Banal clarification: Salamanders as mythical fire creatures goes back to ancient Greece. Their formal taxonomy as elementals only goes back to the 16th century, mostly in the works of the alchemist Paracelsus.

The only one I remember were the instant coffee commercials from the early 90s about a couple played by Sharon Maughan and Anthony Head. The campaign originated for Nescafé Gold Blend brand in the UK, and then was repurposed (with deviating storyline) for the North American market for Taster’s Choice.

Most of the Legends and Heroes books are bland and pointless, and the few that aren’t—like The Brothers Majere—are setting agnostic fantasy stories that just plug in a couple Dragonlance characters or setting details after the fact. 

I kind of regret not reading more Salvatore. The Icewind Dale trilogy did not make a good impression on me at all and by the time I got to Homeland I was souring on D&D novels as a whole (the post-Weis & Hickman Dragonlance novels that Rob’s only scratched the surface of are a big part of the reason why). At a time…

It was problematic moreso in the late 70s/early 80s because the drow were the only canonically matriarchal society in D&D, and they’re evil. Whereas almost every other sapient humanoid race, both the “good” and “evil” ones were patriarchal. There’s exceptions in the occasional early supplement or module, but not…

Who did end up shaping the Realms, besides Salvatore? I remember bouncing hard off these early Realms novels back then because they suffered in comparison to the Dragonlance novels, but then a few years ago I read a couple of Erin Evans' Realms novels and the quality had improved so much in the intervening two…

What if he smokes them 60 seconds after they open fire on the outpost?

I remember having to swap disks and then waiting like 10 minutes for the next part of the game to load. Days I thought were behind me until the first time I had to install a PlayStation 3 update. 🙂

I did some digging a couple years ago. The clerics must use blunt weapons is—like most popular history misconceptions—the fault of Victorian scholars. Apparently on the Bayeux Tapestry William the Conqueror’s half-brother Bishop Odo of Bayeux is depicted wielding some kind of rod or staff from horseback at the Battle…

Gygax once said his daughters didn’t like playing D&D as much as his sons. With him for a DM, I think I have an idea why.

I can understand the base commander was scared and frustrated but did he have to escalate to pulling a phaser on Tilly? Was that level of drama necessary? Same with the opening—did the butterfly people have to respond to a break down in negotiations with a firefight? I can understand not wanting to return to the…

Here’s the thing: most of the Disco crew, Michael included, are still 8 centuries behind on most technologies. I can believe they caught up quite a bit in the year+ they’ve been in the 31st century and they’re bringing a lost technology (spore drive) with them, but there’s probably a lot more to learn. Hell, even in…

Aging is weird because I remember random useless trivia from when I was 12 like the stats of a dragonlance, but not what I had for breakfast yesterday.

In 1st edition D&D they basically did a metric tonne of damage against dragons, i.e. the wielder’s current hit point total in damage against a dragon target. The cavalry version made for use while riding a dragon added the wielder’s hit points plus their mount, so basically a healthy dragon and rider could…

In the 1st edition game rules dragonlances basically just do a metric tonne of damage against dragons, and if you’re riding a dragon while wielding one, you can basically one-shot evil dragons. Learning that was simultaneously amazing and deflating.

I kind of love that events that take up whole modules in the tabletop game adventures being published at the same time (like the orb and retrieving the Hammer of Kharas for the dwarves) are still seen as important enough to include but get reduced to off-camera side quests or short poems. "Yadda-yadda, the story of…

Lower Decks is the only post-Kelvin Trek that understands Star Trek works best as episodic--not prestige--television.

Almost every captain besides Kirk who appeared in TOS was either amoral, insane, or both. That’s why I loved Lorca in Discovery S1 before the reveal, because it really felt like it was exploring what it would be like to serve on a ship under one of these TOS-era madmen instead of Kirk. 

The Dragonlance Chronicles and Legends were formative to me, and I followed W&H with the Darksword trilogy, Rose of the Prophet, and the Death Gate Cycle. But then Nightshield was meh, almost no one other than W&H has written a decent Dragonlance novel, and then I found Dragons of Summer Flame kind of disappointing.…

I think the problem with most medieval fantasy is how they all try to be Lord of the Rings (or more recently Game of Thrones) without the budget or vision. So they can’t help but look cheap and derivative in comparison.