Dungeons & Dragons has been a core part of Stranger Things since season 1, with the heroes of Hawkins using the tabletop role-playing game to name the mysterious enemies they encounter, from the Demogorgon to the Mind Flayer, to Vecna. Now Wizards of the Coast and Netflix are making it easy to get a taste of the fun of rolling D20s with friends with the Stranger Things Welcome to the Hellfire Club board game.
Releasing on Oct. 7, the game is presented as the final campaign of Eddie Munson, the leader of Hawkins High’s gaming group, the Hellfire Club. While Eddie was running a game of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons about the powerful undead wizard Vecna, this set uses the far easier to learn 5th Edition ruleset for a beginner-friendly adventure.
Wizards of the Coast released a Stranger Things Dungeons & Dragons Roleplaying Game Starter Set in 2019, which included character sheets and a brief adventure based on the game the kids played in season 1. But Welcome to the Hellfire Club is structured more like the upcoming Heroes of the Borderlands starter set, filling the box with tokens and cards to make the experience more like a board game. The goal is seemingly to make playing as easy and immersive as possible so groups can jump in while waiting for season 5 to premiere. But it also comes at a higher price point, with Welcome to the Hellfire Club costing twice as much as the original Stranger Things set.
The ‘80s was a rough time for gamers like Eddie thanks to the Satanic Panic, but Welcome to the Hellfire Club leans into nostalgia with its art, which includes a double-sided Hellfire Club poster, in-world handouts, and images of the characters played on the show. It features a mix of classic D&D monsters and ones specific to Stranger Things, like demodogs and a new demodragon.
Stranger Things: Welcome to the Hellfire Club is available to preorder for $49.99 through D&D Beyond. A digital version is $19.99 and both can be combined for $59.99. The set will be released on Oct. 7.
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