Shout Out / Tabletop Games

This page lists Shout-Out from Tabletop Games.

---

Games with their own subpages:

• Dungeons & Dragons
• Pathfinder
• Scum and Villainy
• Sentinels of the Multiverse
• Shadowrun
• Warhammer 40,000

Other Works:

• Fantasy Games Unlimited's Aftermath!
  • In Book 3 of the main rules, one possible campaign setting is an After the End world controlled by apes with human-level intelligence. It features semi-intelligent wild humans without the power of speech and mutated humans with severe cosmetic disorders and psychic powers (the first 2 Planet of the Apes films).
  • Scenario Pack 1: Into the Ruins (1981). The TickTockMan Publishing warehouse is occupied by Charles Morilan, who believes he's the last man on Earth. In his living area can be found a chessboard with a game in progress. On one side of the board is a bust of the 37th President of the United States, Richard Nixon. On the other chair lies a smoking jacket. This is based on the film The Ωmega Man (1971), in which Charlton Heston's character believes he's the last unchanged human on Earth. In the living room of his house is a chessboard with a game set up. On one side is a bust of Julius Caesar, and Heston's character "plays" Caesar while wearing a smoking jacket.
  • Campaign Book A2 Sydney
    • The Wet Firecracker War (that caused the destruction of civilization) and excellent U.S. ABM defenses, mentioned in the Back Story of Robert A. Heinlein's novel The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress.
    • The Phoenix Organization's operatives are stored as Human Popsicles in cryosleep capsules in a high tech fortress called Phoenix Base. They were to stay there until the situation was stabilized after the Scourge and they could help civilization rebuild itself (The Morrow Project has the same situation, with Morrow Project teams in cryosleep and controlled by a "Prime Base". The Aftermath! product even accidentally calls Phoenix Base "Prime Base" once!).
    • The biowarfare Scourge of God plague that wiped out a large percentage of the Earth's population left some survivors who have been altered by the experience. They wear black cloaks, are religious fanatics, hate technology (and try to destroy it) and are extremely sensitive to light. The plague and the survivors are taken directly from the film The Ωmega Man, which was an adaptation of Richard Matheson's novel I Am Legend.
• Agricola manages to squeeze in a few in the card art. The Stone Carrier (who also appears on the Quarry improvement) kinda looks like Obelix, the Dock Worker is based on Klaus Teuber, creator of Settlers of Catan, and the Social Climber is a dead ringer for Gaston.
• Amber Diceless Roleplaying, based on Roger Zelazny's The Chronicles of Amber series. The supplement Shadow Knight has a mini-adventure called "Quest for Frakir". During the adventure, the PCs enter a Shadow of the Forest of Arden and encounter spiders that spin webs throughout the trees, have poisonous bites that cause paralysis and pull away paralyzed victims to be hung from trees (the spiders of Mirkwood in J. R. R. Tolkien's The Hobbit).
• Anima: Beyond Fantasy (just a few of the many it has).
  • Elisabetta Barbados, the Empress of Abel, is also known as the Child Empress.
  • A principality of the Empire of Abel is called Kanon.
  • The Imperial Sword, that represents the Empire of Abel and is welded by its Emperor (now Empress), is named Seoman Kephas.
  • One of the most important organizations of the game (Black Sun) trades with magic objects, but has a branch that works with undead.
  • Azrael, one of the seven Beryls, is also known as the Queen of Swords.
  • Zhorne Giovanni, the founder of the Empire of Abel, had as a pet a white lion.
• Arduin
  • The Arduin Grimoire Volume 2: Welcome to Skull Tower. Some of the names of owners of inns and road houses: Carley Simon (Carly Simon), Pohl Asimov (Frederik Pohl, Isaac Asimov), Katherine Campbell (Katherine MacLean, John W. Campbell), Captain Hook, Vincent Price and Trader Vic (Trader Vic's).
  • Arduin Grimoire Volume 4: The Lost Grimoire. The monster known as Falkynor (AKA the Luck Dragon) has mother-of-pearl scales, a dog-like head, large floppy ears, and long white fur. It also has the power of "luck". In short, it is Falkor, the Luck Dragon from the film The Neverending Story.
  • Arduin Grimoire Volume 6: House of the Rising Sun
    • The name of the magical Glowing Gem "Ghozer's Eye" comes from the evil deity Gozer the Gozerian in Ghostbusters (1984).
    • The Old God named Pygahr (The Fallen One) is a beautiful hemaphroditic humanoid with blond hair and angel-type white-feathered wings. It is based on the character Pygar in the film Barbarella, a humanoid angel with blond hair and white-feathered wings.
  • Arduin Dungeon #3: The Citadel of Thunder. In one room is a pool of magical black water that paralyzes elves and kills dwarves when they touch it. It is named "the Mhathmos", a reference to the film Barbarella. In that film, the Mathmos is a pool of liquid living evil energy under the city of Sogo. If it is ever released, it will destroy Sogo.
  • The Compleat Arduin Book 2 Resources
    • The magikal Ring of Rapid Transit has the strange sigil BART engraved on it. BART is an acronym for Bay Area Rapid Transit, the heavy rail and subway system serving the San Francisco Bay Area.
    • The Star Spider monster has many long Combat Tentacles and a single glaring eye, can suck opponents into its mouth and destroy them with fire and radiation (spitting out its victims' remains afterwards), lives in abandoned/wrecked spacecraft and can only be destroyed by attacking its eye. Any victim that escapes from it has nightmares about it and it will teleport as necessary to encounter the victim again. In short, it is the monster from the Space: 1999 episode "Dragon's Domain" in all respects.
    • When the monster known as the Thermite digs underground it makes the sound of frying bacon. In the Robert A. Heinlein novel Starship Troopers, when the Bugs (Arachnids) dig their underground tunnels, it makes a sound like frying bacon that can be picked up by the Mobile Infantry's listening devices.
• Ars Magica 4th edition supplement The Wizard's Grimoire.
  • One entry says "Lucky is the covenant that can afford to maintain a glassblower, and happy are its magi". This is a reference to a line in H. P. Lovecraft's short story "The Festival": "Wisely did Ibn Schacabao say, that happy is the tomb where no wizard hath lain, and happy the town at night whose wizards are all ashes."
  • A small magical stone statue of a pig can learn to sing. The end of the entry says "Not being sentient, the statue is probably not annoyed." This refers to a saying by Mark Twain: "Don't try and teach a pig to sing. It's a waste of your time, and it annoys the pig." Robert A. Heinlein included a re-worded version in the "Notebooks of Lazarus Long" segments of his novel Time Enough for Love: "Never attempt to teach a pig to sing; it wastes your time and annoys the pig."
• Battlelords of the 23rd Century
  • Shadis magazine #23 adventure "Bug Hunt". The PCs are sent on a mission by a group of terrorists. After the mission is over, the mercenaries find a copy of the mission orders and realize that the terrorists planned to betray them. The orders include the phrase "All other priorities rescinded". There was a similar line in the orders given to the android Ash in the film Alien. It told him that acquiring the xenomorph was top priority, and the welfare of the crew of the Nostromo was not. In the film Aliens, one of the Colonial Marines asked if the mission they were on was going to be a "bug hunt".
  • Supplement Lock-N-Load: The Battlelord's War Manual (1992)
    • One of the many devices available for sale is the Skull Polisher, which the alien Phentari use to clean and polish the skulls of their victims. In the movie Predator (1987), the title alien used a similar device to clean and polish the skulls of his victims.
    • The description of a whistle is "My only suggestion is that you should try it while you work!" This is a reference to the song "Whistle While You Work" in the Disney film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937).
    • One purchasable item is a shoe phone. The heel is removed to dial and the user speaks into the phone. This is a reference to the shoe phone used by secret agent Maxwell Smart in the TV show Get Smart (1965-1970).
  • Supplement Lock-N-Load: Reloaded
    • The Mrs. Fusion is a fusion-powered power pack used to provide energy. The name is inspired by the Mr. Fusion power source used in Doc Brown's DeLorean at the end of the film Back to the Future.
    • The Flux Capacitor, a type of ammunition for a mag gun. Anyone hit by it who reaches 88 m.p.h. will be transported to the year 1955. It's a joke item based on the flux capacitor that allows time travel in the film Back to the Future.
  • Supplement Galactic Underground
    • The name of the Fickle Finger of Fate table is from the 1967 movie of the same name and the Laugh In "Flying Fickle Finger of Fate" award.
    • On the Fickle Finger of Fate table, #22 is "Bank error in your favor. Collect 3,000cr." This is from the Monopoly game Community Chest card that says "Bank error in your favor. Collect $200".
• BattleTech
  • The early years had a number of brief Shout Outs, from major (Alexsandr Kerensky, named after the leader of the government overthrown by Lenin), to minor (James "The Kirk" Yalos, a mercenary captain, named in honor of Star Trek.)
  • And before FASA got hit by a barrage of infringement suits, there was Team Banzai and many of the game's Battlemech designs were directly taken from Mecha anime, primarily Macross.
  • There was also a mercenary group known as The Fighting Urukhai.
  • Loren L. Coleman likes to use name puns to make his shout outs. Colonel Nin Ten Doh of the Capellan armed forces, anyone? (Naturally, two licensed MechWarrior games were on the Super Nintendo console.)
  • An extremely subtle one exists on the Grand Titan. Printed in rather unusual-looking lettering on its upper arm in the official artwork◊, you can make out the words "ROLL OUT." The words are a font that heavily resembles Cybertronian script. This is due in large part to the Grand Titan itself resembling the iconic Autobot leader Optimus Prime.
  • Following on the example of the Grand Titan, the Screamer Land-Air 'Mech looks to be nothing so much as a gigantic shout out to the Decepticons. The dual tailfins and forward swept wings invite comparisons to Transformers: Animated 's Starscream, and the large, powerful energy weapon on the right arm is evocative of Megatron's fusion cannon. Finally, 'Screamer' was an actual in-universe nickname for Genereation One's Starscream.
  • Part Shout Out and part Visual Pun, veteran mercenary Mechwarrior and professional weirdo Ace Darwin pilots his uniquely decorated Panther BattleMech◊ entirely without comment from anyone in the setting.
  • The Jenner is a 35 ton light 'Mech most known for its impressive foot speed. An upgraded version was developed that was even faster, known as the Owens. These are named for Caitlyn Jenner (known as Bruce Jenner at the time) and Jesse Owens, respectively—both Olympic sprinting champions. The books claim that the Owens was named for a cavalry march called "Gray Owens," but a quick bit of research shows reveals the actual name of the song is "Garryowen," and has never been called "Gray Owens" anywhere, making it more likely that the reference was to the famous Olympian.
  • The character of Minobu Tetsuhara, a Mechwarrior samurai of the Draconis Combine who happened to be of African origin in spite of his name, seems to be a partial reference to Yasuke, an African retainer of Oda Nobunaga.
• According to The Book of Unremitting Horror, some people believe the Outer Black is essentially the Cenobite's dimension from Hellraiser and The Hellbound Heart. In this case, they're wrong — it's an incredibly horrible place, such that it can't qualify as an Infernal Paradise like the Cenobite's realm, because no-one is twisted enough to even briefly consider it to live up to its supposed promise of being a sadomasochistic heaven. The specific section of it described in reference to this is a biomechanical hell reminiscent of H.R. Giger's work where demons endlessly fight and kill each other for absolutely no reason — a realm of horrific, meaningless, unending brutality.
  • The Mystery Man, an enigmatic Humanoid Abomination who specializes in manipulation and psychological torment, greatly resembles the character of the same name from Lost Highway.
• Torture Dogs resemble a Darker and Edgier take on The Hounds of Tindalos by way of H.R. Giger.
• Brik Wars has a lot, including Indiana Jones, Romeo and Juliet, Warhammer 40,000, and James Bond.
• Call of Cthulhu
  • Supplement Dark Designs, adventure "The Menace from Sumatra". One of the books in Dr. Granger's library is The Dynamics of an Asteroid. In Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes novel The Valley of Fear, this work was said to have been written by Professor James Moriarty.
  • The weapons table in the core rulebook includes a listing for "Col. Moran's Air Rifle", another Sherlock Holmes reference.
  • The Malleus Monstrorum sourcebook derives its name from the German title for the game's Creature Companion. Scott David Aniolowski thought it was such a cool name that he used it for the English sourcebook.
  • The Unspeakable Oath #7, adventure "Convergence". The adventure takes place in Groverville, Tennessee. One of the stores in town in town is called the Stuffer Shack. This is a reference to the Tabletop Game Shadowrun, which has the company Stuffer Shack as an In-Universe version of 7-11.
• Carcosa: Weird Science-Fantasy Horror Setting
  • In hex 0707 there's a building with the bodies of 39 White Men, with no visible wounds. They're wearing black clothing and their faces are covered with a purple silk cloth. Each has 5 silver pieces and a trade token worth 5 gold pieces. In the building there are bowls of porridge laced with arsenic. This is a reference to the Heaven's Gate cult, which committed mass suicide in 1997.
  • Hex 2001 has a tall black rectangular monolith made of a non-reflective metal. If treated in a reverent manner, those who sleep near it gain one point of intelligence. Hex 2002 has a clan of ape-men that fight with bone clubs and worship the monolith. This is a reference to the Monolith in 2001: A Space Odyssey, which raised the intelligence of primitive ape-like creatures and taught them how to use bones as killing weapons (this was explained much better in Arthur C. Clarke's Novelization).
  • Hex 2307 has a castle owned by a Mad Scientist with a deformed henchman. He conducts bizarre experiments that include molding and melding life and his laboratory is filled with massive electrical machinery (the original Frankenstein (1931) film and its sequels/successors).
• Cartoon Action Hour campaigns are fake series that pay homage to Eighties cartoons. The book itself includes shout-outs to many of these shows, especially in the "game seeds" section, which includes ideas for campaigns based on series such as Transformers ("Transbots") and Thunder Cats ("Action Cats"). And then there's the full-length game Warriors of the Cosmos, which is basically a love letter to He-Man and the Masters of the Universe (1983).
• Champions
  • Early adventures had a substance called Questonite (Jonny Quest's Omnidisciplinary Scientist Dr. Benton Quest).
  • C.L.O.W.N.. The C.L.O.W.N. base's Danger Room uses funny cartoon images as "threats". One of them is a starship firing a cream pie (At the end of Fred Saberhagen's Berserker short story "Mr. Jester", a berserker starship fires a giant custard pie at a human space ship).
  • Gadgets!
    • The shoe box size Homing Car Robot Bomb can drive through traffic until it reaches the target car and blows it up (an assassination device that appears in the Tom Selleck film Runaway).
    • The "Puff" ground to air missile, which deploys Kevlar streamers that snag and foul the propellers of prop-driven aircraft and helicopters (Ecotopia, in which the title country's armed forces used missiles that deployed streamers to tangle up the blades of attacking U.S. helicopters).
  • Adventure Deathstroke. When the force field surrounding the nuclear weapon is breached a recording starts: "I am a thirty second bomb...29...28..." (Robert A. Heinlein's Starship Troopers novel. While Juan Rico is on a raid against the Skinnies, he enters a room full of them and tosses in a bomb that says the same thing in the Skinny language).
  • Supplement Champions II
    • Federal government agents may confiscate devices the team captures from villains, saying that they will be examined by "top men in the field." "Who?" "Top men" (The end of Raiders of the Lost Ark. After the government agents take the Ark of the Covenant, the dialogue is almost identical).
    • Hideouts and Headquarters (rules for constructing bases). One example mentions a waterfront warehouse that contains vehicles, which is separate from the main base in a prominent New York skyscraper (Doc Savage, who has a penthouse on the 86th floor of a New York skyscraper (presumably the Empire State building) and a warehouse on the Hudson River that holds his ships and planes. The sign on the warehouse says "Hidalgo Trading Company").
    • Hideouts and Headquarters (rules for constructing bases). The section on computers mentions AIDs (Artificial Intelligence Devices), which are vulnerable to Logic Bombs. Two possible examples are "I'm lying to you now" and "Compute to the last decimal place the value of pi." These are both derived from Logic Bombs used in Star Trek: The Original Series episodes, the first being from "I, Mudd" and the second from "Wolf in the Fold".
    • The picture on page 63 is clearly Doc Savage, including the supermachine pistol he's holding with the distinctive ram's head ammo clip.
  • Supplement Champions III. The super villainess Rainbow Archer's real name is the Significant Name Marian Locksley and her headpiece and boots are colored lincoln green. This is a reference to the character Robin Hood. His real name was Robin of Locksley, he had a girlfriend named Maid Marian, and his Merry Men wore costumes of lincoln green.
  • Supplement Fantasy Hero. An adventure generator has slots for a lost item and the creature(s) guarding it.
    • One of the possible lost items is "The champion jumping frog", a reference to Mark Twain's short story "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County".
    • One of the possible guardians is "four humanoid turtle assassins", a reference to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
• Chivalry & Sorcery, 3rd Edition adventure Stormwatch (1998). One possible event that can befall the party: as it is breaking camp, one of the characters finds a snake in his boot (Toy Story. When Woody's string is pulled, one of the possible phrases spoken is "There's a snake in my boot!").
• The City of Carse (Midkemia Press)
  • Murtag the Lonely, a city sewer inspector. This is a reference to old Maytag commercials about how lonely their repairmen were because Maytag appliances were so dependable they never needed fixing.
  • A stable owner named James of Heriot, who does some minor healing of the horses. This refers to the veterinarian and author who used the pen name James Herriot. He wrote the semi-autobiographical novels All Things Bright And Beautiful, All Creatures Great And Small, All Things Wise And Wonderful and The Lord God Made Them All.
  • The leathermaker Harcourt "Harry" Slime has a nagging wife named Stella, which causes him to be often absent from the city. This is a reference to Harcourt Fenton "Harry" Mudd from the Star Trek: The Original Series episode "I, Mudd", whose nagging wife Stella caused him to become a space traveler.
  • Deputy Feylen Alkara is handy with a rapier and likes to surprise opponents by fighting right-handed and revealing that he's left-handed. This is based on Inigo Montoya in The Princess Bride, who does the same thing during his duel with the Man in Black.
• Citybook II: Port o' Call by Flying Buffalo, Inc.. The Emerald Dome jewelry store employs a simpleton gardener named Sellers. He is a reference to Peter Sellers, who played the simple minded Chance the gardener in the film Being There.
• C°ntinuum: roleplaying in The Yet
  • A discussion of the Five Maxims includes the phrase "Wherever you go, there you are" (a phrase used by the title character in the film The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension).
  • In the Gamemaster section under Switching Fraternities it says "For example, a spanner who is a disenfranchised Shao-Lin monk with great power in Dreaming and martial arts roams the American southwest in the 1800s looking to right wrongs." (Kwai Chang Caine, the protagonist of the TV show Kung Fu (1972)).
• Penguin King Games's Costume Fairy Adventures is a light-hearted and goofy game, and as such contains a ton of jokes.
  • The core game has a random table for the Enchanted Forest. One of the NPC's in it, the Princess-Rescuing Princess, has a special rule called Invincible Sword Princess - an old Exalted meme, referring to a character build who used stacked defences to be virtually untouchable, derived from a line from Zhang Ziyi's character in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.
  • The parody urban fantasy playset that makes an appearance in a couple of play examples is a pretty clear Affectionate Parody of The World of Darkness.
  • The core costume deck includes things like a thinly-veiled Batman costume and the Fourth Doctor's iconic scarf.
  • The Tomb of Follies playset is a Dungeons & Dragons parody, with all the chaos that implies,, but one of the random disasters — "Acacia Uses GM Fiat to Backstab Someone and Get Away (the Rotter)" - is a reference to Sephiroth's most infamous action in Final Fantasy VII.
• Cyberpunk:
  • Supplement Home of the Brave (1993)
    • A TV Guide page from the year 2013. One of the entries is for a game show called Deal With The Devil, with host Sam Neill. The actor Sam Neill played Damien Thorn (the Antichrist/son of the Devil) in the 1981 movie Omen III: The Final Conflict.
    • The leader of an anime poser gang kidnaps a woman and has a biosculpt job done on her, which gives her huge eyes, a tiny mouth, weird hair color and tiny horns on her head, and makes her wear a tiger print bikini (the character Lum/Lamu in Urusei Yatsura). This is Lampshaded by a character saying that "It had something to do with some old Pacific Rim export cartoon."
    • A man buys a computer system that was owned by Fort Meade (AKA the National Security Agency). It has a file on it called "NORAD I" which consists of a huge list of 10 digit numbers. This is a reference to the movie WarGames, where the W.O.P.P.E.R. computer at NORAD ran through a list of 10 digit numbers to find the code that would allow it to launch all of the U.S. land-based ICBMs against the Soviet Union.
  • Night City supplement (1991).
    • There are multiple references to the Real Life McDonald's fast food chain. (a) The restaurant Global Foods is owned by Raymond Kroc. McDonald's (which eventually grew worldwide) was founded by Ray Kroc in 1955. (b) The fast food restaurants MacDonovan's and MacDonnell's.
    • One of Night City's businesses is Universal Export, which is reputed to be a front for the British Provisional Government's Army Intelligence Active Service (James Bond novels and films, in which MI-6 used a company called Universal Export as a front).
    • The owner of a game store runs a Tabletop Game called The Field Trip (1970's game The Fantasy Trip, which was written by Steve Jackson and published by Metagaming).
    • There is a bookstore downtown called Puddleforge's, "where old copies of Cyberpunk V1 can be bought for a song and burned as fuel." This is a reference to Alice Through the Mirrorshades (1989), a Paranoia/Cyberpunk Crossover adventure which ends with the PCs encountering a hobo named Mike Puddleforge, an obvious Captain Ersatz of Cyberpunk creator Mike Pondsmith, burning old RPG rulebooks for warmth.
    • A ripperdoc (Back-Alley Doctor) in the Japantown section of the city has the name "Savage Doc" (Doc Savage).
    • Piper Memorial Sports Arena is named after a professional wrestler who died from gunshot wounds while foiling a terrorist plot to hijack a plane and dive it into the White House to assassinate the President (Real Life professional wrestler "Rowdy" Roddy Piper).
  • NeoTribes (1995). "Chicago: The Adventure" has an character named Carrie Laisson. This is a reference to either the phrase "Kyrie eleison or the 1985 song "Kyrie" by Mr. Mister, which includes that phrase.
  • Solo of Fortune II
    • One solo is named Jenni Flexx (the character Jenny Flex in the James Bond movie A View to a Kill).
    • Another solo is named "John Jones (Manhunter)" (DC Universe comic book character J'onn J'onzz, the Martian Manhunter).
• Iron Crown Enterprises (I.C.E.) Cyberspace main rules
  • The game has a number of references to the Cyberpunk film Blade Runner.
    • Massive airships cruise slowly over the Pacific Sprawl with bright advertisements on the side. In the film, the airships tried to recruit people of Los Angeles to become off-world colonists.
    • One illustration is that of a female dancer with very little clothing and a large snake draped over her. She bears a strong resemblance to the film character Zhora.
    • The Skateboys gang is led by a man called Scott Ridley. Ridley Scott directed Blade Runner.
  • The game takes place in the year 2090. A number of TV shows have titles that are references to 20th century works: Leave It to Reaver (Leave It to Beaver), Porky's Landing (Porky's plus Knots Landing), Spandex Queens of Phobos (Leather Goddesses of Phobos) and Wheel of Torture (Wheel of Fortune).
  • The New Edison MegaCorp owns a subsidiary called Martian Metals that gives its name to a large building in San Francisco and mines Mars for metal. In Real Life, Martian Metals was a small company that made miniature figurines for use with role playing games during the 1970s and early 1980s.
  • The Serendipity MegaCorp's headquarters is an orbital space station called Crystal Palace (NORAD's Cheyenne Mountain Operations Center, which was once code named "Crystal Palace").
  • The subdermal pouch (a pouch implanted in the body that can hold small objects) is taken from an identical device in Robert A. Heinlein's novel Friday.
  • A store that implants cybernetic devices is called Lee Press-On Limbs (Real Life product Lee Press-On Nails).
• Danger International main rules. The description for the Forensic Medicine skill starts off with the line "Welcome to the exciting world of forensic medicine". This was inspired by what the title character says in the opening titles of the Live-Action TV show Quincy, M.E.. "You are about to enter the most fascinating sphere of police work - the world of forensic medicine."
• Dark Dungeon RPG, supplement Samaris, Island of Adventure. In the Back Story, the giant city covering the title island was destroyed in a war between the demonic wizard king Acecerax and the demon witch empress Vekna. Acecerax and Vekna are references to characters in 1st Edition Dungeons & Dragons: Acecerax from the demilich Acererak in module S1 Tomb of Horrors, and Vekna from the lich Vecna of "the Eye and Hand of Vecna" fame.
• The Dark Eye has many, a lot of which work only in German. Besides those, there are things like the towns "Camparisodano" and "Wodkalemonis", and "Sylla" and "Charypso" (Scylla and Charybdis, two obstacles for Odysseus). The dwarf Gargi, son of Gax, wrote the book "Dragons and Demons" (Gary Gygax, Dungeons & Dragons), another book is called "Der ringende Herr" (compare the German title of The Lord of the Rings: Der Herr der Ringe), Gandolf von Gareth wrote the books Ringkunde für Anfänger und Ringkunde für Fortgeschrittene (Rings for Beginners and Rings for Advanced Learners). There's a legendary gorger — a cold-blooded pseudo-tyrannosaur — named G'dzill. For more go to this (German) site.
• Don't Rest Your Head manages to toss in a few. For instance, throwaway lines in both the corebook and supplement Don't Lose Your Mind indicate that Mister Hyde, the Jabberwock, and the original Frankenstein's Monster have all managed to become Nightmares.
• The Dragon Tree Spell Book
  • The spell Enchant Broom causes a broom to sprout arms and have its brush split into legs. The broom will do any kind of chores, such as carrying water buckets. If it is broken or cut into pieces, each piece will become a new broom. This spell and its effects are based on the "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" sequence of Disney's animated film Fantasia. It starred Mickey Mouse as the title apprentice wizard, whose attempt to control a broom to do his chores for him goes out of control.
  • The Warlock's Disc spell causes a metal disc to spin until it uses up all of the magical mana in the local area. This means that no other wizard can use any magic in that area until the mana supply is renewed. This spell is based on the Larry Niven story "Not Long Before the End", in which a wizard called the Warlock created a spell like this called the Warlock's Wheel. It was intended to protect him against any extremely powerful magical attack, such as the demon sword Glirendree.
  • The spell Dehydrate drains all water out of a creature and makes it assume the shape of a hard duodecahedron (the same as a 20-sided die). This is a reference to the Star Trek: The Original Series episode "By Any Other Name", in which aliens from the Andromeda Galaxy used a device to reduce the crew of the Enterprise to geometric solids.
  • The spell Lord Darcy's Recall of Words was developed by Lord Darcy to aid in murder investigations. It's a reference to the Lord Darcy stories of Randall Garrett, in which Lord Darcy was an nobleman investigator who tried to solve many murders.
• DragonQuest Adventure Three The Enchanted Wood.
  • The Player Characters encounter a person named Jhingelshod, the Iron Axeman. His body is covered with iron armor that acts as his skin, he uses an iron axe to cut down trees and when it rains, his body rusts and he can't move. He is based on the Tin Woodsman (Nick Chopper) in the Land of Oz stories by L. Frank Baum. He had similar qualities, except that he was made of tin instead.
  • The Player Characters may encounter a pond with an squid-like monster hiding in it. If a Player Character touches the pond, ripples will spread across it and the monster will send out its tentacles to grab the PCs and pull them into the water to be eaten. This encounter is based on chapter 4 "A Journey in the Dark" in The Fellowship of the Ring. When the Fellowship tries to enter Moria, Boromir throws a rock into a nearby pond, causing ripples to appear on its surface and awakening a monster hiding in it. The monster later uses its tentacles to try to grab Frodo Baggins.
• d20 Modern, being set in a world of modern pop culture, is littered with Shout Outs.
  • D20 Future has an Extraterrestrial template that lets you give a base creature numerous special abilities, such as caustic blood.
  • The Modern Menace Manual has:
    • A template to turn any character into Reed Richards.
    • The Spy ordinary archetype, equipped with a Walther PPK (signature weapon of James Bond).
    • Any number of Slasher Movie characters. The Bogeyman template specifies they hunt teenagers who've engaged in illicit activities, leaving the victims horrifically killed as a warning to others.
    • Giant Anaconda.
    • Drop Bears.
    • Spring Heeled Jack.
    • Ghouls (but not "Ghouls").
    • Satanic Ichor
    • Luciferans, who tend to stay away from humanity due to their own demonic appearance.
    • Moth Folk.
    • The sample for the Revenant template is the avenging spirit of a dead cop.
    • Star Doppelganger.
    • The Whisperer In The Dark, though it's... not exactly the same as the original.
    • The Zeikune looks suspiciously like Starro.
  • In D20 Apocalypse, one advanced class is called... The Road Warrior, giving bonuses and abilities to make you able to do typical Mad Max stunts.
• A common Stock Shout-Out for RPG book art is the cover◊ of the Player's Handbook from the 1st Edition of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. Examples include the covers for the Hackmaster main rulebook, the Exalted sourcebook "Scroll of Exalts", the cover of The Player's Handbook 2 for D&D 3.5, "Dork Covenant" (the first Dork Tower collection) and the All Flesh Must Be Eaten sourcebook Dungeons and Zombies.
• Earthdawn. In Arcane Mysteries of Barsaive, the spell "Disaster" includes the line "What in the world can that be?" as an example of a distraction. This is taken from the film The Princess Bride, in which the villain Vizzini uses the same line to distract the Man in Black.
• Eclipse Phase
  • The game owes a great deal to the Takeshi Kovacs series - the term "cortical stack" is lifted directly - and they made sure any fans of the novel knew it by having a character in the opening fiction get annoyed that the body he'd been installed into was a smoker, much like Kovacs.
  • One strain of nanovirus that was developed by the TITANs is called the Uzumaki. It causes the body of the infectee to erupt with fleshy growths in the shape of spirals...
  • Sunward lists a number of MARGs ( Multiplayer Augmented Reality Games) that are obvious shout outs.
    • The most popular is a fantasy game called "War of Wizards".
    • Another game called "Wyrmwood" is similar but Darker and Edgier.
    • "MechaMash" pits noble Transhuman Clan Warriors against the decadent Star League in Humongous Mecha.
    • "Starfleet Command" has players as officers on interstellar exploration missions in a universe rich in human-like aliens.
  • Nanofabricators specialized for food production are called Makers.
  • The anti-Consortium movement on Mars is known as the "Barsoomians". This was intentional in universe. For bonus points many members are sleeved in red-skinned Ruster morphs.
  • One famous Scum fleet that circuits between Titan and Mars calls itself "Get Your Ass to Mars".
  • In Gatecrashing, it's mentioned that one Angelina Germanotta is a member of a certain hedonistic space colony. She might be better known to you by another name ...
• Encounter Critical. This is a parody of old style fantasy/science fiction Tabletop Games by S. John Ross.
  • Main Rules:
    • The Hydrovac Suit from Sleeper, a Tri-Corder (tricorder from Star Trek) and Damnation Van (vehicle from the movie Damnation Alley) are available as items of equipment.
    • The alien races in the game include Vulkins and Klengons (Vulcans and Klingons from Star Trek), Planetary Apes, intelligent ape men from a world not unlike our own (Planet of the Apes) and Wookies (Wookiees from Star Wars).
  • Asteroid 1618 supplement
    • The planet Gamma had a planetary atomic war several centuries earlier and has mutated animals and robots wandering its surface (Gamma World Tabletop Game).
    • The starship Warden suffered a disaster and its systems malfunctioned. It wanders space randomly with its degenerate crew (Metamorphosis Alpha Tabletop Game).
    • Deep Space Station K-5. In the Back Story this space station was taken over by the alien Klengons (Star Trek: The Original Series episode "The Trouble With Tribbles", in which the Klingons visiting Deep Space Station K7 threatened Federation interests).
    • The planet Xardox has two societies, one technologically advanced and the other brutal savages (the movie Zardoz, which has the same setting).
    • The planet Cobol is a vast tomb whose population mysteriously disappeared long ago. In the Battlestar Galactica (1978) episode "Lost Planet of the Gods", the fugitive Colonial fleet arrives at the planet Kobol where humanity originated. The ancestors of the original 13 Colonies left Kobol, leaving its cities deserted.
    • 25% of the human population of planet Remulak has a mutation that gives them misshapen heads. (Saturday Night Live "Conehead" sketches in which the title characters came from the planet Remulak).
    • Three years ago, most of the population of the starport of the planet New Remus was killed when the central computer malfunctioned and its robodroids went berserk (the movie Westworld, in which the androids of the title resort go homicidal and slaughter the guests they are supposed to be entertaining. Its sister resort Roman World was based on the historical Roman Empire, and Remus was the brother of Romulus, who founded ancient Rome.).
    • The space subsector map that the game uses to list the star systems in a subsector is clearly based on similar sheets from the Classic Traveller Tabletop Game.
    • The planet Aldaria's Multiversity is said to have had a kosho team. Kosho is a fictional game/martial art that first appeared in the original The Prisoner (1967) TV show.
    • The picture on page 19 clearly shows a Eagle Transporter spacecraft from the Space: 1999 TV show.
    • The Domed City has a "soylent factory" that produces food. Anyone requesting "soylent green" will be reported to the authorities (the movie Soylent Green, in which "soylent green" was food created from human bodies).
    • The Lucky Lady Casino hosts fizban games (a combination of the fictional card game "fizzbin" from the Star Trek: The Original Series episode "A Piece of the Action" and the character Fizban from the Dungeons & Dragons Dragonlance setting).
    • In the Shattered Dome is the Wretched Hive Cantina, a Bad Guy Bar with "no robodroids allowed" (In the Star Wars film A New Hope, the bartender in the Mos Eisley cantina tells Luke Skywalker that they don't serve droids and that Luke's two droids will have to wait outside.).
    • One room in the Vanishing Pyramid contains the book Hammer of Evil: The Witch Hunter Handbook (c.f the Real Life book Malleus Maleficarum AKA The Hammer of Witches, a text on prosecuting witches written in 1486 by Heinrich Kramer).
    • One possible destination of the Vanishing Pyramid is Dantooine, near the remains of an abandoned base (In the Star Wars film A New Hope, Princess Leia tells Grand Moff Tarkin that Dantooine is the location of the Rebel Alliance base, but it's actually an old abandoned base).
    • Uvanna the Hutt is a dangerous alien with the death sentence in thirteen systems. This refers to two different Star Wars film A New Hope characters: Jabba the Hutt and the criminal in the Mos Eisley cantina who says "I have the death sentence on twelve systems." and is killed by Obi-Wan Kenobi.
• The German city of Essen is where Spiel is held, the largest board game convention in the world. As a result, the otherwise obscure city is often disproportionately represented and referenced in tabletop games:
  • Pandemic uses the city to represent the entirety of Germany, whereas other countries pick the capital or other major cities.
  • Ticket to Ride: Europe features the city too.
  • One piece of artwork for Dominion displays a road sign pointing to Essen.
• Everway supplement Spherewalker Sourcebook. The Soulseekers have the ability to remember their past lives, with masters of "true recall" able to remember dozens. However, some Soulseekers are not able to handle all of these past personalities. Some go mad or are possessed by one of the stronger personalities. This is a reference to Frank Herbert's Children of Dune, in which Alia is almost taken over by the personality of Baron Harkonnen and is possessed (and driven insane) by the memories of her ancestor's lives, and Leto merges with the personality of one of his ancestors.
• Exalted
  • The game is usually fairly subtle with its shout outs, but the discovery of a First Age messaging service known as the Dextrous Midnight Runners (musical group Dexys Midnight Runners) is not subtle at all.
  • Don't forget the Nameless Solar, who invented a martial art based around the setting's equivalent of guns.
  • Or one characterization idea in the Sidereals book - a character who "cannot abide useless people."
  • Included in the list of current notables in the Alchemicals book is one Elegant Nova of Progression.
  • Compass of Terrestrial Directions: The North features what appear to be Dragon-Bloods in flying Magitek Powered Armor in one comic. One takes his helmet off and looks remarkably like a certain Mr Anthony Stark...
  • The "Prince of Shadows" comic in the main 2e rulebook has names that are a reference to Waiting for Godot.
  • Alchemicals are often killed in spectacular ways such as being "immersed in molten steel".
  • A Lunar Charm, Glance-Oration Technique, can be used to speak to people using body language alone.
  This is especially useful when a Lunar finds human form imprudent, but wants to tell someone that [...] her child is trapped in a collapsed mineshaft.
  • The Lunars book also makes mention of the fact that some Lunars "view the benefits of Exaltation as tools for killing enemies and taking their stuff, rather than for building some sort of utopia."
  • There's a city mentioned in the Underworld book called Graf-Vindak. The Graff Vynda-K was a one-off villain from the Doctor Who serial "The Ribos Operation".
  • The adventure In Hunting a Monster contains shout outs to The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air (read the background of the character Useless Sparrow) and a shout out to one of Exalted's spiritual influences, the Scarred Lands (also by White Wolf).
  • Hellstriders are pretty clearly inspired by Neon Genesis Evangelion, being inhuman creatures fused into mecha that unfold biological components when losing control.
  • A fun one concealed in the name of the iconic Soulsteel Caste Alchemical: Dreadful Arbiter of Law
• F.A.T.A.L. has references to The Lord of the Rings (the One Ring is actually a magical item, known as the "Ring of the Lords"), Army of Darkness (a mirror that creates tiny copies of you), and Highlander (there's a magical book that makes you immortal unless beheaded.)
• Fantasy Hero Companion. The Rumors sections of several monster entries have references to other works.
  • Dragons are rumored to have a vulnerable spot that is not protected by their armor. This is a reference to The Hobbit, in which the dragon Smaug has a small spot on his chest that is not covered with embedded jewels like the rest of it. The archer Bard fires an arrow into that spot, killing Smaug.
  • Elves are said to never grow old and die. This is a reference to The Lord of the Rings, in which elves are almost always immortal.
  • Liches are believed to keep their souls in a stone. The lich can only die if the soul stone is broken. This is taken from Dungeons & Dragons, in which a lich has a phylactery that must be destroyed if the lich is to be eliminated.
  • Some minotaurs are said to have gold nuggets in their stomachs. This is taken from the Robert A. Heinlein novel Glory Road. In that book, the Horned Ghosts are minotaur-like humanoid creatures that have gold nuggets in their stomachs.
  • Legends say that orcs are the descendents of elves whose souls and bodies were corrupted by evil. This is taken from The Silmarillion, which stated that orcs were created from elves corrupted by Melkor/Morgoth.
  • The Giant Rat entry refers to "...cute little rabbits which can kill the most skilled of knights". This is a reference to the Rabbit of Caerbannog in Monty Python and the Holy Grail, which can fly through the air and tear out a knight's throat, killing them.
  • The Wolf entry mentions evil intelligent wolves called Wargs or Worgs that are ridden by orcs. This refers to the Worgs/Wargs of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, who are ridden by goblins.
  • In the Wraith entry, banshees ("wailing spirits") are said to be the spirits of dead elves. This is taken from Dungeons & Dragons, in which "groaning spirits" are the spirits of dead evil female elves.
  • A zombie can be permanently killed by filling its mouth with salt and sewing the lips together. This tactic is taken directly from the Kolchak: The Night Stalker episode "The Zombie".
  • The spell Moakar's Great Leap Forward is said to be based on an "ancient myth about a legendary hero who leaped into the future, dragging his nation behind him." This is based on Mao Zedong's "Great Leap Forward" plan in China from 1958 to 1962.
• Federation: One of the "Federated Planets" you can gain influence on is Arratooine, a desert world that references both Arrakis from Dune and Tatooine from Star Wars.
• Feng Shui: Many Archetypes have large chunks of them based on particular characters:
  • Everyday Hero: Jack Burton
  • Highway Ronin: Mad Max
  • Karate Cop: Jackie Chan, especially the Police Story series.
  • Killer: Jeff of The Killer (1989), natch.
  • Sifu: Wong Fei Hung
  • Two Fisted Archaeologist: Indiana Jones
  • Not the only inspirations, but the descriptions for the Masked Avenger and Maverick Cop borrow quotes from Batman (1989) and Dirty Harry, respectively.
• The wargame Flintloque is set in a fantasy version of the Napoleonic Wars; the Elves are the French, the Orcs are the British, the Dwarfs are the Germans etc. The greatest Orcish soldier is Captain Rekhardt Sharke (with Sgt Harpy and his Chosen Orcs). A less great one is Captain Arry Flashorc.
• The Forgotten Futures setting "The Queen's Own Aerial Hussars", about a squadron of vampire hunters in the 1890s. The sample characters in the squad include a cowardly officer and his root-vegetable obsessed batman, a Sweet Polly Oliver Slayer and her Watcher, an immortal Scotsman, and a young soldier who insists the vampires "don't like it up 'em". There's also a reference to Raffles as the captain of the second squad, and one of the other airships (all named after famous soldiers) is the Flashman.
• The "Freedom City" setting for Mutants & Masterminds superhero RPG.
  • There isn't a single aspect of it that isn't a Shout-Out to Marvel or DC. One example: Not only are the Grue shapeshifting aliens reminiscent of the Skrulls; not only is there a Meta-Grue, equivalent to the Super-Skrull, not only is their Meta-Mind leader a Shout-Out to the Supreme Intelligence of the Skrulls' enemies, the Kree; but their home planet is called Gruen-World, in homage to the late Marvel Comics editor Mark Gruenwald.
  • You forgot Zork. "You have been eaten by a Grue" indeed.
  • Let's be honest here. Mutants & Masterminds is one long Shout-Out to superhero comics.
  • Shout outs to other works are not unknown. For instance, the quote accompanying the Psychic archetype in Silver Age is, "And remember, my friend, future events such as these will affect you in the future."
• Gamma World
  • Original 1981 rules booklet. The Treasure List at the end of the book has a number of references to other works.
    • A "pleasure globe" that gives the holder pleasurable sensations. The 1973 movie Sleeper has such a device in use by a future U.S. society.
    • A "Mama" doll. Near the end of the original Planet of the Apes (1968) movie, a doll that says "Mama" appears as evidence that humans could once speak.
    • A "Rollerball" trophy (from the original 1975 movie Rollerball).
    • A tuba that has mashed flat by a steamroller. In the 1978 M*A*S*H episode "The Smell of Music", Major Winchester's French horn is crushed flat by a steamroller.
  • Module Famine in Far-Go. The PCs can find an ID card with a Hologram of a bearded man and the inscription "Executive Pass, E.G.G., Pres." This is a reference to E. Gary Gygax, then President of the company TSR that created the Gamma World game.
  • 1983 edition boxed set "Adventure Booklet". One of the buildings in the destroyed city of Pitz Burke (Pittsburg) is Rossum's Universal Robots A&W Division. It once belonged to the RUR Corporation, which made almost 40% of the robots in the world before the Social Wars and the end of civilization. This is a reference to Rossum's Universal Robots in Karl Capek's play R.U.R., which also manufactured robots.
  • 1986 module GW6 Alpha Factor
    • Rakees are mutated flying squirrels who can't be killed. They're taken from Rocky the Flying Squirrel, who appeared in the Rocky and Bullwinkle show.
    • Bokshee is a man who guides the PCs across the After the End landscape of Gamma World. This is a reference to Ralph Bakshi, who led moviegoers through a similar mutant-filled post-apocalyptic world in his film Wizards.
• GURPS
  • GURPS High-Tech features a sidebar talking about how the towel is the most important tool an adventurer can have.
  • Dungeon Fantasy 8: Treasure Tables describes Buff enchantments as making the user better, stronger, and/or faster.
  • GURPS Castle Falkenstein. In the game, the U.S. Secret Service uses high tech inventions to fight against Diabolical Masterminds such as Dr. Inigio Lovelorn. This is based on the 1960's TV series The Wild Wild West, in which Secret Service agents West and Gordon have advanced technology (such as climbing lines fired from Derringers). One recurring Diabolical Mastermind villain in the show is Dr. Miguelito Loveless.
  • The GURPS Super Hero sourcebook International Super Teams has a number of shout outs buried in its text and timeline, including references to The Man from U.N.C.L.E., the Wild Cards novels, John Irving's The World According To Garp and the 1985 film The Legend of Billie Jean. Another suggests that reality altering "timequakes" might be especially common in worlds with superhumans.
  • GURPS Steam-Tech includes a bit of fluff text about a group of monster hunters: Frederick, 46th Lord Runcorne, and his Fabulous Friends Daffers, Socks, Lunchpail and "faithful four-footed Skara Brae". They're clearly intended as a Victorian Mystery Inc.
  • GURPS Illuminati was written by Nigel D. Findley, a big fan of Robert A. Heinlein who put many Heinlein Shout Outs in his Shadowrun works.
    • In the section on Connections, he mentions a connection between the length of women's skirts and the sunspot cycle and mentions women's hemlines again later, all of which he borrowed from Heinlein's short story "Year of the Jackpot" and his novel Friday.
    • Twice it's noted that coded messages can be sent by putting them in a newspaper's classified ads. This idea is taken from Heinlein's novel Friday, where it was used by an unidentified conspiratorial group.
    • In the section on public symbols of groups, he mentions the Masonic "Grand Hailing Signal of Distress". This is taken from the Heinlein novella "If This Goes On—", in which the Freemasons are part of the conspiracy to overthrow the religious dictatorship controlling the United States. In the novella, one of the protagonists (who is not a Mason) uses the Signal to warn another protagonist that he's been captured by the government.
  • GURPS Technomancer has a magical department store called J.W. Wells. This is a reference to the Gilbert and Sullivan play The Sorcerer, whose protagonist was a sorcerer named John Wellington Wells who sells spells and magic items (as noted in the song "The Sorcerer's Song").
  • Pyramid magazine had a Technomancer/Cyberworld genre mix called "Zauberpunk", which featured a wizardly netrunner called Johnny Demonic, a reference to the short story "Johnny Mnemonic" and the Film of the Book Johnny Mnemonic.
  • The Discworld Roleplaying Game, of course, uses shout-outs almost as frequently as the novels.
    • In GURPS Discworld Also, there's an extended riff on Car Wars based on the Mad Max parody section of The Last Continent. The main Cart Wars arena is run by a woman called Auntie Ante (because she takes the bets).
    • In the same book, the adventure "Lost and Found" (later reused in the second edition of the main book) features a mad wizard who has recreated prehistoric creatures including an ancestor/relative of the swamp dragon called the "High-Velocity Rapacious Monstrosity".
    • The magazine article "A Fist Full of Tunes You Can Whistle" introduces a Western-movie area of the Disc, which includes The Dwarf with No Name and a masked fop who thinks he's a dashing hero.
    • Another article, "Call No Man Happy Until He is Dread", describing the role of Discworld's Dark Lords, warns that underground lairs will bring in a certain kind of adventurer "in small mixed parties of thugs, kleptomaniacs, god-botherers and UU rejects".
  • In GURPS Fantasy II: Adventures in the Mad Lands, the insane animal gods of the Mad Lands are, for some reason, based on Winnie the Pooh and friends. This is obscured by the fact Mad Landers don't actually know about donkeys, tigers or kangaroos, so Eeyore, Tigger, Kanga and Roo become the Moose, the Cougar, the Big Leaper and the Little Leaper.
  • Pyramid #101, focusing on comedy in GURPS:
    • The article "Animating Your Life", describing living cartoon characters for an otherwise "realistic" setting, is inspired by many Toontown and Alternate Tooniverse works. The detail that "Animates" are vulnerable to a certain chemical compound including paint thinner and acetone, is clearly the Dip from Who Framed Roger Rabbit? Similarly, the "Comedic" limitation on many Animate advantages is essentially "Not at any time - only when it's funny!"
    • The adventure "Terry Toucan and the Puzzle Pals in: The House of 10,000 Sock Monkeys" is a parody of Scooby-Doo and other Hanna-Barbera cartoons where "a wholesome group of kids and their semi-intelligible animal companion solved mysteries through curiosity, grit, and dumb luck". Since the monsters are unexpectedly real, there's a ruined Spanish mission involved, and the Puzzle Pals' avian sidekick is smarter than they think and hates them, it's more than a little reminiscent of Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated, with Terry Toucan as Professor Pericles. The inhabitants of Solivar include Mayor Fred Norbert (Norbert Rogers being Shaggy's real name) and Dr Kasem (Casey Kasem being the original voice of Shaggy). "Solivar" as the name of a town menaced by a giant monkey might be a reference to the leader of Gorilla City in The Flash comics.
  • As you might expect, many references to anthropomorphic animal works in GURPS Furries. For one example, the Mephitid (skunk-person) template has the quirk "Flirtatious", which the text notes is not based on actual skunks, or even folklore about skunks, but on Pepe le Pew and Miz Mam'selle Hepzibah.
  • The blurb in ''GURPS Mysteries" on players instantly solving mysteries gives an example of a man walking into a room, the GM describing him, and a PC saying "Jim, this man's a Klingon!".
• Heart of the Broken Lands (Midkemia Press). One of the monsters the PCs can encounter is the Cowardly Beast. It travels around emitting terrifying roars and threatening to attack other creatures, but it's really a cowardly bully. It will only attack creatures smaller and weaker than it is and when faced by serious opposition, it will flee while yelping in fear. In other words, it acts exactly like the Cowardly Lion in the 1939 The Wizard of Oz film.
• Heavy Gear
  • A recent unit book released for Blitz is called Drop Bears Dive. Including a familiar piece of artwork on the actual unit crest...
  • Into The Badlands and Equipment Catalog. General Barnabus Collins was the legendary hero of the Badlands.
• Hollow Earth Expedition
  • Supplement Secrets of the Surface World
    • The Paranormal Investigator archetype Men in Black uses an "Amnesia Ray" to remove the memories of supernatural encounters from the minds of innocent citizens (the Neuralyzer in the Men in Black franchise).
    • The Wandering Hero archetype is a monk from China who is half British and half Chinese. He wanders the Earth fighting against injustice and helping other people (Kwai Chang Caine in the Kung Fu (1972) Live-Action TV show).
    • A Lost World plateau exists in the Amazon rain forest. It says that a British expedition reached it and returned, without any proof of their findings but with a fortune in uncut diamonds (which is a plot summary of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's 1912 novel The Lost World).
    • The alien city that Admiral Richard Byrd finds in Antarctica (H. P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos novella At the Mountains of Madness).
    • The spire on top of the Empire State Building is covered with mystical symbols and parts of it are made with a strange orange metal, making it an antenna for mystical energy (Ghostbusters, where Ivo Shandor's building used girders with cores of pure selenium and was an "antenna...designed expressly for pulling in spiritual turbulence.")
  • Supplement Mysteries of the Hollow Earth
    • One alchemical artifact is "Amazon Bracers" which allow the wearer to react to and deflect incoming ranged fire (Wonder Woman's magical Amazon bracelets, which can deflect bullets).
    • The Hermit is a mysterious inhabitant of the Northern twilight region (outside the Arctic entrance to the Hollow Earth). He is covered with scars and stitches as though he had been cut apart and sewn back together, has misshapen body parts, watery eyes, yellow skin, black hair and black lips (in short, he's Frankenstein's Monster. At the end of the novel Frankenstein, he said he was headed toward the North Pole).
    • A Bloody Bay captain tells the story of how he was maimed by an male albino leviathan (whale-like creature) that sank his ship (Captain Ahab in Moby-Dick).
• In Nomine
  • One of the Demon Prince Valefor's invocation modifiers is "My God! The Lost Monet!" A joke by Steve Martin in his Stand-Up Comedy act (as recorded in his book "Cruel Shoes") involves a group of dogs that have stolen a variety of art works and are being observed by the narrator. The phrase is the punchline of the joke.
  • Several nods to Good Omens.
  • At least one to Sluggy Freelance (Kizke, Demon of Webcomics).
• James Bond 007 RPG (Victory Games), supplement Thrilling Locations. While at sea, the PCs can encounter a man with a limp who is hunting a large white sailfish, a reference to Captain Ahab in Moby-Dick.
• Judges Guild
  • Adventure Tegel Manor (revised & expanded, 1989)
    • One of the new monsters is the Cauldron-Born, a type of zombie that loses Hit Points in proportion to how far away they are from their creator. This is a reference to the Cauldron-Born in Lloyd Alexander's The Chronicles of Prydain series, who were created by Arawn Deathlord by putting dead bodies into a magical cauldron. The further they travel away from Arawn, the weaker they get.
    • The room called The Bakery is filled with references to nursery rhymes. In this room the PCs can find a rancid pastry filled with dead blackbirds ("four and twenty blackbirds baked in a pie" from Sing a Song of Sixpence), the rotting remains of curds and whey upon the floor (Little Miss Muffet) and a plum pie with a severed thumb sticking out of it (Little Jack Horner).
    • In one room is a bed which causes anyone who lies down on it to fall asleep. When they do, the bed's canopy descends to smother the sleeper. This is based on the short story "A Terribly Strange Bed" by Wilkie Collins, where such a bed was used to attempt to kill a man in order to rob him of his gambling winnings.
    • One of the rooms in the Manor has a brick wall sealing the door. Inside the room is a skeleton dressed in jester's motley and holding a mason's trowel, with a bucket partially filled with hardened mortar nearby. This is a reference to the Edgar Allan Poe short story "The Cask of Amontillado". In that story, a man wearing a jester's motley costume is trapped by an enemy, who uses a mason's trowel, mortar and bricks to seal him into a room to die.
  • Supplement Wilderlands of the Magic Realm (1980)
    • On Tormenting Isle, three trolls live under a foot bridge crossing a ravine. In order to cross, each character must answer three questions: "What is your name?", "What is your favorite color?" and "What is your quest?" Anyone who hesitates is flung into the ravine. An almost identical situation occurs in the film Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1974).
    • On Weed Isle grows an herb that, when smoked, has an effect like drinking wine. It is farmed by men who say things like "far out, man" and "groovy". In other words, they're marijuana-farming hippies.
  • Supplement Wilderlands of High Fantasy, Issue O Guidelines Booklet. The Idyllic Isles include the Isle of Ampedocles, on which is a castaway pirate who fears the return of a crocodile that hates him. This is based on Captain Hook in Peter Pan, who was pursued by a crocodile that had eaten his hand and liked the taste so much that it wanted to eat the rest of him.
  • Supplement Wraith Overlord
    • In the first level of the Temple of Pegana is a secret door that leads down to Level 2 of the basement. It opens or closes when the word "Alhazred" is spoke. In the Cthulhu Mythos, Abdul Alhazred was the "Mad Arab" who wrote the Tome of Eldritch Lore called the Necronomicon. On Level 2 itself, the actual Necronomicon itself (misspelled "Necronomican") can be found.
    • Inside the Tomb can be found a Tome of Eldritch Lore called Unspeakable Cults. It is filled with rituals for summoning monsters, including one for a demon called the Sewer God. The title of the book is a reference to a Tome of Eldritch Lore in the Cthulhu Mythos called Unaussprechlichen Kulten ("Nameless Cults") written by Friedrich von Junzt.
    • In Level One of the Basement is a collection of books, each of which, when read, causes a specific form of insanity in the reader. Each book tells of evil alien races that plan to unleash their powerful Eldritch Abomination gods on the land. In short, these are this universe's examples of the dreaded Tomes Of Eldritch Lore of the Cthulhu Mythos.
  • The Dungeoneer magazine issue #9 (1979). The title of the adventure "Morkendaine" is a reference to the wizard Mordenkainen, who was a Player Character used by Dungeons & Dragons co-creator Gary Gygax. Two of the spells Mordenkainen developed, Mordenkainen's Faithful Hound and Mordenkainen's Sword, appeared in the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Player's Handbook (1978).
  • Pegasus magazine #5, adventure "The Quest for the Silver Empress".
    • The smuggling ship Nosferatu has a history of uncanny events occurring upon it. The ship's cat is named Jones (or Jonesy), the navigator is named Ridley and the sailmaker is named Sigourney. These are all references to the film Alien, which took place on the interstellar vessel Nostromo. The ship's cat was named Jones/Jonesy, one of its officers was the Final Girl Ripley (who was played by Sigourney Weaver) and the film was directed by Ridley Scott.
    • Rannulf of Herbert Wells is one of the crewmen aboard the Nosferatu. He appears to be crazy because he believes that one day everything magical will go away and be replaced by technology that will allow man to reach the stars. This refers to the visionary science fiction author Herbert George Wells (AKA H. G. Wells).
    • The first mate of the Nosferatu is Led Renfield, whose odd views on life and weird mannerisms cause the crew to consider him "a bit balmy" (crazy). He's inspired by the character of Renfield in Bram Stoker's Dracula, who is an inmate at a lunatic asylum.
    • The ship's cook of the Nosferatu is named Hanz N. Pfoeffer. This is a reference to hasenpfeffer, a traditional German/Dutch rabbit stew.
  • Pegasus magazine #8, Guildmember Installment "Threat in the North". In the Amaite mountain range, one of the random encounters is "Seven singing dwarves are encountered on the way home from a long day at the mines." This is a clear reference to the scene in Disney's animated film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs where the title dwarves walk from the jewel mine to their cottage while singing the song "Heigh Ho (It's home from work we go)". Another random encounter is "Seven dwarves are encountered, marching along and singing on the way to their claim". This refers to a later scene in the movie where the dwarves march off to work while singing the same song but with the lyrics changed to "It's off to work we go".
• Killer Bunnies and the Quest for the Magic Carrot thrives on these. The "Bunnies In Black" card has bunny versions of Agents Jay and Kay from Men in Black. "Rainbo" is a shirtless, muscular man wearing a red headband and toting a BFG, surrounded by happy butterflies and flowers of course. "Bunny to the Future" has the DeLorean with the wing doors open to make it look more like a rabbit. The weapon "Torus Ring" is a shout out to geometry. And much, much more.
• Magic: The Gathering
  • The titular Pentagram of the Ages bears more than a passing resemblance to the symbol on the cover of The Necronomicon, which makes its flavor text blackly amusing, especially given Soldev's eventual fate.
  "Take this item, for instance. How would it destroy us, Relicbane?"

  — Arcum Dagsson, Soldevi Machinist
  • The flavor text for the Tempest Time Warp.
  "Let's do it again!"

  — Squee, goblin cabin hand
  • There is also Hunted Wumpus, a reference to the classic computer game Hunt the Wumpus.
  • And the Creepy Doll, who is depicted in the art as having a ruined eye and a pretty mouth.
  • Magic: The Gathering Arena, a PC port, includes some shout outs in various planeswalkers' dialogue lines:
  Kaya: Dispelling phantasms makes me feel good.
  Domri: This isn't going to be one of those quiet riots!
• The Magi-Nation card game contains many shout outs, from things ranging to The Princess Bride◊ to the infamous "Boot to the Head" comedy sketch to, oddly, many members of the Disney Animated Canon. One card even has an ability called "Phenomenal Cosmic Power."
• Maid RPG has too many to list them all. A few include ones to Neon Genesis Evangelion, Variable Geo, Basket Case (only in the Japanese version), Krull (only in the English Version), Doctor Who, Clock Tower, Aliens, Urusei Yatsura, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Fist of the North Star, El Mariachi, Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord and Battle Royale.
• Malifaux
  • Hoffman and Coppelius are a shout out to the German horror story "Der Sandmann."
  • Seamus is an Irish Jack the Ripper.
  • Nicodem is an undertaker and necromancer whose manner of dress evokes Baron Samedi.
  • Pandora, Lilth, and Zoraida meet together in the first rulebook like the Fates or the witches in Macbeth.
    • Pandora and Lilith reference figures from Greek and Jewish folklore, respectively. Pandora carries a box of Woes and Lilith is the Mother of Monsters (and quite possibly the Lilith).
  • The gremlins are all swamp dwelling rednecks who like banjos. They even have special rules called Deliverance and "Squeal!"
  • Sue's name, description, and ability list are one long shout out to Johnny Cash.
  • Collodi the living puppet is named after the author of "The Adventures of Pinocchio."
  • Jakob Lynch runs a casino and brothel. One of his upgrades is "The Rising Sun," referring to a traditional song about gambling and prostitution.
  • Hans the sniper has the ability "Smile, You Son of a...", the famous Pre-Mortem One-Liner from Jaws.
• Man Myth And Magic
  • Adventure 1 Episode 5 Death to Setanta. The Maze of Death has a number of tests that the Player Characters must pass to get through it.
    • The entrances to one room have the words "Don't Panic" written on them, a reference to the The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Trilogy. The title Guide had the words "Don't Panic" written on it.
    • One test involves a long list of extremely confusing instructions that must be understood and followed. It also mentions a bean. This is a combined reference to Space Cadet (Heinlein). As a part of entering the Space Patrol academy, prospective cadets had to pass two tests, one involving figuring out a lengthy list of bizarre instructions and one a Secret Test involving whether the candidate would cheat while trying to drop beans into a bottle with their eyes closed.
  • Adventure 2 The Egyptian Trilogy Episode 3, "Costal" (Coastal) Encounters section, result 02. The Player Characters find a cave holding three women who are weaving a tapestry. One is measuring the length of a thread, another cuts the thread, and the third adds the thread to the tapestry. This is a reference to the three Fates of Classical Mythology and the three Norns of Norse Mythology.
• Marvel Super Heroes Advanced Set Judge's Book
  • In the sample adventure "Night of the Dreadnaughts", a trio of burglars is named Hubert, Dewey and Louis (i.e. Huey, Dewey and Louie, Donald Duck's nephews).
  • The list of animals includes the Giant Radioactive Dinosaur. It's a large, tough mutant whose origin is unknown. It has a Breath Weapon of a long stream of radioactive energy and a tendency to attack Japan. In other words, it's Godzilla.
• Many of the factions in the collectible miniatures game Monsterpocalypse are based heavily on famous sci-fi franchises, sometimes to the point of Expy. G.U.A.R.D. is an homage to Humongous Mecha anime, the Terrasaurs and the Planet Eaters are clearly based on the Godzilla movies, the Shadow Sun Syndicate's monsters are based on Ultraman, the Martian Menace are based on alien invasion films such as the 1953 film version of The War Of The Worlds, and the Lords of Cthul are based on the Cthulhu Mythos.
• Monsters and Other Childish Things was never exactly shy about Shout Outs, but the sourcebook Bigger Bads probably wins for sheer volume and diversity, with references or homages to everything from Godzilla, to H. P. Lovecraft, to Sentai shows, to Ultraman, to the Chick Tract "Dark Dungeons".
• Munchkin veers seemingly at random between Shout-Out and Affectionate Parody. Although creating a hurricane-looking monster named Katrina was rather bad taste.
• Mutazoids Game Master Screen and Mini Module. In the mini module "Burning White", there is a mutazoid character named Mr. Eyes who has both of his eyes on stalks. Sometimes he will make both eyes stare at each other and laugh hysterically. If asked what is so funny, he will say he read it in a novel. This is a reference to the Larry Niven novel Ringworld. Pierson's Puppeteers have two eyes on stalks. In the novel, a Puppeteer named Nessus has his two eyes look at each other, and Louis Wu suspects that doing so is the Puppeteer version of laughter.
• New World of Darkness:
  • World of Darkness: Innocents features a Shout Out that's actually downright disturbing. In the combat chapter, the examples consistently use a pair of siblings named Charlie and Lola.
  • Less disturbingly, one adventure seed revolves around a character who is very, very obviously modeled on the villain of The Night of the Hunter — Word of God is that he was even going to be named Harry Powell until they realized that might cause legal issues.
  • The rulebook Skinchangers has fox-shifters possessed by spirits. The sample character is a gentle, long-haired Japanese boy named Shuichi Kurama, who made a deal with a fox spirit named Yoko.
  • The Mekhet clanbook for Vampire: The Requiem has the main character seeking out various Mekhet in London for information on the clan's history, one of whom is an occult charlatan who uses New Age mysticism to lure in targets. The first comment on his side of the conversation is, "No, Frances, the M25 is not a demonic sigil."
  • The Mekhet book is full of shout outs. The main character is named Frances Black (Frances after a friend of the author, and Black for the lead singer of the band The Pixies), and the aforementioned occult charlatan she met with was either going to be named Vincent Moon or Howard Noir (the author went with the first one, in case you're wondering).
  • The Free Council book for Mage: The Awakening features a Legacy known as The Blank Badges, who use persona-masking magics to subvert authority and push the borders of reality. Seeing as The Invisibles shared a lot of themes with both the Free Council and Awakening's predecessor game, this seems like a logical Shout-Out.
  • Mage's Chronicler's Guide, when discussing plots for high-Gnosis players, gives the example of the gods of Ancient Egypt appearing in a floating pyramid above Paris.
  • A shout out to this very site can be found in the Seers of the Throne book, where a Chessmaster NPC has the skill "Xanatos Gambit".
  • In the core book for Hunter: The Vigil, there's a conspiracy called Aegis Kai Doru. The picture accompanying it (to represent a typical member) is almost exactly the same as the cover of Devil May Cry 3: Dante's Awakening — the only difference is that "Dante" is holding a rifle over his shoulder instead of Rebellion. It's possible that this may have been plagiarism instead of a Shout-Out - the artist for the picture was fired for it.
  • Half-Life. In the section of Hunter dealing with the Scientist profession in the main rulebook, there's also a statement that "more than one theoretical physicist has taken up a crowbar to beat back a swarm of living dead."
  • Millennium (1996). There's a department of the FBI that uses psychic flashes to track down serial killers.
  • Men in Black. In the Witch Hunters book, there's a phony Men in Black organization watched over by the Panopticon that goes by the name "Division Six". Its mission is to pursue "reality deviants".
  • Wild Wild West. The US Government's real Men in Black organisation, meanwhile, is Task Force VALKYRIE, which was founded shortly after the American Civil War by a man called Gordon West - which not only looks like a nod to Artemis Gordon and Jim West, but would therefore be tying two Will Smith roles together.
• Old World of Darkness:
  • In the revised Nosferatu clanbook of Vampire: The Masquerade there is a section entitled "Interview with a Vampire," set in New Orleans.
    • In the section, a Nosferatu confronts an unnamed author of vampire books, asking:
    "Killing humans onstage in Paris? Vampire rock stars? What the hell were you thinking?"
    • As well as:
    "Who were you expecting? Brad Pitt?"
  • Then there's the Revised core book, which opens with, "Bela Lugosi's dead, and so am I."
  • Speaking of Bela Lugosi, Los Angeles By Night has a Malkavian called "Bela" under the delusion that he's Dracula—and he was Embraced in the year of Lugosi's Real Life death, by a "fan."
  • Character templates in other Old World of Darkness splatbooks include an anarch who "went so far as to attend support meetings for people suffering from diseases you didn't even have" (and carries a briefcase of homemade soap to boot) for the Brujah, a vampire-hunting cheerleader for the Silent Striders, and a Devil-Tiger based on Willy Wonka, of all things.
  • The revised Syndicate Convention Book for Mage: The Ascension has templates based on Amanda Palmer and "Mr. Johnson" from Shadowrun.
  • One of the notable Puppeteers is based on Jim Henson.
  • The title of Blood-Dimmed Tides is taken from W. B. Yeats' "The Second Coming".
  • In the Mage 20th Anniversary book, a minimal success is (paraphrasing) "found an entry on TV Tropes."
  • Hunter: The Reckoning supplement Hunter Book: Wayward. In the New Skills section, the description for the Torture skill has as its Master level "With a sliver of paper and a drop of lemon juice, you could get someone to admit to just about anything." This is a reference to Miracle Max in the film The Princess Bride. When he's reminded that he used to work for the king, he replies:
    Miracle Max: And thank you for bringing up such a painful subject. While you're at it, why don't you give me a nice paper cut and pour lemon juice on it?
  • Mary Campbell in Werewolf: The Apocalypse is fugitive werewolf royalty who, while Scottish, is from a tribe with Russian roots. She is depicted with auburn hair and a newsboy cap.
• One Night Ultimate Werewolf has a role in one of its bonus packs, the Empath, whose image seems to be based on Marina Sirtis. Sirtis is known for playing a notable empath, Deanna Troi.
• Paranoia
  • 1E adventure The Yellow Clearance Black Box Blues
    • R&D scientist Victor-I-GOR-6. His name is taken from Victor Frankenstein and his assistant Igor.
    • The R&D lab testing area is known as the Danger Room, a term taken from the training room in early X-Men comics.
    • In one area the Troubleshooters are asked to give a password. Two examples of things they could say are "Candygram" (said by the Land Shark in the old Saturday Night Live routine) or "Friend" (the Speak Friend and Enter phrase used by Gandalf to open the doors of Moria in The Lord of the Rings).
    • Several trap names in the Mission 3 tunnel crawl are references to Real Life works. "They're Coming to Get You Jessica" refers to the film Let's Scare Jessica to Death, and "A Message to Garcia" refers to the essay and two films based on it of the same name.
    • When the Troubleshooters approach the Collapsed Tunnel Ambush, their prisoner Oregon Warbler will act wildly afraid of it in an attempt to get the Troubleshooters to make him go in front (Briar Patching à la "Oh please, Br'er Fox, don't throw me in that briar patch!"). If they do, he takes the opportunity to escape and taunts them by saying "Born and bred in the briar patch."
    • A "wild card" encounter encourages the game master to make up a random encounter, such as with the Flying Dutchman, Judge Crater, ET The Extraterrestrial, or Killer Penguins (from SPI's Swords & Sorcery game).
    • In the abandoned nuclear reactor complex, the PCs will encounter several ranks of Sierra Clubbers named after Yogi Bear characters: Boo-Boos, Yogis and a Mr. Ranger Sir. They can also encounter a Smokey The Bearbot that tries to put out fires while saying "Only you! (...can prevent forest fires.").
    • In Mission 4, the Troubleshooters will go Outside. They wll meet the Cyberpunk gang leaders Jake and Elwood (from The Blues Brothers), may acquire a little red Corvette (from the Prince song of the same name) and meet the Nouvelle Vague gang, whose catchphrase is "We're an anarcho-syndicalist commune" (a line from Monty Python and the Holy Grail).
  • 1E adventure Send in the Clones
    • A Troubleshooter named Zhon-B-VJN is in obsessive pursuit of a group of traitors who stole a loaf of synthebread. He is a reference to two characters in Les Misérables: Jean Valjean, who was sentenced to five years in prison for stealing bread, and Inspector Javert, who dedicated himself to tracking down Valjean.
    • Zhon-B-VJN has given his gatorbots names such as Albert (costumed alligator mascot Albert of the University of Florida), Wally (Hanna-Barbera character Wally Gator) and Murgatroyd (the Catchphrase of Snagglepuss, another Hanna-Barbera character, was "Heavens to Murgatroyd!").
    • While in the sewers, the Troubleshooters will encounter the Captain Botaroo studio and the robot kid show host Captain Botaroo himself. Captain Botaroo is a reference to the Captain Kangaroo character.
    • The Troubleshooters are sent to pick up their experimental gear from the R&D department of QQQ sector - a reference to James Bond's Q Branch.
    • One place the Troubleshooters will encounter is the NBD Commissary, which has terrible food. During Johnny Carson's long run on NBC's The Tonight Show, one of his standard jokes was to complain about the food in the NBC Commissary.
    • At some point the Troubleshooters will end up in Studio 54 and participate in the Wide Complex of Sports. Studio 54 is a reference to the one-time famous nightclub of the same name, and Wide Complex of Sports refers to the TV show Wide World Of Sports.
    • The vidshow "Date With Death" is hosted by Don-Y-OSM (Donny Osmond).
    • During Teela-O-MLY's death scene she says "Computer of Mercy, is this the end of Teela? I ain't so tough! Top o' the Complex, Computer...top o' the Complex". This is a combination of the dying words of two film characters: Edward G. Robinson's Caesar Enrico "Rico" Bandello in Little Caesar ("Mother of mercy, is this the end of Rico?") and James Cagney's Cody Jarrett in White Heat ("Top o' the world!").
    • The Troubleshooters will encounter a pair of Power Services inspectors named Stanl-Y-LRL and Oll-Y-HRD.
  • Acute Paranoia supplement
    • The new secret society The Foundation is dedicated to creating refuges where Alpha Complex citizens can survive when the Complex is destroyed. This is a reference to Isaac Asimov's Foundation series, in which the Foundation was set up to preserve knowledge when the Galactic Empire fell.
    • The adventure "Me and My Shadow Mark IV" has: the clone Aunt-MAY (Spider-Man), briefing officer Jonnie-B-GUD (Chuck Berry's song "Johnny Be Good"), the clone Robb-Y-RBT (Forbidden Planet's Robby the Robot), scrubot 409-D (the Real Life Formula 409 family of cleaning products) and Episode Nine Part 1's title "The Charge of the Red Brigade" (Alfred, Lord Tennyson's poem "The Charge Of The Light Brigade").
    • "Warriors of the Night Cycle" has many Japanese-related clone names (Sam-U-RAI, Bush-I-DOE, Hik-U-VRS, Sure-I-KEN, Da-I-MYO), as well as Thedra-G-ONN (Enter the Dragon), Grass-O-PPR (Kwai Chang Caine's childhood nickname "Grasshopper" in Kung Fu (1972)) and Yojimbots (Yojimbo).
    • "The Harder They Clone" has Bill-Y-IDL (Billy Idol) who sings "What a nice day for a blood-letting..." (his song "White Wedding") and the section title "Ears for Fears" (Tears for Fears).
    • The Code 7 adventures "An ARD Day's Night" (The Beatles song "A Hard Day's Night"), "Miami Laser" (Miami Vice) and "Outland-ISH" (Outland).
  • 1E Hil Sector Blues
    • The title is a reference to the TV show Hill Street Blues.
    • The IntSec Central Operator is very unhelpful and says things like "One ringy-dingy", a reference to Lily Tomlin's character Ernestine on Laugh In.
    • Characters are named "Ziggy" Star-R-DST, Spen-G-LER, Sigmunduf-R-OID, Rocky-B-Boa, Jules-V-ERN, Herbert-G-WEL, Cagne-Y-AND and Lace-Y-AND, Ben-I-HIL, Miami-V-ICE, Charles-B-RSN, Dirt-Y-HRY, Profess-O-EXX, And-Y-TLR and Barn-Y-FIF among others.
    • The pre-generated characters are named after Hill Street Blues characters: Andrew-B-RNK (Andy Renko), Mick-B-LKR (Mick Belker), Lucy-B-ATZ (Lucy Bates), Bob-B-HIL (Bobby Hill), Jay-B-LRU (J.D. LaRue) and Gold-B-LUM (Henry Goldblume).
    • The Fed-R-ALL Express Messenger Service can deliver packages quickly.
    • The sample adventure "First Blood and Then Some" has a character named Ram-B-EAU.
  • Paranoia XP. Even after Paranoia was "purged of excruciating pop-culture wackiness", there is still Soylent [YOUR CLEARANCE HERE] food being given out.
  • Paranoia XP supplement Service, Service!, adventure "Nightcycle Shift". The Troubleshooters enter a room filled with bizarre but strangely compelling-looking furniture and decorations. There's a slim, strangely life-like female mannequin wearing a leotard in the room. It's actually a female clone holding completely still. This is a reference to a scene in the movie Blade Runner when Deckard enters a room in J.F. Sebastian's apartment in which the replicant Priss is hiding in plain sight waiting to ambush him.
  • Paranoia XP supplement The Underplex
    • HPD&MC has an advertising campaign to get citizens to move to the Underplex: "A new life awaits you in the under-plex colonies. The chance to begin again in a golden land of opportunity and adventure". Replace "under-plex" with "off-world" and you have the advertising slogan being broadcast by the blimp in Blade Runner.
    • Area 31 is a secret research area set up by R&D. The title is a reference to Area 51, which UFO conspiracy theorists believe is a site where UFO's are stored and studied.
• Pokéthulhu is one long shout-out to both Pokémon and the works of H. P. Lovecraft. The Team Rocket knockoffs are named Derleth and Bloch, after a pair of Cthulhu Mythos writers, and signs on the map include "Yellow" (a reference to The King in Yellow) and "Muskratonic University" (because the artist is John Kovalic, who has a soft spot for muskrats). It goes on like this for quite a while.
• Ponyfinder:
  • The griffon splatbook mentions a paladin named Lord Rust the Arrogant, infamous for his inability to change his mind upon deciding a course of action, his complete and utter disregard for the lives of those under his command, and his unfailing ability to pick the plan of attack so bloody and costly that other military leaders considered him an arrogant idiot. As if further proof of the connection is needed, the same article explains how he always led from the front, had an uncanny ability to avoid ranged attacks and spells, and managed to actually win several (costly) important victories by surprising enemy commanders who truly believed nobody that stupid or reckless with the lives of their soldiers would be given command.
  • The expansion book From the Ashes provides an alternate vision of how Everglow falls and how the world keeps going after such a bloody prologue — it's pretty clear from the get-go that it's an homage to Fallout: Equestria.
• The Primal Order by Wizards of the Coast, supplement Knights: Strategies in Motion (1993). The author Nigel Findley was a big fan of Robert A. Heinlein and included several references to Heinlein's novels.
  • The section about societies based on the Toshite religion includes several items based on quotes from the "Notebooks of Lazarus Long" in Heinlein's novel Time Enough for Love.
    • The line "Everyone takes big bites of life and considers moderation a thing for monks." The "Notebooks of Lazarus Long" includes "To enjoy the flavor of life, take big bites. Moderation is for monks."
    • People in those societies believe in the Roman mothers' injunction "Come home with your shield or on it". The "Notebooks of Lazarus Long" includes the line "Roman matrons used to say to their sons: 'Come back with your shield, or on it.'"
  • Heinlein's novel Stranger in a Strange Land
    • The goddess Tsele's "hatred makes the blackest of human animosity seem like mild irritation". The novel has "Martian hate is an emotion so black that the nearest human equivalent could only be called a mild distaste."
    • The goddess Nefaron is said to appear to move slowly even when she's actually moving quickly. This is described as "make haste slowly". In the novel, Michael Valentine Smith's actions are described in a similar way:
      But he was not in a hurry, "hurry" he failed to grok. He was sensitive to correct timing—but with Martian approach: timing was accomplished by waiting. He noticed that his human brothers lacked his discrimination of time and often were forced to wait faster than a Martian would—but he did not hold their awkwardness against them; he learned to wait faster to cover their lack—he sometimes waited faster so efficiently that a human would have concluded that he was hurrying at breakneck speed.
• In the Scavenger's Guide To Droids for the Saga Edition of Star Wars d20, the book presents a point of view from one of four people who routinely deal with droids. Asked about the V2 Commando droid, he notes that he's heard about a crack commando team of V2 droids who were convicted of a crime they didn't commit. Sent to a maximum security stockade for decommissioning, they promptly escaped, and now wander the Coruscant underground looking for work. If you can find them, maybe you can hire them...
• Shadis magazine #23 article "Close Encounters of the Random Kind: Woodland Faerie Encounters"
  • A donkey-headed human is looking for his lover and is unaware he has been transformed (Bottom in William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream).
  • Small elves making toys in a snow-bound workshop (Santa Claus's elves at the North Pole).
  • Large invisible rabbit looking for friend (The title character in the play Harvey).
  • Smiling faerie cat who keeps appearing and disappearing (The Cheshire Cat in Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland).
  • A huge Faerie animal sigil carved into the side of a hill (horse hill figures in Real Life).
  • An elf with a magic flute leading a horde of mice to be drowned in a nearby river (The Pied Piper of Hamelin).
  • Faerie boat travels to and from a mystical island on a mist-shrouded lake by the will of its passengers (the ending of Monty Python and the Holy Grail, where King Arthur and Sir Bedevere use a magical boat to travel to the island with the castle where the Holy Grail is kept).
  • Two dueling elves who are ancient, bitter enemies (in the Back Story of the Shadowrun adventure Harlequin, the title character and Ehran the Scribe fight a duel. They are both elves who have opposed each other for thousands of years, since the end of the previous age of magic).
  • Cantankerous hermit with the gift of prophecy living in a run-down shack. He makes accurate but vague predictions of the party's future (the old soothsayer in Scene 24 who lives in a hut and gives information to King Arthur and his knights in Monty Python and the Holy Grail).
• SLA Industries. The Shaktar race are honorable, bipedal humanoid warriors with dreadlocks and bizarre mandible-like lips. They also throw power discs that cut through things. In other words, they're Predators.
• Space 1889. Some of the inventions in the main rules are references to other works. Transparent Aluminum (which is used to make armored viewports in ships) is taken from Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, where it was an example of Federation technology.
• Space Gamer magazine #68 adventure "Island of Entellope". One of the high tech items that can be found by the Player Characters is a vest with four metal tentacle arms attached to it. The tentacles are under the vest wearer's mental command and can be controlled simultaneously. Can you say Doctor Octopus?
• The Luciform daemons in The Splinter are a shout out to a Mars Volta song of the same name.
• Spoils has card being shout outs to many things, Naruto and Harry Potter among the others.
• Starblazer Adventures, based on the 1980s British Comic Book. In Chapter 10 "How To Do Things", the Supplemental Actions section mentions "composing a sonnet while fencing", a reference to Robert A. Heinlein's Glory Road. In that novel, the protagonist Oscar Gordon has to come up with poetry while dueling the Never-Born (who was himself a Shout Out to Cyrano de Bergerac).
• Star Fleet Battles has a number of references to Star Trek: The Original Series episodes.
  • Captain's Basic Rulebook (1990) monster scenarios
    • SM1.0 "The Planet Crusher" has a cone-shaped robot ship that destroys entire planets with an anti-proton beam weapon. It was inspired by the episode "The Doomsday Machine", which has an enemy starship with the same characteristics.
    • SM2.0 "The Space Amoeba" has a giant space amoeba, and SM4.0 "The Cosmic Cloud" has a monster that kills ship crew members by draining their Life Energy. Both scenarios are based on the episode "The Immunity Syndrome", in which the U.S.S. Enterprise fights a giant space amoeba that harms crew members by draining their Life Energy.
  • Captain's Advance Mission Rulebook (1991)
    • Legendary Officers (rules section G22.0) have several abilities based on the exploits of Enterprise officers. The Legendary Science Officer's ability to personally pilot a shuttlecraft to gain lab points to learn about a space monster is based on Science Officer Spock's piloting a shuttlecraft to gain information about the giant space amoeba in "The Immunity Syndrome". The Legendary Engineer's ability to repair a shuttlecraft by himself is based on Chief Engineer Scott's accomplishment in fixing the title disabled shuttlecraft in the episode "The Galileo Seven".
    • Rules section P3.3 (effect of Asteroids on Combat) mentions that Tholians can create their webs easily in asteroid fields and says that if you encounter a Tholian inside one "You will probably not see home again." In the episode "The Tholian Web" (which introduced the Tholians), Commander Spock says that if the Tholians complete their web around the Enterprise that "We shall not see home again."
    • Rules section P12.0 (Novas and Supernovas) includes the phrase "Only a fool fights in a burning house." It was originally spoken by the Klingon captain in the episode "Day of the Dove".
    • The scenario SM6.0 "The Mind Monster" has a space monster that wipes the minds of sapient beings when it gets close to them and is attacking a planet that has a library filled with memory banks. It's inspired by the episode "The Lights of Zetar", which had the same plot (the library in the episode is called Memory Alpha).
  • Nexus magazine #16 article "The Academy". In a discussion of Thiolian tactics, a cadet says that if you attack Neo-Tholians in an asteroid belt, before you know it "...you will be entirely boxed in and you will not see home again." This is based on Commander Spock's comment in the episode "The Tholian Web" (which introduced the Tholians) that if the Tholians complete their web around the Enterprise that "We shall not see home again."
• The Companions' generic RPG supplement Streets of Gems. The PCs may encounter Iame Gharner, a thief who's described as having black hair, brown eyes and an engaging smile. He's a superb gambler who avoids violence, preferring talking to fighting. In short, he's Bret Maverick from the TV show Maverick, who was played by...James Garner.
• Teenagers from Outer Space features a number of shout-outs to Urusei Yatsura (such as the gender-bending Boy/Girl Gun). It also riffs on the Pan-Galactic Gargle Blaster with the Pan-Galactic Ghetto Blaster, the ultimate portable stereo.
• Gamelords Ltd. supplement Thieves Guild 10: Bandit Gangs and Caravans
  • The character named Nermal is described as being extremely cute. He's a reference to the Ridiculously Cute Critter kitten Nermal (the "World's Cutest Kitten") in the Garfield comic strip.
  • The sign of the Dour Mouse Inn shows a mouse sitting in a teacup. The inn has an ongoing tea party, and one of the celebrants is the son of a haberdasher. This is a reference to the "Mad Tea Party" in Alice in Wonderland, with the characters of the Dormouse and the Mad Hatter.
  • The Hungry Tyger shop/warehouse sells "waybread": a light, flat bread that will keep for weeks and improves the stamina of those who eat it on long journeys. This is based on lembas (elven waybread) in The Lord of the Rings, which had similar properties. The name of the "Hungry Tyger" is taken from the Hungry Tiger in L. Frank Baum's Land of Oz literary series.
• Time Lord RPG (based on Doctor Who), supplement Journies.
  • There's an example of a Hyper Intelligent Alien with pointed ears and a bowl haircut, a reference to Mr. Spock in Star Trek: The Original Series.
  • The sample alien is a Gleep, an amorphous blob-like creature. Just to make it clear that it's a reference to the Gleep of Space Ghost, the picture of the alien is clearly the Gleep from the show.
• The Tome of Mighty Magic (1982) by North Pole Productions. The spell Protection from Energy Drainers includes the line "Beware. This spell does not protect a creature from moose bites." This is a reference to Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975), which had the line "A moose once bit my sister" in the credits.
• Toon supplement Tooniversal Tour Guide
  • Atomic Monster Theater setting (GURPS Atomic Horror): Squidzilla (Godzilla), Clamera (Gamera), The Glob (The Blob (1958))
  • CarToon Wars setting (Car Wars).
    • The Spitball Run (The Cannonball Run), The Toad Warrior (The Road Warrior), Son of Blunderdome (Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome)
    • Uncle Spud, the Duelist's Bud (Uncle Al, the Duelist's Pal from Car Wars)
  • Crawl of Catchoolu setting (Call of Cthulhu)
    • Mule Gibson (Mel Gibson), Spade Marlowe, Private Eye (Dashiell Hammett's Sam Spade and Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe), Mousekatonic University, Darkham (Miskatonic University, Arkham)
    • The Scroll of Falling Down and Other Depressing Things (The Egyptian Book of the Dead), Shameless Cults (Nameless Cults from Robert E. Howard's Mythos works), The Necronomicomizomicon (The Necronomicon)
    • Norbert Best, De-Animator (Herbert West–Reanimator), The Shadow Over Innsmouse (The Shadow Over Innsmouth), At the Fountains of Sadness (At the Mountains of Madness), The Suitcase of Jay Dexter Ward (The Case of Charles Dexter Ward + cartoonist Jay Ward).
    • The Elderly Gods (Elder Gods) and Pretty Great Old Ones (Great Old Ones) of the Cthulhu Mythos: Catchoolu (Cthulhu), Crisponions (Cthonians from Brian Lumley's Mythos work) and their leader Shady Mel (Shudde M'ell), Deep Clowns (Deep Ones from The Shadow Over Innsmouth) and their leaders Father Dugong and Mother Hydrant (Father Dagon and Mother Hydra), Elder Thugs (Elder Things from At the Mountains of Madness), Flying Porklips (Flying Polyps from The Shadow Out of Time), Hamstur the Unbearable (Hastur the Unspeakable), Nyuknyuknyukaschlep (Nyarlathotep in the form of Curly Howard), Tsaggywahaha (Tsathoggua from Clark Ashton Smith's Mythos work) and the Shiftless Spawn of Tsaggywahaha (Formless Spawn of Tsathoggua), Yuk (Yig from H. P. Lovecraft and Ziella Bishop's The Curse of Yig), Slobboths (Shoggoths from At the Mountains of Madness), Yu-Go, the Fungi From Cleveland (Mi-Go, the Fungi from Yuggoth, from The Whisperer in Darkness) Zok-Hotdog (Zathog from Richard Tierney's Winds of Zaar)
  • Dungeons and Toons setting (Dungeons & Dragons)
    • Snorin Ironbelly (King Snurre Ironbelly in the Dungeons & Dragons module G3 Hall of the Fire Giant King), Dayglo Smuggins and Cheeso Grabbins (Bilbo Baggins in The Hobbit), Lost Dungeon of Arne's Son (Dave Arneson, co-creator of Dungeons & Dragons). The fact the Dungeon of Arne's Son is accessed through a crack in the basement wall of the Packum Inn could be a reference to the Yawning Portal tavern in Waterdeep, which contains a well that leads to the Undermountain.
    • Races based on Dungeons & Dragons races: Dogs (humans), Squirrels (elves), Badgers (dwarves), Mice (halflings), Moles (trolls).
    • Toonquest (Runequest), Tunnels and Moles (Tunnels & Trolls), The Dragonpants Saga (Dragonlance - there's also a dragon named Lance), The Forgotten Helms (Forgotten Realms).
  • Mektoon setting (Mekton)
    • Project O-No (Project A-Ko), Mobile Suit Gumball (Mobile Suit Gundam).
  • Supertoon setting. Ultrapig (Superman), The Green Sparrow (Green Arrow), Revengers (The Avengers), Crisis of Infinite Mirths (Crisis on Infinite Earths), The Pun-isher (The Punisher), Splatman (Batman), Jungle Jane (Sheena, Queen of the Jungle and Jane from Tarzan), Mechatron (Mechanon from Champions), Dr. Gloom (Doctor Doom). The Toon Titans (Teen Titans) have their headquarters in the 86th floor of the Umpire's Plate Building (Empire State Building, Doc Savage).
  • Toonpunk 2020 1/2 setting (R. Talsorian Games' Cyberpunk 2020 RPG)
    • Max Playroom (Max Headroom), Friday Night Pie Fights (Cyberpunk 2020 "Friday Night Firefight" rules), Haywired (Walter Jon Williams' novel Hardwired), Arcade Runner (Blade Runner)
    • William Gibson: Intrepid Reporter Gibson Williams, Neuroprankster (Neuromancer), Count Me Zeroed (Count Zero)
    • Easy payment plan: "You don't have a job? We don't care! You have bad credit? We don't care! You don't expect to pay us? Then we care! (Johnny Carson's "Art Fern" skits on The Tonight Show)
  • Star Toon setting. (Star Trek)
    • The crew of the Oversize are all based on the crew from Star Trek: The Next Generation: Captain Jean-Nuke Pickacard (Jean-Luc Picard), Commander Quill Stryker (Will Riker), Dr Beaverly Crasher (Beverly Crusher), Lt Commander Input (Lt. Commander Data).
    • Aliens: Velcrons (Vulcans), Romuloids (Romulans), Klangirons (Klingons), Z (Q from Star Trek: The Next Generation)
    • Planet of the Grapes (Planet of the Apes), The Trouble with Boggles (Star Trek: The Original Series episode "The Trouble With Tribbles"), Close Encounters With A Weird Mind (Close Encounters of the Third Kind).
    • Names for FTL engines include Warped Drive (Warp Drive from Star Trek), Jumpy Drive (Jump Drive from ... well, many sources, but probably Traveller) and Improbability Drive (from The Hitch Hikers Guide To The Galaxy, and apparently Toony enough in itself not to need to be parodied).
  • Toony Tyke Adventures setting (Tiny Toon Adventures) The "imagination" powers of Tyke characters are reminiscent of Muppet Babies and some Rugrats episodes.
• TSR's Top Secret espionage RPG, Dragon magazine #48 adventure "Dr. Yes: The Floating Island Mission"
  • Many of the Non Player Characters have names that are based on those of Real Life and fictional characters. They include Bruce Nee (Bruce Lee), Chuck Morris (Chuck Norris), James Pong (James Bond), Doctor Yes (Dr. No), Mohammed Chang (The Dragon Chang in Moonraker) and "Sweetbeam" Leotard (the boxer Sugar Ray Leonard).
  • One of the Non Player Characters has no name. He has a cruel mouth, makes subtle puns, and females will be attracted to him. He uses cigarettes with three gold bands and owns a Bentley automobile. He's a high-ranking British agent and the British Secret Service will pay an $11,000 reward if the Player Characters rescue him. In short, he's the literary James Bond.
• The Cthulhu City supplement for Trail of Cthulhu is heavily inspired by Dark City, but that's not the only reference to non-Lovecraft works - one option for Charlie Zhang, leader of the Tsan Chan Tong, seeks to "reach heaven through violence".
• Traveller
  • The Interstellar Wars are a rewrite of the old board wargame Imperium and the Sword Worlds are an obvious shout-out to H. Beam Piper's Space Viking.
  • "Anagathics" as a drug providing longer lifespans and "battle dress" as a form of powered armor are both from James Blish's Cities in Flight novels.
  • The Desert Environment supplement by Gamelords. Desert survival suits have a shiny outer surface, internal devices that purify water and store it in pouches, and a mask that catches the moisture in the wearer's breath. All of these elements are taken directly from the Fremen stillsuits in Frank Herbert's novel Dune.
  • Isaac Asimov's Foundation stories
    • Supplement 11 Library Data (N-Z). The science of psychohistory allows the prediction and manipulation of the future behavior of large populations. It's taken from the science of psychohistory used by Hari Seldon and the Second Foundation.
    • The name of some emperors, such as Cleon, are taken from the Galactic Empire.
  • Megatraveller Journal #3
    • Article "Worldguide: Vincennes". The TL 16 world Vincennes is dependent on robotics, its people stay home and don't interact with other people most of the time, and they "visit" other peoples' homes via holographic projection. This is based on the society of the planet Solaria in The Naked Sun, one of Isaac Asimov's robot novels.
    • Adventure "Rapid Repo". The PC team receive their mission equipment at a technical section called "Q Division", which is taken from the James Bond films.
  • Supplement 2 Animal Encounters. While on a desert planet PCs can encounter drum sand, which echoes footsteps and attracts local predators. This is a direct steal from Frank Herbert's Dune. On the planet Arrakis, walking on drum sand made a loud noise that attracted any Sand Worms in the area.
  • The name of the alien race called the Aslan was taken from the name of the character in C. S. Lewis's The Chronicles of Narnia.
  • Journal of the Travellers' Aid Society #4 article "The Bestiary". The Reticulan Parasite is clearly based on the xenomorph in the Alien series. The Nostromo found the alien ship on a planet in the Zeta II Reticuli system, the illustration of the Parasite is identical to the "face-hugger" stage, the Parasites are found in large pods (eggs), etc.
  • Journal of the Travellers' Aid Society #18 article "Small Cargoes and Special Handling". Several of the possible smuggling cargoes.
    • Jamaica Blue Mountain coffee. In The Mote in God's Eye, that coffee is reserved for the Imperial Family. Imperial Navy ships carry it to the Imperial palace on the planet Sparta.
    • Denebian Flame Gems were inspired by the Spican Flame Gems in the Star Trek: The Original Series episode "The Trouble With Tribbles".
    • Blue Valonaise Wine. If exposed to unusual acceleration or gravity conditions its sediments will get mixed up, making it undrinkable. This is a reference to The Mote in God's Eye, in which the interstellar merchant Horace Hussein Bury had the following line.
    I find it annoying and expensive that some of my ships must move under constant acceleration merely to protect a wine bottle from its own sediments. Why can they not simply be centrifuged on arrival?
  • Game 3 Azhanti High Lightning, scenario "The Great Wine Heist". Emperor Strephon loves Tokaj Eszencia wine from Earth and has reserved it for the Imperial table. This is a reference to The Mote in God's Eye, in which Jamaica Blue Mountain coffee is reserved for the Imperial Family on Sparta.
  • The Traveller Adventure campaign
    • Chapter "Exotic Encounters", adventure "Charter to Cratersea". The PCs' employer is eccentric, mercurial, volatile, unpredictable and sometimes ruthlessly malicious toward them. He is named Cai Calula (the Roman emperor Caligula, who had similar qualities).
    • Chapter "First Call at Zila". While the PCs and some Oberlindes Lines crewmen from the starship Margin of Profit are seated together in the Dead Spacer starport bar, a group of enemy Akerut Lines crew try to start a fight. First an Akerut man says that the March Harrier (the PCs' ship) is a "fat sow too slow to win anything but a garbage contract, and so old that it's only the rust that holds it together." If the PCs want to attack them, the Oberlindes crewmen will restrain them because they don't want any trouble. Then the Akerut crewman says "But it's a good thing the March Harrier turned up - maybe we can give her the garbage run and have the Margin of Profit hauled off with the rest of the refuse." The Oberlindes crew immediately attacks the Akerut crew.
      
      This is a reference to the bar scene in the Star Trek: The Original Series episode "The Trouble With Tribbles". Crew members from the Enterprise and a Klingon ship are sitting in a starport bar and a Klingon named Korax starts insulting the Enterprise crew. Chekov wants to start a fight but Scotty restrains him. Then:
      Korax: We like the Enterprise, we really do. That sagging old rust bucket is designed like a garbage scow. Half the quadrant knows it. That's why they're learning to speak Klingonese.
      Scotty: Laddie, don't you think you should rephrase that?
      Korax: You're right, I should. I didn't mean to say that the Enterprise should be hauling garbage. I meant to say that it should be hauled away as garbage.
      Scotty: [Punches him and a fight starts]
  • Paranoia Press
    • Supplement Merchants and Merchandise. The LHeP9(Or) Series 12/136 computer system had two of them. Feature 1138 was a reference to the early George Lucas film THX 1138. Artificial Intelligence Feature 2001 was an artificial personality that could take over the computer. It was inspired by the computer H.A.L. 9000 in 2001: A Space Odyssey.
    • Supplement SORAG. Killalc pills, psychotomimetic drugs and Narcolethe are all taken from The Stainless Steel Rat novels by Harry Harrison. Personal firearms are from The Mote in God's Eye (the weapons personalized by Motie miniatures for the Marines). The "molecular acid" used in Hypo Gun AP (Acid Point) rounds is from the Alien movie, where the alien's acid blood was compared to "molecular acid".
  • The New Era supplement Vampire Ships. The public address announcements of the Virus controlling the destroyer consist of odd statements and the refrain "Work...Work...". This was inspired by the PA announcements inside the Yoyodyne facility in the film The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension, which followed the same format.
  • The New Era supplement Aliens of the Rim: Hivers and Ithklur.
    • An Ithklur tells humans about the Terran philosopher from thousands of years ago, a "bug eyed maritime crewman" (AKA Popeye the Sailor Man).
    • The Ithklur religion known as the Fourfold Way was first proclaimed by a Ithklur named San*klaass (pronounced Santa Claus).
• Tunnels & Trolls, Pegasus issue #4 adventure "Mountain Moor"
  • One room holds a group of undead monsters called the "greatful undead" (sic). This is a reference to the musical group The Grateful Dead.
  • In one room, the Player Characters can encounter a bandit named Fenris Bore who swings into the room on a rope, demands all of the party's valuables, has two flintlock pistols and pockets full of flowers. This is based on the "Dennis Moore" sketch in an episode of Monty Python's Flying Circus, a bandit who has and does all of these things and demands "lupins" (a type of flower) from his victims.
• Mayfair's Underground, Streets Tell Stories boxed set
  • USA Alive newspaper insert. The paper has a review of a band called the Short Controlled Bursts, a reference to a line in the film Aliens spoken by Corporal Hicks as the xenomorphs are about to attack the Marines: "Remember, short controlled bursts."
  • The supplement mentions a TV show called Camelot: The Next Generation, referring to the Real Life TV show Star Trek: The Next Generation.
• The first and second edition Unknown Armies corebooks both feature shout-outs to Kenneth Hite and Tim Powers, both of whom were inspirations for the game's setting.
• Warhammer: the Black Book of Ibn Naggazar from Storm of Magic is clearly inspired by the Necronomicon.
• Victoriana RPG supplement Faces in the Smoke Volume 1: The Secret Masters. The chapter "The Planetarians" is clearly derived from the H. G. Wells short story "The Crystal Egg". The Planetarians is a secret society of people studying a crystal egg that provides visions of a high tech civilization, apparently that of the planet Mars. Two of the Planetarians characters in the chapter are named Mr. Wace and Mr. Cave, the same as two of the characters in the short story.
• Werewolf: The Apocalypse
  • The White Howlers are a collective shout-out to the historical fantasy writings of Robert E. Howard, who included the ancient Picts in several of his stories.
    • References to the stone age history of the White Howlers, the small and twisted bodies of Wyrm-tainted White Howlers and kinfolk, and evil lurking in subterranean quarters are all familiar to Howard's fans.
    • Cororuc, the White Howler who warned the Fianna about the Black Spiral Dancers, is a shout-out to "The Lost Race".
  • The letters of Titus Germanicus in Chronicles of the Black Labyrinth are full of references to "Worms of the Earth". The appendix of Chronicles of the Black Labyrinth mentions Titus Sulla and links Brennus with Bran Mak Morn, two characters who appear in "Worms of the Earth". The Pictish warrior's warning to Brennus about the Wyrm creatures he once summoned — "You called them and they will remember" — is a line that Atla delivered to Bran Mak Morn after he summoned chthonic beings to capture Titus Sulla.
• Yu-Gi-Oh!:
  • It has references to both Ganondorf ("Garlandolf, King of Destruction"), and Solid Snake (Tactical Espionage Expert).
  • There's also the Spell Card "A Wild Monster Appears!" No, really.
  • The Kozmo archetype is a combination of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and Star Wars. For example, "Kozmo Farmgirl" is a combination of Dorothy Gale and Luke Skywalker.
  • The Magibullet/Magical Musketeer archetype is based on Der Freischütz, a German opera about a hunter who makes a Deal with the Devil.

---