Obsidian's Josh Sawyer leads the charge of RPG fans playfully roasting Stranger Things for its D&D rule flubs: 'The oldheads are going to catch all these things'

"Season ruined," Obsidian studio design director Josh Sawyer (Pentiment, Fallout: New Vegas) declared on BlueSky alongside a clip from Stranger Things' recently released fifth season. In the video, Finn Wolfhard's Mike Wheeler expounds on the power of Dungeons & Dragons' Cleric class⁠-specifically AD&D 1st Edition's Cleric. "Even cooler, she can cast a Dimension Door," Wheeler claims while listing the Cleric's capabilities. "BULLSHIT," Sawyer can be heard exclaiming from off-camera. Sawyer and other viewers began tallying up some of the show's other tabletop inaccuracies. Here are a few, from both this season and prior: Commenter Blake Barton notes that the show's characterization of the Sorcerer is anachronistic, with the modern class not appearing until 3rd Edition in 2000. A roll of seven when casting Prismatic Spray, resulting in the violet version of the spell, is described as causing blindness ("WRONG!" Sawyer hollered over a clip of this moment ). One commenter, danyq , pointed out that the show has referred to Thieves as "Rogues," the class' name in 3E and beyond. Season ruined - @jesawyer.bsky.social ( @jesawyer.bsky.social.bsky.social ) 2025-12-22T00:08:58.721Z While not the worst thing going down in our world of sin and cruelty, I was struck how a show so heavily drawing on D&D for its imagery and plot could keep getting it wrong. I also find it weirdly joyful and life affirming how, as PC Gamer senior editor Wes Fenlon put it, D&D realheads like Sawyer "know this detail and can pull the exact 1980s reference book off the shelf to prove the doubters wrong." Literally, it turns out. "Walked into Josh's office this morning and he was holding a copy of AD&D," wrote Obsidian narrative lead Kate Dollarhyde . "I thought, 'What could he possibly be doing with this?' But didn't ask. I see now he was posting." "It’s interesting, because the Duffers are about 10 years younger than me and they’ve admitted they’re more Magic: The Gathering aficionados than D&D players," Sawyer told me via email when I reached out about these muck-ups in the show. "The D&D experience of the kids on Stranger Things is similar to mine." That experience began with the Basic and Expert Sets of D&D, before branching out into Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. "I met an older kid (Tony) at the public library who introduced me to both Bard’s Tale and 1st Edition AD&D," said Sawyer. "Tony was the Eddie Munson of my RPG development. "My friend group played fast and loose with AD&D rules when we were in grade school and middle school, but that generally bent toward rule lawyering in early high school, then extensive house ruling in late high school." Keep up to date with the most important stories and the best deals, as picked by the PC Gamer team. The mention of house rules segues into a devil's advocate defense I've seen for the Stranger Things kids messing up those rules: What could be more true to life than tabletop players, especially kids, getting stuff wrong or making their...

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