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Lone Wolf – The Roleplaying Game

As an old fan of the Lone Wolf fantasy gaming books by Joe Dever, I was thrilled to see that Mongoose Publishing brought out Lone Wolf – The Roleplaying Game. The book in my hands I was wondering how it would stand against the expectations: would it be like the old books, would the old atmosphere have survived, would the Lone Wolf game work in a d20 system?

Lone Wolf – The Roleplaying Game comes as a 304 pages strong hardcover with a cover that is reminiscent of the first book in the old series – two Kai Warriors in green cloaks in front of the monastery in a winter landscape. The illustrations within the book are all of good quality although I would have liked to see some of the original drawings from the old series, especially in the monster section.

A map also comes with the book, a map of Magnamund which every fan of the gaming book days will recognise and love. Finally we get a large map of the lands we travelled through. This map is also one of the pieces which can be easily adopted into other campaigns and systems. It inspires to great adventures and campaigns.

Like almost all role-playing books today the texts within are organised in two columns and are structured very good by a clear distinction between titles, sub-titles and normal texts – although it would have helped the reader and especially the searching reader if the chapters would have got numbers.

This, however, is balanced by the well structured table of contents and a four page long index in the back of the book. In the back there are also copyable character sheets in the normal d20 layout – nothing special here.

The introduction is taken from the old game books and presents an overview about what the book holds for the reader, how its connection to the old Lone Wolf series is, and what reader can expect to find in it. Like for example IronCrown with its MERP system, Mongoose also chose a campaign setting which takes place before the original story is about to happen. The choice is reasonable as it takes place fifty years before the story of the gaming books and therefore has the monastery of the Kai still intact and on the height of its power (otherwise it would have been like a Star Wars RPG without Jedis – somewhat senseless!)

A short chapter explains the rules, attributes, character creation, experience points, etc. It provides nothing new to the d20-veteran. For newbies, however, it is nicely written and the rules are very clearly arranged.

The only “new” items to be found here are a hommage to the gaming book series as hit points are called “Endurance” and the Base Attack Bonus is called “Combat Skill” (very nice!).

The next few chapters present the seven character classes of the Lone Wolf RPG. Readers of the old series will find some of the interesting and beloved NSCs from days past.

All classes are introduced by a short text, their characteristics, their religious views, their background, their attitude towards the other classes, possible adventure ideas, and their special abilities (and possible spells).

The number of pages ranges from only five for the Dwarven Gunner of Bor to up to sixteen for the Kai Lord. Nevertheless, the balance has been kept and although the page count seems to suggest superiority on the side of the Kai and the Brotherhood of the Crystal Star, this is not the case. Despite their vast array of abilities, they are well-balanced with Knights or the Dwarves for example.

The character classes are as follows:

-         Brother of the Crystal Star,

-         Dwarven Gunner of Bor,

-         Kai Lord,

-         Magician of Dessi,

-         Shadaki Buccaneer,

-         Sommerlung Knight of the Realm, and

-         Telchos Warrior.

An interesting difference from the the normal d20 system are the spell casting character classes: neither the Magicians of Dessi nor the Brotherhood of the Crystal Star choose spells from a large list but learn an ability like alchemy or levitation and win new effects in those by gaining levels.

The abilities of the Kai are superbly converted and they are all in here. The Kai Disciplines and for characters of tenths or higher level even the higher abilities which were available from book thirteen onwards. Like the spells a Kai always learns a basic ability and gains more powerful effects by gaining levels.

What I really liked is that they converted the Circles of Knowledge, too – those combinations of Kai Disciplines which provide special boni if learned together.

The chapters about skills and equipment present no novelties. Equipment on the contrary provides a list of rather old items: Laumspur, Fire Spheres from Kalte, and legendary items like the Dagger of Vashna, the Stones of Nyxator and, of course, the Sommerswerd!

The rules for these items are well done, although I always imagined the Stones of Nyxator to be more powerful.

The rules of combat bring no news either, however, another hommage to the gaming books: psychic combat. Again introduced by a quote from the books, which in past times had given more than one player shaky hands: the fact that a monster was immune to physic force and that it had to be engaged in psychic combat.

The rules of psychic combat are like the rest of the book, well balanced.

The next chapter deals with hints and information for adventuring in Magnamund. It provides information about disease, poison, acid, traps, dungeon design, and similar icky bad things.

The part for the gamemaster of a Lone Wolf campaign offers useful hints about gamemastering not only in Magnamund but in every campaign world and system. I like how the peculiarities of Magnamund and the gaming in Magnamund are emphasised – the particularly stressed word here is HERO!

There is also a section about how the Lone Wolf RPG could be used as a sourcebook with other systems or world and what has to be taken into account in such cases.

The following seventy pages presents, titled as Magnamund Gazetteer, the history of the campaign world as well as the most important places and regions in detail. This provides a well rounded picture of the world for the game and I would suggest to let parts of it being read by the players of a campaign.

The Magnamund Bestiary offers after a description of the special abilities and skills as well as the rules for monsters those creatures which can get into the characters’ way. Next to normal animals are here those beings which caused shivers already in the gaming books: simple Giaks, dark Drakkarim, grisly Helghasts and creepy Vordaks.

There are, however, no statistics for the Dark Lords – a fact which I like as they are the powers in the background which are not really supposed to be faced directly by the PCs – they have got their slaves and minions for this, haven’t they?

The end of the books is composed by two short commentaries by the authors and the Random Number Table which is also a quote from the gaming books – brilliant! As the rest has been converted to the d20 system, so has the Random Number Table, so that you could just leave your dice at home and play (like in the olden days) with the book alone.

Final Commentary

The conversion of Magnamund from the gaming books to the d20 system has been done with great care and works well in my opinion. The descriptions are well done, the rules explained very clearly and pose not problem especially to veterans of D&D and d20 products. Next to the monsters, items, classes, and the Random Number Table I named above I got a really warm feeling around my heart when I read those wordings which are adapted quotes from the gaming books: “If you wish to unlock the steel door that leads to the Dwarven armoury of Bor, turn to page 27….”

The only thing I have to complain about is the inseparable combination of races and classes. Why is it impossible for a Dwarf to become a Kai Lord or why can’t a Dessi not become a Knight of Sommerlund?

Nevertheless, I really recommend the book to any fan of the gaming books and everyone who is looking for an interesting campaign world. The author August Hahn and the layouter Ian Belcher really made it, the atmosphere of the marvellous gaming books by Joe Dever has been converted into a RPG!

… turn to page 27 …

munchy

P.S.: Original review published in German on www.helden.de !

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