Shout-Out/Tabletop Games

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This page lists Shout-Outs from Tabletop Games.

Card Games

  • Steve Jackson Game's Hacker includes a can of Jolt Cola on the box picture.
  • Magic: The Gathering likes to slip Shout Outs and in-jokes into the titles and art of its cards. Probably the most high-profile (that references something outside of M:tG itself anyway) is Nevinyrral's Disk. "Nevinyrral" is "Larry Niven" spelled backwards. Niven wrote a series of stories about magic as an exhaustible resource, the nature of which was proven in the story "The Magic Goes Away" by a wizard who enchanted a spinning disk in such a manner that it used up all the mana in its vicinity, exploding violently in the process.)
"Let's do it again!"
—Squee, goblin cabin hand

Tabletop RPGs

  • 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 Thundercats ("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.
  • Warhammer 40,000 has tonnes of these, some subtle, some just plain obvious. The Inquisitor Lord Fyodor Karamazov is a Shout-Out to The Brothers Karamazov, there used to be a Dark Eldar character with black and white hair called "Kruellagh the Vile", a Shout-Out to Cruella de Vil, and the entire Necron race is one big Shout-Out to the Terminator franchise.
    • Don't forget Ciaphas Cain. Very likely a Shout Out to Flashman.
      • Originally intended as one. It took on a life of its own.
      • The Cain books are jam-packed with Shout Outs, including a lot of Punny Names.
    • Aliens are generally known as "xenos", but Tyranids have been referred to as "xenomorphs" before. The Imperial Guard have even been known to nickname the 'Nids as "bugs".
    • On the other tiny, subtle and easy to miss end, in the 3rd edition Craftworld Eldar book, the section on the craftworld Saim-Hann has a footnote consisting of an Edit War about how to properly pronounce it that refers to the oft fumbled pronounciation of Samhain.
    • We could list these all day and still not scratch the surface. This troper's favourite Shout-Out is in the backstory of the Night Lords Traitor Legion—the Legion's Primarch, Konrad Curze, surrenders completely to death and terror, and makes no attempt to prevent his own assassination at the hands of an assassin whose name is none other than "M'Shen".
      • And that's not even considering Kurze's backstory is like an even more GRIMDARK version of Batman if he was mixed with the Punisher.
    • One to note is found in the Dark Heresy rulebook under "Sanctioning Side-effects". One of the rolls gives you the starting condition of "Pain by nerve induction", complete with a fear of bald women.
      • Dark Heresy: Ascension has a quote by Vindicare Assassin cognomen-designate LIIVI, which in itself doesn't sound very weird, but if you snoop around fanon, you'll see that LIIVI also appears in the popular Warhammer 40000 fanfic Love Can Bloom, which ironically is about a Vindicare Assassin named LIIVI who falls in love with Farseer Taldeer from Dawn of War: Dark Crusade.
      • The fan campaign The Guy Who Cried Grendel is referenced on one page of The Radical's Handbook supplement.
    • And then there's the naming of the Dark Angels Legion and their Primarch - Lion El'Johnson. No relation to Lionel Johnson, the poet who wrote "the Dark Angel".
    • Speaking of Space Marines, the Black Templars get a super-grenade-thing called the Holy Orb of Antioch, carried, of course, by Brother Maynard.
    • In the Battlefleet Gothic rules there is a mention of something named Portis Cthulhus.
    • Warhammer Fantasy Battle Fantasy Battle has a few, too. Special mention to the Lizardmen special character Kroq-Gar - who rides a tyrannosaurus-equivalent named Grimlock Grymloq.
    • One from the Warhammer 40,000 Apocalypse rulebook, the Titan Legion stationed on Armageddon is the Legio Metallica.
    • The Damocles Edition of the Imperial Infantryman's Uplifting Primer ends with a Rousing Speech that ends with "For those about to fight, I salute you."
    • The latest Imperial Guard codex states that some members of the older members of the Cult of Mars are more machine than man.
      • And then, in the Blood Angels codex, there is a story about a Librarian defending a world from a Tyranid fleet. It specifically states that his "force can't repel a Tyranid onslaught of that magnitude."
    • Commander Farsight was a prominent leader of an Empire's military forces. He eventually led some of his brethren in a rebellion against the powerful ruling caste, whose whims most Tau serve their entire lives. He is also known as O'Shovah.
    • The fifth edition Necron codex makes mention of a planet called Eden Prime.
  • The GURPS Superhero 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.
  • Dungeons & Dragons

Realmslore from Ed Greenwood: Interestingly, Nimbrese have no word for "Wood" or "Forest," because, despite some open meadows and cleared farmlands, they regard all of Nimbral as a place of trees.

    • The Dungeonmaster's Guide for 4th edition points out how jarring it would be for the characters to meet Tim the Enchanter in most fantasy settings.
    • Many 1st Edition and Classic D&D adventures had them too.
      • DA1 Adventures in Blackmoor: Moorcok (Michael Moorcock) and two horses: Cirdan (Cirdan the Shipwright) and Bill (the pony), both from The Lord of the Rings
      • EX1 Dungeonland, which was based on Alice in Wonderland, had the character Charldos (CHARles Lutwidge DOdgSon, Lewis Carroll's real name).
      • GAZ3 The Principalities of Glantri: "Freeze! Glantri Vice!" (Miami Vice), diamond loyalty forehead implant (Dune's Suk Doctor diamond forehead tattoo).
      • H2 Mines of Bloodstone: Ruggedo the Gnome King (from the Oz series character).
      • H3 Bloodstone Wars: Adair and Arthur (Norm and Cliff from Cheers)
      • I3 Pharaoh: "My name is Maniozimus" ("My name is Ozymandias", from the Percy Bysshe Shelley poem Ozymandias)
      • I9 Day of Al'Akbar: baking brownies Kieb-Lar and Kieb-Lor (Keebler elves)
      • I12 Egg of the Phoenix: Mikael Gorchaboff (Mikhail Gorbachev), Fflanidor Fflem (Fflewddur Fflam in the Prydain Chronicles) and Mersyn Olan (actor Merlin Olsen)
      • I13 Adventure Pack I, adventure "The Weird Woods of Baron Orchid". A sign says "I'd turn back if I were you", a reference to the sign in the woods near the castle of the Wicked Witch of the West in the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz.
      • IM3 The Best of Intentions: The Warren (Paranoia's Alpha Complex) and Yertle the turtle king (from Dr. Seuss)
      • L2 The Assassin's Knot: a dwarf named Gilmi (Gimli in The Lord of the Rings)
      • N4 Treasure Hunt: the Island of Tetris (from the Video Game)
      • WG7 Castle Greyhawk: The Plane of Silly and Unused Monsters (Island of Misfit Toys in Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer), bats being used to send messages (Mad Monster Party), the three cooks Larifyne, Mowlenhowad and Kurlenshembes (The Three Stooges: Larry Fine, Moe Howard, Jerome "Curly" Howard and Shemp Howard), Poppinfarsh the Dough Golem (Poppin'Fresh, the Pillsbury Doughboy).
      • Module X2 Castle Amber. The weird and powerful Amber family members who lived inside the title castle were engaged in constant infighting. They and the castle were inspired by the Amberites and Castle Amber in Roger Zelazny's Amber series of stories. Some specific references:
        • In the module, one character uses magical Tarot cards. In Zelazny's Amber setting, Amberites use the Trump deck for fortune telling as if it were a Tarot deck.
        • The module introduces Grab Grass, which can grab hold of creatures. In Zelazny's work, the Courts of Chaos have grass that does the same thing.
    • The default orcish pantheon from 1E included deities whose holy symbols were a fiery eye and a white hand.
    • 2nd Edition had a few as well.
      • Al Qadim setting boxed set A Dozen and One Adventures (1993) had two of them.
        • The beautiful pahari (mermaid) Salana had red hair and was forbidden to have any contact with surface dwellers because she was too young. She rebelled against this order and tried to learn about their ways, including investigating shipwrecks. She didn't bother to wear clothes when in human form as she was oblivious to the demands of modesty. Disney's The Little Mermaid (1989), anyone?
        • Adventure "Eleven baneful Gates". In the city of Al-Anwahr there's an inscription on the remains of a statue: "I am Azaltin! See my works, ye mighty, and despair!". It's from the Percy Bysshe Shelley poem Ozymandias.
  • 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 TV Tropes 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 - the only difference is that "Dante" is holding a rifle over his shoulder instead of Rebellion.
      • It's debatable whether or not this is a shot-out and not a piece of plagiarism. 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. 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".
    • In the revised Nosferatu clanbook of Vampire: The Masquerade there is a section titled "Interview with a Vampire," set in New Orleans, wherein 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?"

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 newest 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.
  • Paranoia
    • Even after Paranoia was "purged of excruciating pop-culture wackiness", there is still Soylent [YOUR CLEARANCE HERE] food being given out.
    • 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 Catch Phrase of Snagglepuss, another Hanna-Barbera character, was "Heavens to Murgatroyd!").
  • 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.
  • 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...
  • Pokethulhu 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.
  • 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.
  • d20 Modern, being set in a world of modern pop culture, is littered with Shout Outs.
  • Champions. Early adventures had a substance called Questonite, a reference to Jonny Quest's Omnidisciplinary Scientist Dr. Benton Quest.
  • FATAL 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.)
  • R. Talsorian Games' 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 once played Damien Thorn, the son of the Devil, in the 1981 movie The Final Conflict.
      • The leader of an anime poser gang kidnaps a woman, 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 - thus making her look like 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.
  • Amber Diceless Role-Playing, based on Roger Zelazny's Amber series of stories. 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. This is a clear reference to the spiders of Mirkwood in J. R. R. Tolkien's The Hobbit.
  • 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 Herbet's novel Children of Dune, in which Alia was almost taken over by the personality of Baron Harkonnen and was possessed (and driven insane) by the memories of her ancestor's lives, and Leto merged with the personality of one of his ancestors.
  • 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 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 (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. This is a reference to Ghostbusters, where Ivo Shandor's building used girders with cores of pure selenium and was a "antenna...designed expressly for pulling in spiritual turbulence."
  • Eclipse Phase owes a great deal to Altered Carbon - 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 Takeshi Kovacs.
  • Starblazer Adventures, based on the 1970s-80s British Comic Book. In Chapter 10 "How To Do Things" the Supplemental Actions section mentions "composing a sonnet while fencing", a reference to Robert 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).
  • Dark Dungeon RPG, supplement Samaris, Island of Adventure. In the Backstory the giant city covering the title island was destroyed in a war between the demonic wizard king Acecerax and the demon witch empress Vekna. Both 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.
  • 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.

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