Lone Wolf

Thanks to the internet, I stumbled upon some old gems in this website. Project Aon is a fansite dedicated to publishing html versions (or e-versions) of the once popular Lone Wolf role-playing gamebook series. Let's take a moment back in time...

Back in the 80's and early 90's gamebooks were very popular, and you can never fail to find some sort of gamebook title from the many different genres ie. medieval, sci-fi, futuristic, horror, etc from many different publishes and authors on the shelves. I remember reading titles from the Fighting Fantasy series and also the Way of the Tiger. But somehow, Lone Wolf was a better experience because it had a more epic setting in the sense that it had a continuing storyline (up to 20 books in the initial series) set in a vast and diverse realm with unique races and creatures. Each book read in the series would further expand the realm and storyline more and more, giving you a sense of progress and anticipation. Given the amount of detail that the author Joe Dever has put into the character, storyline and realms, I would say that it is almost on par with my other fantasy favourites namely Dragonlance and Lord of the Rings.

From Top to Bottom - Way Of the Tiger (Avenger), Fighting Fantasy (Space Assassin and Robot Commando) - those are the only two FF novels that I own

If you are not familiar with how gamebooks work, basically it is like reading your typical novel, but it's interactive in a sense that you are involved in deciding the story's progress and arcs. The book is broken up into many sections (up to 350 or more in Lone Wolf books) that you will traverse in a non-linear fashion. Each section which you visit will usually ask you to choose between two or more choices, which would then steer the story in one way or another. RPG fans are well aware of course that this not just about trivial choices such as turning left or right, but rather there are other elements such as skills, hitpoints, special items, and combat may affect the choice you make or the outcome at the end of each section. Some amount of luck would help too as some actions including combat might require you to choose number thru a die roll (Lone Wolf uses a random number table which you close your eyes and point to randomly) to determine the outcome. Back then when RPGs were still very much a pencil and paper (and dice) affair and would typically require a group of people (a party) to start a session; gamebooks allows the reader to enjoy an adventure without such a hassle.

Gamebooks were considered expensive (RM15 each?) back then (in fact books are never cheap here in Malaysia, even now), and whatever that I've read were usually borrowed from the library or from friends, so it was really hard to read the books in a orderly fashion to appreciate the storyline better. I've read (not in order) maybe 8-10 books in the original Kai/Magnakai series, but only own 2 of them.

The 2 Lone Wolf books that I own

So, Project Aon is really a dream come true; firstly I get to read all the books that I've missed, or even read all of them in order from the top, and most of all it's free. And reading on the PC is much easier (just click, no page flipping), but of course nothing beats having the real book, but I'm not complaining. It's hard to find an actual gamebook nowadays much less read one. Project Aon not only hosts the Kai/Magnakai series, but also the GrandMaster series and some other miscelleanous gamebooks which I think is worth checking out too. So all you Lone Wolf fans out there, this might just be what you have been looking for to fulfill all your LW needs.

Lone Wolf is set primarily in the mythical world of Magnamund in the universe of Aon. The reader, play as Lone Wolf, a warrior-monk whose potential as a hero emerges from the tragic defeat of his teachers and kinsmen, known as the Kai Lords.

The Realms of Magnamund

So how do you start a Lone Wolf adventure, simple, you will need to choose some skills, determine your combat skill and endurance points (using the random number table) and choose some equipment. Having done that, you can immediately turn to section 1 of the first book and begin your adventure. Simple as that! Consult the game rules in the table of contents in case of any doubt :P You can actually treat each book as a separate adventure, but I strongly recommend that they are read in sequence, only in this way that the storyline can be fully appreciated :P

So, if you are ready, try out the first book Flight from The Dark... this is the synopsis

You are the sole survivor of a devastating attack on the monastery where you were learning the skills of the Kai Lords. You swear vengeance on the Darklords for the massacre of the Kai warriors, and with a sudden flash of insight you know what you must do. You must set off on a perilous journey to the capital city to warn the King of the terrible threat that faces his people: for you are now the last of the Kai you are now Lone Wolf.

Updates - 30th July 2008
I found out that I could download all the Way of the Tiger series here at the Home of the Underdogs. It's a scanned pdf version from the original books. Though not as sophisticated as the HTML versions of Lone Wolf on Project Aon, it's good enough for me, at least I still get to flip pages.