Every RPG book I've written has them, but it would kind of defeat the purpose if I was to reveal the ones in my own games.  But this thread is for others to reveal easter eggs in other rpg games.

For example, in the True20 RPG, one of the monsters is actually a "Magic Deer".

RPGPundit

I was skimming through my copy of Expert D&D (Cook/Marsh, obviously) and mine eyes did fall upon the monster entry for 'shark'.  For the 'great white shark' section, they helpfully advised: "They have been known to destroy small boats".

As in, we'll need a bigger boat.  

Do all the 'secret' names in Warhammer's Enemy Within campaign count?

Not sure if they qualify but the margin illustrations in the 1E DMG are downright awesome. 1E is also full of anagrams of the designers names.

Yeah, those marginal illustrations are *awesome*, I'd forgotten they'd even existed until recently. I imagine Mad Magazine/Sergio Aragones influenced the existence of those illustrations.

They are often very cool. Anyone have the tech skills to show folks here what we're talking about?

War of the Dead by Daring Entertainment has some really obvious ones (NPCs named Romero and Kirkman, for instance)...and the beginning of the campaign is set on a cruise ship called the S.S. Pinnacle (in reference to the publishers of Savage Worlds, of course).

Ever notice that the Esp Spell from AD&D? The spell component is a Copper Piece. As in, "Penny for your thoughts".

For D&D...

*Vecna is an anagram of 'Vance' as in Jack Vance whose dying earth books have spell memorization (and IOUN stones).

*the GM adventure in the original red box mentions a wizard named 'Gygar'.

*there are two spells in D&D that I know of named after players rather than characters: Nystul's Magic Aura (Brian Nystul) and Chariot of Sustarre (named by Gary in honour of Dennis Sustare, partly responsible for creating druids).

Fighting Fantasy has a monster called the 'Brain Slayer', based off guess which heavily copyrighted D&D monster. Its originally in Caverns of the Snow Witch but also listed in Out of the Pit. (though I don't know if this is an easter egg so much as its shameless copyright infringement).

I believe white wolf's vampire clanbooks etc. had lots of obscure mythological references, but don't know many specifics of this.

Quote from: RPGPundit;441851Every RPG book I've written has them, but it would kind of defeat the purpose if I was to reveal the ones in my own games.  But this thread is for others to reveal easter eggs in other rpg games.

For example, in the True20 RPG, one of the monsters is actually a "Magic Deer".

RPGPundit

Actually, the magic deer thing was in Blue Rose, and not found within True20.

Zagyg = Gygax's name spelled backwards.

Drawmij = Jim Ward's name spelled backwards.

Outside of my own stuff, I'm drawing a blank at the moment, but why were magic deer an Easter Egg? What's clever or unexpected about them? Is there a pun, expression, or quote that they reference?

Quote from: PaladinCA;441939Actually, the magic deer thing was in Blue Rose, and not found within True20.

No, he means that in True20 there is an actual creature entry for Deer, Magic.  That is a reference to the Blue Rose deer.

Quote from: PaladinCA;441939Actually, the magic deer thing was in Blue Rose, and not found within True20.

Error.
It is on page 132 of the True20 Adventure Roleplaying hardcover.

Quote from: PaladinCA;441939Actually, the magic deer thing was in Blue Rose, and not found within True20.

No... Blue Rose had the "golden hart" or whatever the fuck the thing was really called, that Iaunched a serious internet-war against for what it implied about the wish-fulfillment utopia of the authors of that setting: a social-worker run totalitarian venisonocracy, where everyone was ultimately a slave of the "magic deer".

For that, and my push to get a True20 gamebook free of the Blue Rose setting taint, the response was that the True20 RPG had, in its monster section, a "magic deer".  Just in case you think I'm making up the part of it being about me, the entry mentions that the "Magic deer gets particularly enraged by tobacco smoke", or something along those lines.

RPGPundit

Quote from: greylond;441920Ever notice that the Esp Spell from AD&D? The spell component is a Copper Piece. As in, "Penny for your thoughts".

Couple others that come to mind are:

Feeblemind : a handful of small clay, glass, or crystal spheres = "lost your marbles"

Fumble : a dab of solidified milk fat = "butterfingers"

Passwall : A pinch of sesame seeds = "Open Sesame"

There are a lot more. Magic Mouth calls for a piece of honeycomb - I may be imagining this but I think it's related to an old cereal commercial