Gelatinous Icosahedron

 As so often happens, just as I zero in on The Way that I think will solve some glaring issue in the game, along comes a fresh insight or three to send me back to the ol' drawing board. I don't even recall precisely how this insight came to be in my head or whence it originated (it's drawn from more than one source, most likely), but here it is: Fighters in D&D get better at fighting as they level up. They can hit better ACs more often, thus dealing more damage, and they gain hit points in good amounts (dice willing, of course!). This enables them to take on stronger and stronger challenges in combat, as is their job. A 1st-level fighter struggles against orcs and goblins, but eventually becomes mighty enough to make these nothing but light exercise, and to feel confident going up against trolls and dragons. Magic-users in D&D get better at casting spells as they level up. They can cast more spells, they can cast better spells, and they can cast the same old spells...

 Going through a box of stuff in a spare bedroom that mostly serves as a clutter repository, I came across a folder of old D&D stuff. This particular stuff dates back to the early 90s, when I had dreams of writing and submitting an adventure module for publication. I would have been somewhere in the 18-20 age range at the time.  Anyway, the folder included some drawings I'd done for said module, and while I don't think anyone would ever mistake me for a great artist, I'm kind of surprised that they don't look nearly as bad as I would have expected. To the best of my recollection, I haven't done any drawing at all since these ones (which, as we've established, was a LONG damn time ago.) Anyway, I thought, what the hell, let's share these with my small handful of blog readers! Bear in mind, they've been sitting around in a folder for a few decades, getting all faded and yellow and smudgy-looking. I've run them through my photo editing program to da...