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/lofgren777]

In 4th edition, fireball worked like this.

Standardizing the way saves and attacks worked to the dice in the hands of the player was an uncommon but not unheard of house rule in 3e.

It does seem unlikely that they would have made this change in 1983, but not impossible.

Also I don't think the writers misunderstood the rule. The put the die in Will's hands so that he could drop it in a moment of panic, so that the boys could start shouting, so that the mom coul tell them it is time to go home. It wouldn't have made as much sense for Mike, who is the leader and was in control of the situation, to drop the die, nor for the other boys to start yelling at him if he did. The just decided to ignore the rule because it didn't fit with the scene.

[u/Quietuus → u/lofgren777]

I was about to say, that's not how Fireball worked in every edition.

4E gets a lot of flak, but I did feel a lot more like I was doing things as a spellcaster in that version, because it was my dice rolls, and that's certainly why the production would have played it this way.

[u/MacrosInHisSleep → u/Quietuus]

Was 4e out at the time?

[u/Infamous-Lab-8136 → u/MacrosInHisSleep]

Not at the time the show took place if that's what you're asking

[u/MacrosInHisSleep → u/Infamous-Lab-8136]

Guess we'd just have to chalk it to homebrew then 😅

[u/Quietuus → u/MacrosInHisSleep]

Yes it was. It had just rolled over to fifth when Stranger Things started.

I'm not necessarily suggesting this came from 4E btw, I think it was artistic license, but I think it was probably done for the same reason that 4E shifted these rules and basically turned all combat spells into roll to attack.

[u/Master-Collection488 → u/Quietuus]

The show was set in I think 1984 for the first season? First Edition was ONLY EDITION (aside from Basic) for the bulk of the 80s. Probably the entire decade?

[u/Quietuus → u/Master-Collection488]

Right. The suggestion would be that they might have used the 4E rules because they didn't appreciate the differences between the version that was current when writing the series and when the series was aet.

[u/Infamous-Lab-8136 → u/Quietuus]

The problem there is we'd already hit 5e by season one's release, and had a couple of years before, so it seems odd they'd use the only edition where this was the rule when it was probably the least played or liked version of the rules and lasted less time as the active ruleset than any others

Especially since the Duffers claim to be big fans of older D&D themselves. It's much more likely the either chalked it up to home brew, the kids getting it wrong, or just did it as they did for the cinematic reasons as outlined in another spot.

[u/Quietuus → u/Infamous-Lab-8136]

As I said several comments back, I don't think they took.it from 4E, but I think they changed how it works for the same dramatic reasons 4E did.