Robin Moon
Still extremely popular to this day, Dungeons and Dragons (D&D) is a fantasy role-playing tabletop game first invented in 1974. Throughout the years, the Player’s Handbook has been updated multiple times (currently on the 5th edition), but the essentials of the game are the same. One player is the Dungeon Master (DM), narrating the story and guiding the players through the world. They voice non-player characters (NPCs) and control monsters/villains during combat encounters. The player characters (PCs) make up a party of adventurers, choosing their own personalisation and interacting with the world around them via dice rolls. Whichever number the dice lands on dictates ability checks, attacks, and damage dealt.
Since Season 1 of Stranger Things, D&D has been an integral element of the show. As well as the actual characters playing D&D diegetically within the narrative of the show, much of the lore and monsters are heavily influenced by D&D. Villains are named after D&D baddies, and the characters’ roles, party dynamic, and general fantasy vibe reflect how D&D operates. Let’s take a deeper look into how D&D is represented in Stranger Things.
In terms of the actual playing of D&D in the show, it’s rather straightforward. Season 1 opens with the main cast of kids (Mike, Dustin, Lucas, and Will) playing D&D in Mike’s family basement, a realistic setting for the game. Especially for children, who only really have access to each other’s parents’ houses, it’s relatable for young D&D players. I mean, even at the age of 23, I started my current D&D campaign in my friend’s girlfriend’s flat’s basement. Mike’s mother calling down the stairs for the kids to stop playing so they can go home while he protests is realistic across any generation.
They’re 10 hours into a session when a combat encounter with the Demogorgon begins. Since Will plays a wizard, he’s deciding between two spells to cast. Dustin is encouraging him to cast Protection, and Lucas is insisting on Fireball. Will ends up casting Fireball, but only rolls a seven, so it doesn’t hit. It’s a simple and effective way of introducing the rules and gameplay in regards to how to take action and roll the dice. Some of the dialogue is rather on-the-nose, such as Will stating, “I’d have to roll a 13 or higher!” Obviously, Will would know how his abilities work, as would the DM (Mike), so saying it explicitly is for the benefit of the audience who might not know exactly how the game operates. Fireball is also a saving throw spell, which involves the enemy making a roll that needs to exceed the spellcaster’s spell save DC, so it doesn’t actually involve a roll from the spellcaster themself to hit. However, this could be based on older edition mechanics, the kids misunderstanding the rules, or even the writers simplifying the gameplay for the audience. But for the most part, it’s accurate. Also, the kids are playing the 1983 Expert edition of D&D, so the rules would have been more simplistic compared to the modern 5th edition.
The PCs of the kids’ D&D campaign are obvious parallels to their own characters. As the leader of the group, Mike is the DM who narrates the events and guides the PCs. As mentioned previously, Will is a wizard by the name of “Will the Wise”; although Will himself has no magical abilities, he does have a helpful connection with the Upside Down. Wizards are also often high in intelligence but less vocal, and Will is academically smart and reserved, much quieter than the other kids. “Sundar the Bold” is the name of Lucas’ character, a Knight fighter. Less of a strategist, Lucas is much more physical in combat against monsters, and one of the more athletic members of the group. Knights are also noble and heroic, and Lucas consistently shows empathy and loyalty to his friends, even though this is put to the test in Season 4. Dustin’s Season 1 PC is only described as a dwarf called “Nog,” which doesn’t tell us much. The smaller creature with no discernable abilities could however denote more of a comic relief character, which is the role Dustin tends to inhabit in the earlier seasons.
Due to additions to the cast, Season 2 brings a new D&D campaign, switching up the characters’ classes. This time around, Mike is a paladin, which is a type of holy knight. Aside from the religious aspect, paladins are known for being morally good and noble, always fighting the good fight. Mike is extremely protective of Eleven after she comes into his life, so it makes sense his motivations would shift to reflect this type of class. (There is the question of who the DM is if Mike is now a PC, but let’s just forget about that, since it’s never answered in the show.) Will plays a cleric instead of a wizard, which is a magic user with divinely appointed powers. They’re known as healers but also have an ability to control undead creatures, which links to Will’s connection with the Demodogs in Season 2. Lucas is now a ranger, another weapon-proficient class that is skilled in hunting and tracking. It emphasises Lucas’ more practical and athletic skills. Moving forward from just comic relief, Dustin now plays a bard. Bards are known for their charisma and storytelling skills. Dustin’s charm and creativity often come in handy when the party is in tricky situations.
When Eleven joined the group, she became the party’s mage, a basic magic-user. I’d personally argue the warlock class is more suited to Eleven, considering she doesn’t study magic like a mage/wizard but doesn’t innately have magic powers like sorcerers. Warlocks have patrons who gift their magic powers to them, and El’s abilities came from an evil scientist. They can cause fatal damage to other people and creatures, but it’s up to El how she chooses to wield them.
Introduced in Season 2 is Max, who quickly becomes irritated by the boys’ nerdy exclusion of her in regards to D&D, and invents a class called a “zoomer.” This naturally isn’t in the Player’s Handbook, but could be considered a “homebrew” class—a non-official, modified type created by a player. In fact, a D&D player and Stranger Things fan actually created a Zoomer Rogue Archetype after the episode aired. Pretty cool! I do think rogue would be the class best suited to Max, as she keeps her cards close to her chest and is rather a lone wolf, preferring to deal with personal problems alone. Her distraction of Vecna in Season 4 has the stealth required of a rogue, and she’s quick on her feet when escaping from him.
No other characters introduced in the show partake in D&D, other than some random background characters in Season 4’s Hellfire Club campaign, and the new DM, Eddie. We don’t know what classes Mike, Dustin, and Lucas play in Season 4. However, Lucas’ sister Erica ends up replacing him when he favours his basketball team instead. She declares herself to be a half-elf rogue called “Lady Applejack,” and her competence ends up saving the campaign as she defeats Vecna with a critical hit. This is very much aligned with her intelligence and resourcefulness.
In addition to the characters, the narrative structure of D&D reflects that of the show itself. Each of the kids essentially make up a party of adventurers dealing with dangerous events and battling monsters, becoming more and more capable as the show goes on. As they level up, they become heroes in the eyes of the audience, willing to stand up and fight in the face of impending doom. In regards to combat, there are smaller encounters with lower-level creatures (e.g. the demodogs, the Upside Down bats), and then larger boss battles with villains consistent throughout the overarching plot (e.g. The Mind Flayer, Vecna). Less important characters that still affect the plot could be considered on the same level as NPCs, such as Barb in Season 1, and Jason in Season 4.
What starts as a coincidence results in the characters naming monsters from the Upside Down after D&D villains. Will is defeated by the Demogorgon at the start of Episode 1 and is kidnapped by a creature shortly afterward. Eleven also uses the D&D mini of the Demogorgon to represent the creature she saw chasing Will in her vision (which wasn’t actually invented until 1984, but anyway). From this point onwards, they refer to the creature that kidnapped Will as the Demogorgon. In Season 2, when theorising about the large entity that has a psychic connection with Will, the kids once again use a D&D analogy, therefore they nickname the creature the Mind Flayer. This D&D-inspired naming system is well established by Season 4, so Vecna is automatically named after the main villain in the Hellfire Club campaign without any concrete conversation about him.
D&D lore shares some common attributes of these monsters, while there are also some significant differences. The Demogorgon in D&D is only one creature, but has multiple heads; in Stranger Things, there are multiple Demogorgons with one extra-strong leader, although they are part of a hivemind, which could parallel the multiple heads. Both versions of the creature have telekinetic powers and are capable of shifting between dimensions. However, the D&D Demogorgon is extremely resistant to magic, as opposed to the Upside Down Demogorgons, who are essentially immune to physical attacks but destroyed via Eleven’s biokinetic powers. It’s also worth noting that Will uses Fireball on the Demogorgon in combat, as the Upside Down Demogorgons are later discovered to be vulnerable to fire. However, nothing is specifically mentioned about fire with the D&D Demogorgon, only that it is comfortable in water.
Instead of one extensive entity, Mind Flayers in D&D lore are actually a group of creatures known as “illithids” from the Underdark (a similar dark realm to the Upside Down, in a way). Despite this vital difference, the creatures have very similar abilities to the Stranger Things Mind Flayer. They lack physicality but are focused on mind-manipulation spells, such as charming, dominating, or detecting the thoughts of creatures in range. The Upside Down Mind Flayer uses mental communication to strike fear into enemies, going a step further by possessing particular people to use as its lackeys (e.g. Billy in Season 3). Like the Demogorgons, both enemies are also capable of plane shifting and scrying to keep track of targets. However, the Stranger Things Mind Flayer is much more powerful, being essentially omnipotent within the Upside Down, only limited by requiring an external psychic connection to reach into other dimensions.
Much like in Stranger Things, Vecna in D&D is an individual who was once human, then transcended into an extremely powerful lich (a kind of demonic god). In the D&D session at the beginning of Season 4, Vecna returns to life missing an eye and arm after the players believe he was dead; this also happens to D&D Vecna when he returns as a lich. There is a lot of history behind Vecna in D&D lore, so I’ll only cover the basics. For the most part, both incarnations of the villain seem to have similar motivations, personalities, and powers. D&D Vecna has a proclivity for gathering secrets, much like how Stranger Things Vecna reads people’s minds to discover their deepest traumas to use against them. They are both calculating villains, prone to bouts of rage. In regards to abilities, both Vecnas can paralyse their victims and manipulate reality to incite fear. Heightened perception is another key ability, as they can both sense other presences from very far away.
As the kids end up having to deal with the overarching danger of the Upside Down, D&D naturally isn’t at the forefront of their daily activities. We only see scenes of gameplay during their downtime, and characters such as Will long for the simplistic days of playing for hours on end as escapism. The most memorable major D&D scene is with Eddie as the DM at the start of Season 4. As the characters have aged, so their game has progressed. Now, they play in a classroom at school, using more space and objects (e.g. candles for ambiance and a DM throne for dramatic effect). Although they’re more independent, it’s still realistically set in an environment accessible for school kids. Plus, the props they’re using are most likely from Hawkins High’s drama department.
Season 4 addresses the satanic panic of the 1980s in regards to D&D specifically. Fear-mongering attitudes surrounding the game were rife at the time due to extreme misconceptions. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, a couple of young men in the US tragically died by suicide, but because they happened to play D&D, their deaths were blamed on the game itself. A parent of one of the deceased sued the makers of D&D, claiming the game actively involved “satanic rituals,” “witchcraft,” and general violence that caused her son’s passing. Conservative Christian groups were extremely vocal over their mistrust of the game at the time. Any kind of dangerous, anti-social, or self-destructive acts committed by youths who played D&D was entirely blamed on the game.
This portrayal of moral panic in Season 4 is channeled through the character of Eddie Munson. He’s the DM of the Hellfire Club, and a renowned metalhead to boot. After Chrissy is killed by Vecna in Episode 1, “The Hellfire Club,” Eddie comes under scrutiny as the last person to have seen her alive. It doesn’t help that she died in his caravan and that he fled the scene afterward—that looks blatantly suspicious. However, the parents and jocks (specifically Jason Carver) who voice their concerns base their accusations on Eddie playing D&D, claiming the Hellfire Club is some kind of satan-worshipping cult. As a weirdo outcast who dresses alternatively, listens to metal bands (also part of the satanic panic), has no parents, hasn’t managed to graduate high school yet, and plays D&D, Eddie is an easy scapegoat.
Setting up the strictly conservative mob, led by Jason, who has been tracking down Eddie and Dustin for the entire season, lends itself to some frustrating yet well-timed dramatic tension. When Vecna traps his victims, they end up in a paralysed trance-state. Glazed-over, white eyes, levitating, the whole shebang. Out of context, it would absolutely appear as though the person being targeted was possessed. In “The Piggyback,” Max intentionally allows Vecna to find her to create a distraction, while Lucas oversees. At the worst possible moment, Jason comes in and witnesses what’s happening. With all the scare-mongering, he assumes some kind of satanic ritual is taking place, considering Max’s physical state, the candles, and the creepy haunted house setting. Thinking he’s saving Max, Jason incidentally ends up putting her in more danger by interrupting the plan and breaking her cassette player, the one thing guaranteed to keep her safe. It’s incredibly stressful to watch, but the pay-off is excellent. The negative attitudes surrounding D&D and the inclusion of actual monsters that put the players (and those who protest against the game) in danger fit together perfectly.
Even after Eddie’s death in the final episode, there still remains a “missing” poster referring to him as a dangerous satanist, responsible for the murders throughout the season. His uncle removes the poster, and Dustin has to break the news of his tragic death. In reference to the D&D moral panic, Dustin makes a point of saying that if everyone had got to know Eddie, they would have loved him. He says that, despite everything, he never got mad, and died to protect a town that hated him. Above all, what happened to the students of Hawkins High and Eddie himself was a horrible tragedy. Not only were the D&D players not to blame, but they actively tried to prevent those deaths and save the world from monsters.
D&D is rather vital to Stranger Things lore, in terms of the narrative, monsters, and characters. It’s easy to see the game’s influence, but the artistic license has still been enacted so the show remains fresh and original in many aspects. Within the show itself, of course, there are a couple of minor inaccuracies in how D&D is portrayed, especially with it being a period piece. For the most part, it rings true with real-life D&D players, exploring the social ramifications and misconceptions surrounding the game was a fascinating angle to take in Season 4 and highlighting the existing theme of othering. In broad terms, Stranger Things proves that D&D had a huge cultural impact lasting to this day.
