The first thing you see when you open the door Welcome to the Hellfire Club this is a photo of Hawkins Dungeons and Dragons seven club members (RIP Eddie Munson) clearly intent on tugging at the heartstrings Stranger Things fans. Moreover, on the back of this photo is a heartfelt message to Eddie Dustin, the “last will and testament” of “Eddie the Banished.” Eddie had always planned to hand over leadership of the Hellfire Club to Dustin when he finally graduated. He just never expected to die after playing the most metal concert in the multiverse.
Released October 7th. Welcome to the Hellfire Club is a D&D set from Wizards of the Coast billed as the finale to Munson's unfinished campaign featured in Season 4. Welcome to the Hellfire Club instead provides the absolutely perfect entry point into D&D for Stranger Things fans who are interested in finally trying the game. Experienced D&D players need to be Stranger Things Superfan to truly enjoy a series of four low-level adventures in which you can play as Dustin, Lucas, Mike, Will or the Erica character.
According to Eddie, this set is a “secret treasure trove of adventure” and hardly the way to “complete the campaign” we saw in season four. We don't know exactly what level the Hellfire Club members are when Eddie confronts Vecna in Stranger Thingsbut Erica says that her rogue, Lady Applejack, is level 14. To actually meet Vecna in any edition and live to tell the tale? Your party must be at or near maximum level.
The current 5th version of Vecna Archlich has a Challenge Rating (CR) of 26, meaning that even max level players will have to contend with it in battle. Technically this means he is a fair and balanced enemy for four level 26 players, although level 20 is the maximum level.
Stranger Things always played fast and loose, representing D&D. (The real Demogorgon is a sentient Demon Prince, not a flower-faced wild beast!) But that's a quibble that hardly matters here, since this is a truly excellent and comprehensive starter set.
There is a simplified game guide that covers the basics of D&D for both dungeon masters and players, as well as cards for 36 spells and 20 pieces of magical equipment. Perhaps most useful for players is the On Your Turn reference card, which lists everything they can do on their turn, including a list of all possible actions. For those who actually play at a physical table rather than a virtual one, this is an incredibly useful way to keep track of your action economy rather than fiddling around with a bunch of books and notes.
Likewise, there are 30 monster cards for the DM. Most of them are pretty weak normal enemies and NPCs, but there are two CR 5 creatures and one CR 6. And almost all the monsters from the series, with the exception of Vecna himself, are here: Tainted Rats, a “Shadow” that looks like the arachnid Mind Flayer from the series, and, naturally, a flower-faced “Demogorgon Spawn”. For any DM running a personal board of low-level adventurers, these cards are a huge boon. Even monsters ripped straight from the series can fit into almost any adventure. And each one also has a black and white drawing that you can show to the players. I'll probably pick most of these cards out of the set and put them in my large DM bag that I use during my personal games.
The set includes 1st level character sheets for all the D&D characters we've seen in the series: Erika's Rogue, Dustin's Cleric, Lucas' Fighter, Mike's Paladin, and Will's Wizard. They're completely full, so there's no way to neatly update them as players progress through the four short adventures included in the set. Players can also print out a blank sheet and fill it with, perhaps an entirely custom character, instead.
The four adventures themselves have many similarities with each season of the series. Stranger Things with Eddie's annotations offering commentary throughout, which collectively represent the test that potential Hellfire inductees must pass in order to join the club. The main action takes place in Greyhawkins, and the first adventure sends adventurers into the Dungeon of Shadows to find a dwarf named Flizzlebean. But this dungeon is connected to the Valley of Shadows and has a version of the mirror dimension called the Shadow Dungeon – an obvious nod to the Upside Down.
The first is a basic dungeon crawl complicated by diving into an inverted shadow dungeon, then players must explore and clear a network of damaged tunnels running underneath the farm. In “The Ballad of the Rat King”, the group investigates a string of disappearances. (And yes, there are a lot of spoiled rats here.) The grand finale features a group battle in the Hellfire games, Thunderdome style. The master of ceremonies is Eddie's music lover, Dardue.
It's easy to imagine a version of these adventures that didn't work because it got bogged down in too many references to the series. However, the designers did an excellent job with this task. Even for D&D players who have never seen it or just aren't interested Stranger Thingsthese four adventures have enough variety and interest to keep the table entertained.
Although I would have loved to see a high level mini-adventure, In fact ends Eddie's main campaign against Vecna, those hopes seem to have died with Eddie.
In the hands of a DM and a group of loving players Stranger Things and want the game to have a solid low-level campaign, Welcome to the Hellfire Club really delivers. As a DM, there's not much I would change. It has all the necessary cards, text effects and stat blocks. As a player, I would probably come up with a unique character to try out that is still present in the series. Eleven as a sorcerer of the aberrant mind? Max as the open-handed “Zoomer” monk's way of rushing in and out of battle? Eddie as a glam college bard? The possibilities are endless!
As the show's final season begins, it's time to consider joining the Hellfire Club. Who knows? This might be the catalyst that finally gets your D&D hating friends into the campaign. Strange things were happening.
