DnD, D&D

The Duffer Brothers have explicitly described D&D as one of the show's major inspirations.

• The kids' party structure → Mike, Dustin, Lucas, Will, etc. each fill different "party" roles.
• The Upside Down adventure structure → essentially treated like a gigantic D&D campaign.
• Monster naming → Demogorgon, Mind Flayer, Vecna.
• Vecna himself → directly borrowed from the D&D villain.
• How the kids understand supernatural events → they use D&D monsters as analogies for things they don't understand.
• Dungeon Master mentality → the Duffers have compared the writers to DMs, throwing increasingly difficult challenges at their characters.
• Character archetypes → the kids' D&D roles reflect their personalities in the real world.

The Duffers actually described Stranger Things as being like a massive D&D campaign where the role-playing takes over their lives.

The whole LitRPG form is D&D's grandchild and Dinniman's novel does not disguise it. Character sheets, levels, loot tables and a dungeon that goes down in floors are printed on the page as mechanics rather than described as magic. What Carl adds is the joke underneath: the dungeon is a televised game show, so the rules exist because somebody is watching, which is the one thing a tabletop session never has to explain.

Borrowed game mechanics and general genre influence from DnD

Gary Gygax and Jeff Perren's medieval miniatures wargame provided the combat rules that became the mechanical foundation of D&D. Dave Arneson then used Chainmail in his Blackmoor campaign, adding individual characters and ongoing roleplaying. Gygax later said Arneson's campaign was the inspiration from which he created the D&D rules.

Inspired by : Hobbits/halflings, orcs, ents, dwarves, elves, fantasy races and other creatures . Early D&D's balor is essentially an adaptation of the Tolkien-style Balrog concept, while avoiding the protected name.

Inspired by Sword-and-sorcery atmosphere, barbarians, monsters, ancient ruins, sorcerers.

Inspired by Paladins, alignment concepts, trolls, faerie creatures and planar ideas.

Inspired by Adventuring parties, thieves, swordsmen, urban fantasy adventures

Vancian magic system, spell names/concepts, eccentric wizards

Inspired by the medieval folklore : Dragons, faeries, undead, demons, witches, etc.

Inspired by the Greek Mythology Monsters : Medusa, minotaur, hydra, centaurs, etc.