Recent content by RedCliff

RedCliff Published under real name: Clifford Horowitz I've had a few small bits selected for some open calls, but most of my work has been for Dragon. Books · Creature Collection 2 o Stench Toad o Time Killer · Relics and Rituals 2 o Sharpening Stone o Mormo’s Embrace...

I'm glad you liked it. I'd been wanting to do something like that for a while when I finally pitched it to Dragon. I think that of everything I've written for the magazine, this stands as one of my favorite projects. And just so I'm not totally off topic, I'd like to put in another vote for the...

Check out The Book of Distinctions & Drawbacks, by Cryptosnark Games. You can find a review of it here at EN World.

What you're describing sounds very similar to the heroic paths used in Midnight, which exist to solve just the issue you bring up. Every character chooses a path and gains a new power every character level, including first level. Even with paths, characters won't be as powerful as they would...

There was a fighter variant called the Corsair in Dragon #310. Maybe that's the class you were thinking of.

AEG's book Good has a section on powerful heroes taking on hordes of underpowered opponents that streamlines combat. It only works if the massed enemy has a CR 8 lower than the party level, meaning individually they wouldn't pose much of a threat. It looked neat, but I never got a chance to try...

Issue #301 has an article on masterpiece performances, which give different kinds of bonuses when you use them. For example, The Blackworm Wiggle is a comedic dance that works like the bardic fascinate ability, but causes a -8 penalty to Spot and Listen checks, and The Blood Tears of Corellon...

other stuff Some of my submissions made the cut for Sword and Sorcery's CC II (stench toad and time killer) and R&R II (stone of sharpness and Mormo's Embrace), but I stopped doing open call work because it was a lot of work with no promised return. So most of my published work appears in...

Other abilities Howdy, The survivalist originally did have other abilities, but the word count of the article wound up being on the high side, putting it mildly, and I wound up cutting a lot. I didn't remember axing everything for the survivalist, but that's a moot point now, right? I'm not...

Issue #299. I know that article well, since I wrote it.

I see this sort of comment a lot, and I used to think the same thing before I read a few of the columns. They only have relevance to the computer game in that the computer game provides the inspiration for the D&D material. You'll typically get a little background, and then it's on to the...

I'm a huge fan of epic stories, but I think the real meaning of the word has become sadly diluted from overuse these days. Every movie is described as epic, though few actually are, for example. Whenever I try to tell an epic story, I almost invariably start my group at 1st level. Epic stories...

I did a variant of the tavern intro once. Each of the group members was in the tavern separately when another adventurer came in and began making a scene about how he needed some companions for a rich haul he was about to make. My players all gathered around the table, along with some other...

I just recently went through something like this myself. I run a small group, only 4 people. One of them recently left the game. I wouldn't know this unless his girlfriend told me though, since he wasn't planning on letting me know. He didn't think it was necessary. This follows several long...

If you haven't seen it yet, Six String Samurai is a post-apoc movie where the USSR nuked America in the 50's, and Elvis is indeed king of Las Vegas. It's about a wandering warrior/minstrel named Buddy who's out to be the new king.