The ‘Stranger Things’ D&D Set is Free Right Now
Not only is the Stranger Things D&D Starter Set free, but it’s also available as a .pdf? From Hasbro? In this economy?
Wizards of the Coast are notorious for, well, okay, they’re notorious for a lot of things—sending hired mercenaries to intimidate their fans, trying to revoke the OGL while telling fans it was for their own protection, you know, the list goes on. But before all that, they were notorious for hating the very existence of .pdf files. At least as far as 5th Edition goes.
Which is why, of course, WotC hasn’t released a .pdf of the Stranger Things D&D Starter Set. That was WotC’s parent company, Hasbro. And it’s on their site that you’ll find the Stranger Things box. Even then, it’s only the rulebook. The adventure (and all the maps) you can only find in the boxed set. The rulebook is out on the Hasbro “Instructions” website.
But even that’s saying something. Because if even Hasbro has a dim, distant understanding that, you know what, customers might want to actually own the thing they purchase, what does that mean for your own company’s media policies?
I’m not sure. But the fact remains that you can nab the Stranger Things D&D Starter Set’s rulebook on Hasbro.com, making it one of the only official D&D books you can get in an official .pdf form. Are .pdfs of the D&D core books available anyway? Definitely, but you’d have to be some kind of software pirate, sailing the seven C:/ drives in order to find them. Even if you wanted to buy a .pdf of a book legitimately, you couldn’t.
Stranger Things D&D Starter Set – Free Now From… Hasbro of All Places
The Stranger Things Dungeons & Dragons Starter Set contains everything players need to embark on a Stranger Things adventure including the essential rules of the roleplaying game. It’s a great way for new as well as seasoned Dungeon & Dragons players to experience the D&D adventure Stranger Things character Mike Wheeler has created for his friends.
Pick your character – will you be Will the Wise or Dustin the Dwarf? Get your fireballs ready as you investigate the mysterious castle and battle the ferocious Demogorgon. Prepare for just about anything, because the game just got stranger.
This is the abridged rulebook for the Stranger Things starter set. Presumably uploaded as part of the same process that gets the rulebooks for stuff like Monopoly digitized and archived somewhere, so when you invariably lose the rules you can still actually play the game. But in addition to the “rules-lite” version of D&D, there are also stat blocks for the Thessalhydra (taken straight from Stranger Things the TV show) and a Demogorgon based not on the two-headed demon prince, but rather the plant monster from the show.
Now, somebody cue up SURVIVE’s best-known track!
