Any references to LOTR, D&D, etc. should probably be more subtle. Like the Dark Elf Amulet -- that was cool. Plus it wasn't in-your-face. I want to find like a "halfling's ring" next to some dead halfling's corpse, and then find some "lord's ring" in a castle... for LOTR references. Hmm, but maybe that's too close to the first one.
Good ideas though!
