D&D book Dark Places & Demogorgons bears a striking resemblance to Stranger Things
Prepare for a neverending story.
Travel back in time to the 1980s to investigate urban legends in Dark Places & Demogorgons, a new supplement for Dungeons & Dragons 5E.
Dark Places & Demogorgons 5E is a tabletop roleplaying game inspired by ‘80s teen horror fiction, film and television - such as the popular Netflix television show, Stranger Things, which is also set in the ‘80s and features a demogorgon - that sees players becoming kids and adolescents living in a suburban American town that’s experiencing some strange happenings.
Based in ‘Anytown, USA’, the supplement for D&D 5E allows players to create their character and develop them throughout high school, navigating them through both their life as a normal kid or teenager and their various encounters with the supernatural.
Anytown, USA is not an ordinary American suburb. Instead, it’s a place where disturbing things happen and the grown-ups refuse to believe the stories that their children tell them. The D&D 5E supplement injects the upbringings of all its young characters with horrifying goings-on that players must attempt to survive long enough to uncover the truth behind the mystery.
Players can choose to make their character a variety of different classes - each one based on either well-known RPG archetypes, such as the fighter and the magician, and others inspired by 1980s fiction itself, like the teen wolf - and shape their identity around classic ‘80s tropes, such as the nerd or jock. These characters will then need to strike a balance between their studies, hobbies, social life and, of course, their efforts to fight back against the terrible things causing mayhem in their town.
The D&D 5E supplement was designed by Eric Bloat - the creator of fantasy RPG Survive This! and founder of Bloat Games - and Josh Palmer, the designer of The Blackest Space, a sci-fi roleplaying game that has players becoming bounty hunters, ship captains and more in a world inhabited by dangerous intergalactic beings.
Dark Places & Demogorgons was originally built on the Survive This! RPG system and published by Bloat Games in 2018. However, Dark Places & Demogorgons 5E is a standalone game that’s being published by Wet Ink Games, one of the studios behind the upcoming horror RPG Jiangshi: Blood in the Banquet Hall by Banana Chan and Sen-Foong Lim.
The Kickstarter campaign for Dark Places & Demogorgons follows the release of last year’s Stranger Things Dungeons & Dragons Starter Set, which was based on the television series about a group of young people discovering weird creatures and mysteries in their suburban American town. The starter set itself adapted the D&D campaign played by several of the characters during the first season of the show, enabling players to take on the role of the characters played by the kids in Stranger Things.
The Kickstarter campaign for Dark Places & Demogorgons is live until November 20th, with a pledge of $40 (£31) getting backers a copy of the RPG book estimated to arrive in April 2021. Alternatively, backers can pledge $20 (£16) to get a digital edition in PDF form next March.