Lone Wolf RPG

[Outlier]

Honestly, Lone Wolf 1: Flight From the Darkness is what got me started on the path to becoming a roleplayer. I only ever had the first book in the series and have since misplaced it. I managed to pick up a general game book for the series several years back now in a second hand college book store. Whenever I mention this game I usually get blank stares. Everyone knows DnD, but does anyone know LW?

[HairyHeretic]

Yep, I remember it. It was one of my early intros as well.

I think Mongoose published a d20 version, didn't they?

[Outlier]

That they did. The general game book that I have is of the d20 system. I believe the book was published in 2004. Glad someone knows of the series!

[HairyHeretic]

I cut my teeth on Lone Wolf, the old Fighting Fantasy novels, and the Way of the Tiger ones.

[Outlier]

Can't say that I'm familiar with Way of the Tiger. Were they solo books like LW?

[DarklingAlice]

Lone Wolf was my gateway to roleplaying as well, along with Greystar books from the same publishers. I was always a little worried about the Mongoose RPG though, I'm not sure the D20 system is conducive to the feel of the series. But I could be wrong.

[Shjade]

When I hear Lone Wolf I think of this. Cue my confusion in trying to picture that as an RPG setting.

[HairyHeretic]

Can't say that I'm familiar with Way of the Tiger. Were they solo books like LW?

Yep. I think they weren't as well known as the others though.

[Lord Drake]

*Raises his Sommerswerd*

Present!!

"Flight from Darkness" (Lone Wolf) and "Warlock of Firetop Mountain" (Steve Jackson Games) have been my first two gamebooks ever!

I've seen the roleplay around but I never played it, though.

[Chris Brady]

Actually, Mongoose Publishing has been reprinting the old Solo adventure books (I'm actually going through the first one RIGHT NOW, it's on my lap, and I have paper and D10 and everything) and they've recently come out with a line of 'Multitplayer books' based on events before Silent Wolf's flight from the destroyed monastery.

http://www.mongoosepublishing.com/rpgs/lonewolfrpg.html

Before I forget, it's in collaboration with Joe Dever, the creator and writer of the Lone Wolf series.

Hmm, I need to pick up a few more of the books, now that I see this.

Oh, and yeah, I LOVE this series.  Even if my current Lone Wolf is a master of weapons (How many times did I have to roll a bloody six??? 5 times apparently) and nothing else.  I'm pretty sure this will hurt...

[Lord Drake]

Hmm, I need to pick up a few more of the books, now that I see this.

Incidentally

The books of Lone Wiolf have been expanded and integrated recently, by Joe Dever. Although the integrated versions are not on Ebook.

[Avis habilis]

Have you had a look at those new Lone Wolf RPG books, Drake? I hear they're a lot like the system that was used in the single-player game books, just beefed up a little to be usable as a multi-player game. It sounds a bit like the way they puffed Fighting Fantasy up into a simple three-stat RPG.

[Silverfyre]

LoneWolf was one of the book series that introduced me to role playing as well, back when I was but a wee Silver.  I found a copy of the second book in the series in a local library and I ended up buying most of their collection when the library sold off some of their old paperbacks. I still have them, along with some old DnD solo adventure books which were in the same vein as the LoneWolf series.  "Dragon of Doom" remains my favorite of those DnD adventure books.

[Avis habilis]

There's a whole collection of threads on RPG.net in which they play through all the books in order by taking votes on which option to choose. This Google result has links to all of them at the top: https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&source=hp&biw=1087&bih=615&q=let%27s+play+lone+wolf&gbv=2&oq=%5Blet%27s+play%5D+lone+w&aq=0&aqi=g1g-v3&aql=&gs_sm=e&gs_upl=587l3766l0l5117l19l16l0l0l0l0l261l2656l2.9.5l16l0

I think there were ten (threads) in all.

[Chris Brady]

Incidentally

The books of Lone Wiolf have been expanded and integrated recently, by Joe Dever. Although the integrated versions are not on Ebook.

If they're the ones in Hard Cover, I have the first one in hard copy, it's the one where my LW is a weapons master (Or at least, daggers, all three sword types and staff.)

[Outlier]

I was looking through the Mongoose site wishing for just half of the books on there. I really love the lore, the lands, the characters. It's so easy to jump into in my opinion. I believe the book I had was a soft cover one because I remember it being well loved by the time I got it from a boy in my math class back in middle school. You know, I just might ask for the first book for Christmas. I also remember two particular deaths of my Lone. The first was when I decided to go over that hill, was spotted, pretended to stand still, and ended up with my head handing off of his winged mount's saddle. The second time I made it up to that point again this time going into the tunnel where I lost the battle with the creature and died. Needless to say I hated that hill.

Any memorable moments from playing the series?

[Chris Brady]

Well, Outlier, my dice REALLY like my Lone Wolf, I'm still in the first arc, having JUST picked up the Pearl Iron Broadsword, but I've taken all of two health in the fights, so far and either one or two shot most Giaks.  "Oh look a nine, what does that...  OK, 12 damage...  It had...  11, OK.  Next fight.  I roll a...  10.  Me -0, it K.  Dead.  Right, I am awesome."

[ryanmcallister80]

I didn't realise there were so many others here that started RPG'ing the same way I did. Lone Wolf was my introduction too, along with Fighting Fantasy. I preferred LW due to the fact it felt like you were part of an evolving storyline by playing the same character who steadily improved as he got deeper into the conflict. It was a classic good vs evil story but I think it was done so well as an adventure book it could easily have been made into a series of movies and been much more well known than it is. I had the first 20 books and bought the Mongoose D20 rpg (though I don't care for D20 systems) out of my love for the series, I even had two new character classes published in their ezine Signs & Portents which was a great honour for me. The fact they switched from that system to the 'multiplayer' rpg recently published was disappointing but I think mongoose have a history of poor support for their titles.   

[Avis habilis]

Here's a really interesting interview with Joe Dever: http://www.mantikore-verlag.de/forum/index.php?thema_id=59

Some highlights:

It wasn’t until the early 1980’s that I decided to quit the music industry and go into the games business. After working on White Dwarf magazine 1982-83, the opportunity arose for me to develop Lone Wolf as a viable product. Until this point, the world of Magnamund had been the setting for my D&D and AD&D campaigns.

...

In fact, I made a deliberate decision early on not to read any Fighting Fantasy books because I didn’t want Lone Wolf to be like them.

...

Magnamund was first created in 1976, and the birth of the Kai Lords took place in the summer of 1977 shortly after I discovered D&D. In fact, the Kai was the first D&D character class I invented for my campaigns.

[Chris Brady]

Awesome!

[NotoriusBEN]

Im sure if you go to your local game shop they would be happy to order the Lone Wolf Books for you.

I have been blessed by a comic shop (shamelessly plugging Olympic Cards and Comics in Lacey, WA, USA) that caters to *everyone*.

-1/2 the store is dedicated to Anime/Manga, DC/Marvel, Statues/Action Figures and items of those gamut. (I could split it further, but I dont frequent this side much.
-1/4 of the store has Wargaming supplies, Mostly Warhammer and Warma/Hordes, but also a good smatering of other peuter mini's
-1/4 of the store has RPGs from the popular Pathfinder and DnD4e to esoteric rpg systems. Name it, 90% sure they got a copy of it, but you may have to dig for the older stuff.
-There's even a wall from floor to ceiling on both sides that are boardgames of all stripes. I'd love to play a game of Dominion or Dust, but I dont know enough friends that like boardgames to justify the purchases :P

And the cool thing about these owners are that if they *dont* have it, they will look for what you want and order it.

Wow that was a tangent, but the point is, I was able to order many volumes of the Lone Wolf CYOA books. :P

[DarklingAlice]

So has anyone had a chance to check out the Lone Wolf multiplayer books? I was completely disappointed by the D20 system version, but then I am generally not a fan of them.

[Chris Brady]

I own most of them.  What do you want to know?

[DarklingAlice]

I own most of them.  What do you want to know?

Basically, how have they been adapted for multi-play, have you given them a shot with a group, etc?

[Chris Brady]

It's pretty much the original system.  They've added a few rules for multiple targets on a single foe, but I tend to ignore that, as it turns into a death spiral right quick if the players are separated or whatnot.  The other major change is the uppage of hit points/Endurance the monsters/enemies have.  I've tried it straight up in a group, and we agreed that they didn't need to do that.  So we cut down the Endurance for 'mook' monsters, the types where you're supposed to take down in one shot.

Which brings me to my main love, it's so EASY to modify!  Not sure if you're cool with that (some aren't) but the ability to take a rule, tweak it to fit my personal conceits without the entire system disassembling (3.x I'm looking at you!) is awesome.