to put on my engineer pants a little bit of, “Okay, there is a certain place that our characters need to start and there’s a place where they need to end,” which is dead. And in the middle we have to get to know these people so that we care about that ending.

How am I going to ensure that each player gets that moment before the end? So the prep going in was definitely like a gauntlet of interactions, if that makes sense. That would allow us to get to know a little bit more about where these people are so that we care about this village, but also who these people are so that we care about them when they die. And of course, I knew that we had a funny cast so that the jokes would happen regardless.

That’s always helpful. Can you talk to me a little bit about your NPC Cora, because I thought that was a really good way of immediately ingratiating us to the other players.

Jasmine Bhullar: Yeah, it’s funny. My NPC work is something that I’ve kind of become to be a little known for. I think different DMs have different strong suits, and I never plan an NPC that’s going to be very well-liked by the players, the audience, but somehow it does happen. And I needed to have a comment thread between all the players who was kind of going to be the audience’s eyes in a sense like that through Cora’s eyes, we can see their impression of every player and therefore help inform the audience’s impression of every player.

And so yeah, I created this character and I think… I’m trying to remember Matthew Lillard’s character’s name, but I think we learned so much about him just from the two interacting that. She definitely did what I needed her to do. Sorry, I’m bad at talking. But yeah, I think the NPCs’ jobs are to allow the players to almost hold a mirror to themselves because it’s my way as a DM of being like, this is my impression of your character sheet and this is NPC’s impression of your character sheet. What do you think? Sometimes it’s correct and sometimes it’s incorrect, but either way it’s always very enlightening.

Oh, I love that. That’s so cool. Speaking of Matthew Lillard, what was it like having him play at the table with you as one of the creators of the game, or show?

Jasmine Bhullar: It was so nostalgic. It was so nostalgic because I haven’t played with Matthew since Relics & Rarities, which Deborah Ann Woll DM that game. I remember the first day he came on set, it’s like he elevated the energy and he was just like, he was playing this dragonborn with a Scottish accent. That was my first, I think, real TTRPG production.

I remember being like, “I want to get there someday. I want to be that person that storms onto set and everybody gets excited to play D&D because this person is just have such a strong performance. It was amazing because him and I had a few moments during the show where we were just kind of monologuing at each other. And it’s one of my favorite things I’ve ever done in D&D because I finally felt like I got to have that moment where we both get to me as a dungeon master, as an NPC and him as a character get to make eye contact and just go big, just have a really big performance.

She was a scenery a little bit and I loved it. I loved it. I love working with him. He’s such a magnetic person. And his love for the game really always comes through. Every time I’ve been in anything with him, his love for D&D comes through.

I could not agree more. Speaking of those monologues, I have to talk to you too about your Demogorgon because I think you had the scariest villain monologue we’ve seen so far in the show.

Jasmine Bhullar: Oh my gosh. Yeah, I love horror. Horror is my favorite genre of tabletop RPG, I should say. So when you have a two-headed creature, I feel like you have to lean into that. I loved the idea of the two heads just discussing all the horrible things they’re going to do to the players and arguing about how they were going to do it. In the same way that the trolls are discussing how they’re going to eat the hobbits in Lord of the Rings. I wanted that, but a little darker. I also realized pretty quickly that the characters are very low level and they’re fighting these very iconic D&D villains that have usually pretty good initiative roles.

I didn’t want people to die before they got to do something in battle, but I also didn’t want to fudge the roles. So instead, I think if I remember correctly, I just have the Demogorgon argue with itself while the players kind of just dance around its feet like ants because it is so unconcerned, so wholly unconcerned with them. And I was like, “Oh, this is perfect. This is going to be amazing.” And the players will get to do something before they get smashed into jelly by this magnificent creature.

That’s how how it went. I’m glad you enjoyed it. That makes me really happy. Yeah, I love the Demogorgon. I want to put them in an actual campaign now, but it’s like a longer form campaign. I shouldn’t say actual, but something longer form that isn’t a one shot, but I’ve honestly never gotten players that have gotten high level enough to fight a legit Demogorgon. So it hasn’t happened yet. Maybe one day it will and we’ll get to see the two heads argue again.

Fingers crossed when we get there. I love that you brought up horror because I was curious. I’m a big Dimension 20 fan and Coffin Run is amazing. So I was curious if that kind of horror comedy that you had done before came into play when you were on Faster, Purple Worm?

Jasmine Bhullar: Yeah. I am a big believer of the… What is that age-old saying that the difference between horror and comedy is the speed at which everything happens? I’m a big believer in that. I think horror naturally becomes comedy and sometimes our reactions to horrifying events can be laughter, which I also think is fun. So I never go into a campaign thinking, “Oh, I’m going to scare my players.” I always go in thinking, “I’m going to set the atmosphere or this is my goal of what I want them to imagine.”

And if that reaction is fear, that’s great, but if that reaction is nervous laughter or cracking a joke or saying my character lets out a nervous fart, I’m never opposed to that. I’m also on Seattle by Night and with the Acq Inc and the Penny Arcade crew and Jason Carl GMs that. I often want to ask him about what it’s like to GM a very serious version of that game with LA by Night in New York by Night and then come to a coterie that all of us crack jokes when we’re nervous. All of us do. And so I think this has always come really naturally to me.

Coffin Run was a season that I pitched because I knew, I was like, “Oh yeah, I could do this horror camp really well. And then knowing that and coming into this, I was like, “Yeah, I think we could do it again. I think we could do a sequel to that in a way.”

I love that. My friend and I still quote moments from Coffin Run at each other.

Jasmine Bhullar: It was a fun show to do. In a lot of ways, it changed my life because I got to meet so many people that I’m still working with now. I’m so addicted to short form stuff now of doing a six-episode run or a 10-episode run that my brain is constantly drumming around with ideas for other seasons where I’m like, “Did Dimension 20 call me? I’ve got 10 in the chamber.” I think short form is such a cool. The idea of there is a set end, I think you get to do concepts you couldn’t do in long form. I think a lot of people think of the limitations, but I think of all the advantages of being able to do something with short form.

I completely agree. Speaking of some of the people you’re working with still, Anjali Bhimani is in this and we get to see her in DesiQuest as well. Can you talk about working with her on Purple Worm and DesiQuest?

Jasmine Bhullar: Yes. Working with Anjali has been probably the greatest gift of the last year. We always knew each other. We were always friendly. We met on the set of Critical Role for a Doom One-Shot. We were both had demon makeup, which is hilarious. And immediately she was just so warm to me and she was like, “Who are you? Let’s be friends,” basically. Over the past year we’ve brought her on as an executive producer on DesiQuest. We’ve just gotten so close. I feel like she’s my big sister. I learned so much from her. Anytime she’s on set, I always feel confident.

My pre-tape jitters are gone because she’ll always put a hand on my shoulder and tell me, “Hey, you’re really good at this.” And anytime you tell stories, I feel privileged to be at the table. I would come sit here anytime of the week. She’s like, “I would pay money to sit at that table.” It’s always great going into a game where you don’t necessarily know everyone, knowing that you have one person at the table that is going to cheerlead whatever you do and is there to make you shine.

I love Anjali. I always know that I can throw anything at her and she’s going to come out with the greatest performance, the greatest tear-jerking performance you’ve ever seen.

I could not agree more. Let me second her point. You are fantastic at this.

Jasmine Bhullar: Thank you. Thank you so much.

What was it like to have a first time player at the table with Michael Irby?

Jasmine Bhullar: Yeah. Michael Irby is fantastic. And really the thing with first time players is making sure they’re around examples to show them what they can do because sometimes with Dungeons and Dragons, the scariest thing really is that a lot of players because there’s so many options, they don’t really understand what the options are. So a lot of times with new players I’ll remind them or give them options. And it’s not to railroad them, it’s just to let them kind of get them thinking in a direction. It’s really funny because there was a moment towards the end of the episode where Michael Irby was like, “Can I give my turn to someone else because I don’t know what to do here?”

And I actually paused the game and I gently said, I was like, “You’re going to die, but this is your moment to decide the conditions under which you go out. I think you want to do this yourself.” It was amazing once he understood that he took a beat and immediately came out with the greatest stuff ever. I think with new players, it’s important to give them options. You’re not railroading them. With an experienced player, I think you probably… I still give advice. I’m one of those DM’s, but it’s probably less frowned on to be like, “Well, you could attack this creature.

You could try to convince this creature not to fight you. You could try to intimidate it or persuade it, or you could try to flee.” Just so you know, fleeing is going to be very difficult because of these factors. So I’ve always DM’d like that, and I do that with first time players too. I just really lay out the conditions and let them know what their options are. And so usually that gets them thinking and then they’ll say, “Well, instead of running, could I hide?” And they start to immediately draw these pathways. Honestly, I think you could teach anyone to play D&D as long as they have some sense of improv. A lot of actors do know what improv is. And so that helps a lot.

I’ve actually probably had more difficulty with, first time players that don’t understand the concept of improv, but they still learn. They still learn. Usually just there’s a lot more hesitation where they’re like, “So this innkeeper is talking to me.” Yes. Do I talk back? I mean, ideally. Okay. Could I say, “I’m from this other place”? “You could. Is that true?” “I don’t know. You tell me.” I think my favorite was Aimee Carrero asking Aabria on ExU, “Does my character know what the ocean is? And Aabria saying, “I don’t know, bitch. Have you seen the ocean?” I laugh so hard at that because that is something I would say where I would be like, “I don’t know. You should know this.”

Oh, I love EXU. Aimee Carrero with that is just insanity and chaos and I love it.

Jasmine Bhullar: Yeah, it’s fun. And of course I’m a big Fy’ra Rai stan. I try to watch everything Anjali is in if I can because she’s just such a peach and she’s always so excited about whatever she’s just works on. That’s the greatest thing about it. She’ll always come running and be like, “I just did this and it’s so good.” And I’m like, “Okay. I’m going to try to watch it. I’m going to try to watch at least a few episodes.”

I know, right? It’s like I don’t have the time to watch all of them because actual plays are so long.

Jasmine Bhullar: Actual plays are really long which is what I liked about the Faster, Purple Worm format. I’m like, “Okay, people can watch this and they can rewatch it. It’s so short.” So as much as the format is a challenge, it’s everything I write, everything I do, I do for the players and the audience. I think this is because I come from the game developer side because I write for video games now, and I think I’m always thinking about the end user every single time where I’m like, “I want to make a game that I would want to play that the gamer would want to play.”

If I’m not doing this for them, who am I doing it for? And even with DesiQuest, the idea was always like, “What is the Desi show that would’ve gotten me into D&D?” And I know that some people look down on that where they’re like, “Oh, well, we’re just five friends at a table.” I very much am like, “This is a show.” And what message am I trying to connect to the audience? What do I want them to take away from this? How do I want them to feel? Yeah, we’re friends and we’re at a table, but this isn’t a home game. If it was a home game, we would be eating Doritos and cursing every time we rolled poorly and fighting each other over trading dice and stuff like that. Right?

Maybe there is a space for that type of a game too. But I definitely do treat it like a show. Oh my God. I think I’ve just gotten so into the reads on this, but I think with Faster, Purple Worm, I didn’t look at it as like, “How do you tell a story in an hour?” I definitely looked at it more as like, “That’s a challenge, but the end result is a show that our audience can actually not feel intimidated getting into.” It’s a bunch of one shots. If you miss one episode, you can watch the next one. They’re short. I don’t have to feel bad about asking my friends to go watch this thing, because it’s not 30 hours of content.

So there was all the shows I do. I try to keep the episodes under 90 minutes. It’s like my personal goal because I can’t watch three-hour shows. I don’t have that kind of time. I mean, I’ve got Fargo to watch. There’s a new season. John Ham is in it, so I can’t be doing all this. And also watching through our episodes for all my friends every week. So I actually like how accessible Faster, Purple Worm is.

That is one of my favorite parts as well. And then what was it like playing with the live studio audience, not only watching with the energy amped up, but being actively involved in decisions made during the game?

Jasmine Bhullar: Oh, that was such a cozy spot for me. I actually hate when there’s no live audience. I recently got my dream gig of being on Acquisitions Incorporated, which was the first podcast I ever listened to before I even really knew what D&D was. I remember listening to this podcast with Jerry, and Mike, and Will. I got to play with Will on an episode of Faster, Purple Worm. It was very full circle for me.

When Jerry reached out and asked me to come be on Acq Inc, at first I was excited, but then I was nervous where I was like, “Oh my God, that’s a lot of people.” Those shows are always packed. This last one I unplugged, we had to turn people away. The room was so packed. I was so nervous about doing live D&D where I’m like, there’s no cutting. Everything you say is like, it’s just out there. It’s cannon. If you make a mistake or make a tactically poor choice or get somebody killed, that just happened, you can’t take it back.

But I’ve since learned since doing it now for a year, you can always adjust for how the audience is feeling that night because you’re getting instant feedback. So I feel like I’m more confident. If you make a joke immediately, whether or not it’s landed, you know what they’re enjoying. If they are more into the combat this time, if they’re more into the role play this time, you can tell what kind of interactions they like, what kind of interactions they don’t like. Do they like it when the players kind of roast each other and rib each other, or do they like it more when everyone it’s like it’s more full house?

You can adjust on the fly. And having a live audience, once again, it didn’t feel like I was recording something and casting it into the void. I knew in real time what was working, what wasn’t working, and rapidly being able to adjust that. So we get a glimpse into what viewers of the show are going to think versus making the show, editing the show, releasing the show, and then going to the comments and being like, “I thought this episode was funny. But apparently it’s really boring.” It allows you to fix it before it becomes the show. So I loved it.

And then I want to talk to you about something that happened in the game that we talked about a little bit before the interview. Omega made a decision that was not necessarily expected decision of putting all the players to sleep with the intention of having them not feel pain when they were killed by the Demogorgon. Can you talk a little bit about that? Because I know it surprised you because it surprised me when I was watching.

Jasmine Bhullar: Yeah. It did surprise me a little bit. And I think this is one of those cases where we look at this same sort of, I guess, game or storytelling very differently because in my mind… Give me a second here because I want to phrase this very carefully. Okay. In my mind, when you’re collaborative storytelling, you have to allow for people having a very different take on a situation than you do, but you also have to honor everyone else’s decision-making at the table. So you have to honor people’s decisions for themselves, but you also want to honor everyone else’s agency at the table and allow them to dictate at least the big story beats of their characters’ lives, I guess.

I think Omega was definitely justified in being like, “This is how I want to go out.” But then I just orchestrated events to make sure that that wasn’t necessarily how the rest of the party went out. I think when things like this happen at the table, the biggest tool is really communication. Stopping the game, talking above table, pausing the game and taking a moment to be like, “I don’t know that I’m okay with that.”

Or I think this might be narratively something I’m not trying to do. Before I got into this space, I actually worked at a game store for a few years and I listened to every game of the Edge of the Empire, and D&D and Mouse Guard that was played at the tables of my store because I was there stuck at the register and I would just hear the players talk.

And I think the difference between the players that grab their stuff, flip over the DM screen, flip everyone off and leave, and the groups that keep going for eight or nine months is the ability to say, “Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, I’m not torturing this guard. I as a human being, I’m not doing that. If we’re doing that, I don’t want to be a part of it. I’m really sorry guys. I’m not okay with this.” And the rest of the table being able to be like, “Okay, let’s take a beat. Let’s figure out how we want to do this.”

And other people, I think the groups that don’t make it are the groups that aren’t able to have that conversation. It’s hard. I’m an introvert. Having that conversation is hard, but I think when you’re playing a game like D&D and people say, “Well, it’s just a game. It is a game, but it’s a game sometimes you’ve been playing for months and years and acting like you don’t have any investment in it is wild.”

Like I said, “When you’re collaborative storytelling and someone else takes the wheel and starts to steer this thing you’ve all built together, the ship you’ve all built together onto maybe some choppy water, of course, you’re going to feel a type of way about it.” Every time people have that retort of like, “I don’t know why we need to have these conversations or make it this deep, it’s just a game.” I’m like, “Yes. What are games supposed to be?” Fun.

So if it’s in the interest of fun and making sure people are having fun, then, yeah, those conversations are worth having instead of hand waving them away and saying, “Well, it’s just a game.” And so I think that interaction reminded me of that because I could immediately see that some of the players were unhappy and I was like, I took a beat and I was like, “I’m going to fix this.” And then I fixed it. I tried to find a compromise between honoring what Omega wanted for their character and honoring what the rest of the players wanted for their characters.

Yeah. It’s very good balancing act and you definitely pulled it off. I also think it’s hilarious that people say it’s just a game because I’m like, “What is D&D if not therapy for players at this point?”

Jasmine Bhullar: Yeah. People start working out stuff in these games big time, big time. It’s funny because I think you’re going to lend yourself to argument anytime you’re working on something together. I think this is why there’s so many Reddit threads of people complaining about group projects. I don’t think it’s because group projects are pleasant. I think it’s because even well-meaning people with a common goal will have very different takes on how to get to that final product.

You’re going to butt heads and you’re going to feel like someone else isn’t doing what they’re supposed to do, or you would rather do what they’re doing. And the same thing, D&D is a group project. You all know that you’re going to play this game. You all know that there’s a broad story you’re going to tell, but people might have different ideas of how that story is going to go. It’s often why I say like Baldur’s Gate 3 wouldn’t work as a campaign. This is my spicy take of the day. And a lot of people are like, “Well, why?” And I’m like, “If I was playing a Dark Urge and I bit off Gail’s hand in a game, I know there would be somebody else at the table that was too far. I can’t believe you did that.”

Those types of huge swings only work with people that either, one, you’ve been playing with for a long, long time and you all kind of know what time it is where you’re all going to play these murderers, I guess. Or number two, I guess a game that is centered on you and everyone kind of understands that this is your backstory and we’re supporting cast.

But there’s decisions I’ve made in Baldur’s Gate where I’m like, “We would’ve had to hold the Council of Elrond for me to decide to do this in a D&D campaign because what I’m about to do is actually quite monstrous.” But when you’re playing the Dark Urge, sometimes you eat a bard. It happened. There’s no use crying over spilled bard. Sorry about spoilers.

There’s no use crying over a spilled bard.

Jasmine Bhullar: It happened. It was probably a bear. You don’t even know that it was me.

Oh my God. I love that. I love the immediate… I may have not done it. Well, no one knows.

Jasmine Bhullar: There’s no witnesses. What happens to beyond a reasonable doubt?

I love that. Oh my gosh. Bringing it back to Faster, Purple Worm because I do need to be able to talk. I feel like if you just tell me what you’re doing Baldur’s Gate, I’ll just be laughing for the next 30 minutes.

Jasmine Bhullar: My Baldur’s Gate playthrough is unhinged. So yes, I have made choices in that game.

I want to talk to you about that so bad after the interview. But what is something about Faster, Purple Worm and that experience both as a player and a DM because you’ve been on both sides of the screen that you want to take into future games?

Jasmine Bhullar: I think it was the scale of folks involved. I think Faster, Purple Worm is kind of inspiring now that I own my own project, DesiQuest. Seeing how they took what was a live show format because they were doing these shows live at Guild Hall, I think and then taking that on the road, doing it at different conventions and eventually using that as a prototype for a show and continuing to have this brand and have this project that involves so many people across so many different parts of the hobby. Because when you look at the list of the folks involved in Purple Worm and the people who’ve got to play and run games, it’s a massive list. And it’s just fun. It’s just fun.

I can’t say for sure that I would’ve gotten a chance to play with Seth Green and Will Wheaton if I hadn’t been a part of this project or Michael Irby for that matter. And so I think it’s so cool that Matt has used the goodwill he has in this industry to make a project that involves so many different people and then tour that. It’s definitely inspired me to be like, instead of looking at a show as one season of something, you put on one platform of like, “Well, if this works, what does the live show version of that look like? What does an anthology of stories set in that world looks like?” Look like, I should say.

And being okay with letting other DMs have their spin on that and contribute to that because their take on this is going to be really, really different. I think that’s been the wildest thing about seeing some of the episodes is how different, even though we all were given the same premise, how different our takes on that same premise were. I think that’s my biggest takeaway is sometimes you build a boat and you let other people drive it once in a while and you try to fit as many people as you can on board, and then that project becomes something so much bigger because of the scope and the talents of the people involved. And so I think that was very inspiring.

About Faster, Purple Worm! Kill! Kill!

“Faster, Purple Worm! Kill! Kill!” serves up comedic mayhem with tabletop gaming stars and celebrity guest players, including Seth Green, Anjali Bhimani, Skeet Ulrich, Sean Gunn, Mica Burton, Patton Oswalt and series co-creator Matthew Lillard. Perfect for seasoned gamers and newbies alike, every episode features an improvised, stand-alone story along with epic, hilarious character deaths.

Check out our other Faster, Purple Worm! Kill! Kill! interviews:

Faster, Purple Worm! Kill! Kill! is on the Dungeons & Dragons Adventures channel on Amazon Freevee and Plex on Thursdays & Saturdays at 6PM PST and 9PM PST. You can also catch up on the first six episodes now on Plex.

Source: Screen Rant Plus