Lone Wolf/Joe Dever Fans: HELP

Folks, I've been working on a few Fighting Fantasy inspired posts for my blog and whilst those are pretty much written now, it's a natural step to cover some of the 'other' gamebook universes.

Within my group of friends barely any of the others messed with Lone Wolf or Greyhawk and I'm hoping some of Oldhammers learned souls might be open to discussing what appealed to you and your experiences with that particular strand. Later I want to explore Way Of the Tiger too but first things first.

So yeah if anyone fancies answering a few open questions sing out!
 

phreedh

Member
For me, it was a matter of production values and world persistence. I never perceived the FF books as set in the same universe or connected somehow. The continuity in the Lone Wolf books appealed to me. The illustrations (especially the cover of Flight from the Dark) were nicer in the LW books too. Most importantly, they came emblazoned with a huge logo of the most popular Swedish RPG Drakar & Demoner. That's Dragons and Demons. Not to be confused with a very popular game called Dungeons & Dragons. Nope.

lonewolf01sw.jpg
figfan01sw.jpg


Seriously... if you're in the shop looking at these two, it's no contest. =) Most of all I think it was Gary Chalk's illustrations.

Also, the school yard talk was that the Lone Wolf books were the real McCoy while the others were pale imitators.

Corehammer73":30porafe said:
Folks, I've been working on a few Fighting Fantasy inspired posts for my blog and whilst those are pretty much written now, it's a natural step to cover some of the 'other' gamebook universes.

Within my group of friends barely any of the others messed with Lone Wolf or Greyhawk and I'm hoping some of Oldhammers learned souls might be open to discussing what appealed to you and your experiences with that particular strand. Later I want to explore Way Of the Tiger too but first things first.

So yeah if anyone fancies answering a few open questions sing out!
 

Thantsants

Member
Love Lone Wolf and I recently discovered Greystar the Wizard a couple of years ago too.

I think once I'd devoured my local library's collection of Fighting Fantasy I moved on to Lone Wolf, which for some reason I'd regarded as being the poor cousin to FF. I think it may have had something to do with Gary Chalk's unique style of illustrations which I wasn't too sure about back then - ah the folly of youth!

Of course once I started reading them, like Phreedh, I was completely taken with the massive story arch that the series follows. The Kai powers were pretty cool, as was the choice of equipment. Much as I love FF the old leather armour, sword and knapsack can get a bit old!

Of course having got my fix at the library I had to go back to ebay to track down the books I loved as a kid. I've now got the first twelve which comprise the Kai and Magnakai adventures - about time I sat down and read them all in order again. Similarly I have all 4 Greystar books and enjoyed playing them too.

Just as we're getting the Trolltooth Wars played out on the table top, I'd love to do some Lone Wolf gaming - The Battle of Cetza from The Dungeons of Torgar would be a good start I think!



I must get round to painting up my small but slowly growing collection of Lone Wolf minis too at some point...
 
lonewolf01sw.jpg


The combination of leery stare, odd pose and expertly placed text bubble makes it look like ol' Lone Wolf there is doing something obscene in the forest. On an orc carcass. And he knows we're watching...
 
Cheers for the reflections lads, very interesting how LW was perceived in different countries!
Can I quote some of those points in my article? You'll be credited naturally!
 

phreedh

Member
Corehammer73":1rg5g80j said:
Cheers for the reflections lads, very interesting how LW was perceived in different countries!
Can I quote some of those points in my article? You'll be credited naturally!
No need to credit anything mate, quote away.
 

Zhu Bajie

Member
Don't have much to say regards Lone Wolf really, although it's indebtedness to AD&D is quite blatant (Kai are Psionic Rangers), and it was always 2nd fiddle to FF imho, although of greater quality than a lot of the other cash-in books released. Didn't really like that you had to play a single character or were tied into an overall story, much prefer the anonymous adventurer and random wanderings of other gamebook series. Great admirer of Gary Chalks art for the series tho, and that project Aon has them all for online play for free is great.

Gary and his team and are looking for feedback on their Kikstarter on the LW war-boardgame, which looks amazing (probably deserves it's own thread :)).

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/16 ... n=4dbe0a52
 

Thantsants

Member
Yarp - quote away.

You've now got me hankering after the Grand Master and New Order books...

Not to mention stuff like the Companion.
 
Gary Chalks artwork took me a while to get into. As a kid I always preferred the more sinister style of Blanche, Nicholson, Miller etc.

Also the first Lone Wolf book I picked up (largely because the cover was so cool) was the Cauldron Of Fear and the cover artist for that was Fred Gambino whose style was very different from Gary Chalk so it was a bit of a shock when I discovered that most of the other covers were of a different, more cartoonish style..

That said, as an adult I grew to absolutely love Gary's stuff!
 

Thantsants

Member
Talking of the art work - I'm currently getting the kids in my class to do a comparison of Russ Nicholson and Gary Chalk's art - they're also going to have to choose the one they like and attempt some illustrations in that style for the game books they're all writing.

Nice when you can shoehorn your hobby into your work! :mrgreen:
 
ardyer":hce0cgji said:
Every time this post shows up I read the title as Lone Wolf/ John Denver and get confused :lol:

That just gave me an idea for our D&D adventure... the famous bard Jonden Verr and his companion Solitary Wolverine... coming to a dungeon near you! (Maybe).
 
Thantsants":12n27cs3 said:
Talking of the art work - I'm currently getting the kids in my class to do a comparison of Russ Nicholson and Gary Chalk's art - they're also going to have to choose the one they like and attempt some illustrations in that style for the game books they're all writing.

Nice when you can shoehorn your hobby into your work! :mrgreen:

Ha!! That's more or less how I spent most of my art classes at secondary school! Nice to see it legitimized.
Personal preference of the two.....Russ Nicholson all day. Love his work so much. Been looking again at his illustrations in Trolltooth wars after reading your blog Thantsants, he is the king.
 
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