Welcome to the Hellfire Club
Welcome to the Hellfire Club is a themed starter set for Dungeons & Dragons, design by Justice Ramin Arman, Jeremy Crawford, Anthony Joyce-Rivera, Ron Lundeen, Taylor Navarro, and Makenzie De Armas and published by Wizards of the Coast.
By Aaron T. Huss
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Welcome to the Hellfire Club is an old-school-inspired starter set for Dungeons & Dragons, filled with references to Stranger Things and supporting characters from Levels 1 to 3. You don’t need to know Stranger Things to understand the game, but it does make things much more familiar. For example, the pregens are all characters played by the characters in the series, but starting at level 1. Adding to that, this set includes three character sheets for each pregen to cover all three levels. This is supported by four horror-inspired adventure modules with a loosely connected background story, making it easy to slide into or launch a campaign. Each module is very traditional in design, embracing themes commonly found in the early 80s when Stranger Things is set. The developers did an amazing job connecting the two – Dungeons and Dragons and Stranger Things – as if the set feels like it was published within the context of the series. Although it is the latest iterations of 5th edition.
Welcome to the Hellfire Club is designed in the same form as Heroes of the Borderlands – a chunky set with an abridged rulebook, flip mats, tokens, cards, etc. For the price point, you really get the value for your money with many game sessions to fill the fun.
There is one caveat, this is not a game set for those who want to play a game that is more aligned with publications. Non-OSR is often grand, epic adventures or personal, psychological affairs. This is neither and embraces that old-school feel where every adventure involves some type of dungeon (literal or figurative) and resolves before moving on to a new location. They are then linked thematically but can easily serve as standalone adventures.
I’m not a vanilla fantasy fan nor am I an OSR fan, but the blending of those with the horror-inspired elements linked to themes from Stranger Things makes this an amazing marriage of subgenres. The writing is modern, recreating traditional game design with beautiful modern art to support it. Obviously there are many OSR publishers out there that do this all the time, but this is a nice change of pace for Wizards of the Coast and their ability to connect with potential new players. Once again, they push the envelope of finding creative ways to keep this hobby thriving, ensuring all publishers can keep producing new games!
