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And I.C.E. was planning a full-fledged RPG, but it turned out the license they were using for both was an illegitimate sublicense, which got them into trouble with the Lewis estate.

Advanced Player's Guide II includes design notes and two Social Combat Systems, covering 18 pages.

Very true. Forward worked on He-Man and She-Ra as well, and wrote what is generally considered the best episode of the former, "The Problem with Power."

There are numerous references in core Dragonlance material that Raistlin was "born with the gift" and that he and others are "strong in the magic." Older D&D kept the magic-user broader and less defined; it had some definite quirks (learning, memorization, dependence on Intelligence), but it...

I don't think the poly/henotheism shows up until Supplement IV. And don't forget the Templars in the original mix. :)

I tell you, Krynn makes a lot more sense once you realize that most of the 'gods' are ancient, lie-breathing, soul-devouring dragons ... ;)

I would note that the sharp divide between the two is a 3E innovation; while wizards/mages/magic-users in earlier editions need training of some sort, it's entirely up to players and DMs whether the capacity for magic itself is learned, inborn, or granted. I admit that part of me was grouchy...

Straight from Richard Baker himself, only a couple of weeks ago: https://richardbakerauthor.com/2024/03/10/50-years-of-dd-the-sorcerer/

The 3E sorcerer exists in large part to justify spending all that PHB space on the massive wizard spell list, so I'm afraid that was a non-starter from the beginning.

Sadly true, and I've known it for years. But sometimes I still miss the SAGA Rules System, although I believe Tab Creations has done retroclones of it for some games and is working on a standalone revision.

But if you read Gygax's articles on the AD&D project from the early Dragons, he considered it a bug, not a feature.

The ownership (by which I mean WotC), the pressure of online agitators, and the general bent of the designers and online fanbase.

Raphael is one of the three angels canonically named in Scripture and venerated by the Catholic and Orthodox Churches. (He's in the book of Tobit, which many other Christians and Jews reject as non-canonical. Said book is also where you find Asmodeus.)

Wait ... they actually named a devil Raphael? That's rather tone-deaf and mildly offensive, but I suppose I'm not too surprised, especially since it appears to have come out of Baldur's Gate III.

There have been multiple interpretations of Skeletor across the years, some (the original minicomics, the live-action movie, the 2002 relaunch) considerably more competent and imposing than the Filmation version. (And at least one--the 1990 New Adventures cartoon--who is arguably less so.) I...

If Vecna were Skeletor, it would have gone the other way around--Skeletor's using Orcus' wand with the head replaced with Orcus' own. :D

I think 'souls are trapped in Ravenloft' is a bit of fanon like the original 'people are created by the Dark Powers'--the official material never states anything, but it becomes common as fans overthink things. :) I did a careful read-through of the Black Box about a decade ago, and while it...

Has anyone asked Tracy Hickman about this? The 'soulless/trapped souls' elements came in with Curse of Strahd, which he consulted on, and it resembles some of his ideas from Dragonlance's War of Souls.

I'm one of the small handful that actually likes the original Fifth Age, but the War of Souls retcons and post-WoS era don't work for me on the whole.

Yes, that's what I had in mind with the 'limited in what it could control and effect' clause. Unfortunately, not all authors picked up on that nuance even before the changeover, so we get a 5A sorcerer using a sleep spell in the "Raid on the Academy of Sorcery" short story. :(