What's the worst pun, inside joke or easter egg you've found in a game?

[Silverlion]

that's the initial set up for Blue Moon Rising. Initially the prince is supposed to rescue the princess from the dragon, but he and the dragon start talking and get along well, so they decide to leave the princess behind. she had other ideas about that of course, and hijinx ensue

The prince who has a unicorn, and of course the princess isn't evil, just smart and hard headed. (I could go into the full long story of those two characters and the total craziness that comes from the two of them as I love that ahem, series especially because it's very pulp-y.)

 

[remial]

The prince who has a unicorn, and of course the princess isn't evil, just smart and hard headed. (I could go into the full long story of those two characters and the total craziness that comes from the two of them as I love that ahem, series especially because it's very pulp-y.)

isn't evil? she gets reprimanded by the king for chipping sword blades and sticking them in dung so they cause festering wounds!
but yes those 2 are great, and so are the rest of the books, in both the rest of the blue moon series, and their other series, which I won't name for spoilers

 

[Silverlion]

isn't evil? she gets reprimanded by the king for chipping sword blades and sticking them in dung so they cause festering wounds!
but yes those 2 are great, and so are the rest of the books, in both the rest of the blue moon series, and their other series, which I won't name for spoilers

She's ruthless, but to be fair she's got a rough world of worse people around her.

 

[spittingimage]

I think I remember that book. The princess gets engaged against her will to the prince's brother. When she sees the wedding dress and is reminded that it's white to emphasise purity, she asks if it comes in any other colours.

 

[AsenRG]

She's ruthless, but to be fair she's got a rough world of worse people around her.

But the question is, does an XP-rich environment excuse the causing of festering wounds?

 

[Chris Brady]

Savage Worlds, Rippers Resurrected, one of the throw away adventures (Which most have terribly macabre puns in their titles, or section headings, like a Grave Affair, when dealing with a graveyard, or a coffin), has the players needed to exorcise a ghost.

And to do so, they need to get a psychic, who happens to be the most chipper and upbeat one could ever find. The problem is that Madame Clara WILL be possessed by the ghost, as she breezily recites the incantation. And once the spirit takes her, the players will have to physically subdue her.

In fact, if the players figure out the pun, they should get a Benny for it.

They had to strike a happy medium.

Yes, my players did figure it out. Yes, I got pelted the erasers I handed out earlier. And yes, I had to promise to NEVER ever run that adventure ever again.

 

[Ynas Midgard]

In our sole Fellowship mini-campaign, the players named the local mountains they needed to pass through as the Kurma'gash Hegy — which translates to "Fuckintall Mountain". In the same campaign their dwarf NPC companion was named (well, I named him) Torp (which sounds a lot like törpe/dwarf). Later, his shield was dented in a fight, so he was renamed Horp (again, sounds a lot like horpadás/dent).

 

[Chris Brady]

I'm still also proud of my 5e Awakened Sea Cow Druid of the Moon, who Wildshapes into Men. And I called him: Hugh Manatee.

 

[Lofgeornost]

What about the hill giant with a penchant for acting named Ackman? He was a huge Ackman.

 

[joetheok]

So, I put together a little Traveller campaign set in my own small setting. The patron for the player characters was to be a "power couple."

He was a (semi-) retired Vice Admiral, who had been badly injured while serving as a small craft fighter pilot. He gloried in the name of Reginald Watson-ffyre. After his injury left him unfit for further flying duties, he alternated between commanding ships and squadrons, and working for the office of naval intelligence, which goes under the name of the Imperial Fleet Field Intelligence. (You can work out the acronym.)

His wife was a highly regarded banjolele player and folk singer, and a political activist hero, named Emmalotta Boddeigh. She also had a scholarly bent. In the year 8000 AD, I posit that only two song recordings or videos survived from our era of the late 1900's and early 2000's. One of these is Tiny Tim, singing "Tiptoe Through the Tulips." The other was George Formby singing "With my Little Ukelele in My Hand." She sponsored an archaeology team to do some digging, they found half a dozen other songs, and she was hailed as a national hero.

Well, like good upper class couples, they adopted a joint surname.

Their eldest daughter, whom the player characters might meet, who followed Daddy's footsteps into the Imperial Fleet as a Lieutenant, is fully and properly addressed in correspondence "Lieutenant the Most Honorable Ivalotta Boddeigh-Watson-ffyre."

Her enlisted steward, whom the player characters might meet, doesn't have an unusual name, but is a drop out of the [planet] Stratford Hyperspatial and Interluminary Theoretical, Technical and Industrial State University. Its alumni insist on calling it "Tech-Ind." Its detractors insist on using the acronym + State U.

 

[Nobby-W]

So, I put together a little Traveller campaign set in my own small setting. The patron for the player characters was to be a "power couple."

He was a (semi-) retired Vice Admiral, who had been badly injured while serving as a small craft fighter pilot. He gloried in the name of Reginald Watson-ffyre. After his injury left him unfit for further flying duties, he alternated between commanding ships and squadrons, and working for the office of naval intelligence, which goes under the name of the Imperial Fleet Field Intelligence. (You can work out the acronym.)

His wife was a highly regarded banjolele player and folk singer, and a political activist hero, named Emmalotta Boddeigh. She also had a scholarly bent. In the year 8000 AD, I posit that only two song recordings or videos survived from our era of the late 1900's and early 2000's. One of these is Tiny Tim, singing "Tiptoe Through the Tulips." The other was George Formby singing "With my Little Ukelele in My Hand." She sponsored an archaeology team to do some digging, they found half a dozen other songs, and she was hailed as a national hero.

Well, like good upper class couples, they adopted a joint surname.

Their eldest daughter, whom the player characters might meet, who followed Daddy's footsteps into the Imperial Fleet as a Lieutenant, is fully and properly addressed in correspondence "Lieutenant the Most Honorable Ivalotta Boddeigh-Watson-ffyre."

Her enlisted steward, whom the player characters might meet, doesn't have an unusual name, but is a drop out of the [planet] Stratford Hyperspatial and Interluminary Theoretical, Technical and Industrial State University. Its alumni insist on calling it "Tech-Ind." Its detractors insist on using the acronym + State U.

You're in the right place.

 

[LikelyArrow]

Their eldest daughter, whom the player characters might meet, who followed Daddy's footsteps into the Imperial Fleet as a Lieutenant, is fully and properly addressed in correspondence "Lieutenant the Most Honorable Ivalotta Boddeigh-Watson-ffyre."

I'll probably kick myself when someone tells me, but I've been repeating that name over and over again in my head and nothing's clicking.

 

[joetheok]

Clearly it has nothing to do with the titles, which are purely honorific.

 

[The Convenient Skill]

Warhammer's Filthy Harald also seemed the 'worst' Easter egg to me:

 

[rumble]

GURPS Fantasy ii Adventures in the Mad Lands

The gods are all allegedly based on Winnie the Pooh characters.

 

[AsenRG]

GURPS Fantasy ii Adventures in the Mad Lands

The gods are all allegedly based on Winnie the Pooh characters.

Which is actually how Easter eggs should be done!

 

[Rogerdee]

Tales of Arcana for 5e is amazing with muppets, transformers, guyver suits. Or their version of the IP to avoid any issues, with little nods to the original sources etc.

 

[joetheok]

You're in the right place.

The sad thing is the campaign never actually ran in its original form.. Besides the usual objection, viz., that you can get a character whacked in character generation in Traveller, the Covid business fell upon us. I wound up turning the material I had into a science fiction novel, about the heroes of the story (the original NPC's of the campaign,) having to rescue a group of genetically modified lemurs from the machinations of a mad scientist.

 

[Gringnr]

The Tunnels & Trolls module, Rat On A Stick, is chock full of puns. Real groaners, too.

 

[E-Rocker]

I'll probably kick myself when someone tells me, but I've been repeating that name over and over again in my head and nothing's clicking.

"I've a lot of body what's on fire."

Or @ least that's how I read it.

 

[LikelyArrow]

"I've a lot of body what's on fire."

Or @ least that's how I read it.

Yeah, I guess I just don't get the reference.

 

[E-Rocker]

My interpretation is that it isn't a reference, it's just the lady saying that she's hot. I could be way off base though, idk.

 

[joetheok]

My interpretation is that it isn't a reference, it's just the lady saying that she's hot. I could be way off base though, idk.

Yes, the game master/writer saying it, more precisely, since it is the non-player character's name.

Juvenile humor, admittedly.

At the roleplaying table, mind.

I'm sure nothing like that ever goes on at more refined clubs and tables.

Now as for a reference, "Your winnings, sir."

 

[Torque2100]

It took me literally a decade to figure out that the Eldar name for Humans in Warhammer 40k: "Mon-keigh" was a pun. A particularly cringe-inducing one at that.

 

[Lofgeornost]

It took me literally a decade to figure out that the Eldar name for Humans in Warhammer 40k: "Mon-keigh" was a pun. A particularly cringe-inducing one at that.

The S.P.I. not-Star-Wars game Freedom in the Galaxy featured an alien race called "Kayns" who were canids. Part of the backstory was their uprising--the Kayn Mutiny .

 

[E-Rocker]

This one wasn't intentional, but in the Old West section of my dimension-hopping campaign, there was a gravedigger named Warner (I didn't specify whether it was his first or last name) who seemed to be a bit prescient regarding when people would die. Later, I mentioned that he had a similarly prescient brother who worked as a coffin maker, to which one of my players responded, "So... they're the Warner Brothers?"

At that point I ad-libbed that they also had a younger sister named Dorothy.

 

[Lofgeornost]

This one wasn't intentional, but in the Old West section of my dimension-hopping campaign, there was a gravedigger named Warner (I didn't specify whether it was his first or last name) who seemed to be a bit prescient regarding when people would die. Later, I mentioned that he had a similarly prescient brother who worked as a coffin maker, to which one of my players responded, "So... they're the Warner Brothers?"

At that point I ad-libbed that they also had a younger sister named Dorothy.

Now we know the plot!

 

[Ravenswing]

As someone who (a) hates puns and has (b) suffered through the inane proclivity of SF/F/RPG culture to revel in sophomoric ones, too damn many to count.

One "WTF, man???" came, however, with Mayfair's rewrite of City-State of the Invincible Overlord, when I came upon the NPC named "Lemac Tihs." The book went right into the trash can.

 

[Chris Brady]

As someone who (a) hates puns and has (b) suffered through the inane proclivity of SF/F/RPG culture to revel in sophomoric ones, too damn many to count.

One "WTF, man???" came, however, with Mayfair's rewrite of City-State of the Invincible Overlord, when I came upon the NPC named "Lemac Tihs." The book went right into the trash can.

Not the toilet? Missed opportunity.

 

[ScytheSong]

Possibly the worst puns I've encountered in a RPG were the titles of Ghostbusters modules. Scared Stiffs and Ghost Toasties (the latter's cover looked like a cereal box) are the two that come immediately to mind.

When I was helping to playtest for Justin Dagna in Pax Draconis, our stolen-from-pirates spaceship was immediately renamed the Crimson Kipper.

 

[LikelyArrow]

Possibly the worst puns I've encountered in a RPG were the titles of Ghostbusters modules. Scared Stiffs and Gost Toasties (the latter's cover looked like a cereal box) are the two that come immediately to mind.

Reminds me of how the cartoon had an episode titled “The Collect Call of Cthulhu” that centered about the Necrotelecomnicon, the Phone Book of the Dead.

When I was helping to playtest for Justin Dagna in Pax Draconis, our stolen-from-pirates spaceship was immediately renamed the Crimson Kipper.

 

[E-Rocker]

The past few months were hard for me IRL, so, in order to keep running the game, I've been off-loading some of the creative burden onto the players, mainly just the naming of things like organizations and NPCs.

So, last session, I had described an MC (as in master of ceremonies, not as in rapper). When I asked the group what the MC's name is, two of them simultaneously exclaimed "Hammer!"

Groan.

 

[rumble]

At one point in my Erith campaign the PCs chose to purchase a donkey to transport the bulk of their goods around. No way I was giving them a bag of holding in a magic-starved world.

Anyway, one of them wondered aloud what they should name it. I suggested "Hoedee".

There were several puzzled looks around the table until I explained it to a collective groan. But that became its name until it eventually died of starvation in a time dilation event.

Spoiler

It was the donkey Hoedee.

 

[remial]

Reminds me of how the cartoon had an episode titled “The Collect Call of Cthulhu” that centered about the Necrotelecomnicon, the Phone Book of the Dead.

what a guy!

 

[Psychopomp]

I was running a homegrown FFG Star Wars scenario a few years back, in which the Rebel-adjacent smuggler band went to a Mid-Rim world to bid in an auction for a relic of some sort that had turned up during some deep-crust mining. The Rebellion was willing to back the venture with the smuggler as their catspaw, simply because intelligence chatter had that the Empire considered the relic a must-have at the highest levels.

The auction was set to be held at the conclusion of a three day council meeting / grand gala of the noble mining houses. The Empire was being represented by a pale man with yellow-red eyes in dark black armor, rumored to be an emissary of Lord Vader himself. The Black Sun was being represented by the smuggler's loan handler and ex-wife. During the political machinations leading up to the auction, I made sure to imply heavily what the Imperial emissary was without ever using the words "Inquisition" or "Inquisitor".

The Black Sun frenemy eventually took the smuggler's crew aside to warn them - she had decided that the risk was too great, and she was only going to do some show bidding to let her bosses save face. Indications were too high that Vader's man was willing to use violence to win the auction, if he couldn't do it with money. And since dead men don't pay debts, she wanted them to know that, too.

All this happened naturally, but at the start of the auction scene, there in the royal hall right after the orchestra finished the last dance of the evening, I had one of those rare flashes of inspiration as I saw what was about to happen, and I just had to take the opportunity...

I made sure to describe that the totally-not-an-Inquisitor-you-don't-know-about-the-Inquisition and his Deathtrooper escort had positioned themselves at the back-center of the crowd, conspicuously blocking the main door in and out. The Black Sun rep had chosen an unobtrusive corner of the room, just visible enough for the auctioneer to notice bids. The party, of course, with a face man who was a washed up but once famous holonet star, was front and center of the room.

Then the inevitable happened - the party face used social rolls to charm the crowd, get them rooting for him, and matched the Inquisitor bid-for-bid in a way that made him look boorish and uncultured. Flustered and angry, he made a curt gesture to the Deathtroopers, opened his mouth to issue an order, and my players started reaching for the dice, anticipating me saying, "Now roll for initiative."

Instead, I stood up so fast my chair tipped back to the floor, I pointed at the party face player and said, "And the man in the back said 'Everyone attack!', and it turned into a ballroom blitz!" I swung my finger to the smuggler's player, "And the girl in the corner said 'Boy I wanna warn you, it'll turn into a ballroom blitz!" Then I pointed at the dice they'd frozen mid-reach in grabbing to stare at me, "BALLROOM BLITZ!"

I have still not yet been able to convince my group that I hadn't put them through three sessions of political intrigue and high-class party negotiations with the sole purpose of making that joke...

 

[Lofgeornost]

Instead, I stood up so fast my chair tipped back to the floor, I pointed at the party face player and said, "And the man in the back said 'Everyone attack!', and it turned into a ballroom blitz!" I swung my finger to the smuggler's player, "And the girl in the corner said 'Boy I wanna warn you, it'll turn into a ballroom blitz!" Then I pointed at the dice they'd frozen mid-reach in grabbing to stare at me, "BALLROOM BLITZ!"

An outstanding bit of in-joking. Back in my teenage days of hex-and-chit wargaming, we used to chant a version of the song when playing Avalon Hill's Panzerblitz:

And the man in the tank said 'everyone attack'
And it turned into a panzer blitz
And the landser with the schmeisser said, 'boy, I want to warn you,
It will turn into a panzer blitz,
Panzer blitz'
And the Germans [or Russians, depending on the player] started grooving
When the tanks started moving,
And the Russians [or Germans] started running
As the tanks kept on coming...

 

[Godfather Punk]

...there wasn't quite as many as there was a while ago.

 

[Stan]

I was running a homegrown FFG Star Wars scenario a few years back, in which the Rebel-adjacent smuggler band went to a Mid-Rim world to bid in an auction for a relic of some sort that had turned up during some deep-crust mining. The Rebellion was willing to back the venture with the smuggler as their catspaw, simply because intelligence chatter had that the Empire considered the relic a must-have at the highest levels.

The auction was set to be held at the conclusion of a three day council meeting / grand gala of the noble mining houses. The Empire was being represented by a pale man with yellow-red eyes in dark black armor, rumored to be an emissary of Lord Vader himself. The Black Sun was being represented by the smuggler's loan handler and ex-wife. During the political machinations leading up to the auction, I made sure to imply heavily what the Imperial emissary was without ever using the words "Inquisition" or "Inquisitor".

The Black Sun frenemy eventually took the smuggler's crew aside to warn them - she had decided that the risk was too great, and she was only going to do some show bidding to let her bosses save face. Indications were too high that Vader's man was willing to use violence to win the auction, if he couldn't do it with money. And since dead men don't pay debts, she wanted them to know that, too.

All this happened naturally, but at the start of the auction scene, there in the royal hall right after the orchestra finished the last dance of the evening, I had one of those rare flashes of inspiration as I saw what was about to happen, and I just had to take the opportunity...

I made sure to describe that the totally-not-an-Inquisitor-you-don't-know-about-the-Inquisition and his Deathtrooper escort had positioned themselves at the back-center of the crowd, conspicuously blocking the main door in and out. The Black Sun rep had chosen an unobtrusive corner of the room, just visible enough for the auctioneer to notice bids. The party, of course, with a face man who was a washed up but once famous holonet star, was front and center of the room.

Then the inevitable happened - the party face used social rolls to charm the crowd, get them rooting for him, and matched the Inquisitor bid-for-bid in a way that made him look boorish and uncultured. Flustered and angry, he made a curt gesture to the Deathtroopers, opened his mouth to issue an order, and my players started reaching for the dice, anticipating me saying, "Now roll for initiative."

Instead, I stood up so fast my chair tipped back to the floor, I pointed at the party face player and said, "And the man in the back said 'Everyone attack!', and it turned into a ballroom blitz!" I swung my finger to the smuggler's player, "And the girl in the corner said 'Boy I wanna warn you, it'll turn into a ballroom blitz!" Then I pointed at the dice they'd frozen mid-reach in grabbing to stare at me, "BALLROOM BLITZ!"

I have still not yet been able to convince my group that I hadn't put them through three sessions of political intrigue and high-class party negotiations with the sole purpose of making that joke...

Sweet

 

[remial]

I was running a homegrown FFG Star Wars scenario a few years back, in which the Rebel-adjacent smuggler band went to a Mid-Rim world to bid in an auction for a relic of some sort that had turned up during some deep-crust mining. The Rebellion was willing to back the venture with the smuggler as their catspaw, simply because intelligence chatter had that the Empire considered the relic a must-have at the highest levels.

The auction was set to be held at the conclusion of a three day council meeting / grand gala of the noble mining houses. The Empire was being represented by a pale man with yellow-red eyes in dark black armor, rumored to be an emissary of Lord Vader himself. The Black Sun was being represented by the smuggler's loan handler and ex-wife. During the political machinations leading up to the auction, I made sure to imply heavily what the Imperial emissary was without ever using the words "Inquisition" or "Inquisitor".

The Black Sun frenemy eventually took the smuggler's crew aside to warn them - she had decided that the risk was too great, and she was only going to do some show bidding to let her bosses save face. Indications were too high that Vader's man was willing to use violence to win the auction, if he couldn't do it with money. And since dead men don't pay debts, she wanted them to know that, too.

All this happened naturally, but at the start of the auction scene, there in the royal hall right after the orchestra finished the last dance of the evening, I had one of those rare flashes of inspiration as I saw what was about to happen, and I just had to take the opportunity...

I made sure to describe that the totally-not-an-Inquisitor-you-don't-know-about-the-Inquisition and his Deathtrooper escort had positioned themselves at the back-center of the crowd, conspicuously blocking the main door in and out. The Black Sun rep had chosen an unobtrusive corner of the room, just visible enough for the auctioneer to notice bids. The party, of course, with a face man who was a washed up but once famous holonet star, was front and center of the room.

Then the inevitable happened - the party face used social rolls to charm the crowd, get them rooting for him, and matched the Inquisitor bid-for-bid in a way that made him look boorish and uncultured. Flustered and angry, he made a curt gesture to the Deathtroopers, opened his mouth to issue an order, and my players started reaching for the dice, anticipating me saying, "Now roll for initiative."

Instead, I stood up so fast my chair tipped back to the floor, I pointed at the party face player and said, "And the man in the back said 'Everyone attack!', and it turned into a ballroom blitz!" I swung my finger to the smuggler's player, "And the girl in the corner said 'Boy I wanna warn you, it'll turn into a ballroom blitz!" Then I pointed at the dice they'd frozen mid-reach in grabbing to stare at me, "BALLROOM BLITZ!"

I have still not yet been able to convince my group that I hadn't put them through three sessions of political intrigue and high-class party negotiations with the sole purpose of making that joke...

I would have clapped

 

[remial]

Sweet

or Crucial Taunt?