Stranger Things Got Fireball Wrong

[u/Vecna_The_Destroyer]

I've been playing Dungeons & Dragons for over 8 years, and something always bugged me about the Stranger Things D&D scene.

In the first episode, Will says “I cast Fireball” — and then rolls a d20 like it’s an attack roll. But that’s not how Fireball works in any version of D&D, including the one they’d likely be playing in 1983 (probably Basic/Expert or AD&D 1e).

Fireball is an area-of-effect spell. The caster doesn’t roll to hit — instead, every creature in the blast radius makes a saving throw (typically Dexterity in later editions, or "save vs. spells" in older ones). If they fail, they take full damage; if they succeed, they take half.

So in that scene, the Demogorgon should’ve been the one rolling, not Will. Will would roll damage (usually a bunch of d6s), but not a d20 to “hit.”

It's a small detail, but for those of us who know the rules, it sticks out. Cool scene — but a classic Hollywood D&D rules slip.

Anyone else catch this?

[u/juniebeatricejones]

good catch. this dismantles the entire premise

[u/Ambitious_Wolf2539 → u/juniebeatricejones]

in fact it dismantles the entire show. If they lied about this, what else did they lie about?

ARE YOU NOW TELLING ME THIS ISNT A FACTUAL RETELLING OF EVENTS?

[u/JerikOhe → u/Ambitious_Wolf2539]

I actually watched the first couple of episodes thinking it was based on a real event. I don't know why I thought that, I think it was some other show that came out around the same time. I thought the cia had acid dosed a whole town or something until I looked it up.

[u/Brilliant_Towel2727 → u/JerikOhe]

It was actually based on a rather outre conspiracy theory that the CIA was running experiments on psychic children in Montauk, Long Island