Shout-Out/Tabletop Games: Difference between revisions

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** Don't forget [[Ciaphas Cain]]. Very likely a Shout Out to [[Flashman]].

*** Originally intended as one. It took on a life of its own.

** ''[[Warhammer]] Fantasy Battle'' has a few, too. Special mention to the Lizardmen special character Kroq-Gar - who rides a tyrannosaurus-equivalent named <s>[[Transformers|Grimlock]]</s> Grymloq.

** One from the ''[[Warhammer 40000]]'' Apocalypse rulebook, the [[Humongous Mecha|Titan Legion]] stationed on Armageddon is the [[Metallica|Legio Metallica]].

** The latest Imperial Guard codex states that some members of the older members of the Cult of Mars are [[Star Wars|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."

** The fifth edition Necron codex makes mention of a planet called [[Mass Effect|Eden Prime]].

* ''[[Shadowrun]]''

** In the 4E [[Sourcebook]] ''Runner Havens'', there's a chart of the top-grossing movies in Seattle. Among them: ''[[Transmetropolitan|I Hate It Here]]'', starring W. Ellis, produced by [[Global Frequency]] Studios; ''Ninja Princess'', starring [[The King of Fighters|M.]] [[Fatal Fury|Shiranui]]; and ''[[Smash TV|The Pleasure Dome]]'', starring [[Eugene Jarvis|E. Jarvis]], produced by Smash Trideo Entertainment.

** ''[[Buckaroo Banzai]]''

*** The supplement ''Tir Tairngire'' has "Frag you and the horse you rode in on" and the ''Lone Star'' supplement has "Frag you and the hog you rode in on". Both are a reference to John Bigboote's line "Damn John Whorfin and the horse he rode in on!".

** ''[[Bored of the Rings]]''. ''Virtual Realities 2.0'' mentions a decker who has IC "lusting for her chitlins" (trying to kill her). In the novel, when Legolam and Gimlet draw weapons and are about to attack each other it says that they're "lusting for each other's chitlins".

** [[Robert Heinlein]]'s novels.

*** 2nd Edition main rules. The Tribal Chief in the Contacts section has as one of his quotes: "I have a fine horse, so who needs a car? A horse is a renewable resource. Have you had any success breeding your car lately?" ''Tunnel in the Sky'' has the following line: "...which made horses more practical than helicopters, picks and shovels more useful than bulldozers. Machinery gets out of order and requires a complex technology to keep it going but good old "hayburners" keep right on breeding, cropping grass, and pulling loads."

*** ''Native American Nations Volume 1'' has two. The quote "Vox Populi Vox Dei usually translates as 'My God, how did we get into this mess?'" is from the Notebooks of Lazarus Long section of ''[[Time Enough for Love]]''. A Salt Lake City police officer is quoted as saying "Can I do you a service, citizen?" Almost the exact same quote appears in the short stories "Methuselah's Children" and "Coventry".

*** ''Native American Nations Volume 2'' has the quote "Inuit hatred makes the blackest, vilest form of hatred you'll encounter in Seattle seem like mild displeasure in comparison". ''[[Stranger in A Strange Land]]'' has "Martian hate is an emotion so black that the nearest human equivalent could only be called a mild distaste".

** ''Lone Star''.

*** ''[[Monty Python's Flying Circus]]''. After a riot five rioters were declared "Missing believed pacified". In a [[Monty Python]] sketch about curing athletes' foot with dynamite, twelve patients were declared "Missing believed cured".

*** Harry Harrison's ''[[The Stainless Steel Rat]]'s Revenge''. Members of the Department of Psychology have the nickname "The Grey Men", taken from the villains in Harrison's book. Both groups use psychology to brainwash their victims.

** [[Larry Niven]] and Jerry Pournelle's novel ''Oath of Fealty''.

*** ''The Neo-Anarchists' Guide to Real Life''. A decker describes a security system with weird layered defenses including anesthetic darts to take out unarmored intruders, sleep gas to take out intruders not wearing protective suits and intense heat to make those wearing armor and suits take them off. This set-up is what the Todos Santos arcology in the novel uses to protect its power plant.

*** One section mentions the Genom Corporation from ''[[Bubblegum Crisis]]''.

*** ''Running Scared'' (1986). One quote for a plain-clothes cop is "Que hablo Colt Manhunter?" In the film, while plain-clothes cop Danny Costanza is pointing a gun at a criminal he says "Hablo Smith & Wesson?"

** ''[[Earthdawn]]''. There were ''many'' references to ''[[Earthdawn]]'', which is not surprising since it was a prequel to ''[[Shadowrun]]''.

*** The ''Tir Tairngire'' supplement says that the Tir Tairngire government requires all students to learn creative arts. In ''[[Earthdawn]]'', being tainted by a Horror prevented a person from being creative. The leaders of Tir Tairngire were immortal elves who lived during the Earthdawn period and knew that the Horrors would eventually return, so they decided to teach everyone creative arts so it would be easier to identify people who had been Horror tainted.

** In an episode of the old ''[[Wormy]]'' comic strip that appeared in Dragon magazine, a mage named Gremorly used "Sons of Thunder!" as an exclamation.

*** ''Shadowbeat''. Concrete Dreams' first music trideo (3D video) was for their song "Sons of Thunder".

** ''Bug City''. Truman Technologies operatives dressed up as Eagle Security officers captured Fuchi-employed gang members, lined them up against a wall and ruthlessly murdered them. This was based on the [[Real Life]] 1929 "[[wikipedia:St. Valentinechr(27)s Day Massacre|Saint Valentine's Day Massacre]]", in which killers hired by Al Capone's gang dressed as police officers, captured members of the North Side gang and executed them.

** ''Denver: The City of Shadows'' boxed set.

*** Another ad with an endorsement by Max Hein•Rügen (see ''Germany Sourcebook'' entry above).

** ''Shadowtech''. A decker named Kent says that he has cyberware that makes him faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive and able to leap tall buildings in a single bound - a reference to the ''[[Superman]]'' phrase.

** ''Corporate Enclaves'' had a reference to ''[[The Big Lebowski]]''. One of the ten most influential people in Hollywood is one Joe "The Dude" Kliebermann, an unemployed slob who would be otherwise unremarkable save for his knack for stumbling into incredibly outlandish situations while broadcasting his POV live online.

** in ''Runner's Companion'', one of the options for Changlings is a [[The Far Side|Thagomizer]] tail.

** And before FASA got hit by a barrage of infringement suits, there was [[The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the Eighth Dimension|Team Banzai]] and many of the game's Battlemech designs were directly taken from [[Mecha Show|Mecha]] [[Anime]], primarily ''[[Super Dimension Fortress Macross|Macross]]''.

* ''[[Dungeons and Dragons]]''

** Prestige Classes from 3.5

*** [[Drunken Master]]

*** [[The Shadow|Shadowmind]]

*** [[The Punisher|Vigilante]]

** The ''[[Forgotten Realms]]'' setting has its share. Including [http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/rl/20040825a this]:

{{quote| '''[[Word of God]]:''' 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.<br />

** The Dungeonmaster's Guide for 4th edition points out how jarring it would be for the characters to meet [[Monty Python and The Holy Grail|Tim the Enchanter]] in most fantasy settings.

*** The same book also states that the DM's job is to be [[Tropes Are Not Bad|entertaining, not original.]] [[Lampshade Hanging|The very next page]] has a picture of [[Lord of the Rings|a blond male elf]] [[Pirates of the Caribbean|stabbing a heart in a chest]].

*** 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).

*** 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)

*** 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]])

*** Not an adventure, but the default orcish pantheon from 1E included deities whose holy symbols were [[The Lord of the Rings|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.

**** 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''.

** 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:

* ''[[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.

** The rulebook ''Skinchangers'' has fox-shifters possessed by spirits. The sample character is [[Yu Yu Hakusho|a gentle, long-haired Japanese boy named Shuichi Kurama, who made a deal with a fox spirit named Yoko]].

** 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 [[The Mighty Boosh|Vincent Moon or Howard Noir]] (the author went with the first one, in case you're wondering).

** Mage's ''Chronicler's Guide'', when discussing plots for high-gnosis players gives the example of [[Enki Bilal|the gods of Ancient Egypt appearing in a floating pyramid above Paris]].

** A shout out to [[TV Tropes|this very site]] can be found in the ''Seers of the Throne'' book, where a [[Chessmaster]] NPC has the skill "[[Xanatos Gambit]]".

*** 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."

* 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 ''[[War of the Worlds]]'', and the Lords of Cthul are based on the [[Cthulhu Mythos]].

* The "Freedom City" setting for ''[[Mutants and Masterminds]]'' superhero RPG. There isn't a single aspect of it that isn't a [[Shout-Out]] to [[Marvel Comics|Marvel]] or [[DC Comics|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.

** Let's be honest here. ''[[Mutants and Masterminds]]'' is one long [[Shout-Out]] to superhero comics.

* ''[[Teenagers From Outer Space]]'' features a number of shout-outs to ''[[Urusei Yatsura]]'' (such as the gender-bending Boy/Girl Gun).

* German RPG ''[[wikipedia:Das Schwarze Auge|Das Schwarze Auge]]'' (The Dark Eye) has unbelievably many. Besides the countless that work only in German, there are things like the towns "Camparisodano" and "Wodkalemonis", "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 and Dragons]]''), another book is called "Der ringende Herr" (compare the German title of [[Lord of the Rings]]: Der Herr der Ringe), Gandolf von Gareth wrote the books "Ringkunde für [[Anf Ã]]¤nger" und "Ringkunde für Fortgeschrittene" (Rings for Beginners and Rings for Advanced Learners). For more go to [http://www.vinsalt.de/Spiegel/index5.htm this (German) site]

{{quote| "[[The Vampire Chronicles|Killing humans onstage in Paris? Vampire rock stars?]] What the hell were you thinking?"}}

** As well as:

** Then there's the Revised core book, which opens with, "[[wikipedia:Bauhaus (band)|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."

** Alchemicals are often killed in spectacular ways such as being "[[The Terminator|immersed in molten steel]]".

** A Lunar Charm, Glance-Oration Technique, can be used to speak to people using body language alone.

** The Lunars book also makes mention of the fact that some Lunars "view the benefits of Exaltation as tools for [[Dungeons and Dragons|killing enemies and taking their stuff]], [[Take That|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".

*** 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.

* ''[[Spoils]]'' has card being shout outs to many things, ''[[Naruto]]'' and ''[[Harry Potter]]'' among the others.

* A common [[Stock Shout Out]] [[Picture Pastiche|for RPG book art]] is [http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/0/09/PlayersHandbook8Cover.jpg the cover] of the 1st edition ''Advanced [[Dungeons and Dragons]]'' Player's Handbook (second picture from the top). Examples include the covers for the ''[[Defictionalization|Hackmaster]]'' main rulebook, the ''[[Exalted]]'' sourcebook "Scroll of Exalts", the cover of ''[[Mythology Gag|The Player's Handbook 2]]'' for 3.5 D&D, and "Dork Covenant," the first ''[[Dork Tower]]'' collection.

** Also, the [[All Flesh Must Be Eaten]] sourcebook Dungeons and Zombies.

* ''[[Agricola]]'' manages to squeeze in a few in the card art. The Stone Carrier (who also appears on the Quarry improvement) kinda looks like [[Asterix|Obelix]], the Dock Worker is based on Klaus Teuber, creator of ''[[Settlers of Catan]]'', and the Social Climber is a dead ringer for [[Beauty and The Beast|Gaston]].

{{quote|''[[Rocky Horror Picture Show|"Let's do it again!"]]''|''-- Squee, goblin cabin hand''}}

** There is also [http://www.magiccards.info/mm/en/253.html Hunted Wumpus], a reference to the classic computer game Hunt the Wumpus.

*** Spring Heeled Jack.

*** [[Night of the Living Dead|Ghouls]] (but not [[Our Monsters Are Different|"Ghouls"]]).

*** [[Childhoods End|Luciferans, who tend to stay away from humanity due to their own demonic appearance.]]

*** [[The Mothman Prophecies|Moth Folk]].

*** The sample for the Revenant template is [[The Spirit|the avenging spirit of a dead cop.]]

*** [[The Whisperer In The Dark]], though it's... not ''exactly'' the same as the [[Cosmic Horror|original.]]

*** The Zeikune looks suspiciously like [[The DCU|Starro]].

* ''[[Champions]]''. Early adventures had a substance called Questonite, a reference to ''[[Jonny Quest]]'''s [[Omnidisciplinary Scientist]] Dr. Benton Quest.

* R. Talsorian Games' ''[[Tabletop Games/Cyberpunk|Cyberpunk]]''.

** Supplement ''Home of the Brave'' (1993)

*** 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 ''[[War Games]]'', 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.

* ''[[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.

* ''[[Heavy Gear]]''

** A recent unit book released for Blitz is called [[Nextwave|Drop Bears Dive]]. Including a [http://kodiakdestroyer.deviantart.com/art/Drop-Bears-Patch-149747561 familiar piece of artwork on the actual unit crest]...

** Supplement ''Secrets of the Surface World''

*** The Paranormal Investigator archetype [[The Men in Black|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).

*** 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.

* ''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 and 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''.

{{reflist}}