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A Martial Artist's power comes from life-giving Chi, which suffuses the land of the Dragon Empire. It is your duty to use your martial skills and amazing Chi powers to protect the Forbidden City from the hungry ghosts, hopping vampires and Foreign Devils who murder and steal from the innocent. Use an expanded Martial Arts system that is compatible with any Basic Roleplaying game. Characters may employ real-life styles, like boxing or ninjitsu; mystical styles that stem from magic; or design their own styles with the tools provided. There are dozens of styles to choose from, and over one hundred Chi Powers. Explore the expansive Dragon Empire, where beauty and culture are marred by corruption and decadence. Due to high concentrations of Chi, magical spirits live alongside mortals. Players can choose to be humans, spirits, or something in between. Reap the rewards of piety: you might become Enlightened, find a position within the Celestial Bureaucracy, or even take a sip from the Elixir of Immortality. Dragon Lines is a game of high flying action. Characters can wade through hordes of Lesser Foes, and then duel with another Martial Arts masters. You can survive dangers which would slay ordinary mortals. Walk on water, run up walls and along rooftops, and harness the very powers of Heaven to shoot lightning from your fingertips! By Charles Green. 128 pages. Published by Alephtar Games March 2010.

Hello. I've been a fan of Glorantha for decades but I've only lately become active in the wider community. This is also my first (though not last) post on this forum. I'm normally pretty shy at starting forum topics, but it so happens that I'm going to hold a talk at Ropecon, a Finnish role playing convention held on July 2018, on the subject of illumination: how it works in the real world on one hand and in Glorantha on the other. For the real world I'm mostly focusing on Japanese buddhism since that's what I'm most familiar with. Just to make things clear (disclaimer time), my practical purpose for establishing this thread is to ask the fine people of this forum to help me sound out some ideas and gain tips and insight for the talk, although as a Gloranthist I'm also otherwise extremely interested in what will come up. In my talk I will publicly give credit and my heartfelt thanks to the participants of this thread, and post a link to the video of the talk here if it ever gets uploaded (some of them do). Please understand that some of the ideas you post here may end up in the talk, so if you don't want that to happen, please say so in your comment. And of course, no comment posted after the end of July 2018 will even make it in. I am not getting a monetary compensation for holding the talk, although it will gain me a free entry to the event. Now, as I understand, enlightenment in Glorantha comes in two basic flavors: Nysalorian and Draconic illumination. Because Nysalorian revelations give you the power to ignore cult restrictions and embrace chaos with few repercussions, I've always had the understanding that the revelations themselves are chaotic in origin, or more accurately transcend the dichotomy between gods and chaos. I guess they are probably based on some insight that all stuff is fundamentally made of primal chaos or such. This form of illumination seems to hold up with the buddhist view that the world is based on nothingness and that the world is ultimately a chaotic and random existence. At least Heroquest Glorantha treats draconic enlightenment as something similar to Nysalorean in terms of gaming rules, but I think the two are quite different. First, where Nysalorean illumination features a dichotomy of gods and chaos, the Draconic kind only focuses on dragons and how to become one. Godunya doesn't seem to do any chaotic or otherwise anti-draconic stuff while meditating to become a dragon (although who knows...), nor is chaos a big part of the Kralorean setting when compared to the lunar one. It's also hard to imagine Argrath's Dragonically illuminated warlocks sprouting tentacles. In short, if you consider all this and the stuff that draconewts and EWF do and did, draconic enlightenment seems to hold up better with another facet of real world enlightenment: the liberation of the soul, or the reaching of a transcended state of existence through meditation. As a side note, although the runic goal of illumination seems to be the gaining of the infinity rune, Orlanthi mystics are also doing something similar with the mastery rune high up on the mountains. In short, it seems to me that the different Gloranthan traditions of illumination are drawing from different aspects of real world enlightenment, and that they are actually quite different from one another. What are your thoughts on this? Also, does anybody know where the illuminated Riddlers and draconic mystics go in the afterlife? Not the primordial chaos, I bet.

I posted this over on BoardGameGeek some time ago, and thought this would be at least as appropriate a place for it. Enjoy: These guys seemed to be glaringly absent from the game, so I came up with a little rules modification for them. The mechanics involved obviously complicate things tactically (as if the game needed it), but I like them a lot. The rules are numbered to match the point where they would be included in the rules for the Avalon Hill version. If you have any questions, post them and I'll do my best to answer them. The Hero is described last, for reasons which will become obvious. And so, without further ado, meet: [16.18] The Aldryami (new Major Independent; counters are light green, printed in blue) Advantage needed to ally: 25 DP Territory: Stinking Forest Capital: None ORDER OF BATTLE: (Counter back names follow unit statistics) 1...Grandson (Hero: (4!)-10*-6-6/(2!)-5*-3-0) GRANDSON 1...Dryads (1-5*-3*-5/0-3*-2*-0) DRYAD 1...Dryads' Spirit (X-5-X-5/X-3-X-5) DRYAD S 1...Aldrya Healers (2-6*-3*-6/1-3*-2*-6) ALDRYA HLRS 1...Healers' Spirit (X-6-X-6/X-3-X-6) ALDRYA S 2...Elven Footmen (3-3-3*-X/2-2-2*-X) 1 ELVEN FOOT, 2 ELVEN FOOT 1...Elven Cavalry (4-3-5*-X/2-2-3*-X) 1 ELVEN CAV 2...Elven Bowmen (2**-3-3*-X/1*-2-2*-X) TREEWARDENS, TROLLSLAYERS 1...Elven Mounted Bow (3***-3-5*-X/2*-2-3*-X) TRUESHOTS [16.18.1] Allying the Aldryami The Aldryami are a major independent and as such are allied according to the diplomatic rules (see [14.1]). When they are allied, they may be deployed in any distribution in forest or hill/forest hexes within the Stinking Forest. (Note that the hill/forest hexes north and east of Cliffhome are not considered part of the Stinking Forest, nor are hexes through which The River runs or which are south of The River.) If any Aldryami units are initially placed in hexes containing inactive units, the inactive units are eliminated, and any herds and treasures among them are captured. Inactive heroes and superheroes may attempt to escape as usual. The Aldryami have no capital in Dragon Pass, so do not incur the effects of [14.1.6] (Control of Capitals). The Aldryami will not ally with a player who is already allied with Cragspider, The Dwarf, or the Tusk Riders, regardless of DP advantage, and will immediately become neutral should their allied player ally with any of these, taking with them any treasures in hexes which are occupied by Aldryami units. (The allied player may have Gifts from the Dwarf without incurring this rule.) Such units are removed from the board, though not necessarily from the game; the Aldryami may be allied at a later time. The DP allocation which the allied player had with the Aldryami is reset to zero in this case, possibly causing them to immediately change allegiance. If such a case does occur, currently-surviving units are removed, then redeployed in their starting positions on the new allied player's next turn, including captured treasures. [16.18.2] Special Movement and Combat All Aldryami move through forest and hill/forest hexes at a cost of 1 MP/hex in clear weather. They do not suffer from the missile fire penalty for being in/firing into forest or hill/forest hexes, though other modifiers will apply. The 1st Elven Cavalry and the Trueshots are considered cavalry units for the purpose of Ironhoof's exotic ability. [16.18.3] Dryads Dryads can turn the trees against invaders. When this ability is invoked, any non-allied units in a single forest or hill/forest hex within the Dryads' RF have their movement and combat factors halved (rounding up) for the remainder of the allied player's turn. This halving is applied after all other modifiers, including for Leadership (see [7.10.6.5]). The Dryads may take no other action while the ability is in effect, and it begins in their allied player's Exotics Phase. [16.18.4] Aldrya Healers Aldrya Healers may either reduce the elimination of one major unit to disruption, or disruption to no effect (including themselves). The unit must either be in the same or an adjacent hex. The Healers may take no other action for the rest of the game-turn. This action may occur at any time during the game-turn, so long as no other action has already been taken by the Healers in that turn. Note that Healers may be involved in combat and still be able to heal, but they may not attack, retreat, counterattack, or advance after melee. The ability will not affect the Puppeteers' Illusionary Armies, Dragons, Delecti or his Zombies, Hungry Jack, Hell Hound, Chaos creatures, or casualties caused by Chaotic magic, nor will it regenerate units eliminated for using their exotic abilities. [16.18.5] Grandson Grandson is a powerful healer. He may invoke the same ability that the Aldrya Healers have, except that he can heal up to two 'steps' of damage (reducing one elimination to no effect, two eliminations to disruptions, two disruptions to no effect, or one elimination to disruption and one disruption to no effect), and can heal any unit within his RF. (Thus, even if disrupted, he can heal any major unit in the hex he occupies.) The healing is a one- time action in any given turn; he cannot heal one 'step' at one point and then save the other 'step' for use later in the turn. This ability is otherwise subject to the same conditions as for the Aldrya Healers, except that his Leadership factor can always apply; including it when counting up CF's is not considered an action as far as using healing is concerned. Grandson can also summon the Dryads unit if he is in a forest or hill/forest hex. The Dryads must not have used their exotic ability during the turn in which they are summoned, but may have moved and/or participated in combat. Grandson may not have taken any other action during the turn in which the Dryads are summoned. This action takes place during the allied player's Rally Phase. The Dryads may move and act normally in the following turn. The Dryads' Spirit does not move with the Dryads in this case.