Referenced By / Dungeons & Dragons

Works referencing Dungeons & Dragons.

See also Alliteration & Adventurers.

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Anime & Manga

• In the original Yu-Gi-Oh! ("Game King") manga, there are two story arcs in which the characters play tabletop role-playing games that are inspired by the author's experiences playing D&D, Monster World and the final Millennium World arc. Also, at one point in the story, Yugi is forced to play a game called "Dragons, Dice, & Dungeons" (Dungeon Dice Monsters in the anime and English manga), which is obviously a direct Shout-Out to Dungeons & Dragons in name.
  • In the Duelist Kingdom story arc, the Magic & Wizards card game (based on Magic: The Gathering) gains even more RPG-like elements due to the Duel Box field system. One instance had Yugi command one of his monsters to attack the darkness.
• Code Geass's titular ability is a magical ability to command someone to do whatever you want with a few limitations. Alter the limitations, spelling, and pronunciation, and you have the Geas spell.

Comic Books

• In Joss Whedon's Fray, a flashback page is shown while Earth-before-humans is described as a savage time filled with monsters and demons. The landscape shown is populated with the first few pages of the first edition D&D Monster Manual, including an Anhkheg, a Bullete, and so on.
• The major plot of Sunny Rolls the Dice is Sunny starting to play D&D with her new friends (Lev, Brian, and Arun) in middle school (leading to her eventual drifting away from her Childhood Friend Deb who is more interested in fashion and boys). The game —specifically, Advanced Dungeons and Dragons — was new in 1977, when the story is set. She continues to play through the series after that point.

Fan Fic

• Chapter 3 of Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality features Bounce Boots ("Made with real Flubber!"), Knives +3! Forks +2! Spoons with a +4 bonus!, goggles that turn anything you look at green, and cushy lounge chairs with ejection seats for emergencies (???). In later chapters as well, various potions come from D&D.

Film — Animated

• In How to Train Your Dragon, Fishlegs often recites dragon traits as if they were stats from D&D.

Literature

• In the short story "Same-Day Delivery" by Desmond Warzel, the phrase "blue bolts from the heavens" appears twice; this is a direct Shout-Out to first-edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons; specifically, the Dungeon Master's Guide.
• The web-novel Domina has a long, long list of D&D shout-outs. Most obvious is that most of the demon warlords are named after the princes of the Abyss, while the vampire ones are largely named after the dukes of Hell. Graz'zt, Obox-ob, Pale Night, Malcanthet, and Orcus for the demons, and Bel, Dispater, Mammon, Belial, Glasya, Mephistopheles, and Asmodeus for the vampires have all been mentioned—in addition to other characters like Obould (Forgotten Realms) and Abigor, Bileth, and Zepar (the warlords in charge of Maladomini).
• Terry Pratchett was a D&D player, and liked to incorporate elements and references to the game, especially in the early novels which focused on fantasy parody (as opposed to the broad satire of later books). Perhaps most notably would be in The Colour of Magic, where the game the gods play with the lives of men appears to literally be Dungeons and Dragons, and the sound of dice precedes random encounters.
  Thunder rolled. It rolled a seven.
• In Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules, Greg and Rowley are introduced by a nerd to a game called "Magic and Monsters", a clear Captain Ersatz of D&D.
• The Dresden Files: In "Day Off" the gaming group's argument about fireballs make it clear that "Arcanos" is really Dungeons & Dragons with the copyright filed off.
• In Eye Contact, Kevin brings Cara to a meeting of his Dungeons and Dragons club. She doesn't understand the rules well enough to play.

Live-Action TV

• Used for a Not so Dire gag in the final episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, when several members of the Scooby Gang are apparently planning their upcoming battle against The Legions of Hell but turn out to be playing D&D instead.
• Community has two episodes which centre around the game, "Advanced Dungeons & Dragons" and "Advanced Advanced Dungeons & Dragons". In both cases, the study group attempts to use the game to help somebody with personal issues, but their dysfunctional nature and lack of knowledge about D&D means it doesn't quite turn out as planned.
• Angel. In the episode "War Zone", a nerdy client of Angel Investigations mentions to the title character that his friends ended up in a weird situation through their playing D&D. Angel, being a vampire with hundreds of years of supernatural experience, initially assumes said client is talking about actual dragons, which he's fought.
• Stranger Things: D&D games appear in a few episodes, and the concept of alternate dimensions is explained through the terminology of D&D, with the monster of the first season being named after Demogorgon, Prince of Demons, due to the D&D Demogorgon's mini being used to explain the creature. Similarly, the Mindflayer in Season 2 is named as such due to being a Lovecraftian being, and its ability to mentally control its victims.
• Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles: The episode "Born to Run" briefly features a D&D game, in which one of the characters describes killing an umber hulk with a vorpal sword.
• In The X-Files episode "Jose Chung's From Outer Space", Chung asks a nerdy witness if he isn't nervous after being threatened by The Men in Black (actually Mulder). The witness replies "Hey, I didn't play Dungeons & Dragons all those years and not learn a little something about courage."

Newspaper Comics

• Foxtrot: Creator Bill Amend plays the game, so Jason and Marcus can often be seen playing D&D in his strip.

Pro Wrestling

• Ember Moon is a known D&D player, and 3rd Edition's iconic Monk (a black woman who fights barehanded) is named Ember.

Video Games

• The Darkside Detective: In a greyhound race being called on the radio, the hounds all have names that are terms from D&D, such as "Critical Hit" and "Thaco".
• Doom Eternal: A Shout-Out filled bookshelf in the Fortress of Doom contains a copy of Dungeons and Demons: 6th Edition.
• Final Fantasy VII Rebirth: Mindflayers appear as really tough enemies.
• Magicka: The very first sentence to be uttered in the cutscene before the first level has no less than six shout outs. See for yourselves: "Stay a while and listen, and I will tell you a story. A story of Dungeons & Dragons, of Orcs and Goblins, of Ghouls and Ghosts, of Kings and Quests, but most importantly — of Wizards and Vamp — Well, a story of Wizards."
• Marvel: Avengers Alliance:
  • Black Bolt's Level 9 ability "Power Word" is likely named after the series of spells.
  • The mysterious Circle of Eight is also likely a reference to the same-named group in Greyhawk.
• Borderlands 2 has the Tiny Tina's Assault on Dragon Keep DLC, which is filled to the brim with D&D references (plus other fantasy Shout Outs). The whole premise of the game even has Tina (as the Game Master) and the original Vault Hunters play "Bunkers and Badasses", minus Roland, who is dead.
  • The entire premise of spinoff game Tiny Tina's Wonderlands is this, but as a full game.
• Firewatch contains a D&D knockoff named Wizards & Wyverns, which you can find maps and even a character sheet for that were made by one of the game's supporting characters, Brian Goodwin.

Webcomics

• Precocious: Whenever Quincy shows up in the strip, expect World of Warcraft, Dungeons & Dragons, and other such references galore. One strip even managed to combine a DnD reference and a Pokémon reference ("It's a super-effective hit.").

Web Original

• At least one episode of The Yogpod has Lewis Brindley and Simon Lane playing a bit of DnD, complete with as many references as possible.
• Trott of Hat Films routinely makes references to D&D.

Western Animation

• Lots in Adventure Time:
  • The series' title card is inspired by the 3rd Edition logo.
  • After being freed from prison in "What Have You Done?", the Ice King loudly proclaims "CAST DETECT SECRET DOORS!" before blasting a hole to freedom.
  • The Carrion Crawler, the Mimic, the Gelatinous Cube, and the Trapper have made cameos in episodes.
  • The final conversation in "Ignition Point" references Character Alignment multiple times.
  • In "Wizard Battle", the Wizard Abracadaniel shouts "Cantrip!" upon casting one of his many Useless Useful Spells.
• An episode of Dexter's Laboratory had Dexter and his friends playing D&D. Dexter proved to be a Killer Game Master, but when Dee Dee took over, she was a lot nicer.
• Because Futurama is a cartoon created by nerds, there's been plenty.
  • In "I Second That Emotion", a pet Rust Monster can be seen at a veterinarian — owned by a robot!
  • "How Hermes Requisitioned His Groove Back" featured a cameo from a Beholder.
  • Gary Gygax appeared as himself in the third short in "Anthology of Interest I", where he's part of a secret alliance that protects the space-time continuum along with Stephen Hawking, Nichelle Nichols, Al Gore, and the chess-playing computer Deep Blue. Naturally, most of his lines are DnD jokes.
    Gary Gygax: "Greetings! It's a— (rolls two ten-sided dice) pleasure to meet you!"
  • "Bender's Game" was one big homage to the game. The credits even say that the film was made in dedication to Gary Gygax, with clips from his guest appearance included at the end.
  • In "Fry am the Egg Man", Professor Farnsworth has a book called the Gygaxicon, which he explicitly refers as a "Monster Manual".
• The Gravity Falls episode "Dungeons, Dungeons, And More Dungeons" sees Dipper playing a parody of the famous tabletop game.
• The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy:
  • In "Billy and Mandy Begins", a Grell, an Umber Hulk, an Otyugh, and an Owlbear can be seen in a crowd of monsters.
  • In "Wrath of the Spider Queen", Velma (who resembles Lolth or a Drider) is served by "Dark Elves".
  • Magic Missile and the Elemental Plane of Fire have been mentioned in other episodes.
• My Life as a Teenage Robot: In "Queen Bee", Vicky Vexus throws Brit and Tiff into unpopularity! (read: the school's D&D club)
• Mysticons makes several references to an astronomical body called "the Star of Gygax".
• Scooby-Doo:
  • In the "Scoobsie" episode of The New Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo Show, the gang visited a Wizards and Warlocks convention.
  • Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated: In "Web of the Dreamweaver", the Monster of the Week is a villain from a "Crypts and Creatures" game that Sheriff Stone and his friends played as kids. Shaggy also admits that he used to be an avid C&C player.
• SpongeBob SquarePants:
  • In "Mid-Life Crustacean", Mr. Krabs hangs out with SpongeBob and Patrick to feel young again when he suffers from a Hollywood Mid-Life Crisis. At one point, the three play a D&D-esque board game called P&P, and SpongeBob asks Mr. Krabs "Art thou feeling it now, Mr. Krabs?''
  • An episode of the series is titled "Dunces and Dragons".
• Star vs. the Forces of Evil: "Sophomore Slump" has a scene of Marco, Ferguson, and Alfonso playing a game of D&D with Janna as the Killer Game Master. Later in "Britta's Tacos", Ferguson and Alfonso namedrop D&D by that shorthand form when talking to Marco.
• Total Drama Pahkitew Island contestant Leonard occasionally references D&D when talking about his fantasy adventures, such as mentioning monsters like the "Umber Colossus" (an umber hulk) and "Byzantium Worm" (a purple worm).
  • Total Drama Presents: The Ridonculous Race: In the episode "Bahamarama", a man can be seen painting what is very clearly a D&D miniature of a beholder.