Netflix has been a busy little nerd this entire week, with five days’ worth of promotions for Geeked Week, the network’s yearly celebration of all things dorky and good available or upcoming on the platform. One of the more amusing and highly watchable promotions was an hour and a half long real-time Dungeons & Dragons playthrough featuring Stranger Things stars Finn Wolfhard, Gaten Matarazzo, Priah Ferguson, and Joseph Quinn.
All four actors were, despite their onscreen personas, practically noobs when it came to the game. Thankfully, experienced Dungeon master B. Dave Walters was there to give them a helping hand. That didn’t keep the party from escaping every pitfall though.
Here are some of the best moments:
Joseph Quinn has a horny moment with a halfling tavern maid
Joseph Quinn quickly bonded with one of the adventure’s first NPC (A non-player character played by the Dungeon Master), a helpful halfling named Stella. Stella seemed to have quite a crush on Quinn’s character, a Tabaxi, or cat-person, ranger with perfectly coiffed fur, named, of course, Joe Keery. When Quinn complimented Stella on her Gammon (which I learned today is like a ham steak and not a body part) things got a bit heated with Stella saying maybe she’d enjoy him coaxing the recipe out of her with a bit of force.
Finn Wolfhard immediately blanched saying, “and I get really quiet”.
Is Gaten Matarazzo a demigod in D&D?
Matarazzo’s character name quickly became a point of hilarity as he had opted for the tag “Pardonme Belchin” for his dwarven cleric. DM Walters took him to task a bit but jokingly said that Matarazzo couldn’t have used the name Gaten because it already belonged to “a well-known demigod of entertainment and performance. Gaten the Almightiest.”
Joseph Quinn finds out he’s really good at D&D
As the first into combat, Quinn was amazed to find he was very proficient as a Gloom Stalker Ranger (to be fair he was helped quite a bit by a probably way too overpowered magic Dragon Wing Bow). Quinn scored D20 dice rolls of 25, 21 and 26 for his first three attacks. “That’s huge,” Quinn exclaimed. To illustrate, DM Walters commented “just to give you an idea, 30 is a godlike success.”
Finn on the other hand …
Sadly, even with a fair amount of built-in bonuses and modifiers, Wolfhard absolutely whiffed his first combat rolls. After rolling a three Walters replied, “unfortunately you do have to actually hit to be able to smite.” The actor followed up with a wince-inducing four followed by a D10 damage roll of one and another four on a third attack. Miraculously (did we mention the party was a wee bit overpowered?) he still managed to bring down his opponent. “Sorry it was a struggle for me,” Wolfhard apologized.
Stranger Thing’s Gaten Matarazzo explains how clerics work to Joseph Quinn.
At one point the party finds themselves surrounded by zombies. When Quinn asked why Gaten’s cleric didn’t detect the undead coming or them Matarazzo offered a fairly cogent argument. “You don’t understand how this works’ said Matarazzo. “It’s not like a spider-sense. It’s more of like a … I can’t predict what’s happening, but I understand when something IS happening.” The actor followed up with a facetious swipe at Quinn, saying,” and I would appreciate if you didn’t make fun of me”.
Joseph Quinn scores a 27 to hit and does a victory lap
Words will not suffice.
Even if you’re not a fan of Dungeons & Dragons, seeing the cast of Stranger Things throw their lot in with the massively popular tabletop may have piqued your interest. Even if it didn’t, though, there was still plenty of wholesome entertainment to be found.