I have a character who is from the Shadowrun universe, and brought all of his gear into the PPC with him (Most of which, aside from maybe the armored jacket and the rather obvious cybernetic arm, will likely never see real use, especially not in a mission), as well as knowledge of his particular version of the future.

For those not aware, Shadowrun is basically Earth, roughly 60 years in the future, and with corporations ruling almost everything. Well, plus magic. So, for example, for him something like Harry Potter is classic children's fantasy, much the way the Chronicles of Narnia are for us. His knowledge of videogames is largely incorrect, because most of today's games are either part of history which no one really touches outside of maybe a "history of gaming" class at some university, or they're part of a series that's still ongoing, like say Zelda or Sonic, but most of the canon he knows for those is stuff that hasn't happened yet, and may never happen. Legend of Zelda: Lamentations of the Flame Princess may never happen, for example. (In fact, I'd be surprised if it did, since that's currently the title of a D&D adventure module, minus the "Legend of Zelda" bit.) He knows a lot about film history and "classic" comics, but he thinks about movie and comics from today much like we would think of stuff from the 60s.

As for fics based on RPGs, almost any RPG will have canon characters. Games popular enough, like D&D and Shadowrun and World of Darkness, tend to also have novels based on the game settings, which give you an idea of what the canon characters are like. Even if there are no canon characters in the story, if you know the world well enough, you should still be able to spot traits that are Sueish, or non-canonical. Elves in Shadowrun? Sure! Immortal Elves in Shadowrun? I'm side-eyeing you pretty hard unless they're an established canon character. Elves of any stripe in World of Darkness? No sir, not on my watch. Similarly, demons in D&D or World of Darkness? Sure! Real demons in Shadowrun? Uh, no, not likely. Guns in Shadowrun or World of Darkness? Absolutely, it'd be odd not to see guns in fact. Guns in D&D? It better be like a blunderbuss, and even then they're extremely rare.

We have at least one PPC Agent from a D&D-verse - the same as Drizzt Do'Urden, in fact, the Forgotten Realms. He is Mazarun Zothyrr, a drow from Menzoberranzan and quite possibly a contemporary of Drizzt. He belongs to Rilwen Shadowflame (the Boarder, not the Agent). He's not overpowered by any stretch of the imagination; he's partly trained as a wizard, but mostly a fighter, so he's limited to spells like Ray of Clumsiness and Endure Elements - nothing remotely superpowerful, but enough to give the edge in a fight. It certainly hasn't left him blasting through missions so easily they've become boring.

Regarding gear from RPGs, I'm pretty sure more than one Agent has got themselves some Bags of Holding, to carry loot if nothing else. I'd figure that as long as it's not an easy "I win" button, any gear's fine.

And sporking badfics... it sort of depends how well you know the RPG in question. If it allows for crazy feats of endurance/combat/magic etc., you can't really use those as a reason to spork. You'd have to go more on whether or not the fics are keeping people in character. For example, say it's a fic about Drizzt set during the earlier books, where his surfacer friends are alive. You could have Drizzt being the extremely talented and superpowered (and Sue-y) warrior he is, but if he's getting fluffywuffy with an OC and not even stopping to think about Catti-brie, or otherwise angsting about the evils of sex (legitimately, given one of his early sights of it was a ten-foot-tall demon and a drow priestess getting funky in the middle of an orgy) then he's Out Of Character and the canon needs resetting at once.

And I've given you way more info than you probably needed. ^^;; My fingers run away with me when I get to talk about D&D. Hope this helps though!

Well... there's no more to learn! The four stories here, and the Pistons of the Plot Continuum collection, are everything that has so far been written about the TCDA/Steampunk PPC. So the only way to learn more about it is for someone to write more...

hS

Agent Unger is from a D&D-based continuum.

I'm pretty sure I've seen minor magic items, like the Bag of Holding, floating around HQ as well. Some D&D items and spells may be quite interesting if added to a mission.

One caution, though: D&D quickly becomes a very high-powered universe--Drizzt, for example, is not even a particularly powerful character if he's statted up, and everything he does in even the flashiest battle scenes is totally possible for a D&D character of mid-level.

So, despite the allure of being able to put up a Prismatic Wall or decapitate a Sue with a +2 Vorpal weapon, it is probably best to stick to minor items and low-level magic, the sort which adds story possibilities and strategic options instead of sheer power. A simple "Grease" spell or a Hand of the Mage would be interesting things for agents to have, and a Hat of Disguise would be a good makeshift replacement for some functions of the DORKS.

Most role-playing games have some sort of canon which can spark badfic and deserve protection.

As far as I'm concerned, I think it'd be cool to see some more D&D stuff in the PPC. There's some interesting potential there. Just grab your D&D books and flip through them, see what jumps out at you.

Not sure what the rule is, but one of my agents - Veralyn - is from the World of Warcraft continuum, so pretty much all of her gear that isn't related to the PPC is from her home continuum.

Also her partner may or may not have stolen the first set of armor she had from another blood elf, so there's that, too.