D&D General Stranger Things Image of a D&D Game

The new Stranger Things season 4 promo video dropped with a cool quick scene of their D&D game! Not much to see but the old classic pitted dice. Anyone have a clue about the minis depicted?

 

[Krachek]

I play with vinyl battle map and erasable marker in 84.
We were using metal and painted minis.
in the first episode, The overall ambiance is look like my memories, inspired DM, scary description, mind game for flee or fight.

 

[Erich the Fuzzy]

We used minis from the early 80s, but mostly to establish marching order or for flavour, not placed in combat positions on a battlemap.

However, I came home from GenCon 19 in 1986 with a big clear sheet of plastic marked with 1" squares on one side and hexes on the other, that could be used with erasable marker to draw out dungeon maps (or wilderness areas) for the players to visualize. Or maybe they drew them while I DM'd, I don't exactly recall now. I also don't recall what company produced it; it might have been The Armory (which later merged with Chessex) or some other short-lived company with a GenCon booth. (I also bought a d30 but passed on the d100). It got lost during the decades I wasn't playing so when I got into 5e I bought a new opaque 2-sided Chessex that seems better at erasing. Although at some point I'll probably get a larger one by using a 1" gridded vinyl-backed painting drop sheet from the hardware store.

 

[darjr]

Also, spoilers, they did use a d20 after all.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

I was reading an old issue of Dragon magazine I picked up (#88) and saw the following add, which seemed germane:

 

[darjr]

Thank you for that!

 

[overgeeked]

Gamers seem to, as a group, have no real sense of their own history. I started in ’84 and by ’86-87 we were using mats. I remember the paper 3D buildings set being a huge hit. Though that was likely later.

 

[RealAlHazred]

Look, they had battlemats when I started gaming in '83 or '84, but we were just a bunch of kids -- nobody had the money to buy a mat and have it shipped to New Jersey, and there weren't any stores that sold roleplaying games that also carried those specialty items around here. The first time I was able to get one was when I was in college and could get to the Compleat Strategist in NYC.

 

[Lakesidefantasy]

I was reading an old issue of Dragon magazine I picked up (#88) and saw the following add, which seemed germane:

View attachment 251016

Oooo, staggered squares, I've always wanted something like that.

 

[Yenrak]

Look, they had battlemats when I started gaming in '83 or '84, but we were just a bunch of kids -- nobody had the money to buy a mat and have it shipped to New Jersey, and there weren't any stores that sold roleplaying games that also carried those specialty items around here. The first time I was able to get one was when I was in college and could get to the Compleat Strategist in NYC.

There was another store in that era that sold RPG stuff in NYC. It was called Forbidden Planet. It was excellent. I loved the chaos of Compleat Strategist, which seemed to have the most popular games crammed in the hardest to get to corners while putting really oddball war games—play the Soccer War—right up front.

 

[RealAlHazred]

There was another store in that era that sold RPG stuff in NYC. It was called Forbidden Planet. It was excellent. I loved the chaos of Compleat Strategist, which seemed to have the most popular games crammed in the hardest to get to corners while putting really oddball war games—play the Soccer War—right up front.

I guess Forbidden Planet sold game stuff? I went there for comics, books, and the like. Really, that was the only place to go if you wanted some weird European cyberpunk graphic novel. I loved that place!