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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.
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** ''[[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 Damocles Edition of the Imperial Infantryman's Uplifting Primer ends with a [[Rousing Speech]] that ends with "[[ACDC
** 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."
** 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. [[Stargate SG
** The fifth edition Necron codex makes mention of a planet called [[Mass Effect|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
** Another suggests that reality altering [[Crisis
* ''[[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.
** Also two of the top selling simsense in the 20th Anniversary rule book is, [[
** ''[[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!".
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** ''[[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.
*** ''Virtual Realities 2.0'' has a quote by a decker named "Hassan the Assassin" (a character in ''[[Starship Troopers (
*** ''The Neo-Anarchists' Guide to Real Life''. The semiballistic and Wolverine Security are taken from the novel ''[[Friday (
*** ''Paranormal Animals of North America''. The blood kite is taken directly from Heinlein's ''[[Glory Road (
*** 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."
*** The ''Tir Tairngire'' sourcebook refers to the Tir's air traffic control network as "No Sparrow Shall Fall". In Heinlein's novel ''[[The Puppet Masters (
*** ''Man & Machine: Cyberware'' mentioned hollowing out a compartment behind the navel as a storage container, which the title character in ''[[Friday (
*** ''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''. The Watchers are said to "fight like an angry buzz saw". Heinlein's ''[[Glory Road (
*** Nigel Findley's supplements often used words and phrases that Heinlein used in his work, such as "yammer", "no huhu" and "cobber" (from ''[[The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress]]''), "slitch" (from ''[[Friday (
*** ''Denver: The City of Shadows'' boxed set. Aztecnology places "scuttling charges" in visiting medical vehicles, a reference to the "remote control destruction packs" put in police vehicles in ''[[Friday (
** ''Lone Star''.
*** ''[[The Princess Bride (
*** ''[[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.
** 1st and 2nd edition supplements had references to a character named Jetblack being dead. The name is taken from Hotblack Desiato, a character in Douglas Adams' ''[[The
** [[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.
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*** 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?"
** ''[[Star Trek:
** ''[[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.
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** 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".
*** ''Portfolio of a Dragon: Dunkelzahn's Secrets''. Dunkelzahn's will leaves a bequest to a shadowrunner group named "Sons of Thunder". It's possible that, [[In
** ''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.
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*** 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.
** ''Awakenings''. A decker named Al Phee is a reference to a character of that name in the [[Callahan's Crosstime Saloon
** ''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.
* The early years of ''[[
** 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]]''.
* The ''[[Magi Nation]]'' card game contains ''many'' shout outs, from things ranging to ''[http://www.dukenostalgia.com/mnd/VSimages/rous_xc_vs.jpg The Princess Bride]'' to the infamous [[The Frantics|"Boot to the Head"]] comedy sketch to, oddly, many members of the [[Disney Animated Canon]]. One card even has an ability called [[Aladdin (Disney film)|"Phenomenal Cosmic Power."]]
* ''[[Dungeons and Dragons]]''
** Prestige Classes from 3.5
*** [[The Princess Bride (
*** [[Drunken Master]]
*** [[Wu
*** [[The Shadow|Shadowmind]]
*** [[The Punisher|Vigilante]]
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** 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 />
So, in essence, "''[[Ursula K. Le Guin|The Word for World Is Forest]]''" (or vice versa), right? }}
** 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]].
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*** 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 ''[[Land of Oz
*** 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
*** 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.
**** 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 ''[[
**** 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:
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* ''[[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 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 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, [[Good Omens
** 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).
** The Free Council book for ''[[Mage: The Awakening]]'' features a [[Prestige Class|Legacy]] known as [[The Invisibles|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 [[Mage: The Ascension
** 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]]".
** In the core book for ''[[
*** 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 (TV series)|Millennium]]''. There's a department of the FBI that uses psychic flashes to track down serial killers.
** ''[[Men in Black (
* The first and second edition ''[[
* 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.
** You forgot [[
** Let's be honest here. ''[[Mutants and Masterminds]]'' is one long [[Shout-Out]] to superhero comics.
** [[Shout-Out|Shout outs]] to other works are not unknown. For instance, the quote accompanying the Psychic archetype in ''Silver Age'' is, [[Plan 9
* ''[[Killer Bunnies and
* ''[[Munchkin (
* ''[[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 [[The
* 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]
* ''[[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 (
* ''[[
* In the revised Nosferatu clanbook of ''[[
{{quote| "[[The Vampire Chronicles|Killing humans onstage in Paris? Vampire rock stars?]] What the hell were you thinking?"}}
** As well as:
{{quote| "[[Looks Like Orlok|Who were you expecting]]? [[Interview
** 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."
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** 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.
{{quote| This is especially useful when a Lunar finds human form imprudent, but wants to tell someone that [...] her [[Timmy in
** 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".
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*** 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 [[The A-Team
* ''[[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]].
* ''[[Pokethulhu]]'' is one long shout-out to both ''[[Pokémon (
* In [[Magic:
{{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.
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*** Spring Heeled Jack.
*** [[Night of the Living Dead|Ghouls]] (but not [[Our Monsters Are Different|"Ghouls"]]).
*** [[Prince of Darkness
*** [[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 Thing (
*** [[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.
* [[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 ''[[
* R. Talsorian Games' ''[[Tabletop Games/Cyberpunk|Cyberpunk]]''.
** Supplement ''Home of the Brave'' (1993)
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*** 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.
* ''[[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 [[PC|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 [[
* ''[[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]...
** ''Into The Badlands'' and ''Equipment Catalog''. General [[Dark Shadows (TV series)|Barnabus Collins]] was the legendary hero of the Badlands.
* ''[[
** 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).
*** 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 ([[
*** 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 (
* ''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''.
** 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 sample alien is a Gleep, an amorphous blob-like creature. Just to make it clear that it's a reference to the Gleep of ''[[
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