D&D 5E Stranger Things D&D Starter Set For Free

Hasbro is offering the Stranger Things Dungeons & Dragons Starter Set rulebook for free download as a PDF.

It's the 23-page book which came in the Stranger Things boxed set a few years ago and contains the basic rules of the game. The boxed set also came with other materials which aren't included here--adventure book, 5 Stranger Things character sheets, 6 dice, Demogorgon figure, and paintable Demogorgon figure.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Huh. I was expecting this to be just unlocking it for free on D&D Beyond, rather than a PDF.

Does this mark a change for 5E? PDFs of current edition stuff has largely been a no-no.

 

[bedir than]

Huh. I was expecting this to be just unlocking it for free on D&D Beyond, rather than a PDF.

Does this mark a change for 5E? PDFs of current edition stuff has largely been a no-no.

The Stranger Things set is a Hasbro rather than WotC product. I wouldn't assume it's a trend for Wizards

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

The Stranger Things set is a Hasbro rather than WotC product. I wouldn't assume it's a trend for Wizards

It's weird to me that the corporation would have different standards for digital media. As someone who's worked for a big company inside a bigger corporation for years, that feels like a bit of a lack-of-leadership red flag.

 

[ArwensDaughter]

Note that it’s just the rule book, not the adventure. The basic rules and SRD have been available by pdf for many years. I haven’t compared this rules book to those two sources, so there may be differences. Nonetheless, it’s not all that out of pattern. The odd/new thing is that it’s available through Hasbro’s “instructions” section.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Note that it’s just the rule book, not the adventure. The basic rules and SRD have been available by pdf for many years. I haven’t compared this rules book to those two sources, so there may be differences. Nonetheless, it’s not all that out of pattern. The odd/new thing is that it’s available through Hasbro’s “instructions” section.

Ah, so it's like WotC releasing the PDF of the Starter Set and Essentials Set rulebooks during the early pandemic, then? Yeah, that's old hat, then.

 

[darjr]

It does have the Thesselhydra monster and the cr4 Demogorgon.

 

[Plaguescarred]

The adventure Hunt for the Thessalhydra is not included though but it has lots of color images from the popular show.

To me it look like Hasbro site provides downloadable instructions of their games and so they provided the rulebook portion of it in a sense.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

I guess this is not really a product for D&D players, but for Stranger Things fandom.

I wonder if we could see more licenced sets like this, not only Rick&Morty but also some manganime franchise: Zelda, Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest...

 

[Paul Farquhar]

It's weird to me that the corporation would have different standards for digital media. As someone who's worked for a big company inside a bigger corporation for years, that feels like a bit of a lack-of-leadership red flag.

Corporations are run by humans (at the moment). Why would it surprise you that a human in one department does something differently to a human in a different department?

In this case, it's as @Plaguescarred says, It's Hasbro policy to make the rules for it's boardgames downloadable in case you lose them.