Shades of Eternity
Hero
And, of course, early D&D had absolutely nothing to do with Lord of the Rings influences...........
I thought saying Tolkein had Gygax respond not unlike Miracle Max does with Humperdink?
And, of course, early D&D had absolutely nothing to do with Lord of the Rings influences...........
The Granbretan gods before the Tragic Milennium included "Johne, Jhorg, Phowl, and Rhunga."Not D&D, but Michael Moorcock made several pop culture references in the Hawkmoon series, most notably Aral Vilsson as one of the gods of Granbretan ( Harold Wilson, Prime Minister of the late 60s/ early 70s for non-Brits)
Which is admittedly a bit weird since basis for the Eye and Hand of Vecna were Moorcock's Corum books rather than Vance.There are a lot of inside references (Vecna = Vance) and my favorite is probably the Vacuous Grimoire, which was a slam on the contemporaneous Arduin Grimoire. My favorite detail wasn't the loss of intelligence, it was that the book changed appearance to conform to the other books it was with.
'Open Sesame' is hundreds of years old. I not really sure that counts as pop culture.Sesame seeds for Passwall ("Open Sesame!") is definitely a pop culture reference, though.
There are a lot of inside references (Vecna = Vance) and my favorite is probably the Vacuous Grimoire, which was a slam on the contemporaneous Arduin Grimoire. My favorite detail wasn't the loss of intelligence, it was that the book changed appearance to conform to the other books it was with.
I think that the best way to show that ... maybe Gygax didn't have his finger on the pulse of pop culture in order to reference it was in Heward's Mystical Organ, which includes references to such "with it" songs from 1979 like ... Fly Me to the Moon and The Monster Mash.
Wow never spotted that beforeIt started being carried on my local PBS station in 1983, just as an example.
And by 1987, it was well known enough that Keith Parkinson (an American) put a mini-TARDIS on the shelf behind Raistlin in his painting "The Last Spell of Fistandantilus":
If it does (and probably should, they had to get Clark's permission to do Castle Amber), then so would all of Lankhmar.Does Castle Amber doing a homage to Clark Ashton Smiths Averoigne count as pop culture?