“Something is coming. Something bloodthirsty. A shadow grows on the wall behind you and swallows you into darkness. It’s almost there.”
Netflix’s “Stranger Things” The first conversation spoken in “The Undiscovered World,” which sets the scene for the hypothetical attack that 12-year-old Mike Wheeler (Finn Wolfhard) is about to unleash on his friends Will Byers (Noah Schnapp), Dustin Henderson (Gaten Matarazzo), and Lucas Sinclair (Caleb McLaughlin) in his basement, immediately establishes itself as arguably the show’s most iconic piece. Tie-up: “Dungeons & Dragons”.
The influence of this iconic tabletop role-playing game on Matt Duffer and Ross Duffer’s ’80s-set sci-fi phenomenon is undeniable, both in terms of the frequency with which the game itself is played throughout the show, and the classic monsters and villains it inspired within the show’s universe.
But Stranger Things’ influence on D&D over the past nine years is just as impressive as the show (along with significant contributions from Critical Role, Dropout’s Dimension 20, and the 2023 film Dungeons and Dragons: Honor of Thieves) has propelled what was still largely considered a cult classic into mainstream entertainment in the 2020s.
“I’ve been playing and running games for over 10 years now,” Dungeons & Dragons game designer Justice Urman told Variety. “And I’m really happy to see this kind of renaissance happening, with the explosion of growth in the fifth edition, and seeing ‘D&D’ bring people together through gaming on Zoom during the pandemic. And shows like ‘Stranger Things,’ critical That’s in no small part due to Roll’s friends, all of these artists who probably played this game in their youth and were inspired to become storytellers, like Eddie Manson, and who now benefit from it.”
Last month, Hasbro and Dungeons & Dragons maker Wizards of the Coast released Stranger Things: Welcome to the Hellfire Club, a three- to five-player cooperative tabletop game product based on Stranger Things created in partnership with Duffers and Netflix. The game features “Lost Adventures” created by “D&D” player Eddie Manson, the beloved Dungeon Master of the Hellfire Club from “Stranger Things” Season 4.
The Welcome to the Hellfire Club set is a direct tie-in to the show, with a character sheet featuring the D&D characters played by Mike, Dustin, Lucas, Will (though not officially a member of the Hellfire Club, but Will the Wise had to be included), and Lucas’ sister Erica (Priah Ferguson), and a campaign built in the classic 1st edition format that Eddie and the Stranger Things kids would have played back in the day. 80’s. The materials are styled to look worn and tattered, as if they were discovered in someone’s attic after years of use.
“I really love this set because I think it was a really fun opportunity to not only combine the fun and greatness of Stranger Things and D&D and the similarities between those two brands, but also an opportunity for Justice and I and the rest of the team to learn a little bit of the history of 1st Edition,” said Kara Kenna, creative director of the Dungeons & Dragons series. “We did a lot of visual research on the fonts and read some of the modules that Eddie would have used. And it was really fun to look at the modules that he would have played and also dig deep into what we could pull from that and add to this experience.”
Armand, Kenna and the team incorporated plenty of Hawkins-specific elements into the set, drawing on Stranger Things lore to ensure the production felt authentic to the in-universe storyline for the show’s fifth and final season, which premieres Thursday on Netflix.
“In the early seasons, we’ve walked this kind of interesting route. We could have made these adventures just repeat the beats of the show, but in terms of themes and inspiration and even Easter eggs, we wanted to find a line between what people who were familiar with the show had seen, but also give us the agency to tell our own fantasy stories around it,” Urman said. “The second adventure in this set, The Cry of the Crops, takes a lot of inspiration from Season 2. There’s a dilapidated farm. Underneath the farm there’s a tunnel. There are some creatures underneath. But the story that comes out of it is also distinctly D&D.” And that plays into the conceit of this set as well. Eddie is entrusting these four adventures to the next wave of the Hellfire Club. And then there’s a beautiful welcome letter to Dustin at the beginning, basically encouraging him to finish the campaign and move these things forward. And we ask the staff playing our sets to do the same. ”
The D&D team wanted the game to be a love letter to the show, itself a love letter to D&D, but they also wanted to “make sure this was a complete 5th Edition experience” and ensure that today’s modern D&D products “didn’t feel like something lesser to the people who actually play them.”
“But with pre-generated character sheets, you can jump right in without doing any homework,” says Kenna. “You can start with a character at any level you want, and the adventures are short, so if you’ve never done it before, it’s a little easier to do in one night or a few nights rather than doing a big, long campaign. It strikes the balance of what feels like a great entry point, but also really a full 5E experience.”
As for whether playing Welcome to the Hellfire Club will give us any hints to the plot of Stranger Things 5, Armand and Kenna admitted that they were exposed to Season 5’s story during the game’s development and got “little hints.”
“Justice and I were able to go to Atlanta and spend a day on set for Season 5, and it was so much fun,” Kenna said. “We could see some of the costumes and some of the things that will be coming in season 5 as part of the inspiration and collaboration. But knowing the date this was released, the goal was definitely not to spoil what we’re going to see in season 5. We really focused on the overall tone of the whole show and really captured the sense of adventure that is in both D&D and Stranger Things.” If there are spoilers, you’ll find out later. ”
As Stranger Things comes to an end, the Duffer brothers are already working on a prequel series for Netflix. Does this mean there will be more D&D collaborations in the future?
“Nothing has been announced at this time, but we are always open,” Kenna said.
