1) Olidammara, the Laughing Rogue, God of Music, Revels, Wine, Rogues, Humor, and Tricks, has been around since the Greyhawk setting's earliest days. Now spell his name backwards. Look like anyone's favorite Texan roadkill? Complete Scoundrel recently reaffirmed this awesome naming convention with a reference to a long held Oeridian myth about Olidammara's Shell (which also appears in "Core Beliefs: Olidammara" in Dragon #342).

2) Miss the Modrons and don't have a copy of Dragon #354 yet? Well, Manual of the Planes gives you two paragraphs of love and a sad looking little mapper modron on page 129, but the real Easter egg comes in the Planescape adventure, The Great Modron March. Each page features a tiny modron image at the bottom which, if you rapidly turn the pages like a flip book, the little monodrone walks! Go little guy, go!

3) Take a look through the Monster Manual. Anything look familiar? Well, if you grew up in the 70s or 80s, there's a few beasties in there that might remind you of the mountains of cheepo plastic toys you grew up with. The bulette and rust monster are particularly well-documented as having been inspired by dime-store denizens. D&D creator Gary Gygax is also well quoted on this matter:

When I picked up a bag of plastic monsters made in Hong Kong at the local dime store to add to the sand table array ... there was the figurine that looked rather like a lobster with a propeller on its tail ... nothing very fearsome came to mind ... Then inspiration struck me. It was a "rust monster." —Gary Gygax

4) Like a little occultism with your fantasy? Go no further than the Tome of Magic. The entire binding magic section is an homage to 17th century Lemegeton Clavicula Salomonis, or The Lesser Key of Solomon, a real world "book of magic" that, among other things, details how to invoke demons. The names Agares, Amon, Andromalius, Aym, Balam, Buer, Dantalion, Eligor, Focalor, Haagenti, Ipos, Leraje, Malphas, Naberius, Paimon, Ronove, Savnok, Shax, and Zagan come straight from the first part of the tome, known as the Ars Goetia. The binder's elaborate symbols are also reminiscent of those presented throughout the fiendish work. Several of these figures have already seen the D&D treatment (with a bit less of a PG rating) back in Green Ronin's incomparable Book of Fiends.

Want some D&D with your demonology, though? Among the binder's blasphemous crew are Dahlver-Nar (of the old school artifact the Teeth of Dahlver-Nar), Tenebrous (the demon lord Orcus's discarded alter ego), and Acererak (the lich from the original module S1: Tome of Horrors).

5) Maybe a little obvious, but it bears mentioning. More than any dead author, Tolkienian trop, or misspelled animal names, one anagram is responsible for more names in D&D than any other: Gary Gygax. From the Greyhawk god Zygyg, Oerth's cities of Gryrax and Exag, the dragon deity Garyx, the ring of Gaxx, the prison of Xagig, the talisman of Zagy, the list of repeating "Gs," "Xs," and "Ys" paves a path through the game from its earliest days.

Again, if you've got a favorite D&D secret, be sure to stop by the Tabletop section of the Gay Gamer Forum and let the cat out of the bag!