A new video on YouTube is using the show Stranger Things as a way to explain the complicated rules of Dungeons and Dragons. D&D is of course the world’s most popular tabletop roleplaying game. The game was first released in 1974 and is still wildly popular today. Dungeons and Dragons is currently in its fifth edition since its release.
Netflix’s Stranger Things has referenced Dungeons and Dragons frequently throughout its current three seasons. The show follows a group of friends as they struggle to defeat the supernatural forces that plague their small town, and they often make references to the roleplaying game as an analogy for the events that happen to them. In fact, all the main supernatural antagonists in the show have a Dungeons and Dragons counterpart such as the Demogorgon in the first season, and the Mindflayer in the following seasons. The show even opens with the main characters playing a game of D&D which foreshadows events to come.
The YouTube channel Still Watching Netflix has now released a video that uses the series as a vehicle to explain the complicated rules of the game to new potential players. The video begins by explaining the basic roles in the game, with character Mike as the Dungeon Master (who runs the game), and characters Lucas, Dustin, and Will as the players. The video goes on to describe the different races and classes a player can play as and helps the viewer to understand them by linking them to other characters in the show. In this case, Lucas represents a Ranger, Dustin a Bard, Steve a Fighter, and Max a Zoomer, which was actually not a real class available in the game until it was invented by Stranger Things. The video even gets into some of the more obscure spells that can be used in the game. Check it out below:
While Dungeons and Dragons has always been popular, this video has come at a very opportune time. Reportedly, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, D&D has had its biggest year ever. When people couldn’t go out in the real world, many people were attracted to the idea of playing in the imaginary world which the game offers. Since then, the game has been finding more and more followers. This video serves as a gateway to anyone who has been considering playing, but isn’t sure the game is for them.
While the video does a good job encouraging new players to try D&D, with a run time of only ten minutes, it merely scratches the surface of what the game has to offer. Many avid fans of the RPG can play the game for years and not learn everything there is to know. Similarly, Stranger Things season 1 opens in the year 1983, which means that the characters would be playing a different edition of the game. Due to this, the video focuses more on basic elements of the game rather than specific mechanics of the game, as what is shown in the series may not be exactly how the game is played today. This truly serves the video, as it doesn’t make the gameplay seem overwhelming in any way. This video is a perfect watch for anyone who has seen Stranger Things and thinks the game might be something they want to try, or at least for anyone who wants to understand the references when season four hits Netflix in 2022.
