The Young Dragonslayers DND Stranger Things Compendium
Stranger Things and Dungeons and Dragons are a happy little pair. Fans of Stranger Things play Dungeons and Dragons; fans of Dungeons and Dragons watch Stranger Things, and we get a Venn Diagram that looks a whole lot like a circle. And we are no exception. As we await the finale of Stranger Things season 5 DND is on our minds, and we’re on the edge of our seats to find out what happens! So in honor of the occasion, we decided to bring all of our Stranger Things DND content in one place. If you’re a newcomer wondering if Stranger Things is based off of DND, what DND characters are in Stranger Things, how Stranger Things is connected to DND, or you’re a Stranger Things superfan hoping to know more about Stranger Things season 5 DND references, we’ll point you in the right direction! Here it is at a glance:
The Stranger Things Season 5 DND Monster Origins
Is Stranger Things Vecna from Dungeons and Dragons? We have the answer (it’s yes).
In Stranger Things, DND is more than just a one-off scene or a background prop. To paraphrase Jonathan Gilmour-Long, DND is basically its own character in the show. It’s the way Will, Mike, Dustin, and Lucas bond! It’s also how they begin to categorize the strange happenings around them. From the demogorgon to Vecna, they name all of the creatures they face after classic DND monsters. We went through the Stranger Things monsters from DND to see what they had in common and where the Duffer brothers took some artistic liberties. Of course, we couldn’t help but nitpick a few DND references in there as well!
“Sure,” you might be saying, “I’ve seen the show. I know about the mind flayer and the demogorgon. But how does the whole DND thing from Stranger Things actually work?” If that’s you, we can confidently point you in the direction of our video explaining Dungeons and Dragons. In it, Dungeon Master Sergio takes you through from the beginning, explaining what the game is, the basics of how to play, how the Dungeon Master works, what it means to create and play a character, and the basic game mechanics with some helpful examples. It’s the perfect starting point for someone who is curious about the game.
DND Is the Game They Play In Stranger Things
Did Stranger Things make DND popular? Take it from us, it certainly didn’t hurt!
If you’ve got an idea of what Dungeons and Dragons is and you’re curious to play yourself, we’ve got some handy resources to help you along the way. Once again, Dungeon Master Sergio comes in clutch with a video about how to start playing DND. In it, he lays out the steps to get started in a game of Dungeons and Dragons. He breaks down the most important rules to know before you start, shares some of the lingo you need to know, and explains what the dice are, what they’re for, and when to roll them. He also takes you through the basics of how to make your first character, which you’ll need in order to join a game, and a list of gear you’ll need to play. If you’re looking to get into a little more detail – How does combat work? What are ability scores? What are the magic types? How do I find a group? – we’ve got loads more articles ready for you to scroll through to begin your adventure.
What Was It Like To Play DND in the 80s Like Stranger Things?
To understand Stranger Things season 5, it helps to understand the 1980s.
The characters in Stranger Things don’t just play DND. They played it back when it first came out – and when it first came under fire – in the 1980s. You might not be able to travel back in time to experience it for yourself, but you can read about what DND was like for the Stranger Things characters back in the 1980s. We explain the very first editions of Dungeons and Dragons, break down which ones were played in the show, and go over the ways the game, and the people who play it, have changed. Of course, we also touch on a key component of DND in Stranger Things: the backlash known as the Satanic Panic. But if you want to know more, we went into detail about the DND Satanic Panic in Stranger Things with the creator of the Satanic Panic documentary himself. We go through all the events and key players that lead to the moral panic and controversy around DND, address their concerns, and pull out some research (and the Bible!) to address them.
Connecting Stranger Things to DND with Kids on Bikes
Stranger Things is not based on DND, but it does bring DND into the story! Kids on Bikes, on the other hand, is based on both DND and Stranger Things.
Stranger Things is very connected to DND. The creators of the show put in the game, and elements from it, straight into the show. But DND existed for decades without Stranger Things and, with a few exceptions, has been unchanged by it. As bonafide DND and Stranger Things nerds, we were delighted to find a DND game that owes its existence to Stranger Things: Kids on Bikes. We got to interview Jonathan Gilmour-Long, the co-creator of the game, and hear the whole story of how it came to be. He told us about what it was like growing up in the 80s, how they brought that nostalgia to the game, and why he and his co-creator decided to make a DND game based on Stranger Things. He also told us about his experience trying to play DND in the 1980s and how it inspired the design of Kids on Bikes. We’ve played the game plenty ourselves, and we love getting to share it with people, so we also created a guide for how to play Kids on Bikes. It goes through the steps of creating a character, understanding the stats and the character sheet, making rolls, and running combat. We also get to talk about the most Stranger-Things element of the entire game: the Powered Character!
Understand the Stranger Things Season 5 DND References By Playing Yourself!
Have your own DND Stranger Things Hellfire Club experience (without the mysterious disappearances and high-school drama)
As you can see, there’s plenty to talk about when it comes to DND and Stranger Things. But it’s one thing to talk about DND and another thing entirely to actually play it. And, as Sergio goes over in his guide to start playing DND, finding good people to play with (and a time that works for all of you) is perhaps the most challenging boss battle of all. With our games, you don’t have to worry about that. In our online DND games for tweens and teens, we put players with similar personalities, experiences, and play styles in the same group. Then, we bring in one of our professional Dungeon Masters to bring the group together, teach newcomers how to play, and take them all on an epic adventure. (My tween group last term took an endangered T Rex to the Upside Down, enchanted all of the Demogorgons to become their allies, returned to the poachers on the Material Plane, and transformed into Vecna, Tiamat, and a Large Goliath to take them down.) If this sounds like the way you’d like to play, you can learn more about our games below!
