At San Diego Comic-Con, there are plenty of awesome and epic activations, off-sites, comic-themed goodies, and sneak peeks. The Hasbro booth was one such booth with a handful of pre-order previews on display. From Nendoroids, Magic: The Gathering card sets, and large-scale toys, the booth was bustling with eager attendees contemplating their next purchase. One item that caught the attention of many (myself included) was a vividly detailed, retro-styled Dungeons & Dragons bundle.
However, this is no ordinary D&D set; this is the Stranger Things Welcome to the Hellfire Club bundle. This bundle has a Dungeon Master’s screen, cards for spells and monsters, tokens, maps, character sheets, a combat tracker notepad, dice, and a starter guide.
During San Diego Comic-Con, Temple of Geek spoke with Justice Arman (Managing Game Designer, Dungeons & Dragons), who gave some great insight into the bundle and the process to bring it to the players’ table.
A New Adventure Awaits
The Hellfire Club started as a haven for outsiders, free spirits, and dice-slingers. But founder Eddie Munson’s final campaign was left unfinished… until now.
Dungeons & Dragons is unleashing the chaotic fun of The Hellfire Club in a collaborative 3-5 player board game. Prepare your game night with your trusted allies for 4 adventures and choose how you will conquer the Upside Down.
With our collaboration with Stranger Things that leans into an 80s postalgia. We are trying to encourage people to start their own Hellfire Clubs with Eddie as a great example of a welcoming DM who runs his games in his own way. We want to encourage people to pick up where things left off. Stranger Things fans who are curious about D&D or vice versa, we’ve done a lot to make this set accessible for fans and players.
After ten years of feedback, we’ve put in multiple adventures, cards for spells, five character sheets for each of the characters played by the members of Stranger Things. For example, Erica Sinclair’s character “Lady Applejack” or Will Byers’ character “Will the Wise.” There is a unique character sheet for each level. Tokens, poster maps, and the beautiful four-panel DM screen illustrated by Trevor Gerard, who did the Hellfire Club Logo on the t-shirts that everybody loves.
(Character sheets can work across different campaigns, too!)
Dice & Demodragons
Upon hearing all of this, while peeking through the illustrations that looked worn with age and preserved from the 80s. It felt unmistakably like Eddie’s own campaign.
These are his forgotten adventures, the ones he didn’t get to run. There are four adventures; they span levels one to three. They start off with The Vanishing Gnome, which starts at a dungeon, and then at some point, the characters go to the Upside Down, and you flip the map over.
Naturally, I had to ask Justice which of the adventures he had the most fun playtesting. Runner-up after The Vanishing Gnome is Devil, Metal, Die.
It’s very over the top, very heavy metal, and that one includes a monster that we developed for the set in partnership with the Stranger Things crew to add to the Demo family. Across this set, you’re going to find Demodogs, Demogorgons, and our Demodragon, who’s two-headed.
The bundle includes multiple poster maps for every Adventure and tokens to support all the monsters in it. There is also a Hellfire Club poster, which, when reversed, has an illustrated map of Eddie’s imagined world, “Grayhawkins.” Fans of the series will find easter eggs towards the show, like Duffer Lake, which honors the Duffer Brothers. Cartography done by Will Doyle and Stacey Allan, who are also huge Stranger Things fans!
Trish Yocum (Graphic Design Lead) and Kara Kenna (Creative Lead) are to thank for the details behind this 80s postalgia. The cards resemble a retro wax pack, and the distressing along the books gives the set the appearance of having just been removed from a box and used for the first time.
Seeing this bundle laid out at the convention was beyond incredible. It is genuinely a set by fans for the fans. Temple of Geek can’t wait to provide a deeper dive into the Upside Down universe Eddie imagined. Pre-order now at D&D Beyond’s website and eagerly await the release date on October 7th, 2025.
