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The books in this series are among the most influential gamebooks ever published. The second great British success (after Fighting Fantasy), this series offers a distinctly different style of writing and gameplay. The first twelve books form a continuing storyline in which the reader controls Lone Wolf, the last survivor of an order of warrior-monks known as the Kai, as he grows in power and wisdom and overcomes his nemeses, the Darklords of Helgedad. Books thirteen through twenty follow the character's further development as a Kai Grand Master, and the final eight titles allow the reader to create a new Kai character, a member of the New Order established as the result of Lone Wolf's endeavors. There were originally supposed to be twelve books in the New Order series, but at the urgings of the publisher, the series came to a somewhat rushed close at book number twenty-eight. Before this happened, though, the series managed to spawn several spin-off books: The World of Lone Wolf, a four-gamebook cycle set in the southern part of Magnamund, the fantasy land in which Lone Wolf lives; The Magnamund Companion, a guidebook to all things Lone Wolf which includes a brief gamebook adventure; and Legends of Lone Wolf, a series of novels retelling the plotline of the first eight books of the main gamebook series.
The Lone Wolf books feature a particularly elegant and enjoyable game system, the basics of which are quite straightforward. There are two attributes to keep track of (Combat Skill and Endurance), there's a limit to how much equipment can be carried around (eight backpack items, two weapons, fifty coins and a variety of "special items" carried outside of the backpack), and there's a simple combat system in which combatants compare Combat Skill scores, generate random numbers, and refer to a simple table until one or the other runs out of Endurance points. The system is made most interesting by the fact that the reader must choose the main character's special abilities from a list of options such as Animal Kinship, Tracking or Sixth Sense. Completing books successfully allows new skills to be added, and all of the skills are used frequently during gameplay, either by allowing special actions to be performed or by modifying the rules in various ways (Healing, for example, recovers lost Endurance as time passes, while Hunting prevents the reader from being forced to carry food around). Later books in the series offer more advanced skills and add a few minor additional details to the rules.
The first twelve Lone Wolf books were published in England by Sparrow Books, which became Beaver Books during the run of the series. Fairly early on, Hutchinson released The Lone Wolf Adventures, a hardback volume containing the first two gamebooks. The sixteen books following the first twelve (along with reprints of their predecessors, including an omnibus edition of the first two titles) were put out by Red Fox. In the United States, the series was picked up by Pacer, which printed faithful reproductions (with different covers) of the first two volumes. Pacer was absorbed into Berkley shortly thereafter, and the quality of the American editions slowly declined from that point on. Berkley's editions reduced the original books' color maps to black and white, and when Berkley got around to releasing books thirteen through twenty of the series, it actually printed abridged editions with many sections of text removed. The final eight books were never released in the United States. In 1999, after all English-language editions of Lone Wolf had gone out of print, Joe Dever announced that he wished to encourage the creation of free Internet editions of his work. For this purpose, Project Aon was formed, and the group slowly but steadily began creating authoritative, corrected online versions of the gamebooks.
The efforts of Project Aon eventually bore fruit, as they helped fuel the revised and expanded Lone Wolf Reissues that appeared starting in 2007.
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Lone Wolf Club
Thanks to Andrew G. Black for the image!Lone Wolf Computer Game
Thanks to Andrew G. Black for the image!Lone Wolf Fine Art Sculpture
Thanks to Andrew G. Black for the image!Lone Wolf Knitwear
Thanks to Andrew G. Black for the image!Lone Wolf T-Shirt
Thanks to Andrew G. Black for the image!Lone Wolf: Dawn of the Dragons
from Dragon #188, page 21Lone Wolf: The Deathlord of Ixia
from Dragon #184, page 23Lone Wolf: The Skull of Agarash
from Dragon #206, page 13Play Aids
Lone Wolf # 3 / #4 / # 5 Character Sheet (back)
Lone Wolf # 3 Character Sheet (front)
Lone Wolf # 4 Character Sheet (front)
Lone Wolf # 5 Character Sheet (front)
Lone Wolf # 6 / # 8 Character Sheet (back)
Lone Wolf # 6 Character Sheet (front)
Lone Wolf # 7 Character Sheet (back)
Lone Wolf # 7 Character Sheet (front)
Lone Wolf # 8 Character Sheet (front)
Lone Wolf # 9 / #10 / #11 / #12 Character Sheet (back)
Lone Wolf # 9 Character Sheet (front)
Lone Wolf #10 Character Sheet (front)
Lone Wolf #11 Character Sheet (front)
Lone Wolf #12 Character Sheet (front)
Lone Wolf #13 / #14 / #16 / #18 / #20 Character Sheet (back)
Lone Wolf #13 Character Sheet (front)
Lone Wolf #14 Character Sheet (front)
Lone Wolf #16 Character Sheet (front)
lobo-solitario.com
This is the Spanish-language home of Lone Wolf.
http://www.lobo-solitario.com/ (last verified: 2004-06-09)Project Aon
This wonderful page provides free online Lone Wolf (and other) gamebooks, courtesy of author Joe Dever!
http://www.projectaon.org/ (last verified: 2004-06-09)
I've long felt that the game system in these books is one of the best ever found in a gamebook. Although it's unfortunate that the Combat Skill and Endurance attributes are determined randomly (I prefer point-assignment systems since they allow more strategy), the rest of the system serves to add all kinds of interesting choices on top of the ones that are part of the text. Choosing skills for a new character is always exciting, as is picking the new skill that you are awarded with whenever you successfully finish a book. Inventory management offers further choices both because many books include long lists of items from which a limited number may be chosen and also because limited backpack space often leads to decisions about when to use or abandon equipment. Because of all of this, the reader always feels in control and like a true part of the story.
-- Demian
A long running and highly successful gamebook series, second only to Fighting Fantasy. Each tale of the last Kai Lord, Lone Wolf, leads onto the next story. As such, the series rewards you for completing previous adventures by granting you extra skills, and sometimes very valuable items.
Later books became increasingly descriptive, giving the reader a strong feel and affinity for the world of Aon and its many inhabitants, both good and evil.
One of the finest series of gamebooks, and a must read [chronologically if possible].
-- Haoie
Demian's Gamebook Web Page (c)1998-2010 Demian Katz.