You may remember how at the end of last month, a few days after the premiere of Stranger Things: Season 5 Volume 1, many veteran gamers noticed the mistake between the NES and Arcade versions of Ghosts 'N Goblins that Derek plays with at home. An amusing anecdote, a mistake that could pass as anecdotal... And so it would be, if it weren't for the fact that now the most veteran Dungeons & Dragons players have taken to the net to point out a lot of inconsistencies in the series with respect to the original material (albeit always in a healthy and amusing way).
Interestingly, leading this crusade for old RPGs is none other than Josh Sawyer, director at Obsidian of some of the best-known RPGs such as Fallout: New Vegas and the two Pillars of Eternity games. "Season ruined", he amused in a post on Bluesky, while he and other users pointed out that some of the D&D references in the latest season of the series are anachronistic.
"Clerics casting Dimension Door? Not at any table in 1987."
"Prismatic Spray rolling a 7 causes blindness? JfC."
<social>https://bsky.app/profile/jesawyer.bsky.social/post/3ma5w6mpaac2g</social>
Other players pointed out other errors such as Rogues not being called as such until the introduction of the current classes in Third Edition, and the same was true of the Sorcerer, the class Mike alludes to when he talks about Will and his "sixth sense" for perceiving Vecna.
Sawyer took his hunt for D&D errors in the series quite seriously, and as PCGamer points out, it all comes down to a matter of generational references: "The Duffer brothers are about 10 years younger than me, and they've admitted they're more Magic: The Gathering fans than D&D players."
In the end, it's all just an amusing anecdote, especially considering that, in reality, all of these typos would be solved if we take a look at the current Dungeons and Dragons 5E Player's Handbook, where there are indeed Rogues and Sorcerers as classes, and where a cleric can cast Dimensional Door if he/she/they follows the Trickery Domain.
Did you notice these roleplaying gaffes watching Stranger Things 5 Volume 1? Remember that next Friday 26 December from 1:00 GMT/2:00 CET you can watch Volume 2, before waiting for the final episode on 1 January for us in Europe.