RW/fictional characters in your games

[khantroll]

My long-running d20 fantasy campaign has had a few. Sarah Palin tried to become leader of the good kingdoms, but failed when the nobles backed Barrack Obama instead. This more a combination of my own annoyance with politics at the time, and my players constantly needling me about it IRL. Sir Anthony Hopkins appeared in a cross-dimensional prison, claiming to have been abducted after being mistaken for a serial killer who is beyond evil in all dimensions. (Yeah, there was a fantasy version of that character too).

Our rather short Esoterrorist campaign also had the pcs interacting with real world Russian and British dignitaries.

 

[Tuft]

Sure!

It's not a D20 system game, so its slightly off-topic, but in my "Maid the Roleplaying Game" campaign, which has surprised me by chugging along nicely weekly year after year, I've used a bunch.

It's kind of Magical Charlie's Angels in the hidden supernatural world (think White Wolf's masquerade or the Harry Potter-verse), which has given me much liberty at playing around.

The heroes have gotten a lift in Porco Rosso's seaplane, visited the sunken land of Mu in search of chrystal virtual realities with Captain Nemo, and tangled with the lightning-throwin sorcerers of Big Trouble in Little China.

They've spent most of the campaign lately trying to untangle the conspiracies by the evil Cabal, headed by amongst others Rasputin, Circe, the Tin Woodsman of Oz and Mary Poppins.

However, Mary Poppins defected from the Evil Side, and did seek refuge with the English Ministry of Magic. Retrieving her meant retrieving Merlin from the mental asylum where he had been hiding, having a brief run in with Daleks, getting the Great Dragon of Wales drunk again, and fighting a minor war with a few of HG Wells' Martians, who had remained, scheming, from the 1870:s by snacking on Dracula and thus turning into vampires...

As a side thingie during the defeat of the Martians, they happened to liberate the Fairy Queen Titania, which lent extra spice to the Unicorn Races at Ascot (the part of Ascot hidden from mundanes, of course...).

Wonder what I'll have to come up with if they decide to go after Rasputin next... But it is still great fun to come up with these cameos.

 

[Grogg of the North]

As a joke, I once had a town in a D&D game that was populated by characters from Sesame Street.

Elmo was the mayor. Oscar was the power behind the throne. Big Bird was the constable....

 

[Zip]

Hi I am new to the board.

Can I use a "squid humaniod" in my game(that I am developing)without being sued by WoTC?

Do I have to make it different enough?

 

[VariSami]

Well, will they use their tentacles to suck brains for nourishment? If no, that is a good start. Are their squid heads pinkish? If no, you are doing strong. Do they propagate by inserting their larvae in the heads of people? If not - well, that probably does not even matter since it is not a big part of the illithid image.

So yes, you will most definitely have to make it different. Hasbro has been quite protective of its rights after all. If I were you, I would simply use my imagination and think up something original. Probably pseudo-illithids should not be necessary for anything.

And regarding the actual thread... I have used some of the legendary characters of Warhammer in my Warhammer games. I believe I have also made a cameo for Fizban (aka. Paladine) from Dragonlance but I am not sure. For the most part, I only abuse names but not the actual characters. And even the names are somehow partial or twisted in most cases.

 

[Zip]

Well, will they use their tentacles to suck brains for nourishment? If no, that is a good start. Are their squid heads pinkish? If no, you are doing strong. Do they propagate by inserting their larvae in the heads of people? If not - well, that probably does not even matter since it is not a big part of the illithid image.

So yes, you will most definitely have to make it different. Hasbro has been quite protective of its rights after all. If I were you, I would simply use my imagination and think up something original. Probably pseudo-illithids should not be necessary for anything.

And regarding the actual thread... I have used some of the legendary characters of Warhammer in my Warhammer games. I believe I have also made a cameo for Fizban (aka. Paladine) from Dragonlance but I am not sure. For the most part, I only abuse names but not the actual characters. And even the names are somehow partial or twisted in most cases.

They have tentacles for arms(no hands, no feet) with a beak mouth(no tentacles around the mouth) and a machine husk body.

It is a octopus-like creature not a squid-like.

 

[haakon1]

I used real world characters in a one-shot of Boot Hill (1st Edition) once -- they stat'd Billy the Kid and so forth in it.

Using actual names of imported character within a campaign . . . the only time I can think of was in Top Secret/SI, when the players called for backup in LA, and got Sergeant TJ Hooker (William Shatner) and Officer Stacy Sheridan (Heather Locklear).

I ran them as bad asses as intended by the show, not as buffoons, which surprised everyone, given we had created a very simple, very intoxicating drinking game for that show, as follow up to our very elaborate 'Drunk Trek' rules. Drunk TJ had only one rule: Drink any time anything ridiculous happens. This episode really made that game dangerous: Underage drinking, not based on fake ID's, but on high jacking beer trucks, of course! http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0715470/

 

[Zip]

Does it still violate their SRD/OG license?

Its not a squid but is a octopus with a beak as a mouth. Has no face tentacles. Has no arms. Has a machine husk as a body.

Will WoTC still see that as a illithid?