Love of the game, love of these characters, and love of your fellow humans is what drives us all. Both DnD and Stranger Things effectively use teamwork and collaboration through compelling characters and relationships to effectively get to the core of what makes anything worth doing - love. Stranger Things is a show that evokes your emotions as if you're a part of it. It's why scenes like Erica rolling a Nat-20 at the same time Lucas sinks the winning three point shot, Max's friends using her favorite song to help her escape Vecna, and Joyce rescuing Hopper from the Russian Demogorgon are so effective.
Your heart aches when they're defeated, and you cheer for their victories. The camaraderie between this group of characters makes you feel like part of their party. When I sit down to watch Stranger Things, I feel like I'm catching up with old friends - old friends going on thrilling, sometimes terrifying adventures, but friends nonetheless. That sense of family exists between the entire ensemble, and it extends out to the audience. It creates an unshakable connection between its players - when Erica is asked if she knows Dustin she responds with: "Know him? I've bled with him." Anyone who's played DnD will tell you the same about their party members. Dungeons and Dragons is an entertaining game, but it's also a tried and true bonding experience that teaches you communication skills and the importance of collaboration and community. At the heart of both DnD and Stranger Things is a deep sense of community and found family. While arguments could be made for Eleven being Stranger Things' main character, one thing that's so appealing about the show is the fact that this entire ensemble is made up of "main" characters.īeyond metaphors and references, DnD's influence on Stranger Things gives the show something much greater than storytelling tools. In gaming terms, these are the player characters - the characters whose decisions and actions are controlled by someone actively playing the game. Then you've got the adventuring party: Will ( Noah Schnapp), Mike ( Finn Wolfhard), Lucas ( Caleb McLaughlin), Dustin ( Gaten Matarazzo), Eleven ( Millie Bobby Brown), Max ( Sadie Sink), Joyce ( Winona Ryder), Hopper ( David Harbour), Nancy ( Natalia Dyer), Jonathan ( Charlie Heaton), Steve ( Joe Keery), and Robin ( Maya Hawke). These are all things that apply quite perfectly to writing television, making the Duffers essentially the Dungeon Masters of Stranger Things. To be a Dungeon Master, you have to be an excellent storyteller - world-building, character creation, and crafting narrative arcs for your players are all your responsibility.
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While lots of shows are capable of this kind of storytelling, for me, Stranger Things is the show that executes it the best, and I believe that's because of the influence DnD has on the series and how it's written.
I've always admired how The Duffer Brothers manage to balance a vast ensemble of characters with various storylines that are both connected and singular, before bringing the whole party together for the big finish. Getting into DnD as a way to stay connected with friends during the pandemic makes Stranger Things Season 4 the first installment of the series that I've watched with a working knowledge of the game - and it's like seeing the show in a whole new light. Thanks to Stranger Things and the rise of popular table-top roleplay games (TTRPG) actual plays like Critical Role and Dimension 20, DnD has had a renaissance of sorts in recent years. The fantasy role-playing game first hit the scene in the 1970s and rose to popularity among nerds (affectionate) in the 1980s, as any Stranger Things fan may already know. Like many, I spent a significant portion of the last two years finding new hobbies and interests to delve into and find joy in as we all searched for the light in a world increasingly shrouded in darkness.
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