Stranger Things series finale's D&D scene included a Dwarven Forge cameo

The terrain-makers were surprised by their cameo in the series finale

Mike has a pretty impressive setup for the session of Dungeons & Dragons he runs for his best friends in the final episode of Stranger Things. He’s got vampire fangs to voice the iconic D&D villain Strahd Von Zarovich, treasure to dole out to the players to represent their reward, and a full castle courtyard created using pieces from miniature terrain company Dwarven Forge.

“As soon as the finale came out, people on our Discord started sharing photos around,” Dwarven Forge head of marketing Chris London told Polygon in a video call. “There were a lot of people saying, ‘How did you guys land that?’ We didn’t do anything. We had no idea it was happening.”

Like many of the D&D references on Stranger Things, the inclusion of Dwarven Forge is anachronistic. The company was founded in 1996 by Stefan Pokorny, who unveiled a set of hand-painted dungeon terrain at Gen Con and sold out of everything in just four hours. Since then, the company has run 13 highly successful crowdfunding campaigns and released dozens of sets to allow game masters to build everything from cozy cottages to fiery hellscapes.

“We want these pieces to end up on people’s tables,” Dwarven Forge chief creative officer Nate Taylor told Polygon. “We want to make sure we’re making stuff that people want to use, that’s going to be useful in their adventures.”

Taylor said his team lives for the photos and stories that people share with them at conventions about games incorporating their products. Beyond Stranger Things, Dwarven Forge has also made appearances on Critical Role and in a recent video where the Kansas City Chiefs defensive line learned how to play D&D.

“We don’t know about it, we’re not expecting it, it just happens because the stuff is out there and people are using it to tell stories, and a lot of the people who are really serious about gaming also happen to have a Dwarven Forge collection,” Taylor said. “We’re blindsided about half the time.”

The pieces Mike uses are from an out-of-print set called Wicked Additions, which was made with resin molds. As demand increased, Dwarven Forge was able to switch to a proprietary material called Dwarvenite that’s both lighter and tougher. But their offerings include pieces with similar throwback sensibilities like the demon door. Another maw-like piece is part of the Dungeons Reforged set that is shipping this year after raising more than $2 million on Gamefound.

Later this year, they’ll be crowdfunding again for Perilous Frontiers, a set focused on desert and snowy terrain to go with the collections they have focused on forests, swamps, and mountains.

“As cool as it is to build castles and dungeons and taverns, there’s something about dealing with organic shapes that is just really one of our sweet spots,” Taylor said. “How do you make sand and snow interesting so it’s not just a flat white thing or a flat beige thing? What are all the applications? How can we bring all our creativity to bear?”

Dwarven Forge has been able to grow from small on-demand sets to a well-stocked web shop with more than 100 products in stock thanks to the increased popularity of tabletop gaming.

“We're seeing the demographics changing. It's getting more diverse, it's getting younger. There's still fresh blood coming in,” Taylor said. “We're so far beyond the Satanic Panic now. There's a wait list for the after school D&D program at my kid’s school, which is amazing. They can't keep up with the demand.”

While Mike uses his terrain for D&D, Dwarven Forge’s leaders play a wide variety of skirmish games, war games, and tabletop role-playing games so they can design terrains to suit their aesthetics. They played Starfinder and Star Wars: Shatterpoint when developing their science fiction terrain and have been considering how to build sets for hex-based games like Lancer and BattleTech. They’re currently digging into Daggerheart and Draw Steel to figure out how their mechanics would translate into terrain builds.

“Fundamentally, if people are into terrain, they're going to find a way to use it in their game, even if it’s not wildly supported in the game," Taylor said. "A lot of times, people just build it for mood to help quantify the scene. It's fun to build a miniature world, starting with blocks and Legos as a kid. It's the same sort of thrill.”