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Lone Wolf is back with a vengeance
Flight From The Dark and Fire On The Water (collector's hardback editions, £9.95) from the Lone Wolf series, Mongoose Publishing
Lone Wolf is back - with a vengeance.
The original inter-active gamebooks from the eighties have been revised and updated with some superb new artwork as well as extra storylines and adventures.
And on top of the original twenty-eight books, Mongoose Publishing will release four extra quests to complete the campaign.
The new adventures, as well as the revision of the originals, have been written by Joe Dever and should have Lone Wolf fans licking their lips and whetting their imaginary swords.
The books are set in the world of Magnamund and allow the reader to decide the fate of the character Lone Wolf, who swears vengeance after an attack on his brotherhood.
A random number chart is used to determine such things as Lone Wolf's combat skills and endurance levels and you can choose from a selection of disciplines such as healing, hunting and tracking to help you in the quest.
The series kicks off with Flight From The Dark, which has been expanded to a whopping 450 pages.
In the original, Lone Wolf had been left for dead as the sole survivor of an attack on the Kai Monastery in Sommerlund. This time round he has to fight his way through the hordes of attackers to raise the alarm.
The new start effectively accounts for a third of the adventure, with the second stage being Lone Wolf's flight through the countryside to escape the forces of the Darklords and the third section presenting the young Kai lord with the challenege of navigating his way through the beleaguered city of Holmgard to reach the palace and warn the king about the destruction of the Kai Monastery.
I have to say at this point, resist the temptation to cheat, it will improve your gaming experience. If your Lone Wolf dies (as mine did because of a wrong decision regarding a Helghast) it's back to the drawing board and a case of learning from your mistakes.
The continuity of the books and the world setting give them their appeal and you are encouraged to make notes as you progress through the adventures and learn information which could prove useful in tasks to come.
The Lone Wolf series was massively popular in the eighties for providing fans with a running campaign in a well-imagined world and the updated books should also be a hit with gamers.
Your Lone Wolf character can develop through the books, gaining in skill, and mine certainly experienced many highs and lows, finding magical weapons, losing magical weapons, experiencing near-death experiences (including one very fatal experience for my first Lone Wolf, may he rest in peace) and finally fulfilling his quests.
After battling countless enemies and surviving a variety of near scrapes, I completed Flight From The Dark and turned my attentions to Fire On The Water.
The king sends Lone Wolf on a desperate journey to retrieve the only power in Magnamund that can save the kingdom - the Sommerswerd, the sword of the sun.
Rest assured, book two will see you facing more danger, including a perilous sea journey, ambushes and assassination attempts, and it was in Fire On The Water that my Lone Wolf met his doom.
At least it gave me the opportunity to discover more about the first book as I set about the challenges again!
Mongoose is releasing new adventures just about every month and is also publishing hardback collector's editions of each book - my hardback edition of Fire On The Water included a bonus adventure, playing a valiant knight.
A Lone Wolf Role Playing Game is due for release in December and new novels set in Magnamund have also been written.
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Thursday 09 February 2012
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