Ampersand Law #1. Early RPGs always had names in this format: [Something] & [Something Else That Usually Begins With The Same Letter]. (Dungeons & Dragons, Tunnels & Trolls, Villains & Vigilantes, Chivalry & Sorcery, etc.)
Any fictional
roleplaying game can be recognized as such, because it will have a title consisting of two alliterative plural nouns suggestive of its genre separated by an ampersand. A writer in need of a fictitious parallel to
Vampire The Masquerade, for instance, would probably dub it something like "
Cloaks & Coffins". Bonus points if the two nouns are
a place name and a monster name.
The Magic Ampersand form serves the same instant-identification purpose for ad hoc roleplaying games that the
Chest Insignia does for ad hoc superheroes. It's also frequently used to make jokes about fictional creatures playing a roleplaying game based on our own mundane lives.
Of course, sometimes there is
Truth in Television:
Bunnies And Burrows,
Castles & Crusades,
Mutants & Masterminds,
Villains and Vigilantes,
Tunnels & Trolls... all paying homage to the mother of them all,
Dungeons & Dragons.
(Note:
Pride And Prejudice and
Sense And Sensibility are aversions of this trope, being
Jane Austen novels.)
Compare
The Noun and the Noun and
The Titling.
Examples
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Comics & Books
- Wizards & Warriors in both DC Comics' Robin and an episode of Quantum Leap.
- Smax: In a Tolkien/D&D-esque Standard Fantasy Setting, part of the adventuring party is waiting outside the cave for Smax and Robyn to return, and to pass the time they play a game set in mundane reality called Malls & Muggers.
Comic & Strips
Films & Live-Action
Literature & Books
- Rona Jaffe's Mazes And Monsters.
- Neal Stephenson's The Big U explicitly compares the LARP Sewers and Serpents, played by characters in the novel, to Dungeons & Dragons.
- Esther Friesner's fantasy novel Majyk by Hook or Crook has a brief mention of a game called "Palaces & Puppies".
- In Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Greg plays Magick & Monsters (Dungeons and Dragons in the webcomic of the same name).
Live-Action & Television
- A fictional roleplaying game/laser tag hybrid called "Aliens & Asteroids" appeared in an episode of War of the Worlds.
- Wizards And Warriors was also the name of a summer replacement TV series in the early 80s. It parodied many themes and tropes from fantasy stories and FRP games. One episode even featured the hero gathering a Dungeons & Dragons-style party of specialists to go on a quest.
Print Media & Magazines
Radio & Audioplays
Tabletop & Games
- The real-life Tabletop Games Villains and Vigilantes, by Fantasy Games Unlimited. They also made Starships & Spacemen.
- The (unnecessarily complex) Powers & Perils
fantasy role-playing game, published by Avalon Hill, if you can believe it.
- The superhero RPG Mutants And Masterminds. And the supplements for different comic book genres: Wizards & Warlocks (sword'n'sorcery comics) and Mecha & Manga (guess).
- Werewolf The Apocalypse
Video & Games
- Kingdom Of Loathing has "Cubicles and Conference Calls".
- "Grottos and Gremlins" from the video game Bully.
- There's yet another Wizards And Warriors series out there... a trilogy of video games developed by Rareware for the NES.
- In Spellcasting 101: Sorcerers Get All the Girls, a group of students at Sorcerer University is always playing "Malls & Muggers". And they're still playing — with no evidence of having stopped at any point in the year between games — in the next game. One of the tasks that your would-be fratmates have to accomplish in order to get through hazing week (which you can watch) is to make them stop.
- The computer RPG Might & Magic.
- Simon the Sorcerer'' II features a group of characters interested in a game called "Apartments and Accountants". Since Simon the Sorcerer'' is a fantasy series, A&A simulates real life.
- Two unrelated video games titled Swords & Serpents: one by Imagic for the Intellivision, another by Interplay for the Nintendo Entertainment System.
- Fables & Fiends: The Legend Of Kyrandia
- Magic & Mayhem
Web & Comics
- The Webcomic Darths & Droids.
- Due to the Celebrity Paradox, in the Darths & Droids universe, the makers are working on a similar comic about an RPG version of Harry Potter: Wands & Warts. Every 50 episodes, they add a new burrow to this little rabbit hole.
- In the Wands & Warts universe, the makers are working on a screencap comic about The Sound Of Music: Notes & Nazis
- In that universe, the Irregulars are making Mutants & Miscreants. (X-Men)
- There, it's Enlisted Men & Extraterrestrial Biological Entities (Aliens).
- Then Magicians & Munchkins. (The Wizard of Oz)
- Sandals & Spartans (300, for the 300th strip).
- Avatars & Avi-Fauna (Avatar)
- Terminators & Temporal Paradoxes (Terminator).
- Carcasses & Carcharadons Jaws.
- Trenchcoats & Turncoats, Casablanca.
- Amphibians & Anthropomorphisms, The Muppet Movie.
- Heists & Hypnagogic Hallucinations, based on Inception.
- Barnacles & Bilgewater, based on Pirates Of The Caribbean.
- Docs & Deloreans based on Back to the Future
- Hypnotoads & Hyperchickens based on Futurama.
- Chocolates & Chumps based on Willy Wonka And The Chocolate Factory
- Ids & Idiots based on Forbidden Planet.
- Egons & Ectoplasms based on Ghostbusters.
- The webcomic Dungeon Damage had a group of Dragons playing "Humans and Houses".
- Something Positive of course, has its own take on it.
- D And DS 9: A Darths & Droids-style comic, which, as the title suggests is a Dungeons & Dragons-esque RPG in the setting of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Web & Original
- From the web series Gold: "Goblins & Gold".
Western & Animation
- Robot Chicken has a similar parody as in The Dragon in one of its small in-between scenes.
- An episode of Dexters Laboratory, (itself called "D & DD") features the title character running a game of "Monsters & Mazes". DeeDee replaces him as the Game Master, with amusing consequences.
- Crypts & Creepers in the Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated episode "Web of the Dreamweaver".
