- [Mike] The Thessalhydra!
- Fireball the son of a bitch!
(dice rolling)
14! (boys scream)
- It crumbles to the ground!
- [Together] Yeah!
- Lucas cuts off its seven heads,
and Dustin places them into his bag of holding.
- [Narrator] This is the Bag of Holding,
a magically large container that,
quote, "opens into non-dimensional space," unquote.
It's one of the many references "Stranger Things" makes
to the very imaginative world of Dungeons and Dragons,
which is amazing if you happened to go
through a phase in middle school.
Hey, you too?
But if you felt a little foggy when Mike mentions fog cloud.
- But then he cast fog cloud. And saved us.
- [Narrator] Don't worry, because we're going to level up
your basic knowledge of D&D
with the help of the "Stranger Things" gang.
It takes a little bit of math,
but I promise it feels so good for your imagination.
We'll explain.
- [Announcer] Victory is yours.
(dramatic music)
- [Narrator] Let's answer a big question first:
Why do people love this?
Why spend 10 hours in a basement like Mike and squad
and 40 million others since 1974?
- How was I supposed to know it's gonna take 10 hours?
- You've been playing for 10 hours?
- [Narrator] Why cast praise on it in The Atlantic
like Ta-Nehisi Coates, or flock to D&D sessions
like numerous Hollywood showrunners and actors?
Why is it such a big story element in "Stranger Things"?
Well, I mean, it's like playing pretend as an adult.
It's so fun.
Right, but also, D&D doesn't exactly fit in
with typical games.
It's so very unusual that one archeologist has called it
something brand new, the 7th type of tabletop game
invented by humans in our entire existence.
And what I think that means is that it's really a method
of collaborative, gamified storytelling.
An exercise in group imagination.
(cheerful game music)
It's collaborative because someone who either volunteers
or is anointed as the Dungeon Master,
that's Mike,
whips up a scenario, sets a tone, and controls a large cast
of extras, both humanoid and monster.
- A shadow grows in the wall behind you,
swallowing you in darkness.
- [Narrator] Speaking through that cast,
the DM may offer the Party a quest,
kind of like a main storyline.
It could be learning of a friend
who vanished mysteriously into the woods,
or being asked by local townsfolk
to defend the land against monstrous invaders.
Hey.
But it's up to the Players, Dustin, Lucas, and Will,
to sort of fill in the DM's story line
as the session goes along.
And they can follow whatever whim comes to them.
It's like a really creative TV writer's room
or a director giving prompts to a troupe of improv actors.
No one is sure where it'll go,
but imagining a story together is intoxicating.
You'll notice that the boys play with miniatures,
but purists don't even bother with that.
They imagine the whole experience,
it's called the Theater of the Mind.
Whatever the setup, though, the story typically takes place
in a fantasy world of monsters and catacombs,
but it doesn't necessarily have to.
Even within D&D itself, there's a Slavic horror world,
and a kinda bronze age Mad Max world.
I'm sure there's plenty of room for other worlds,
even licensed ones!
Buy now!
(cheerful game music)
Each Player has a character in the story they control
and even speak as during the session,
and collectively, their characters are known as The Party.
- I don't wanna be in your stupid party, anyway. I'm out.
- [Narrator] For instance, we know
Will plays Will the Wise, the party's wizard
who can outsmart bad guys but still-
- Needs the fireballs?
- Yeah, to burn them to a crisp.
- [Narrator] Characters come out of a player's imagination,
with their own personalities and backstories.
But D&D is smart, because it recognizes
you could easily be overwhelmed by all this.
So instead, it channels your imagination
through the guardrails of race, class,
attributes, and alignment.
Race is pretty simple but we should note
it has been criticized enough
that the game's makers have taken steps
to abolish the notion of quote-unquote "evil races."
You can be a Tolkien staple, halflings, dwarves,
or Nancy's favorite- - She used to be cool.
Like that time she dressed up as an elf
for our Elder tree campaign.
- Four years ago!
- [Narrator] Or something more exotic,
like a half-demonic Tiefling.
All have their own lore you can use
as you craft your part of the story.
So much lore.
Class is your fantasy job,
and the job market is really good in D&D.
These are just some common ones.
(light music)
- I could be your zoomer.
- That's not a real thing.
- It could be.
- [Narrator] It's worth taking yours seriously, though,
because class helps determine
how your character should approach
the game's many challenges.
All classes have abilities, but some classes have access
to powerful magic spells,
although there's usually a trade-off
in character durability.
Beyond your standards like lightning bolt and fireball-
- So, how do you kill this thing,
shoot it with fireballs or something?
- [Narrator] Spells get so weird, like Corpselight,
which lights up all the corpses in the area.
And there's a separate general Light Spell so...
But as the Internet has learned,
it's endless fun to assign classes
to "Stranger Things" characters and then justify them.
Please do so now in the comments.
For instance, we see Lucas,
every bit the ranger Mike says he is,
scouting the wilderness alone
and excelling with ranged weaponry.
And fittingly for a bard, Dustin is charismatic,
I mean look at that smile,
and a sort of a walking encyclopedia of lore.
And Mike doesn't mention Steve,
damn you, Mike,
but he's probably a straightforward,
lead-with-your-fists fighter,
but what kind and how good of a fighter you are
largely depends on your attributes.
They're six numerical descriptors
of your character's ability to overcome physical
and mental obstacles.
Like, imagine if you sent your paladin
to the NFL Combine or something.
You arrive at those attributes by rolling a six-sided die
four times and dropping the lowest score,
for a possible range of three to 18.
Rolled high wisdom?
Like Hopper, you have hunches about things
that turn out true.
A low constitution?
You tire quickly, even if you're very, very powerful.
Our boy Steve seems to have somewhat modest Intelligence
and Dexterity scores,
but that Charisma, and with his Constitution
he can sure take a beating.
Ow!
And finally, there's alignment:
every character falls somewhere on this plot
of morality versus rebelliousness.
In other words, alignment determines
how you and your character are going to treat others
and the world's conventions.
Of course, it's become sort of a meme in recent years,
which was difficult to depict in this video's 80s style,
so we did it in real life.
Yeah! #Memesinreallife.
(cheerful game music)
So who stands in the Party's way?
There are enemies galore, both humanoid and monster.
The Monster's Manual, which makes an appearance in Season 2.
- No, it's a manual, and it's not for kids.
- [Narrator] Serves as a bestiary,
instructing the DM on the stats and abilities
of almost anything you can imagine,
from animals like rats to brain-feeding, Mind Flayer minions
like an Intellect Devourer,
which some think inspired Billy in the third season.
Now, take this next part with a grain of salt
because we are condensing a dozen or so
different editions here,
but the gamified part of Dungeons & Dragons
is actually easier than you might think.
You just need to get one equation.
See, for whatever action you want to take,
like setting the Mindflayer's tunnels ablaze,
and for every harmful thing about to happen to you,
like getting demonic spore snot sneezed all over you,
there's a roll of the dice.
The big one. The D20.
The player has to roll something higher
than a difficulty score set by the DM,
after the latter consults their numerous books and screens.
Hit the number, and your action works.
Or the danger is avoided.
But the player's score is modified by a relevant low
or high attribute score,
like Dexterity would help determine
if you could jump this bear trap.
Same thing happens in combat,
except there you'll need to beat an Armor Class score,
so that's why Will needs to roll a 13 or higher
in the opening session to hit with his fireball.
- The roll. It was a seven.
The demogorgon. It got me.
- [Narrator] There are other mechanics for combat
like initiative, who goes first in a fight,
and hit points, a measurement of a being's health,
but what was innovative at a time
when strategy games focused on faceless, historical armies,
was how Dungeons & Dragons allowed the same character
to grow over multiple game sessions
through accumulated experience points.
In other words, your character levels up
when you defeat enough enemies or solve enough puzzles,
and then they get to use cooler shit.
(cars crashing)
(tires screeching)
It's like an advanced version of your teacher's gold stars!
And it's partly why the longest running game of D&D
could last 38 years.
It's in their last campaign against the Thessalhydra
that Mike mentions the bag of holding,
a magic item that curiously holds much more
than you might imagine.
If you can remember just a couple little formulas,
that's Dungeons & Dragons,
a small box, but a whole new dimension of imagination.
So now that you know the basics,
why not accept that invitation from the AV Club,
and play a session?
You just might like Dungeons & Dragons.
Stranger Things have happened.
(cheerful game music)
Earlier, we saw Mike,
mmm, harshly dismiss Max's proposed D&D class.
Oh really, Mike?
Because anything you imagine can be real in D&D!
Behold: the good people of the Internet came together
and whipped up The Zoomer class
for Dungeons & Dragons, 5th edition.
No joke. You could actually play this.
It's a version of a fighter with uncanny,
nay, superhuman speed,
perfect for its originator.
- Incredible!
- Told you. Zoomer.
(light music)