Dungeons & Dragons: Stranger Things Starter Set

Ever watched a TV show and thought “I would have solved that so much quicker”? Or found yourself screaming “Just hit it!” when the gang are fighting a Demogorgon? Well, this is your chance to have a go for yourself! Dungeons and Dragons is a way to test your adventuring skills all from the comfort of your own home. Bringing D&D Stranger Things straight to your table.

Where Do I Start

I speak to so many people who are interested in giving D&D a go, but have no idea where to start. At a whopping 320 pages, the Player’s Handbook is an invaluable resource, however, for a newbie, incredibly intimidating. This is why a Starter Set is such a fab idea.

The people at Hasbro Gaming have clearly thought about what information a player starting out actually needs. They have condensed the 320 page tome down into just 43 pages. Even then they have made it so you don’t need to read it all. As long as everyone in your group has skimmed the first chapter, you are pretty much good to go. If there are any disputes, then the DM makes the final ruling.

Dungeon Master

Every game of Dungeons and Dragons must have a DM or Dungeon Master. They are the one who actually knows what is going on and brings the story to life for the characters. Normally I would recommend that the DM is the person in the group who has played D&D before, but the Starter Set means that anyone can give it a go. You don’t necessarily need to be a dramatic performer like Eddie Munson to be the Dungeon Master; you just have to be willing to do a bit of reading beforehand and then think on your feet.

The D&D Stranger Things set comes with a booklet that has been styled as Mike’s notebook. Inside you have the whole campaign laid out: the motivation, the structure, the monsters… As always, it will be up to the DM to add a little flair to proceedings, but it has everything you need to run the session even if you have never played before. They have really committed to the theming and added little doodles of what Mike’s thinks the encounters will look like. Altogether, it is a useful working document and a really cool idea.

Of course, there are still decision for the DM to make. Do you want to have figurines to represent all the characters? The set comes with a Demogorgon already, but you don’t necessarily need realistic models if you don’t want them. Grabbing the meeple from any other game will do the job. Do you want to copy out the maps so you can show your characters’ progress? Are you happy to leave everything up to the theatre of the mind? The notebook has the information for whichever route you go down. Decide what works best for you! You are the DM after all and your word goes.

Characters

One of the things that I found most overwhelming when I first started D&D was building a character. There are so many things to think about. What race is your character going to be? Elf, dwarf, dragon-born? What is their class? Barbarian, wizard, cleric? What ability scores are best? I ended up going based on my instincts and ended up with a barbarian dwarf who was supposed to be a good fighter, but because her dexterity was so low, Ugh missed almost every hit. To be fair, I found this hilarious and delighted in Ugh’s ineptitude. However, many new players will probably want to be more successful in their quest.

To help with this, the set has five characters ready to go. A lot of the information from the Player’s Handbook has been condensed down onto the backs of these sheets, so you will have everything you need. All you need to think about is the name, personality, appearance and, if you are feeling really bold, accent. They all have different strengths and abilities, so the party is already balanced and ready to start adventuring.

Top Tips

Next, you just need to go for it! Throw yourself into the session and have fun. You might end up dying in the first battle, you might defeat the Thessalhydra without getting a scratch on you, you might spend so long enjoying having conversations in character that you have to complete the campaign over multiple weekends. It doesn’t matter! The whole point of D&D is to enjoy an adventure. That will mean something different to every group. It is all about what works for you. This set gives you a great outline, but you will build the world from there. The D&D Stranger Things Starter Set is definitely a good place to start your D&D journey!

Get yourself a good set of dice! You do get a set with the pack, but I am very suspicious of mine. I rolled the d20 about 10 times and never got a score higher than an 11. Now, I know the dice aren’t weighted and I know that superstition is just foolishness, but I don’t want to face the Demogorgon with unlucky dice! Especially as the d20 is your main weapon. You roll it for attacks and then damage. You need one that is on your side. I feel like you may be rolling your eyes at me now, but play a couple of games and see how you feel. Sometimes a die needs to be banished to dice jail and you need a replacement.

Don’t worry if things go wrong! I am yet to run a session where someone doesn’t do something stupid. People have blown themselves up, tried to incapacitate an enemy with a drugged pie and attempted to seduce fog. And those are the first examples that come to mind. DM, your beautiful plans will be thrown out the window, so just roll with it. Also, if something isn’t going the way you expected, style it out! The other players don’t know what was supposed to happen, so you can pretend it was part of your plan all along.

Bad Review

I realise I have mostly talked about D&D in general rather than the specifics of the D&D Stranger Things Starter Set. It is difficult to review a “game” when so much of the experience comes down to the people who are playing! Every person who buys this set will play a different campaign. That is just how D&D goes. You might all have the same building blocks and end goal, but how you approach D&D is very personal. That being said, I think this Starter Set gives new players everything they need to get going. I don’t think I have any complaints other than my dice being cursed. As I have said before, just go for it!

Next Steps

Once you have completed the D&D Stranger Things campaign, you will be hungry for more. The character sheets give you the option to level up your players and keep adventuring with them. You could use the notes space in the back of Mike’s notebook to plan your own campaign. But you don’t have to do everything from scratch. There are plenty of campaign books you can use. Commit to a long campaign like The Curse of Strahd or go for a complete of shorter stories like Ghost of Saltmarsh. There are endless opportunities and that’s the point! Welcome to the D&D; you’re going to have fun.