Dragon Lines is fully available

[RosenMcStern]

Dragon Lines is now available on DriveThruRPG and RPGNow. I will upload it to YourGamesNow and Arima in a few hours, too. Charlie now has the PDF, so it will become available throught Chaosium soon, in case someone wants to buy it there.

A free PDF with the character sheets is now available at our new web page www.alephtargames.com . The maps will be available there as a free download in a few hours, too. Oh, and we did it again The maps are by Colin Driver, but we forgot to put his name in the credits.

I do not have physical books in stock, yet, so you must order through Cubicle 7 to get the printed edition shipped immediately. If someone wants to purchase the print+PDF bundle and really, really cannot wait, email me or post here and I'll make it available somehow - you will only have to wait a bit before we ship the book. The bundle is 23,95 EUR (plus postage) for book + PDF.

[GianniVacca]

If someone wants to purchase the print+PDF bundle and really, really cannot wait, email me or post here and I'll make it available somehow - you will only have to wait a bit before we ship the book. The bundle is 23,95 EUR (plus postage) for book + PDF.

Are you taking orders for Bacharach delivery?

[RosenMcStern]

No, because last time it ended up with me carrying two luggages full of books up to the Castle. Whoever has been to Castle Stahleck knows what I mean

[Trifletraxor]

Hehhehehehe!

SGL.

[Conrad]

www.alephtargames.com . The maps will be available there as a free download in a few hours, too.

I can't find any maps on the Alephtar site. Are they up yet or am I failing my Spot Obvious Item roll?

[RosenMcStern]

No, your Spot skill is good as usual. It was just a matter of Joomla not "liking" zip files unless you explicitly enable them. The package is now ready for download.

[Conrad]

Very nice! Thank you!

[RosenMcStern]

Now available from Chaosium, too.

http://catalog.chaosium.com/product_info.php?products_id=5087

I just sent the PDF to Chaosium, so you will also be able to get it from them tomorrow. But such a beautiful book really deserves to be on your bookshelf as a physical product.

[GianniVacca]

But such a beautiful book really deserves to be on your bookshelf as a physical product.

Agreed. So when am I receiving mine?

[RosenMcStern]

As soon as you see it as labeled as "In stock" on Alephtar Games site, pre-orders will ship.

[camazotz]

Ordered mine through one of my favorite online retails, now waiting patiently. I really love the concept behind this book, enough to order site unseen, but I figure with a cover like that it can't be half bad inside, either....not to mention I'm dying to see how DL injects BRP with Kung-Fu. Also interested in seeing how easily I can use it with RQII.

[Charles Green]

Running DL in RQII shouldn't be too difficult. You may have to adjust some elements to really make it work.

The Martial Arts skill is the core of the system, and it works just like it does in other d100 games. It also allows access to certain powers, which function in one of two ways:1) as a permanent alteration to the character, or 2)a skill-based ability to affect the environment.

This could work in RQII, but I'm not certain a character using this power system would be in balance with other RQII characters.

[camazotz]

Got my copy yesterday, and it looks very nice. Im reading through it now; if I use it with RQII instead of BRP, I think it will work fine as long as all characters are derived from or benefit from the martial arts in Dragon Lines. That said, I may just stick with BRP, although the reason I was considering RQII initially was to use Dragon Lines to buff up a Three Kingdoms-analog in my RQ campaign setting.

Anyway, I'm working out a planned campaign down the road, after our new Ruins & Rubble campaign plays through. Very happy that my gaming group has wholly embraced BRP/RQ as our primary game system these days!

[sdavies2720]

This could work in RQII, but I'm not certain a character using this power system would be in balance with other RQII characters.

Yes, that is clearly the issue. One thing I am considering is making the Styles available as Heroic Abilities -- so players would pay hero points to get the base skill for their character, including the bonuses to related skills. And that would allow them to take the more exotic abilities as additional Heroic Abilities. I haven't worked it all through, but the Heroic Ability mechanism is a way to balance it, make the martial arts more rare (in my campaign not everybody has them) and extract a cost for them. Now whether that can make them balanced remains to be seen -- I don't want to create a situation where it costs a lot to get the ability, but then once the cost is paid, they are overpowering.

Steve

[RosenMcStern]

I am a but unsure about Chi Powers in Dragon Lines translating to Heroic Abilities in MRQ2. The mechanics for advancement in DL grant some balancing themselves, so I see no need to limit them to heroic level.

I would rather see them translated into Combat Manoeuvers available to Martial Artists only. And only if you have the correct Martial Art skill and learn the Power.

[sdavies2720]

I am a but unsure about Chi Powers in Dragon Lines translating to Heroic Abilities in MRQ2. The mechanics for advancement in DL grant some balancing themselves, so I see no need to limit them to heroic level.

I would rather see them translated into Combat Manoeuvers available to Martial Artists only. And only if you have the correct Martial Art skill and learn the Power.

I agree that they are slightly different beasts. But when I see something like Air Dragon Style that adds a 20% bonus to 4 attack types, adds 20% to three other skills including fly, makes 3 techniques available and 17 powers available, I want to limit access. Without introducing a new rule mechanism, it looked like Heroic Abilities were a decent way to limit this.

In game terms, the character would go to the appropriate center of learning, spend time learning the technique, pay their Hero Points, and emerge with the Style at base.

Luckily I don't have any players who are pushing their characters in that direction.

Steve

[RosenMcStern]

Before someone becomes too excited after what sdavies said, please note that most of the above advantages must be learned one at a time: in Dragon Lines you get one new "goodie" per each 10% you have in your Martial Arts style. This is why I suggested that Heroic Abilities are not needed: you must be over 100% skill to learn all that stuff together, and many styles require 16+ in one characteristic, which is in itself more than the requirements for most Heroic Abilities. The difference, with the Dragon Lines method, is that you start learning "cool" powers as soon as you learn the basics of the style. Just not _all_ the cool powers.

[soltakss]

In any case, I would want martial artists using these abilities to be overpowering. In fiction and films/TV they are overpowering, each being the equivalent of 10-20 normal people.

[sdavies2720]

Before someone becomes too excited after what sdavies said, please note that most of the above advantages must be learned one at a time: in Dragon Lines you get one new "goodie" per each 10% you have in your Martial Arts style. This is why I suggested that Heroic Abilities are not needed: you must be over 100% skill to learn all that stuff together, and many styles require 16+ in one characteristic, which is in itself more than the requirements for most Heroic Abilities. The difference, with the Dragon Lines method, is that you start learning "cool" powers as soon as you learn the basics of the style. Just not _all_ the cool powers.

My goal was not to make the Styles sound too powerful -- in context I think they're fine. But even if you leave aside the Powers, just getting the bonuses to other skills and attacks is a huge advantage from one 'skill.'

I think (based on reading, not yet playing) the styles are self-balanced. It's just in my campaign, Martial Arts are not the main focus, but there is a region for which they would be perfect soI'd like to introduce them. And I know one or two players that would learn them if they could. I just want them to be specialities that some people pursue, rather than core elements that everyone takes.

Right now, even with just the skill and attack benefits, everyone would take a martial arts style instead of a 'normal' weapon style. I want to avoid that. Making the style require a Heroic Ability was my quick solution. Maybe there are better ones. I actually hadn't thought through whether the Powers should be Heroic Abilities -- probably not. I would think they get acquired with a similar mechanism to spells and other powers, and limited by the underlying style.

I'm running the climax of a scenario tonight (assuming the players don't piddle around too much) which will have a Bathalian bad guy (think mind flayer) with the Water Dragon Style. It's going to be a great way to see how the rules work in action.

Steve

Steve