Stranger Things game Dungeon & Dragons gets relaunched. Photo / Supplied
The Netflix series Stranger Things has rightly earned itself a lot of fans for everything from its talented cast to superb writing and atmosphere, so it's no surprise it's been picked up for a third series (releasing on July 4).
One of the treats the show offers, however, is a spot-on depiction of life as a kid in the 1980s. From the clothes to the music to the general aesthetic, it's nostalgia-inducing stuff with superb attention to detail.
One of the important pastimes of the young protagonists in the first series is a game of Dungeons & Dragons, a pen-and-paper role-playing game (RPG) set in a Tolkeinesque fantasy world which has also been an enormous influence on computer RPGs as well.
Dungeons & Dragons is a real game, launched in 1974 and still going strong; it is even enjoying a resurgence alongside other tabletop games as more people look for social ways to reconnect with others in person, news.com.au reports.
Publishers Wizards of the Coast have seen a perfect opportunity to combine 80s nostalgia, a TV tie-in and a gateway to a classic game in one place with the release of a special Dungeons & Dragons: Stranger Things adventure, connected to the popular Netflix TV show.
Designed as a stand-alone adventure, creative director Mike Mearls said the Stranger Things-related quest offered a unique crossover between the two fan-favourite pop culture elements.
"The idea was to give (Dungeons & Dragons) players and Stranger Things fans essentially an artefact from the Stranger Things universe," he said.
While the design of the box is straight out of first edition Dungeons & Dragons circa 1984, the Stranger Things edition uses the current Fifth Edition rules, meaning players who want to transition to the core Dungeons & Dragons game will have a basic understanding of how it works, and existing players will be able to pick it up and get straight into it.
The game is intended to be played in a single evening, as opposed to the 12 or so sessions a traditional campaign takes, and includes pre-designed characters (although players can also make their own too) along with rule books for the adventure and the multi-sided dice necessary for playing.
The game comes with an adventure in which a local king has tasked the players to hunt and kills a Thessalhydra monster which is ravaging the land, and includes a segment set in The Upside Down as players track the Thessalhyrda and attempt to defeat it.
Mr Mearls said despite the tie-in, the adventure was set in a fantasy universe (featuring the Demogorgon from the TV show) rather than the Stranger Things 1980s setting itself — in other words, it is the adventure the show's characters are seen playing in series one of the show.
"The biggest challenge was designing a scenario that will fit within that couple hours of play and it hit on all those reference in that episode," he said.
Modern Dungeons & Dragons has a lot of focus on storytelling, while its 1980s iteration had a stronger focus on puzzle solving, and Mr Mearls said.
"It (this adventure) is something that offers a real sense of how Dungeons & Dragons was played in the 80s a bit — puzzles that challenged players, and how in some ways the Dungeon Master (the combined storyteller/referee) is thinking of ways to challenge the players," he said.
Mr Mearls said the Stranger Things adventure had been aimed at new players and Dungeon Masters and the response had been very positive indeed.
"People have been excited to get an adventure that has a good mix of action," he said.
"One of the good things has been seeing people coming into Dungeons & Dragons being fans of the show with a compact experience they can play in one night.
"I've had a number of friends get in touch saying it's their son or daughter's first time as Dungeon Master."
As someone who played a fair bit of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Second Edition back in the 1990s, I thought the Stranger Things adventure was very well done and hit the "Classic Dungeons & Dragons Adventure" notes while still being accessible to people who were still getting to grips with pen-and-paper RPGs.
The instructions with the game were clear and easy to understand — even for someone with no knowledge of the current rules — and the story guide for the Dungeon master even covered eventualities like "what to do if the players attack a friendly quest giver" or "alternative ways of getting a quest item if combat with a key enemy is proving too challenging".
There was a room for both Dungeon Masters and players to be a bit creative while ensuring the story was not too complicated, confusing or convoluted.
Even without the Stranger Things connection it was a solid single-session adventure in its own right, so if you've got a group of friends looking to get into traditional pen-and-paper RPGs, or looking for something social to play with a fun connection to a highly-regarded show, Dungeons & Dragons: Stranger Things is a critical hit which deserves to be added to your bag of holding.