New York Comic Con has wrapped up, but the memories, loot, and creative sparks are still fresh! During our first visit to New York Comic Con (NYCC), we had the opportunity to chat with Makenzie De Armas, Senior Game Designer at Wizards of the Coast, about the new Stranger Things: Welcome to the Hellfire Club bundle. Fans of the series will particularly enjoy the numerous references and easter eggs related to the show found throughout the Item cards, characters, Greyhawkins map, and adventures.

Now, imagine you’re exploring the dense clutter within an attic, and the year is snug within the 1980s. You find a box with a thick layer of dust and open it to discover a bundle of weathered and aged booklets, loose pages, and a black-and-white photograph of a group of high school kids. Thumbing through the booklets, you realize that these were crafted with doodles and imaginative details to form adventures to carry you from this world, and somewhere … beyond.

Continue Hellfire’s Legacy

Dungeons & Dragons has created the perfect love letter to the Stranger Things Hellfire Club. Within this bundle, which follows the 2024 Players Handbook rules, players can traverse through adventures that only the bravest of heroes dare to step foot. With four adventures to finish, players can start Hellfire clubs of their own. Nevertheless, this bundle is excellent for those looking to take the reins of being a Dungeon Master (DM). Whether you are new to DMing or need some practice, Eddie Munson’s presence will guide you every step of the way. In the Adventure booklets, you can find little notes from Eddie that provide a boost of encouragement.

The bundle includes pre-generated characters played by the members of the Hellfire Club, such as Lady Applejack, played by Erica Sinclair. Character sheets scale from level 1 to 4, but players are also encouraged to bring in their own characters.

“With the exception of Will the Wise, because Will was never a formal part of the Hellfire Club, but it’s a very iconic character. We love him and we also love including wizards in our adventuring party, so we put him in here anyway!” – Makenzie De Armas

Adventure Booklets can be played in any order, though prepare accordingly. It’s recommended that players begin with The Vanishing Gnome and continue through them as part of a larger, interconnected journey. However, each adventure can also be enjoyed as a standalone campaign! Expect each adventure to last around two to three hours of regular gameplay.

Of course, it wouldn’t be Stranger Things without a flip to the Upside Down. The Upside Down is accessed as if it were a separate area. As simple as patting a wall and passing through a secret door, players will enter the Veil of Shadows, which cues the DM to flip the map over.

From the Upside Down to the Tabletop

The Dungeons & Dragons team went above and beyond by incorporating various easter eggs to pay tribute to the series. Playing the adventures in sequence reveals subtle references to the events of Stranger Things across its first four seasons. While the game doesn’t directly replicate the show’s storylines, fans will encounter delightful surprises throughout the gameplay. One notable example is The Vanishing Gnome, which serves as a significant nod to season one, where Will Byers goes missing.

In the classic crime adventure, Ballad of the Rat King, the party investigates a series of murders along the docks after being hired for the task. The booklet includes a cute Scoops Ahoy reference, where siblings Jeeves and Jay work at a nautical-themed tavern and tally the day’s sales on a chalkboard. 

“Ahoy, Adventurers!”

Fans are also not prepared for one adventure in particular called Devil, Metal, Die! Eddie the Banished’s self-insert makes an appearance to put players through a series of tests to see if they are worthy to be inducted into the Hellfire Club.

At first glance, Dardew is a punk rocker fiend of the nine hells, which really leans into the Hellfire Club aesthetic.

“There’s a long history (when D&D was starting out) that a lot of people who worked on or created D&D would take anagrams of their names and name characters after themselves. And, to honor that tradition, Eddie’s character is named Dardew, which is an anagram of Edward.” – Makenzie De Armas

“Dardew the Banished is a devilishly charming showman with fiery ambition.”

Lurking Beneath the Dice

The newest addition to the Stranger Things monster family, the Demodragon, also debuts in this adventure, serving as the gatekeeper of the Hellfire Games’ final challenge. Both designers that we have talked to about this set have said that the Demodragon is their favorite monster, which is high praise!

“The deadly two-headed Demodragon rises to meet the foolhardy party.”

“We wanted to create a dragon because it’s Dungeons & Dragons, but we also wanted to reference both the Demogorgon in Stranger Things as well as the Demogorgon that appears in D&D. Traditionally in D&D, the demogorgon has two heads, so we slapped two heads on that bad boy!” – Makenzie De Armas

Makenzie discussed the challenge of balancing Stranger Things’ essence with creating a true D&D adventure and adapting its monsters to the game.

“We have stats for all the different demo-creatures, like the Demogorgon, the Demobat, the Demodog, and we went back and forth, wondering what to include from the show into these stats. I remember watching clip after clip of all the Demogorgon fights, and being like, all right, how do we adapt that in a way that doesn’t immediately kill a character, but still feels threatening?” – Makenzie De Armas

Crafted with careful precision, the demo-creatures are nothing short of terrifying. For example, the Demogorgon Spawn has an action called Bite that grapples the target and inflicts the Blinded condition.

Bundle Breakdown

The Ultimate Bundle Includes:

• Dungeon Master’s Screen
• Double-Sided Hellfire Club Poster
• 91 Cards for Spells, Magic Items, and Monsters
• 72 Tokens for Player Characters and Monsters
• 2 Double-Sided Poster Maps, 15 Character Sheets, 4 In-World Handouts
• Combat Tracker Notepad, Set of 11 Dice
• Quick-Start Guide, 4 Adventure Booklets, 1 Play Guide Booklet
• Stranger Things: Welcome to the Hellfire Club Digital Adventure Pack
• Upside Down Digital Dice Set
• Upside Down Digital Map and Sticker Pack

Check out our insightful conversation with Managing Game Designer, Justice Arman, about this bundle during SDCC earlier this year!

Stranger Things: Welcome to the Hellfire Club is available now on the D&D store!