Customer Reviews

Lone Wolf RPG

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
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1 star:		(0)

 

 

Lone Wolf makes his most daring journey yet... into the 21st century! This book heralds the return of this fabulous series, and has turned it into a not-so-bad RPG. Now, briefly, the good and the bad.

The good:
The information. This book is a veritable gold mine of Lone Wolf history and setting. The whole book is worth it just for that.
The ease of combat. Combat is much easier to resolve than it is in D and D, without losing any of the excitement or diversity.
Character creation. Character creation has been simplified, still giving you tons of room to customize, but without making you fliip through hundreds of pages to see what stats a Half Dwarven Bard raised by humans would have.
True to the original world. This feels like Magnamund. Hell, it IS Magnamund. Fans of Lone Wolf must get this or feel forever cheated by Fate. Okay, maybe an exageration, but... I digress.

The bad:
First and foremost, crappy index. For a book with as much information as this book has, it really needs a better way to find stuff quickly.
Clarity. Some rules haven't been clarified well at all, and GMs will find they have a lot of room for interpretation concerning magical combat. At the same time, some of the rules have been overdone, and make it clunky, especially item creation.
Balance. Some characters defenitely seem to have an advantage over others, and some classes are lacking in abilities that would really round them out. Many classes have glaring weaknesses to exploit, and some would have a really hard time in a small group.
Misinformation. Despite August Hahn's attention to detail, there are some things that are in contradiction with the gamebooks. Nothing glaring, mind you, and much of it is fine. Still, the fact that there are any inconsistencies had to be noted.
Lack of supplemental material. While there have been two excellent supplements released, it is unlikely that more will be released any time soon. However, there is a large fan base which occasionally puts out their own material, and thus there is a lot of player support for this product.

All in all, this is a must have for fans. Players of RPGs will also find the system interesting, as it has removed some of the more hated aspects of D and D without adding any complications. Beginner role players will be drawn in by the rich setting, but may be confused by some of the less clarified rules. To them I have this advice: just use what you think works best. One of the nice things about the Lone Wolf system is that it is easily adaptable.

If you are not familiar with Lone Wolf (or even if you are), go to www.projectaon.org, where the original books have been legally reprinted in html format and check them out. It's well worth it.

Fans of Lone Wolf have been cobbling together rules to fit Kai Lords into their fantasy campaigns for nearly two decades. Now that the rulebook for role-playing in Joe Dever's setting has finally come to print, fans of the series can show their friends the richness and diversity of Magnamund to their gaming group.

There are seven classes available in the core rule book: Brotherhood Mage, Kai Lord, Telchos Warrior (much like an amazon), Shadaki Buckaneer, Dwarven Gunner of Bor, Magician of Dessi, and Sommerlund Knight of the Realm. The seven classes are well thought out and immediately playable, each having a very satisfying progression as they level up. Like one who is familiar with the game books would expect, new abilities are gained every level, whether it be Kai disciplines, Brotherhood spells, Dwarven gun tricks, etc.

Also included in the rulebook are creatures and equipment unique to Magnamund, details on each country in both northern and southern Magnamund, and tips for role-playing in this world.

The combat system is simplified from D&D to allow a quicker resolution of combat. Those who enjoy the level of detail in D&D may miss this, but it holds true to the 'feel' of the game books of the '80s (including using the same 'Lone Wolf' font; people familiar with the original books know what I mean). In addition, psychic combat is a strong factor in the rules, as Magnamund's population has a high percentage of psychic abilities.

About the only negative thing I could think to mention is the lack of art, though it could be argued that more artwork would take space away from the content.

All in all, I find that the 20 year wait was well worth it in the end. If you're as much of a fan as I am, there's no reason to not get a copy.

There are those within the RPG community who have waited for nearly 20 years for such an event. Wait no longer. August Hahn's adaptation of Joe Dever's original award winning series fully captures the essence of this dramatic world of Magnamund. Using the ever-popular d20 mechanic, August and his fellows and Mongoose stripped down the mechanics in efforts to make it more "friendly" towards first time players. d20 enthusiasts might be put off by a lack of old standards to the system such as Feats, Attacks of Opprotunity, and specific spell lists. The lack of these elements dramatically decreases any slow-downs to game play, maximizing how much enjoyment is gotten from actual game play.
The book includes scaled-down and simplified combat (d20, of course), a complete Gazetteer of various nations and regions around Magnamund, a choice Bestiary of some of the more notorious fiends within the realms, and a beautiful full-color map in the back of the book: be warned - the map is attached by glue to the book itself and not easily removed. This feature does prevent loss of the map....
As for the lack of feats, after a close look at the core classes, one can easily see that bonuses similiar to those received from feats are built in and automatic at every level up.
There are few negative things to be said about the book: there is some substandard art, especially compaired to the original gamebooks by Mr. Dever. The core classes are limited to those of heroic stature - there are no rogue-like classes, no clerics, only regional-specifics like the Kai Lords, Magicians of Dessi, etc.
But for pure entertainment, this book has it in droves. It is, in my opinion, a great introduction to both Magnamund and d20 role-playing as well. Enjoy it as a Core d20 game (as it is intended) or as a world setting for your existing campaigns!

>>> EDIT - This review had been written on a previous Amazon account, to which I cannot access for some reason. Apologies for the apparent double-tap. <<<

There are those within the RPG community who have waited for nearly 20 years for such an event. Wait no longer. August Hahn's adaptation of Joe Dever's original award winning series fully captures the essence of this dramatic world of Magnamund. Using the ever-popular d20 mechanic, August and his fellows at Mongoose stripped down the mechanics in efforts to make it more "friendly" towards first time players. d20 enthusiasts might be put off by a lack of old standards to the system such as Feats, Attacks of Opportunity, and specific spell lists. The lack of these elements dramatically decreases any slow-downs to game play, maximizing how much enjoyment is gotten from actual game play.

The book includes scaled-down and simplified combat (d20, of course), a complete Gazetteer of various nations and regions around Magnamund (which, as a whole is a very amazing accomplishment; the world of Magnamund is very expansive), a choice Bestiary of some of the more notorious fiends within the realms, and a beautiful full-color map in the back of the book: be warned - the map is attached by glue to the book itself and not easily removed. This feature does prevent loss of the map. However limiting it might be.

As for the lack of feats, after a close look at the core classes, one can easily see that bonuses similiar to those received from feats are built in and automatic at every level up.

There are few negative things to be said about the book: there is some substandard art, especially compaired to the original gamebooks by Mr. Dever. The core classes are limited to those of heroic stature - there are no rogue-like classes, no clerics, only regional-specifics and impressives like the Kai Lords, Magicians of Dessi, etc.
But for pure entertainment, this book has it in droves. It is, in my opinion, a great introduction to both Magnamund and d20 role-playing as well. Enjoy it as a Core d20 game (as it is intended) or as a world setting for your existing campaigns!

Many of us hardcore fans have waited a long time for this kind of book. No longer must we attempt in vain to create a format for a Kai Lord player character for our D&D adventures now that August Hahn's adaptation has hit the shelves for our gaming delight.
Using the popular d20 system (D&D 3rd edition) rules, this book allows players to make characters such as the Kai Lord, Brother of the Crystal Star, and even a Gunner of Bor! The combat system is a "watered-down" version of the normal d20 system, omitting such things as feats and attacks of opportunity, but for those fans of D&D 2nd edition, this may be a welcome event.
The magic system greatly differs from the 3rd ed D&D rules, but is very pertinent to the world of Magnamund and has the flavor of the game books from the 80's & 90's. Similarly, the advent of psychic combat is simple, yet very functional.
The "Gazeteer" section of the book could be considered a treasure trove of Magnamund history, and those who have ever owned the elusive "Magnamund Companion" (out of print) book,you will be especially delighted to see descriptions of ALL of the countries and elaborations of the Magnamund timeline far beyond what that book provided. Also, for those who own the "Companion", you may get a little "giddy" at the mechanics of the Crystal Star mage and how similar the powers and progression of the character type are compared to the mini-adventure at the end of the "Companion".
On the negative side of things, I found the artwork lacking in content. Although not horrible, a trained eye will notice inconsistencies in the physics and shadows. Its good, but not great. Another thing is that not all of the creatures described in the "Gazeteer" section have an illustration, which would have been useful for those of us who may never seen the illustrations found in the game books.
All in all, I found that this book is great for anyone wanting to revisit the elaborate and sprawling world of Magnamund, or is perfect to adapt items within to any existing D&D campaign.