Obsidian's Josh Sawyer leads the cost of RPG followers playfully roasting Stranger Issues for its D&D rule flubs: 'The oldheads are going to catch all this stuff'
“Season ruined,” Obsidian studio design director Josh Sawyer (Pentiment, Fallout: New Vegas) declared on BlueSky alongside a clip from Stranger Issues’ lately launched fifth season. Within the video, Finn Wolfhard’s Mike Wheeler expounds on the ability of Dungeons & Dragons’ Cleric class—particularly AD&D 1st Version’s Cleric.
“Even cooler, she will forged a Dimension Door,” Wheeler claims whereas itemizing the Cleric’s capabilities. “BULLSHIT,” Sawyer will be heard exclaiming from off-camera. Sawyer and different viewers started tallying up a number of the present’s different tabletop inaccuracies. Listed here are just a few, from each this season and prior:
- Commenter Blake Barton notes that the present’s characterization of the Sorcerer is anachronistic, with the fashionable class not showing till third Version in 2000.
- A roll of seven when casting Prismatic Spray, ensuing within the violet model of the spell, is described as inflicting blindness (“WRONG!” Sawyer hollered over a clip of this second).
- One commenter, danyq, identified that the present has referred to Thieves as “Rogues,” the category’ identify in 3E and past.
Season ruined
— @jesawyer.bsky.social (@jesawyer.bsky.social.bsky.social) 2025-12-22T00:08:58.721Z
Whereas not the worst factor taking place in our world of sin and cruelty, I used to be struck how a present so closely drawing on D&D for its imagery and plot might hold getting it unsuitable. I additionally discover it weirdly joyful and life affirming how, as PC Gamer senior editor Wes Fenlon put it, D&D realheads like Sawyer “know this element and might pull the precise Eighties reference e-book off the shelf to show the doubters unsuitable.”
Actually, it seems. “Walked into Josh’s workplace this morning and he was holding a replica of AD&D,” wrote Obsidian narrative lead Kate Dollarhyde. “I believed, ‘What might he probably be doing with this?’ However did not ask. I see now he was posting.”
“It’s fascinating, as a result of the Duffers are about 10 years youthful than me they usually’ve admitted they’re extra Magic: The Gathering aficionados than D&D gamers,” Sawyer advised me through e mail after I reached out about these muck-ups within the present. “The D&D expertise of the children on Stranger Issues is much like mine.”
That have started with the Fundamental and Knowledgeable Units of D&D, earlier than branching out into Superior Dungeons & Dragons. “I met an older child (Tony) on the public library who launched me to each Bard’s Story and 1st Version AD&D,” mentioned Sawyer. “Tony was the Eddie Munson of my RPG improvement.
“My buddy group performed quick and free with AD&D guidelines once we had been in grade faculty and center faculty, however that usually bent towards rule lawyering in early highschool, then intensive home ruling in late highschool.”
The point out of home guidelines segues right into a satan’s advocate protection I’ve seen for the Stranger Issues youngsters messing up these guidelines: What could possibly be extra true to life than tabletop gamers, particularly youngsters, getting stuff unsuitable or making their very own adjustments? However Sawyer argues this does not match how the forged is characterised elsewhere, whereas there’s one other, much more seemingly clarification in actual life.
“The way in which Eddie browbeats Erica earlier than letting her be part of means that he takes the sport means means too significantly,” Sawyer mentioned. “In my expertise, highschool teams both comply with the foundations as written (RAW) or they home rule with intentionality based mostly on the tastes of their group. I.e., it’s extra comprehensible within the first season, much less believable within the fourth and fifth seasons.
jfC
— @jesawyer.bsky.social (@jesawyer.bsky.social.bsky.social) 2025-12-22T00:08:58.632Z
“The opposite factor that makes me look sideways on the errors is that to date within the fifth season, the traces aren’t simply unsuitable for 1st Version (which is what they’ve been enjoying), however they’re right for fifth Version.”
The Rogue identify and Sorcerer class are each later improvements that stay in 5E at this time. Trickery Area Clerics do achieve entry to Dimension Door now. And whereas a violet Prismatic Spray banishes the goal to a different aircraft in 1st Version AD&D, it causes blindness in fifth Version. “Taking that into consideration,” argued Sawyer, “It’s much less believable that the children are making errors or utilizing home guidelines, more likely that the writers referenced fifth Version supplies.”
This is not precisely a capital offense or something, no less than in most US states on the time of writing. However I discovered myself satisfied that pointing these items out rises past guidelines lawyering for funsies into a real critique of the present. Stranger Issues is a interval piece, in any case, and the one direct publicity many youthful viewers might need needed to a extra alien model of Dungeons & Dragons.
I discover that kind of unfamiliarity or disconnect to be one of the vital fascinating issues a interval piece can do. As a substitute, the present opted for one thing smoother and extra digestible—a wasted alternative given D&D’s place of delight in Stranger Issues’ plot, and a sequence of anachronisms that may clearly grate on viewers within the know.
“The oldheads are going to catch all this stuff,” Sawyer concluded. “I didn’t play D&D Companion, Grasp, or Immortals, however I’ve performed the whole lot else from Fundamental and Knowledgeable to fifth Version. I additionally made just a few A/D&D video games in my skilled profession, so these guidelines had been seared into my mind. Forty years of tabletop gaming dies arduous.”