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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ruin Explorer" data-source="post: 8713519" data-attributes="member: 18">I've never come across someone, online or off, who became interested in D&D due to Stranger Things. Has anyone? I don't buy that it helped in any meaningful way. It might contribute slightly to destigmatization, but most people coming to D&D now are 15-30 and didn't have much of a stigma for TT RPGs in the first place, just like they have zero stigma for video games, where 30 years ago, some people had a strong one. Destigmatization has been going on for a couple of decades on top of the natural decline caused by videogames etc. - I've lost count of how many shows featured D&D episodes (I feel like Community featured more actual "playing RPGs" than Stranger Things has, for example) - and how many celebs came out as being RPGers. I mean, that started with people like Vin Diesel in the late '90s (still a big star thanks to F&F etc.), and remember when Felicia Day and The Guild was a big deal? That was 15 years ago!That's drastically different to Critical Role, and even many other, lesser-heard-of podcasts/streams, note, who have definitely made people go looking for TT RPGs.If even 0.5% of people playing D&D today are doing it because of Stranger Things, I'd be shocked. I'd be guessing more like 0.01%. That might change in the future, but I don't think it's been meaningful yet, nor is likely to be given the use D&D largely as a vague metaphor and barely show it.</blockquote>

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