DM's and the use of popular fiction...

[Ranting Fool]

Almost all DM's do it to some point or other, whether it is using an archetype of a BBEG or just having your Pally sound and act a lot like Captain America. Dungeons and Dragons is often littered with popular culture references so my question is..... What is the Best/Worst you've encountered.

For Example,
While going through a creepy tomb a small and cheerful gnome appears before them speaking very fast and making little to no sense. He gives our heroes a key to "Open the box" then disappears. Later in the tomb they come across a large adamantine cube, which has a key hole just the right size, they use the key and low and behold it's the little hyperactive gnome who looks confused asks how they opened the cube, grabs the key then disappears. - If you don't get the reference you need to watch more TV in England. :smallsmile:

Doctor Who, for those of you who don't know

Now I've had a thought and just HAVE to add a Vampire that has a cursed item which casts Glittergold (Level 2 Wiz spell) which will make him sparkle... knowing our heroes the urge to slay this foul beast will be almost overwhelming :smallbiggrin::smallbiggrin:

Twilight, for those of you luck enough not to know

so go on, give us all a laugh and tell us what you've seen/used.
P.S Please use spoilers so people can have a guess :smalltongue:

[Averis Vol]

one of my group (probably the worst player) ran skyrim the RPG without the free roaming, the good loot, or the urge to want to play. so basically it was him retelling his skyrim experience for three hours while we got slaughtered by frost trolls by level three.

needless to say we don't let him DM anymore. :smallannoyed:

[Gurgeh]

I once ran a Gnome bard with the Run feat, Expeditious Retreat, and maxed ranks in Tumble, Escape Artist, and Perform (Laughter).

They certainly couldn't catch him.

[Ranting Fool]

I once ran a Gnome bard with the Run feat, Expeditious Retreat, and maxed ranks in Tumble, Escape Artist, and Perform (Laughter).

They certainly couldn't catch him.

David Bowie would be proud (That song is the sole reason one of my mates hates Bowie)

[FireEyes]

I am currently playing a gnome wizard who is a massive nerd and lives in a library, which is in the center of a hollowed out tree. She has an owl familliar named Alowicious.

Nobody in my party got the reference :smallfrown:.

Twilight Sparkle

[Unseenmal]

In a campaign I ran, the PCs were venturing through a dungeon (ironic, I know) and they came upon 2 psychic warriors locked in battle. 1 was a tall, black armored figure with a red blade and the other was a little goblin in a brown cloak with a green blade. I called them Dark Raider and Yodeler. Yodeler did not have bard levels and only 1 rank in perform yodel. So he yodeled....badly. But that was what got the players attention to the fight. The names were given to me by the playgrounders

I don't think I really need to explain who they are.

Another one was for Vampire game not D&D. The group was a Brujah, a Toreador, a Malkavian (me) and a Nosferatu. We were each sired by specific fictional characters.

Nosferatu - a figure with a green and red sweater, horribly burned and wearing a unique 4-blade glove
Brujah - a dis-enfranchised man with a wierd scar on his hand that he gave himself. Talked of space monkeys and liked to make soap
Toreador - a beautiful female warrior, wearing greek style armor. Wielded a sword and a strange round, bladed throwing weapon. She liked to yell while fighting
Malkavian - a coldly logical and supremely intelligent man with a mask to cover his mouth. Enjoyed Liver with Fava Beans and a nice Chianti

Freddy Krueger, Tyler Durden, Xena and Hannibal Lecter but you all knew that without me having to tell you

[Xaktsaroth]

I might be showing my age here, but I got a story.

I had a entire thread devoted to this kinda thing on the old 339 boards, which I really should revive at some point, but I disgress.

I was running a game, and made mention at the table that the CR system is really messed up some times, and that a CR 11 creature can sometimes crush a Level 14 party if it's the right monster.

A extremely metagaming player said that he wasn't sure that was true(First hint he's never DM'ed before), so I said I'd run a few sessions with wacky CR creatures. Group seemed pumped.

So the next few sessions were filled with various monsters(who completely escape me at this point), and all the while the metagaming player is literally listing off the creatures as he's coming up on them, quoting the books and abilities of the monsters.

This is mildly annoying me at this point(And the reason I stress Knowledge checks for this kind of thing), so I decided to kill two birds with one stone.

The party had been warping back and forth through time, and found themselves in a primordial jungle. Crouching behind a low ridge, they notice a T-Rex, a giant wasp, and a red pterodactyl seemingly moving as a group. Capt. Meta knows a T-Rex is CR 9, and with the other two, this tends to be a CR 11 encounter for his 14 level party, so he rolls init and completely flubs his attack roll for his ray attack. The ray hits the ground right in front of the T-Rex and they all recoil in an alarmingly human manner.

Then, the T-Rex turns in the direction of the attack, and starts talking:

T-Rex: "A dirty, underhanded sneak attack...yes. I owe Optimus a bit more credit. Nevertheless: PREDACONS, TERRORIZE!"

The look on the players face was priceless, and they quickly found out that the encounter was a bit higher then CR 11.....yes.

:D

[Ranting Fool]

Thanks Xaktsaroth that really made me chuckle :smallbiggrin: And yes you are showing your age :smalltongue:

Tempted to chuck some Ponies in my game as there was lots of good jokes on April 1st.