History Expy / TableTopGames

* ''TabletopGame/MutantsAndMasterminds'' has a truly massive list of comic character expies in its FreedomCity setting. With very few exceptions, they range from not very subtle to carrying large signs reading "INSPIRED BY SUPERMAN" or "[[SuspiciouslySpecificDenial NOT GHOST RIDER WITH A DIFFERENT NAME, REALLY]]".

*** Doomrider is a BadassBiker with a head of FlamingHair. He's basically a one-dimensional expy of Comicbook/GhostRider, if he were a Chaos Space Marine-turned-daemon prince.

*** Doomrider is a BadassBiker with a head of FlamingHair. He's basically a one-dimensional expy of ''Comicbook/GhostRider'', if he were a Chaos Space Marine-turned-daemon prince.

* ''Mecha Vs Kaiju'', in its FATE version, gives statblocks for NotZilla Kaibutsu, Ghidorah-inspired Sanshuseki, {{Gamera}}-derived Kameyuu, and Hedokoku, who most seems to resemble Hedorah in being a monster fuelled by pollution. Others are mentioned in backstory, such as the moth monster Senshuga.

* ''TabletopGame/SentinelsOfTheMultiverse'' lives and breathes this. Let's look at just the core game, for example: the heroes consist of a FlyingBrick who serves as a team leader (Superman/Legacy), a speedster who's accomplished in a technical field (the Flash/Tachyon), a gun-encrusted powersuit operated by a MilitarySuperhero (War Machine/Bunker), a shadowy gadgeteer vigilante (Batman/Wraith), a god of an old pantheon empowering a contemporary mortal (Thor/Ra), an aquatic warrior (Aquaman/Tempest, although Tempest controls weather instead of sea life), a bald psychic woman (Moondragon/Visionary), a nigh-immortal warrior using a pose of savagery despite being actually pretty well-informed (a heroic Vandal Savage/Haka), and a man whose low body temperature requires him to live inside either a suit or a frozen room (a heroic Mr Freeze/Absolute Zero), with the last one, surprisingly ''not'' based on a comics character, is a winged woman who is devoutly religious and verges on being a KnightTemplar (a Living Saint from ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 4000}}''/Fanatic); the villains are a vengeful genius with an alliterative name/title combination who rules a small region in Eurasia (Dr. Doom/Baron Blade), a rogue AI that has numerical iterations and eventually becomes a hero (Brainiac/Omnitron), a superhuman supremacist with a QuirkyMinibossSquad and elemental powers (Magneto/Citizen Dawn), and a conquering alien warlord who has enslaved countless worlds (Darkseid/Grand Warlord Voss, although Voss doesn't have Darkseid's raw power). This is just the core set. There are, either out or in the works, seven full expansions and a cluster of mini-packs, many of them containing multiple other Expies.

* ''TabletopGame/AnimaBeyondFantasy'': No, [[http://www.brueckenkopf-online.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/Anima-Tactics-Black-Sun-Clover.jpg Clover]] is [[SarcasmMode totally unrelated]] to [[ResidentEvil Albert Wesker]] and [[http://jerome.regad.pagesperso-orange.fr/Anima/artbook_cover.jpg Lazarus]] [[SuspiciouslySpecificDenial has nothing to see]] with [[FinalFantasyVII Sephiroth]], why do you ask?[[note]]And it's just the tip of the iceberg.[[/note]]

* In ''StrikeLegion'', just about ''everything'' is an expy of something from another sci-fi or fantasy setting. The game not only shamelessly rips off other settings, but then it takes those same things and turns them UpToEleven.

*** Valeros the iconic fighter is an expy of Madmartigan from {{Film/Willow}}.

*** Trazyn the Infinite is basically SelfDemonstrating/DoctorDoom if he were an alien space robot.

** Since almost every culture in the ''TabletopGame/{{Mystara}}'' setting is a FantasyCounterpartCulture, the creators have not been shy about including culturally appropriate Expies such as ''Manuel of the Plains'', a masked vigilante from a Spanish-inspired culture who is an obvious {{Zorro}} expy.

*** Khorne. A WarGod who's favoured warriors are called [[TheBerserker berserkers]], his bloodletter daemons are described as "blessed dead" and is associated with the exhilaration of battle? Not to mention in ''Warhammer Fantasy'', he commands daemons who collect the souls of the dead, his realm is named "Kreignihalla", and his symbol looks like a [[http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6d/Valknut-Symbol-triquetra.png Valknut]]? Hmmmm. [[NorseMythology Sounds familiar]].

* ''TabletopGame/AnimaBeyondFantasy'': No, [[http://www.brueckenkopf-online.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/Anima-Tactics-Black-Sun-Clover.jpg Clover]] is [[SarcasmMode totally unrelated]] to [[ResidentEvil Albert Wesker]] and [[http://jerome.regad.pagesperso-orange.fr/Anima/artbook_cover.jpg Lazarus]] [[SarcasmMode has nothing to see]] with [[FinalFantasyVII Sephiroth]], why do you ask?[[note]]And it's just the tip of the iceberg.[[/note]]

* ''TabletopGame/AnimaBeyondFantasy'': No, [[http://www.brueckenkopf-online.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/Anima-Tactics-Black-Sun-Clover.jpg Clover]] is [[SarcasmMode totally unrelated]] to [[ResidentEvil Albert Wesker]] and [[http://jerome.regad.pagesperso-orange.fr/Anima/artbook_cover.jpg Lazarus]] [[SarcasmMode has nothing to see]] with [[FinalFantasyVII Sephirot]], why do you ask?[[note]]And it's just the tip of the iceberg[[/note]]
* From ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' and it's settings:

** Nearly everything in W40K is an expy of something from another setting. Aliens vs Starship Troopers vs Colonial Marines vs Terminator vs Robotech vs Elves vs Orks vs Demons etc... While the original game was largely Warhammer Fantasy IN SPACE, the current iterations of W40k are closer to "sci-fi trope deathmatch" with the awesome and grimdark turned up to 11.

** Ed Greenwood has admitted that Sune (the Forgotten Realms goddess of love and beauty) is basically the Greek Goddess Aphrodite renamed[[note]]The name ''Sune'' looks as ''Venus'', the Roman equivalent of Aphrodite, backwards and without the V[[/note]].
** This can happen to monsters as well in ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' and ''TabletopGame/{{Pathfinder}}''. Some are, of course, based on mythology, but consider the [[http://paizo.com/image/content/PathfinderCampaignSetting/PZO9226-Balor.jpg balor]] and Tolkien's [[http://www.mrwallpaper.com/wallpapers/gandalf-balrog.jpg balrog]].

** Ed Greenwood has admitted that Sune (the Forgotten Realms goddess of love and beauty) is basically the Greek Goddess Aphrodite renamed.

*** Ghazghkull Thraka's early history is based on Adolf Hitler's: he was a lowly Goff (the Ork clan known as being militaristic and serious) boy who got severely wounded and then had visions of Orks conquering the Galaxy, just as Hitler was just a German (stereotypically known as militaristic and serious) corporal in ww1, got severely wounded and... well you know the rest.

** Since almost every culture in the {{Mystara}} setting is a FantasyCounterpartCulture, the creators have not been shy about including culturally appropriate Expies such as ''Manuel of the Plains'', a masked vigilante from a Spanish-inspired culture who is an obvious {{Zorro}} expy.
** The {{Ravenloft}} game setting is swarming with {{Expy}} versions of classic characters from Gothic literature. Dracula, Dr. Frankenstein and his creation, Jekyll & Hyde, and so on: they're all there, sans serial numbers, disqualified from being CaptainErsatz only because the originals' copyrights all expired ages ago.

* ''MutantsAndMasterminds'' has a truly massive list of comic character expies in its FreedomCity setting. With very few exceptions, they range from not very subtle to carrying large signs reading "INSPIRED BY SUPERMAN" or "[[SuspiciouslySpecificDenial NOT GHOST RIDER WITH A DIFFERENT NAME, REALLY]]".
* {{Pokethulhu}} has many expies (often double-expies) of characters from both of its "parents": Randy Carter (Ash Ketchum/Randolph Carter), Derleth and Bloch of Team Eibon (Jessie and James of Team Rocket), and even Pikathulhu ([[CaptainObvious Pikachu and Cthulhu]]).

* The factions in ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'' were originally little more than faction-level Expies for ''WarhammerFantasy'' factions. Although they've tried to tone this down a bit -- for instance, by phasing out the Squats without explanation, then finally saying they were just eaten by the Tyranids -- there's still obvious parallels. Empire --> Imperium, High Elves --> Eldar, Dark Elves --> Dark Eldar, Undead --> Necrons, Chaos --> Chaos Space Marines, Greenskins --> Orkz, Dwarves --> Demiurg (a Tau-allied race), and to a lesser extent, the Tau in general. The Tyranids are an exception -- there's been some awkward attempts to equate them with the Lizardmen, but it doesn't really work out.

* One of the supplement books for ''TabletopGame/WerewolfTheForsaken, Skinchangers,'' has a character in it called Shuichi Kurama who is serving as a Host to a fox-spirit named Yoko. The manga/anime series ''YuYuHakusho'' has a fox demon named Yoko Kurama who was mortally wounded and took refuge in the womb of a pregnant woman, Shiori Minamino, and was reborn as her son, Shuichi Minamino. On top of that, the physical descriptions and personalities for both Shuichi Kurama and Yoko Kurama are very, ''very'' similar.

* The Raven Queen from ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' 4e core is basically a gender-swapped Expy for Kelemvor from ''TabletopGame/ForgottenRealms''.
** Also, Bane from 4e's default setting, the ''TabletopGame/NentirVale'', is an expy of [[NamesTheSame Bane]] from ''TabletopGame/ForgottenRealms''.

** Paizo, creators of ''TabletopGame/{{Pathfinder}}'', have hinted that the goddess Pharasma is an expy of the Lady of Pain from ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons''.
* The TabletopGame/ForgottenRealms setting of ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' has a few also: King Azoun IV of Cormyr is pretty obviously King Arthur, especially with regard to the whole "Sleeping Sword" thing, which parallels Arthur's "Sleeping King" myth pretty well. Arthur's coat of arms was a golden dragon, Azoun's is a purple dragon, etc. Also, Yamun Khahan was a very obvious expy of Genghis Khan. [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome So when the two of them fought in single combat]]....

* Since almost every culture in the {{Mystara}} setting is a FantasyCounterpartCulture, the creators have not been shy about including culturally appropriate Expies such as ''Manuel of the Plains'', a masked vigilante from a Spanish-inspired culture who is an obvious {{Zorro}} Expy.

* The {{Ravenloft}} game setting is swarming with {{Expy}} versions of classic characters from Gothic literature. Dracula, Dr. Frankenstein and his creation, Jekyll & Hyde, and so on: they're all there, sans serial numbers, disqualified from being CaptainErsatz only because the originals' copyrights all expired ages ago.

** Also, Bane from 4e core, ''TabletopGame/PointsOfLight'', is an expy of [[NamesTheSame Bane]] from ''TabletopGame/ForgottenRealms''.

*** ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons' kytons certainly had a whole lot of ''Franchise/{{Hellraiser}}'' and Pinhead in them, and ''TabletopGame/{{Pathfinder}}'' double down to make them pretty much Cenobites.

* ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering'' had its old planeswalkers, who were super-powered - too super-powered to appear as cards. In particular, there was [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=234707 Jaya Ballard, Task Mage]], the sassy female fire mage with goggles, a hair-trigger temper and a tendency to solve problems with fire. Then they created the Planeswalker card type, and wanted to print Planeswalkers, but they couldn't drop the storyline power of existing old planeswalker characters. So they printed [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=205958 Chandra Nalaar]], a sassy female fire mage with goggles, a hair-trigger temper and a [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Handlers/Image.ashx?multiverseid=185817&type=card tendency to]] [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=205026 solve problems with fire]]. Jaya Ballard was iconic for getting flavour text quotes like "[[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Handlers/Image.ashx?multiverseid=45358&type=card Of course you should fight fire with fire. You should fight everything with fire.]]" She doesn't get any flavour text quotes these days, but Chandra gets a number of [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Handlers/Image.ashx?multiverseid=208009&type=card very similar ones...]]

* The Raven Queen from ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' 4e core is basically a gender-swapped Expy for Kelemvor from ''ForgottenRealms''.
** Also, Bane from 4e core, ''PointsOfLight'', is an expy of [[NamesTheSame Bane]] from ''ForgottenRealms''.

** This can happen to monsters as well in ''DungeonsAndDragons'' and ''{{Pathfinder}}''. Some are, of course, based on mythology, but consider the [[http://paizo.com/image/content/PathfinderCampaignSetting/PZO9226-Balor.jpg balor]] and Tolkien's [[http://www.mrwallpaper.com/wallpapers/gandalf-balrog.jpg balrog]].
*** ''DungeonsAndDragons' kytons certainly had a whole lot of ''Franchise/{{Hellraiser}}'' and Pinhead in them, and {{Pathfinder}} double down to make them pretty much Cenobites.
** Paizo, creators of ''{{Pathfinder}}'', have hinted that the goddess Pharasma is an expy of the Lady of Pain from DungeonsAndDragons.
* The ForgottenRealms setting of ''DungeonsAndDragons'' has a few also: King Azoun IV of Cormyr is pretty obviously King Arthur, especially with regard to the whole "Sleeping Sword" thing, which parallels Arthur's "Sleeping King" myth pretty well. Arthur's coat of arms was a golden dragon, Azoun's is a purple dragon, etc. Also, Yamun Khahan was a very obvious expy of Genghis Khan. [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome So when the two of them fought in single combat]]....
* ''MagicTheGathering'' had its old planeswalkers, who were super-powered - too super-powered to appear as cards. In particular, there was [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=234707 Jaya Ballard, Task Mage]], the sassy female fire mage with goggles, a hair-trigger temper and a tendency to solve problems with fire. Then they created the Planeswalker card type, and wanted to print Planeswalkers, but they couldn't drop the storyline power of existing old planeswalker characters. So they printed [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=205958 Chandra Nalaar]], a sassy female fire mage with goggles, a hair-trigger temper and a [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Handlers/Image.ashx?multiverseid=185817&type=card tendency to]] [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=205026 solve problems with fire]]. Jaya Ballard was iconic for getting flavour text quotes like "[[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Handlers/Image.ashx?multiverseid=45358&type=card Of course you should fight fire with fire. You should fight everything with fire.]]" She doesn't get any flavour text quotes these days, but Chandra gets a number of [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Handlers/Image.ashx?multiverseid=208009&type=card very similar ones...]]