The Lone Wolf Adventure Game
- Thread starter Morrus
- Start date
Lycanthropos
Explorer
5 out of 5 rating for The Lone Wolf Adventure Game
I have done the review from the digital version of the game, because the physical copy is not finished yet. I'm 43 years old. My first contact with any RPG was *Flight from the dark* when I was 12 years old. I read all the Lone Wolf books that were published in spanish and once Internet arrived to our lives, I read the rest thanks to Joe Dever and Aon Project. I felt in love with Magnamund and lone wolf characters. I felt in love with this hobby. When I read that Cubicle 7 had reached an agreement with Joe Dever to re-enact the Lone Wolf adventures creating an RPG system that simulates and improves the books, I was interested. They were kickstarting the project with astounding success. Cubicle 7 are the creators of the superb The One Ring, and one of the most original rpg publishers nowadays. (And I must say that the Moongose Publishing d20 edition couldn't capture the Lone Wolf spirit). I have been not dissapointed. The Game comes with several pregen characters, 3 books that covers several levels of the game (with increasing complexity), maps, tokens... Ah! THe kickstarter fruits! The basic rules feels like reading the books. The more advanced levels injects new role-playing posibilities without breaking the feel of the setting. They really enrich the role playing experience. Cubicle 7 have designed another masterpiece. A wonderful game to introduce your kids to roleplaying. Let them read de books. Play Kai Masters with them. Mine are eager to play each month.
I have done the review from the digital version of the game, because the physical copy is not finished yet. I'm 43 years old. My first contact with any RPG was *Flight from the dark* when I was 12 years old. I read all the Lone Wolf books that were published in spanish and once Internet arrived to our lives, I read the rest thanks to Joe Dever and Aon Project. I felt in love with Magnamund and lone wolf characters. I felt in love with this hobby. When I read that Cubicle 7 had reached an agreement with Joe Dever to re-enact the Lone Wolf adventures creating an RPG system that simulates and improves the books, I was interested. They were kickstarting the project with astounding success. Cubicle 7 are the creators of the superb The One Ring, and one of the most original rpg publishers nowadays. (And I must say that the Moongose Publishing d20 edition couldn't capture the Lone Wolf spirit). I have been not dissapointed. The Game comes with several pregen characters, 3 books that covers several levels of the game (with increasing complexity), maps, tokens... Ah! THe kickstarter fruits! The basic rules feels like reading the books. The more advanced levels injects new role-playing posibilities without breaking the feel of the setting. They really enrich the role playing experience. Cubicle 7 have designed another masterpiece. A wonderful game to introduce your kids to roleplaying. Let them read de books. Play Kai Masters with them. Mine are eager to play each month.
JanBolt
First Post
5 out of 5 rating for The Lone Wolf Adventure Game
If you ever read the epic story of Lone Wolf when you were a kid... If you ever dreamed to be a Kay Master... If you ever wanted to travel abroad to foreign and wonderous places... You won't get dissapointed with this RPG re-incarnate. Lone Wolf introduced to me into rpg-ing when I was a kid. Afterwards it came the red D&D box. Now it's the perfect vehicle to introduce my own kids into RPGs. Even better than D&D 5e.
If you ever read the epic story of Lone Wolf when you were a kid... If you ever dreamed to be a Kay Master... If you ever wanted to travel abroad to foreign and wonderous places... You won't get dissapointed with this RPG re-incarnate. Lone Wolf introduced to me into rpg-ing when I was a kid. Afterwards it came the red D&D box. Now it's the perfect vehicle to introduce my own kids into RPGs. Even better than D&D 5e.
silverfoxdmt73
Villager
5 out of 5 rating for The Lone Wolf Adventure Game
A Confession
Okay, so before I go into the actual review I have a confession to make. Way back in 1984 Joe Dever's Lone Wolf game books were my entry into roleplaying. I bought every book released and loved the world he created. The big advantage in my eyes his books had over others was their continuity, the fact you played as the same character and were able to carry forward your abilities and equipment through the whole series. I love the Lone Wolf mythos so I am more than a little biased. But I think that could make me potentially more critical of any other product based in his world, Magnamund. There have been other ventures that tried to turn this 'Choose Your Own Adventure' series into a full blown RPG with mixed results. The weight of expectation was heavy during the Kickstarter for this new Adventure Game. I had the fortune to proof read initial drafts of the core books so when the physical product finally arrived on my doorstep I was aware of some of its content, but would the quality of the content be matched by the finish of the boxed set itself?
Unboxing
So, what do you get for your £20($30)? Three softback books, Kai Training, Wisdom and Legends, a half dozen gatefold pregenerated character sheets (wonderfully illustrated I have to add), a double sided map, equipment list, a combat result chart, several blank character sheets and a sturdy set of card counters. The inside of the box lid also has a grid of random numbers between 0 and 9 and is used to choose Random Numbers. My only criticism of the content of the boxed set is that the loose pages could have been printed on a slightly heavier stock of paper, though I can understand that cost would have been a factor in Cubicle 7's decision to use the weight they did. That said, it is a very minor point and in no way detracts from what is in essence an extremely high quality product. The layout and art featured throughout the three core books and other contents of the box is of an exceptionally high standard, presenting a uniform feel to the set that helps bring the text of the books to life.
Rules
As the boxed set is designed to appeal to both new and experienced gamers alike, the game mechanics are presented in two distinct levels of complexity, the Initiate and Master level. Both have at their core the Random Number mechanic, a throwback to the original game books. Essentially every time a Hero needs to make some kind of test it is against a Target Number of somewhere between 1 and 9, with a TN of 6 being average. To make the test the player simply flips one of the card tokens into the box lid and whichever number the token lands on is their test result. Kai Disciplines give a bonus to the test as do a characters Skills and Traits in the Master level game. The beginner, or Initiate level rules are essentially the same as those found in the original game books with the Heroes having two main abilities; Combat Skill (CS) and Endurance (END) ranked between 10-19 for CS and 20-29 for END. As well as these raw physical abilities, as a Kai Lord the Heroes have access to Kai Disciplines, innate powers that have been honed by years of training and devotion to the sun god Kai, patron deity of the Kai Lords and the ream they are sworn to protect Sommerlund. There are ten Kai Disciplines in total and as an Initiate the Heroes start out life having learned five of these powers, each with their own benefit. For more experienced gamers, the Master level rules add Skills, Traits and advanced Disciplines along with a host of supplementary situational rules to cover things like fire, poison, falling etc. The Master rules are entirely optional and it is up to the GM to decide which rules they want to add and therefor how complex they want to make their game. Obviously, for those who want to make their games as realistic as possible all of the Master rules can be used to enhance all aspects of their gameplay, including combat which in the Initiate level functions in exactly the same way as the old game books, which is to say the Hero compares their CS against their adversaries and gets a Combat Ratio (either positive or negative), chooses a Random Number and consults the Combat Results Table which tells him how much Endurance both he and his foe have lost - repeat until someone dies. While this is a quick and easy introduction to new gamers, especially younger ones, it doesn't present the players with many tactical decisions to make. The Master level rules allow for several different options to be bolted on to the core mechanic and do offer much more options to both players and the GM alike creating a more satisfying mechanic for both melee and ranged combat.
Conclusion
While I am biased, I will say the game has its limitations in its attempt to keep the overall feel of the game books - there is only so much you can do with what is in essence a d10 mechanic - however, I would counter that with the opinion that what the game might lack in raw mechanics more than makes up for with the way it DOES capture the feel of a world that has been growing in depth and detail for the last 30 years or so. I do feel that this is the most faithful and well executed version of the Lone Wolf RPG yet and with the release schedule I have seen so far, it appears it is going to be the best supported one too. Joe Dever and August Hahn (along with the rest of the Cubicle 7 team) have done a tremendous job with this boxed set and I have a feeling this is just the beginning for the next generation of the Wolf Pack.
A Confession
Okay, so before I go into the actual review I have a confession to make. Way back in 1984 Joe Dever's Lone Wolf game books were my entry into roleplaying. I bought every book released and loved the world he created. The big advantage in my eyes his books had over others was their continuity, the fact you played as the same character and were able to carry forward your abilities and equipment through the whole series. I love the Lone Wolf mythos so I am more than a little biased. But I think that could make me potentially more critical of any other product based in his world, Magnamund. There have been other ventures that tried to turn this 'Choose Your Own Adventure' series into a full blown RPG with mixed results. The weight of expectation was heavy during the Kickstarter for this new Adventure Game. I had the fortune to proof read initial drafts of the core books so when the physical product finally arrived on my doorstep I was aware of some of its content, but would the quality of the content be matched by the finish of the boxed set itself?
Unboxing
So, what do you get for your £20($30)? Three softback books, Kai Training, Wisdom and Legends, a half dozen gatefold pregenerated character sheets (wonderfully illustrated I have to add), a double sided map, equipment list, a combat result chart, several blank character sheets and a sturdy set of card counters. The inside of the box lid also has a grid of random numbers between 0 and 9 and is used to choose Random Numbers. My only criticism of the content of the boxed set is that the loose pages could have been printed on a slightly heavier stock of paper, though I can understand that cost would have been a factor in Cubicle 7's decision to use the weight they did. That said, it is a very minor point and in no way detracts from what is in essence an extremely high quality product. The layout and art featured throughout the three core books and other contents of the box is of an exceptionally high standard, presenting a uniform feel to the set that helps bring the text of the books to life.
Rules
As the boxed set is designed to appeal to both new and experienced gamers alike, the game mechanics are presented in two distinct levels of complexity, the Initiate and Master level. Both have at their core the Random Number mechanic, a throwback to the original game books. Essentially every time a Hero needs to make some kind of test it is against a Target Number of somewhere between 1 and 9, with a TN of 6 being average. To make the test the player simply flips one of the card tokens into the box lid and whichever number the token lands on is their test result. Kai Disciplines give a bonus to the test as do a characters Skills and Traits in the Master level game. The beginner, or Initiate level rules are essentially the same as those found in the original game books with the Heroes having two main abilities; Combat Skill (CS) and Endurance (END) ranked between 10-19 for CS and 20-29 for END. As well as these raw physical abilities, as a Kai Lord the Heroes have access to Kai Disciplines, innate powers that have been honed by years of training and devotion to the sun god Kai, patron deity of the Kai Lords and the ream they are sworn to protect Sommerlund. There are ten Kai Disciplines in total and as an Initiate the Heroes start out life having learned five of these powers, each with their own benefit. For more experienced gamers, the Master level rules add Skills, Traits and advanced Disciplines along with a host of supplementary situational rules to cover things like fire, poison, falling etc. The Master rules are entirely optional and it is up to the GM to decide which rules they want to add and therefor how complex they want to make their game. Obviously, for those who want to make their games as realistic as possible all of the Master rules can be used to enhance all aspects of their gameplay, including combat which in the Initiate level functions in exactly the same way as the old game books, which is to say the Hero compares their CS against their adversaries and gets a Combat Ratio (either positive or negative), chooses a Random Number and consults the Combat Results Table which tells him how much Endurance both he and his foe have lost - repeat until someone dies. While this is a quick and easy introduction to new gamers, especially younger ones, it doesn't present the players with many tactical decisions to make. The Master level rules allow for several different options to be bolted on to the core mechanic and do offer much more options to both players and the GM alike creating a more satisfying mechanic for both melee and ranged combat.
Conclusion
While I am biased, I will say the game has its limitations in its attempt to keep the overall feel of the game books - there is only so much you can do with what is in essence a d10 mechanic - however, I would counter that with the opinion that what the game might lack in raw mechanics more than makes up for with the way it DOES capture the feel of a world that has been growing in depth and detail for the last 30 years or so. I do feel that this is the most faithful and well executed version of the Lone Wolf RPG yet and with the release schedule I have seen so far, it appears it is going to be the best supported one too. Joe Dever and August Hahn (along with the rest of the Cubicle 7 team) have done a tremendous job with this boxed set and I have a feeling this is just the beginning for the next generation of the Wolf Pack.
Last edited:
PatriotofKarrnath
First Post
5 out of 5 rating for The Lone Wolf Adventure Game
First off, this was a great deal for the price, really makes it hard to pay $50 for a PHB when this gorgeous set is only $32. The rules are right back to what made Mr. Dever's books so great to begin with. C7 hit the mood, hit the style perfect. The maps are classic Lone Wolf. The characters and game felt just like playing the old stories and the characters are fun. The box lid and "pog" system is really something interesting, may not be for everyone, but subbing in a D10 is no problem. If you are a fan of Lone Wolf, this is a must!
First off, this was a great deal for the price, really makes it hard to pay $50 for a PHB when this gorgeous set is only $32. The rules are right back to what made Mr. Dever's books so great to begin with. C7 hit the mood, hit the style perfect. The maps are classic Lone Wolf. The characters and game felt just like playing the old stories and the characters are fun. The box lid and "pog" system is really something interesting, may not be for everyone, but subbing in a D10 is no problem. If you are a fan of Lone Wolf, this is a must!
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