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Are there official self-references in either World of Darkness setting (that is, "in-game")? Does White Wolf exist within their own universe? Are people playing Vampire: The Masquerade (or The Requiem) or any other WW game in the (o/n)WoD?

Obviously, as a Storyteller, anyone can bring such a self-reference and/or metareference into the game ("So you met this Storyteller at a Con who turned out to be a real Ravnos!", "I'm going to play a Guardian of the Veil who's always been an rpg geek and is now patrolling the net looking for breaches of secrecy on sites like RPG.SE and such") -- but I'm not looking for unofficial instances. Please, cite official mentions only, be they from rulebooks, comics, novels, computer games... whatever published officially by White Wolf. :)

(For bonus points, mention famous WoD "inspirers" as well, such as Anne Rice, for example. Again, official sources only.)

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The analog to White Wolf and the World of Darkness game lines in the classic World of Darkness setting is the Black Dog Game Factory. They were detailed fully in Subsidiaries: A Guide To Pentex, although there are earlier references in other books. The staffers described therein are parodies of the employees of White Wolf, and the entire sourcebook entry is a pastiche of the adventure games hobby circa the time it was published. (An updated version was included in the W20 version of Book of the Wyrm, and was published on the Onyx Path website.)

The games published by BDGF for their "romantic-rage" setting, the World of Shadow, are:

  • Revenant: The Ravishing (Earlier references have Zombie: The Putrescence instead.)
  • Lycanthrope: The Rapture
  • Warlock: The Pretension
  • Spectre: The Annihilation
  • Pixie: The Delusion
  • Human: The Protagonist
  • Fiend: The Pacting

As a further "meta" reference, White Wolf used the name "Black Dog" as a publishing imprint for works that could be considered more extreme or controversial than otherwise.

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    \$\begingroup\$ Thanks, this is an excellent answer. It's weird I've missed this, especially since HoL, one of Black Dog's real world games is one of my favorite funny rpgs. :) \$\endgroup\$
    – OpaCitiZen
    Commented Sep 30, 2012 at 17:57
  • \$\begingroup\$ They also take a shot at some other games companies too, guess who makes the game 'Spreadsheets in Space'! \$\endgroup\$
    – user28291
    Commented Mar 17, 2017 at 14:32
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    \$\begingroup\$ @ClaraOnager I actually think that's a self-dig; "Spreadsheets in Space" is a nickname for EVE Online, which is run by CCP, who owned White Wolf at the time. \$\endgroup\$
    – Jadasc
    Commented Mar 17, 2017 at 14:34

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