History Trivia / Pathfinder

** Lord Gyr, the ruler of Absalom, the City at the Center of the World, was named after ''D&D'' creator GaryGygax.

** The Kytons, previously just a species of chain wrapped devil, have been expanded into a whole fiendish faction of [[{{Hellraiser}} Cenobites]].

*** The first ''Bestiary'' features the Denizens of Leng and Shoggoths, as well as Ghouls and Ghasts (which existed in ''D&D'' since the beginning but have been modeled after Lovecraft's versions for ''Pathfinder'').

** Speaking of ol' [=HPL=], Paizo's gone beyond the subtlety of the ShoutOut and directly printed in ''several'' of their materials just how wicked sweet and totally awesome the CthulhuMythos is, and by the way you should check out Chaosium's ''Call of Cthulhu'' game. The most explicit examples include the adventures ''Carrion Hill'' and ''Wake of the Watcher'', inspired primarily by "The Dunwich Horror" and "A Shadow Over Innsmouth" respectively, ''Bestiary II'' which features the Spiders of Leng, the Hounds of Tindalos, Shoggoths and Lovecraft-style Ghasts, and ''Faiths of Corruption'' which includes cults of the Great Old Ones. As both a capstone reference and campaign-ending encounter, ''Wake of the Watcher'' includes stats for a Star-Spawn of Cthulhu.

** The "thin man" from ''Inner Sea Bestiary''--a ghostly creature that always stays just beyond the reach of light--was inspired by [[Franchise/TheSlenderManMythos the Slender Man]]. The end result (a fanged monster) came out very different from Slendy, it functions basically the same.

** The "thin man" from ''Inner Sea Bestiary''--a ghostly creature that always stays just beyond the reach of light--was inspired by [[Franchise/TheSlenderManMythos the Slender Man]].

* DuelingProducts: ''{{Pathfinder}}'' and ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons''.

** One adventure, [[EscapeFromNewYork Escape from Old Korvosa]], has a crate used to ship a [[{{Braindead}} rat-monkey from S. Island.]]

** ''Children of the Void'' introduces two types of alien monsters, the parasitic akatas and the plantlike moonflowers. The former are inspired by the Xenomorphs from the ''{{Alien}}'' movies, while the moonflowers take their inspiration from ''TheDayOfTheTriffids'' and ''LittleShopOfHorrors''.

** ''Skeletons of Scarwall'''s introduction starts with [[{{Castlevania}} "What A Horrible Night To Have A Curse."]]

** The campaign setting timeline mentions that a large forest was trampled by "[[{{Ghostbusters}} the Slor]]".

** One of the monsters in the first book of the ''Carrion Crown'' Adventure Path is a disembodied floating head, the most powerful of which is [[{{Castlevania}} a flying medusa head, which can temporarily petrify those it bites]]. It even has Flyby Attack as a bonus feat.

** Two of the peaks in the Five Kings Mountains are named Mounts [[NeonGenesisEvangelion Langley and Soryu]].

** [[http://pathfinderwiki.com/wiki/File:Antipaladin.jpg The antipaladin]] appears to be wielding [[{{Warcraft}} Frostmourne]].

* DuelingProducts: ''{{Pathfinder}}'' and ''DungeonsAndDragons''.

** The basic alchemist class is inspired by ''TheStrangeCaseOfDoctorJekyllAndMrHyde''. The vivisectionist archetype of the class is very clearly inspired by on ''TheIslandOfDoctorMoreau'', while the reanimator archetype is based on ''{{Frankenstein}}'' and the story of the same name by HPLovecraft.

** [[http://pathfinderwiki.com/wiki/File:Antipaladin.jpg The antipaladin]] appears to be wielding [[{{Warcraft}} Frostmourne]].

** The basic alchemist class is inspired by ''[[TheStrangeCaseOfDoctorJekyllAndMrHyde The Strange Case Of Doctor Jekyll And Mr. Hyde]]''. The vivisectionist archetype of the class is very clearly inspired by on ''TheIslandOfDoctorMoreau'', while the reanimator archetype is based on ''{{Frankenstein}}'' and the story of the same name by HPLovecraft.

** The Kellid and Shoanti human ethnicities are strongly inspired by the Cimmerians and Picts, respectively, from RobertEHoward's mythos. (The Shoanti have a little [[BraidsBeadsAndBuckskins Native American]] thrown in... but then, so did Howard's Picts.)

** The monster designs in ''Bestiary II'' are loaded with shout-outs. Obvious examples are the Arbiter (a legless [[{{Planescape}} Modron]]), Cacodaemon (a miniature of the {{Doom}} version), and Soulbound Doll (the Zuni fetish from ''TrilogyOfTerror'' and the Maidens from ''RozenMaiden'').

** [[{{PennyArcade}} Deep crows]] dwell in the dark places within the earth.
** One adventure, [[{{EscapeFromNewYork}} Escape from Old Korvosa]], has a crate used to ship a [[{{Braindead}} rat-monkey from S. Island.]]

** ''Children of the Void'' introduces two types of alien monsters, the parasitic akatas and the plantlike moonflowers. The former are inspired by the Xenomorphs from the ''{{Alien}}'' movies, while the moonflowers take their inspiration from ''TheDayOfTheTriffids'' and ''LittleShopOfHorrors''.

** TheRedPlanet of Akiton (initially mentioned in ''Children of the Void'' and further detailed in ''Distant Worlds''), with its giant four-armed warriors, is clearly an homage to EdgarRiceBurroughs's JohnCarterOfMars novels.

** There are several different kinds of gremlin in ''{{Pathfinder}}'', but one in particular, the jinkin, is based on the movie ''{{Gremlins}}''.

* [[http://pathfinderwiki.com/wiki/File:Antipaladin.jpg The antipaladin]] appears to be wielding [[{{Warcraft}} Frostmourne]].

** TheRedPlanet of Akiton (initially mentioned in ''Children of the Void'' and further detailed in ''Distant Worlds''), with its giant four-armed warriors, is clearly an homage to EdgarRiceBurroughs's JohnCarterOfMars novels.

** ''Children of the Void'' introduces two types of alien monsters, the parasitic akatas and the plantlike moonflowers. The former are inspired by the Xenomorphs from the ''{{Alien}}'' movies, while the moonflowers take their inspiration from ''TheDayOfTheTriffids'' and ''LittleShopOfHorrors''. It also briefly describes TheRedPlanet of Akiton, which, with its giant four-armed warriors, is clearly an homage to EdgarRiceBurroughs's JohnCarterOfMars novels.

** The [[MagicKnight Magus]] class has an alternate class feature called "Bladebound," in which the Magus wields a "black blade," an EmpathicWeapon that can [[LifeDrinker drain the life from others to heal the wielder]] and has a mind of its own that can [[ArtifactOfDoom try to take over the wielder's mind]]. [[TheElricSaga Elric of Melnibone]] can sympathize.

** The underwater "gillmen" are a clear ShoutOut to the Atlanteans of [[MarvelComics Marvel]] and DCComics, like the {{Sub-Mariner}} (on whom their illustration is strongly based) and {{Aquaman}}.

** The [[MagicKnight Magus]] class has an alternate class feature called "Bladebound," in which the Magus wields a "black blade," a LivingWeapon that can [[LifeDrinker drain the life from others to heal the wielder]] and has a mind of its own that can [[ArtifactOfDoom try to take over the wielder's mind]]. [[TheElricSaga Elric of Melnibone]] can sympathize.

** The underwater "gillmen" are a clear ShoutOut to the Atlanteans of [[MarvelComics Marvel]] and DCComics, like the {{Sub-Mariner}} (on whom their illustration is strongly based) and {{Aquaman}}.

** There are several different kinds of gremlin in ''{{Pathfinder}}'', but one in particular, the jinkin, is based on the movie ''{{Gremlins}}''.

** The Kellid and Shoanti human ethnicities are strongly inspired by the Cimmerians and Picts, respectively, from RobertEHoward's mythos. (The Shoanti have a little [[BraidsBeadsAndBuckskins Native American]] thrown in... but then, so did Howard's Picts.)

** The Kellid and Shoanti human ethnicities are strongly inspired by the Cimmerians and Picts, respectively, from RobertEHoward's mythos. (The Shoanti have a little [[BeadsBraidsAndBuckskins Native American]] thrown in... but then, so did Howard's Picts.)

** One reference liable to go over the heads of modern gamers - the Holy Gun archetype in ''Ultimate Combat'' gains firearm-using feats from a class feature called [[HaveGunWillTravel Have Gun]]. If you couldn't guess, this is for a variant paladin.

** Speaking of ol' [=HPL=], Paizo's gone beyond the subtlety of the ShoutOut and directly printed in ''several'' of their materials just how wicked sweet and totally awesome the CthulhuMythos is, and by the way you should check out Chaosium's ''Call of Cthulhu'' game. The most explicit examples include the adventure ''Carrion Hill'', inspired primarily by "The Dunwich Horror," and ''Bestiary II'' featuring the Spiders of Leng, the Hounds of Tindalos, Shoggoths and Lovecraft-style Ghasts.

** The sourcebook ''Princes of Darkness'', focusing on using devils in a campaign, features a magic item called a ''bilious talisman'', which strongly resembles the Behelit from ''{{Berserk}}''.

** Two of the peaks in the Five Kings Mountains are named Mounts [[NeonGenesisEvangelion Langley and Soryu]].