D&D General What did you think of the Stranger Things D&D game?

[Sacrosanct]

As @teitan notes, the Hand and Eye of Vecna predate 1E itself; they were published in 1976, in the "Eldritch Wizardry" supplement to OD&D. They are described as the "sole remains" of an ancient lich. Very little detail is given beyond that.

So having the players know about Vecna is not a mistake. As far as I know, Vecna himself was never given stats until 2E, but that just means the DM whipped up some homebrew stats.

I do wonder where the Vecna mini came from, though.

The only other piece of trivia I can add is that Vecna is an anagram of Vance, one of Gary's favorite authors, Jack Vance.

As for how the session compared to our gaming sessions from the early 80s, the DM was much more theatrical than any DM we ever had. Oh, and with the exception of one Hispanic male, everyone else was white males in all of my gaming groups no matter where I lived until I joined the army in the early 90s.

 

[JiffyPopTart]

TV Show: Makes Vecna a pop culture name and shows a conclusion of a DnD campaign on par as exciting as a basketball championship.

Internet Peeps: OMG...they butchered the game rules!

See also: Aviation peeps complaining about the airplane scenes or the IT peeps comaining about using IP addresses and geolocating via an acoustic coupled modem in the age of individual BBS.

 

[teitan]

That is a good point, this was supposed to be the penultimate session of "the freaks" big campaign. Perhaps he was a little ahead of the curve in stating out Vecna and using him as his big bad?

We had iconic characters we used that were nothing more than hints before. We had our own version of Iuz for example since we didn’t have stats.

 

[teitan]

The only other piece of trivia I can add is that Vecna is an anagram of Vance, one of Gary's favorite authors, Jack Vance.

As for how the session compared to our gaming sessions from the early 80s, the DM was much more theatrical than any DM we ever had. Oh, and with the exception of one Hispanic male, everyone else was white males in all of my gaming groups no matter where I lived until I joined the army in the early 90s.

Really? I’m from a small town and while there we no Hispanics in the town we had two African American guys, a gay guy and a girl who was in and out periodically because of band.

 

[MNblockhead]

Really? I’m from a small town and while there we no Hispanics in the town we had two African American guys, a gay guy and a girl who was in and out periodically because of band.

There is more to how a group of friends come about than just the area the players live in, without any intentional exclusion.
In my gaming in the 80s. I grew up in a very white small town on the outskirts of a larger metropolitan area. My best friend was half mexican and we had a couple asians in our group. The main thing about our group that differed from the stereotype is that 40% of the players were female. But I have never had a black player in any TTRPG group, even now when many of my colleagues and non-gaming friends are black. I've never made any concerted effort to go out and find players of any specific race, and certainly have never excluded anyone on that basis, but none of my black friends or colleagues have ever shown any interest in TTRPGs.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

I dunno, back then I once beaned my brother right in the head with a rubber bull to simulate a lightning strike. But that also probably was mostly an excuse to hit him with a rubber ball (though not in the head - I meant to bounce it off his chest and missed).

As for how the session compared to our gaming sessions from the early 80s, the DM was much more theatrical than any DM we ever had.

 

[teitan]

There is more to how a group of friends come about than just the area the players live in, without any intentional exclusion.
In my gaming in the 80s. I grew up in a very white small town on the outskirts of a larger metropolitan area. My best friend was half mexican and we had a couple asians in our group. The main thing about our group that differed from the stereotype is that 40% of the players were female. But I have never had a black player in any TTRPG group, even now when many of my colleagues and non-gaming friends are black. I've never made any concerted effort to go out and find players of any specific race, and certainly have never excluded anyone on that basis, but none of my black friends or colleagues have ever shown any interest in TTRPGs.

I wasn’t meaning to imply anything! My bad.

 

[teitan]

I dunno, back then I once beaned my brother right in the head with a rubber bull to simulate a lightning strike. But that also probably was mostly an excuse to hit him with a rubber ball (though not in the head - I meant to bounce it off his chest and missed).

We had a poking stick for players not paying attention and a “magic staff” for turns. When you had it it was your turn. You respected the stick or got a jocular poke.

 

[grimslade]

There is a setup for them using critical hits in their D&D campaign. In S3, when Will is in Castle Byers there is a copy of the Best of Dragon V which had an article of critical hits and fumbles tables.
I enjoyed the scene. I thought there were a few inaccuracies and anachronisms, but it got the feel of a campaign-ending game across well.

 

[jgsugden]

Are the details really that important? Really?

From an immersion perspective? Yes.

Shhh, don't tell anybody, but . . . . the story of Vecna hadn't been invented yet in 1986 when Season 4 is set. The Hand and the Eye of course did as artifacts in the DMG, but that was the extent of it.

Well, there is a bit of the lore in the Sword of Kas description. However, they got the elements of Vecna known at the time right - he was destroyed by Kas, and that he lost a hand and an eye (and was a lich).

Nothing on your list is some sort of glaring error . . . for most folks at least. Then again, reading the "goofs" section on IMDB on just about any film or series is a maddening exercise in folks obsession with trivial details.

Chalk it up to house rules and Eddie's own campaign for most of your "errors" . . . except the dice, yeah, those did look a little too modern. Didn't bother me though, even if I did notice.

Immersion is the reason it was disappointing. Whenever you watch someone in character and you see them do something that the character would not do and you know they would not do, it takes you out of the story a bit. It reminds you that it is a story. It is absolutely true that in any fantasy story abut monsters, magic, high technology or narwhals you're already facing things that are obviously not real - but that is even more of a reason to limit how many 'off kilter' things are introduced. That will give the suspension of disbelief the most support, and allow players an easier time accepting the fantasy elements as 'real'. If, on the other hand, you're constantly peppered by things that do not fit, it constantly reminds you that it is just a story and hampers the suspension of disbelief overall.