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A very quick summary: Q) Is current D&D medieval? A) No. Q) Did D&D used to be medieval? A) No. Q) Is D&D steampunk? A) No. Q) Is D&D D&D? A) Yes.

If you look on the TV there was a detective with a classic car thing going on in the 80s - Bergarac, Morse. And I guess that was influenced by 70s US TV - Starsky and Hutch, Magnum. These days, detective drives an old banger seems to be the standard trope (but Columbo did it first).

A couple of things that happened in these editions is, in 2nd more professional artists were being used, and by 3rd the printing went into colour. Now, professional artists use reference material, and that becomes even more important with colour. So those artists were drawing what they could...

If you use monsters with 14 hp or less as minions they can be reliably cleared out with fireball in the first round. Something I sometimes use when designing encounters.

The aesthetic changes continually, as you would expect for something 40 years old. But my point is it was never "medieval", and the original aesthetic certainly wasn't.

Just a mention for Foundation (series 3 currently showing on Apple TV). Trantor is a world city (probably the original) and a fungus farming area controlled by a weird cult is currently plot-relevant. If I remember correctly this is also how Ravnica produces it's food.

One has to question just how accurate a depiction of history those 60s/70s wargames were though.

There are practical issues of very large buildings (in any setting). They are a lot of work to map, and unless you want to focus on mega-dungeon type play, big dungeons slow down the plot. You can of course, just pick a level of the building that is relevant to the players, and contrive to keep...

Nothing has really changed here though. D&D was never what the OP thought. Lets just reference another thread elsewhere on this forum: White Dwarf Reflections #27 White Dwarf, 1981. And that's not to mention the AD&D monsters based on John Carter, Star Trek and Doctor Who.

Well, we have seen the future, and it doesn’t have hybrids in it.

Use gnome, but your size is medium.

You mean the story where Georgian hobbits meet dark age horse lords and Arthurian knights led by a descendent of magitech Atlantis?

Dropping what used to be known as pseudo-medieval, despite having no similarity to real world history, does not make something Steampunk. There are a great many other options.

Ridley Scott got away with a thinly disguised wyrrn rip off.

I would say the guilds are pretty important to Ravnica. They are the megacorps of Ravnica's pseudo-cyberpunk dystopia. And, of course, I clearly did not at any time suggest removing them.

Wildhunt shifters if you want something by WotC. They have an ability that is very useful if you happen to be a barbarian at least. The OP's suggestion is fine, but a bit vanilla. But I originally cane to suggest Traveller Vargr too. They have been around a long time.

Gladiators should get "when not wearing armour*, can add Charisma bonus to AC" so they can show off their glistening abs to the crowd, as depicted in the art. *apart from a chainmail bikini.

The important thing is for the spell to take enemies out of the fight. Reducing them to zero hp is a great way to take an enemy out of a fight, if the spell can reliably do that.

Doesn't mean he couldn't be persuaded to return, especially if presented with an opportunity to do a different take. He is only 60. They got Tony DiTerlizzi back to do at least a little art for the new Planescape.

If a player wants to play a different species to those normally found in the setting, it’s either because: a) they have a brilliant concept that will work in the setting; b) they hate the setting (choose a different setting); c) they just want to be difficult (choose a different player).