I kinda want to demand a Let's Play series on this. Yes, demand. Because Austin has too many cool ideas and he might move on to a new cool idea next video. My wishlist now includes: - The off brand superhero cinematic universe - A Let's Play series of these books.
I had every book and read them several times over. One of my greatest regrets was throwing away my much loved series because I thought I was too old to hold on to this beloved nostalgia.
I'm just playing through them for the first time. They have this aura around them, since my dad used to play them when he was slightly older than me. Unfortunately, we only have the first five, the rest is unavailable and my dad is hesitant on buying the rest in English, since he doesn't speak it as well as me or my sister. But damn, am I stoked for what's to come. It took me a few tries to finish the first book, but I managed to do it on my sixth attempt. (I have the Czech translation, so forgive me if I say something wrong) The guy I pulled through with for the first time has 19 Battle mastery but only 20 Endurance points. The d10 was my friend that day and I love this guy to the death. I like to roleplay as him, his fighting style and so on. I know how to handle a sword in real life and for the weapon he trained with, the d10 picked the Shortsword. I have a home rule, where I set each ending of a book as a checkpoint. If I die in the book following it, I restart from the beginning of this one. I keep track of things I had back then to not cheat. I'm currently at the start of book 5, just past game rules. And my Lone Wolf has a new problem from the looks of it. ... Loneliness ... Just the emptiness of the Kai monastery, only the Sommerschwerd to keep him company, Wich makes for good roleplay potential. Unfortunately, the Sommerschwerd proved to be too powerful in the last two books. Leading me to Insta-kill Vonotar's weird monster and the guy who tried to revive Vashna. (I rolled an 8 and a 0 for these while I had a shield and a magic helmet from Ikya) I try to use the Sommerschwerd as little as possible, Lone Wolf thinks it's power is holy and should be used only when necessary. Because over-relying on it would make him weak. Don't get me wrong, it saved his a** more than he can count, but I was forced to use it a few times, because I had no other weapon or my enemy was immune to my regular Shortsword. I'd like to ask, is it possible to lose it? If there is any scenario, where you lose all your stuff including the Sommerschwerd. I don't know the ruling on this. Since it counts as a weapon *and* a special object, *can* it even be lost? Since, it's like ... The most holy object in all of Magnamund. Or is Lone Wolf smart enough to hold on to it like his life depends on it? (Because it does)
@@OrangeDragon04 I think the sword is just a tool. It doesn’t equal the worth of the man that wields it; though, it certainly makes the job of vanquishing evil much easier. Endeavor to persevere.
Me too I read through them all as a child and have them all to charity as an adult. Recently bought a few of them for my children but they didn't take too them as fully as I did. I remember getting massively OP by the last few books, because I guess the author still wanted anyone to be able to pick them up anywhere in the series, whereas I had levelled up throughout. Good Times 😊
I still have the first 20 or so books in a box, somewhere. I never would have guessed they would become collectibles. I guess I should pull them out so my kid can check them out. She's getting into d&d.
@@lilheinz9496 I say 'kid', but she's 19. She has had the books for about a week (it took me a few days to find them). She has asked if I could dm for her and a friend yesterday. I am going to run Phandelver for them next weekend. I'm going to run 2 sidekicks along with them to balance their party. The hardest thing for me will be keeping 'Dad' out of the game. Except for the jokes. Can't be a dad without the dad jokes.
@@spritemon98 It was a blast. The first time I asked "What do you do?", they were at a bit of loss but that passed quickly when they realized they could attempt to do anything they wanted. The initial orc fight at the dead horse (...oh my god. First orc fight over a beaten dead horse...I just got that now...) was a lot of fun.
The Lone Wolf RPG was my first experience with the books. Lone Wolf, Fighting Fantasy, and Tunnels and Trolls make up a sort of missing link to today's tabletop roleplaying game scene.
@@DarkadeTV Lone Wolf has for sure had an inspirational factor in the Old School Renaissance genre. Troika is probably one of the best inheritors of those solo play books.
I'm not sure what you mean by missing link? DnD came out in 1974. The Tunnels and Trolls tabletop RPG came out in 1975. The first T&T solo adventure came out in 1976. And Warlock of Firetop Mountain came out in 1982. Tabletop RPGs predate and inspired gamebooks.
My sister adores this series. We've played the tabletop adaptation as a family. Joe Dever is her favorite author and a big inspiration for her. So lucky we got to meet him at Gen Con before he passed. He was very down to earth and I'm sure got a kick out of my sister introducing all of her family members to him. 😅
I've been craving something like this for a while. My D&D group is kinda shutting down, at least right now. I just bought the first book of the definitive set. Thank you for the recommendation! e: arrived today. here we go!
Yeah, Lone Wolf actually made me a worse student. I was so obsessed that I secretly started playing right during class in the 80's. I regret my lack of self control, but I'll never regret my journeys in that game world. I thought I was the only one who remembered these books. Thanks for this video, Austin. This hit me in a really emotional way. Nostalgia is one heck of a drug.
spent most my high school in the back row playing rpgs with a friend. in middle school we had notebooks hopping from player to player occasionally intercepted by teachers who were often horrified by the content. can always learn the class at home when else are you going to be trapped in a room together with friends
Show me an avid fiction reader, and I'll show you someone who's spent time immersed in a story when they were supposed to be doing something else. It comes with the territory. If you don't end up having to learn self-control in regards to a passion, is it really a passion?
@@jameswoodard4304 lol supposed to be doing something else. Not everyone's so enthusiastic about being a cog in the machine nor they owe it to anyone else
The real story here is about a son and a father. The son says his father wasn't there, yet his working partner says it was unbelievable how available and caring he was. Sad, really.
Yeah, those kinds of people made me kind of surprised and gives me a lesser great impression of them if I find out they were/are not great parents. But I get that parenting is really hard tho and that being with family can be complicated.
This is like a core memory unlocked… I used to look for these books online like 10 or so years ago and found most of them on one website in pdf format and it was the most fun I’ve had in a while. Very reminiscent of solo D&D
Hey man, Your videos remind me of the phrase "beauty in the small things". I must've read so many books as a kid growing up but never bothered with them as an adult. You find beauty in small things you did as a child and with your amazing story telling skills, make great content. Hope it goes well for you in the future too.
We're getting close. It's been more than twenty-five years since *A Game of Thrones* was published and there's (at least) two volumes to go until it's done. Considering *A Dance of Dragons* came out the same year as the first season of the HBO show, only forty years for *A Song of Ice and Fire* to finish seems a little hopeful at this point.
The Lone Wolf saga actually has at least two arcs. Lone Wolf himself establishes a new Kai Order and in one of the book you switch character from Lone Wolf to one of his student (you get to pick your own Kai name!). There's also a point in the story where Lone Wolf levels up from Kai Lord to Magnakai Lord.
I remember coming across a DS rom someone made that transferred the first two books into a digital thing. Probably not the best way to experience them, but if you like novelties, then it's a cool thing.
There was also the 3rd book port later down the line. They were quite good, and the DS was a great fit. You have your media on one screen (Character sheet, Illustrations, etc.), while having the text on another, with hyperlinks to make choices. I loved playing them, those ROMs were my introduction to the whole CYOA genre.
My dad owned a couple of those books. I have to say watching this video was a lot more of an emotional roller coaster than I was expecting it was going to be.
There was another one in this series that I remember playing through back in the day called Grey Star the Wizard. I think there were only 4 books in that one at least at the time but I enjoyed it.
That's right, that was a four-book series, co-written by Ian Page. I liked that series better than the Lone Wolf series, personally, because...wizards.
Lone Wolf is SORELY underrated in the modern world of D&D. As a player just now getting his feet wet of TTRPGs of 5 years of the same setting of 5e, a lover of all kinds of video games & not finding any suitable games to play for my particular time schedule, Lone Wolf is THE gamebook series that I found out through the Video game (set in between books 3 & 4) that I had to check out the rest of the series as a whole through Project Aon. Now to see a video making me realize the books are coming out in a modern re-print? My wallet can’t get anymore empty, but the video has been amazing as well as many others. This channel deserves your sub, along with Lone Wolf as well. ❤️💙
@@undrhilThe name of the game is “Joe Dever’s Lone Wolf” & I played it on my PS4/5. It’s on basically all major platforms, so PS4/5, Xbox, Switch, PC & iOS.
I recently found seven Lone Wolf books in an old box, all in near mint unused condition. I put them on Ebay, figuring someone might want them. They sold for $100. Guess someone wanted them. Glad I passed them on to a collector instead of a used book store.
I did not expect the diverse emotions that this video would have. Somehow Austin always makes these complex videos and somehow I always get surprised every time
I have never heard of this. And now that makes me sad, because this sounds awesome for someone who's been wanting to get into roleplaying but is terrified of people.
Don't forget about Grey Star, the companion series. Taking place in the same world but in a far off land (or in a different era), Grey Star needs to defeat the Wytch-King to free the people of Magnamund using magical powers learned from the Shianti. While much more linear in the storytelling, the world and creatures are incredible and fun to play with. Some of the same problems still existed, but because of the smaller number of books, you didn't notice as much.
wtf when you started this video, I was like, huh that sounds interesting. Then I realized some of the art you were showing off looked sorta familiar, and then when you started explaining the plot I finally realized that I had actually played some of these, a long long time ago. Mind is sorta blown. Wow. What a callback.
it happens sometimes, I've had callbacks, I remember watching the redwall series and wanting to find it again but didn't remember what it was called, I don't recall how I found that series again.
@@zetametroid It's not one system but rather a cool confluence of tools that make things easier to solo than ever before. Mythic GME, Ironsworn/Starsworn, and awesome actual plays like Me, Myself, and Die here on YT show that this area of the TTRPG scene is only just getting started.
@@zetametroid I've been diving into solo TTRPG lately, I'd heartily suggest things that run on the Carta engine (Borealis, Cryptkeeper, Punchcard Memories), things that run on the Lost and Found engine (Artefact, Archived, Novel Story), or maybe some Wretched and Alones (Go Alone, The Sealed Library, The Wretched), though there's a whole huge world of them out there, even within those engines I mentioned, the example games are just scratching the surface, there's such great stuff around.
Joe Dever's Lone Wolf was a huge inspiration behind my Castles of Imagination series (5/6th available now). My interactive fictions are also linked like Lone Wolf. Plus dice help make some decisions. I have the first 5 books out in 5 years and only one book in the series left to write. I recommend tracking them down and starting on Goblin's Gift. I have a few other series started too but they are different than Lone Wolf.
My school library had several of the Lone Wolf books back in the day and I was never able to read them because the first book was always checked out, I was super jealous of anyone who was ever able to snag it for a week or two. Thanks for shedding some light back on this cool piece of interactive fiction history!
The books were designed so that you could start a new character just for each book, without having gone through the other ones. It was helped by having skill resets; once the books reached the point that a long-time character could have learned all the skills, new characters just got them all and there was a new set of higher level skills available.
I've played through the first three of them when I was about twelve and in a fit of nostalgia I've played until the sixth one on a website I can't remember the name of roughly ten years ago. The ink illustrations are still so striking and the series will always have a place in my heart. Thank you for making this video. I had no idea Joe Dever died, but I'm grateful his son is finishing his father's work.
To me the illustrations are reminiscent of manga panels like in Berserk, which is my favorite story of all time however it's incredibly graphic at times so fair warning if you decide to read it. The character development and journey is so incredible, and the artwork legitimately becomes museum worthy it's amazing
I didn't grow up with Lone Wolf, so I just assumed it was a knock-off of Fighting Fantasy. But the idea of a gamebook *series* just fires up my imagination. I can't wait for these to come out!
Fighting Fantasy also had a series, Sorcery!, which is imo among the best books FF ever put out. There were a few other series as well, but none really did as well as either of those. The most inpressive otherwise is probably Fabled Lands, which was a open-world/free-roaming gamebook series. And not just open-world within each book; each book represented a country and you could walk back and forth between them as you wished if you had the coresponding book.
@@Painocus cool only knew about choose your own adventures. Didn't know about the rpg books until this vid but now I know there's one with an open world 🌎 which is blowing up my already blown mind.
This as a blast from the past, as soon as you showed "Lone Wolf" I was instantly transported back to my youth. I knew exactly what you were talking about. I could never buy the books, but I was at the library all the time getting these books.
I actually remember reading a bunch of these back in 5th grade which would have been around 2005-06 and always remembered it but never the name. I love that Austin is bringing light to this amazing series
I encountered Lone Wolf as a single random copy of one of the Magnakai series in my Highschool library. I was hooked, but frustrated as I couldn't get my hands on any other copy. Over the years I would come across random copies at book sales and yard sales. I found many other choose-your-own-adventure books but none were as appealing as Lone Wolf. Too many years later I stumbled across a website and eventually an app in the playstore, and was finally able to complete my journey. I really loved that series. Thanks for making this video and letting us know of the upcoming releases.
Oh my. I'm French. And I had a lot of "Loup Solitaire" novels as a kid. Joe Dever's book were translated in French and I still have the first 6. Classics.
0:18 omg I’ve been reading hatchet at school and love it but realize not that many people talk about it I literally got sooooo happy when I saw my favourite RUclipsr even show it on screen
I too had this obsession. I am now ploughing my way through the titles that weren't released when I was a kid. Those are all the books after 12. PLUS I just bought the EXTENDED book 1 with a huge amount of new content that had been added recently including fighting your way out of the attack on the Kai Monastery. These books are still great!
What an honour to get to talk to your favourite authors son, and he talked to you, it seems, so generously. Wonderful warm video, and very special to you, thank you both for sharing 🙂👍🕊.
I loved these so much. Have most of it still in my bookcase... I once even "mapped out" the entire first book on a single sheet of paper, with numbered bubbles connecting to each other! There's a great computer program that downloads and displays pdfs of the books, as well as has an integrated gui game system tracker so you can seriously play along. But these new editions sound really interesting, I never had any idea about the content that was left out.
I met Joe a couple of times... he was a lovely person, a passionate author and gamer. And a gentleman too. He loved to chat with his fans, and would always had time for a greeting, an autograph, and a smile.
My love was Fighting fantasy, but now have some lone wolf books and my personal favourite forbidden lands which is a more open world system! So cool to see you talking about these.
I played through like the first...10? 12? books when I was younger. The first several I played through repeatedly. As he was showing things the whole time it was like, 'Yep, remember that. I know what that is. Know that too.'
What an amazing story! It's a pity Joe passed away before you could interview him but it's wonderful to see his legacy being carried onward. The fact that Joe was able to plot multiple ways the narrative could wind through so many books boggles my mind. I would have loved to know what kind of system he used to keep track of everything.
I jumped on the Lone Wolf books back when they first came out. I'd already had my time with Choose your own Adventure and Fighting Fantasy, but in each of those, you played "you", an anonymous, generic protagonist and, for the most part, there wasn't much connection between adventures (this would change later for Fighting Fantasy). Lone Wolf not only had an ongoing protagonist but a richly-realized world and a compelling story which you were the hero of. Later on, I'd discover 'Grail Quest' by JH Brennan, a more comedy-tinged series where you play an apprentice adventurer named Pip being sent on adventures in Arthurian Britain by Merlin, as well as 'Way of the Tiger' (where you play a ninja) and 'Falcon' (where you play a time traveller) by Mark Smith and Jamie Thompson, and 'Freeway Warrior', a post-apocalyptic series also by Joe Dever. But Lone Wolf was the big one. I even played 'The World of Lone Wolf', a series also set in Magnamund where you play a Wizard called Grey Star.
I've not heard of this series. Wow, what a cool idea to get kids into reading and developing their imaginations! I think that's fantastic and so needed these days, with everyone glued to a screen 24/7. I hope this revival/reissue gains a whole new generation of fans!
@@lanceknightmare I understand where you're coming from with children being deprived of education, but codifying 'breeding laws' is a pretty horrendous thought, no?
Back in 2010, when Mongoose Publishing had the rights to the Lone Wolf Multiplayer Game, I was featured in Mongoose's Signs&Portents e-magazine (issue 83) for my work introducing children to tabletop roleplaying when I worked at a Boys and Girls club. Matthew Sprange wrote the article, but I don't know if Joe Dever ever saw it. My students were so excited that they said "Can we make a video to help other kids learn about the game?" and I said "yea, lets do it". Its super cheesy and simple but the kids enjoyed the process and I still have it up on my channel here. During the lockdown, I replayed through the books. It really is pure nostalgia. You will always be transported back to the first time you played the game/read the books and enjoy every second of it!
This is right up my alley and I've already ordered the 1st 2 books. I am a dm in dnd who never gets to play, so this should definitely be a fun experience
That takes me back... The silly and humorous GrailQuest series got me into this kind of book. I liked the Bloodsword series for the gaming aspect, being able to choose your character class was huge for me. I was super into the Sagas of the Demonspawn series since it was aimed at older readers (it's a Sword and Sorcery type of thing), and I found the Défis et Sortilèges series amazing for having four books per one story so that one story can be explored from each character's point of view. I was never that much into the Lone Wolf series even though it was one of the biggest ones, but I did play a few of them (those that were available to me, anyway) and liked them well enough. I certainly had no idea all of this had gone on behind the scenes!
@@CaliPSSF It's a great series for kids to start with IMO. It's pretty basic fantasy, the system isn't too complicated, and it's generally funny, the humor being on a level a child can understand.
I discovered this series when book 3 was the latest book - they had it at my local elementary school "book fair" (but NOT books 1 and 2) and it looked interesting, so I got it. I was in 4rd or 5th grade at the time. I devoured it, and hunted down books 1 & 2. (The book mentioned the Sommerswerd, and I replayed over and over trying to find this item - only to discover it wasn't attainable in this book. That is what hooked me to find the previous books. "A game book where you carry items over?!?") I then bought each new book when it came out up through the end of the Magnakai series. By then, I had started playing Dungeons & Dragons. My local bookstore seemed to stop ordering the new ones with the Grand Master - it was multiple years later that I even discovered there were books after the Magnakai. I bought a couple of the Grand Master, not even sure I went all the way through the books I had. Then re-discovered them after college in a box waiting at my parents house. Got the rest of the US-released books and played them again for nostalgia; then later when Project Aon made the original books free online. I still have all my original copies. My original book 3 is so worn out, it's ridiculous. Back in the day, my mom photocopied the Action Charts for me at her work so I would stop wearing through the pages (book 3's is worn clean through, as is the random number table; when I started playing D&D, I realized a d10 works fine as a replacement.) Book 3's spine was taped together multiple times. All the books through 12 are so broke-back that you can't even read most of their spines. I have in recent years started to hunt down good-quality copies; but some of them are ridiculously expensive. I haven't yet even thought about tracking down the post-US-discontinued books, settling for playing via Project Aon for the New Order series.
Your story reminds me a lot of when I found some old Fighting Fantasy books in my school's library ages ago. Might end up looking into give the Lone Wolf books a try.
Saw your video and was amazed by the concept, and your obvious nostalgia for the project, so I dropped $170 for the first 5 books - so far those are the only ones of the old books that have been converted to the 'Definitive Edition', with books 23 to 27, 30, and 31, also available. While I could pull money out of savings and get the other 7, I think I'll wait and buy them in order, just so that Holmgard Press have an incentive to continue the project.
I've always loved these books and I have been waiting for this video to finally appear! In recent years I've actually been playing them with my son. We do a call once a day where I read the book and he makes the choices, and we talk about them together and laugh about the conventions of the game ("Always search the room!"). Thank you Project Aon for making them so easily available.
You just activated happy memories I forgot I had! This made my day significantly better. Not just because I loved these books but because I really enjoy seeing someone who enjoyed them.
A Dev adapted the 2 unofficial Lone Wolf games Austin showed, story/art on one screen and the pencil based gaming on the other (if anyone here has a Nintendo DS & either DS or GBA homebrew cart. It's in .NDS format.) The homebrew adaptation game got me into knowing the official game here in Australia, where gaming books like that were only really seen in CYOA books, Worlds Of Power (Nintendo's attempt at CYOA - Castlevania is fun!) books and the 2 Asterix comics/game books!
As far as I'm aware, the first 5 books (or the original Kai Saga) are available as DS homebrew. Also long ago, there was a site that had all of the original books as PDFs too, I still have those PDFs, I know they're around some other places too. But apart of the hype for the Definitive Editions is that the stories are actually expanded compared to the originals, and that's apart of why I want to try to find the definitive editions. There are some actual bookstores near me that I'm gonna poke my head in next time I have money. Also because I'm absolutely in favor of supporting a project with as much passion behind it as this.
@@placeholderplaceholder3448 Oh of course. I was mentioning the adaptation in case people want to try it, see if they like Lone Wolf! If so, grab the new, bigger versions! ☺ (DS is nice for on the go though!)
Just bought the first book on the back of this video. I can’t believe I grew up in the UK as an RPG 80s kid but totally missed these books. I’m definitely going to make up for lost time.
this is why I love your content so much Austin - never know what you're going to get - always enjoyable, entertaining and often enlightening, so *thank you* Austin.never heard of the Lone Wolf series, sounds intriguing (a friend of mine was into 'chose your own adventure' books, I cheated and wanted to know ALL the endings LOL - so that's how I read them, lol) - I think if I had been able to be more interactive with them, like these books, I might have felt differently (plus the plots were not very interesting...). like you, I wanted to reach out to one of the people who meant a lot to me growing up. my first introduction to fantasy was Anne McCaffery and the dragonriders of Pern (plus other series - ) - I always meant to write and thank her for all the joy & pleasure she bought me over the years, esp my formative years - however, sadly, like you Austin, I was just years too late (she passed in 2011)
Joe dever rocked my world starting in like 1990 or so. I kept trying to special order his books and stuff. Even when they were new they smelled like nostalgia! I realized later that they had MORE in Canada than I seemed to be able to find in the US, including novelizations (which again rocked my world, but I couldn’t find the other volumes). I’m happy someone else in the world shared my experience.
I am surprised that this book series exist, I did not know a single thing about it until now. I usually read a lot of fantasy/sci-fi/adventure books in my childhood days but what an incredible video, Thank you so much, Gregory!
These preorders look INCREDIBLY tempting, both as someone who's been playing a ton of solo ttrpg lately, and someone who absolutely adores choose your own adventure novels. I'll have to toss this onto a wishlist somewhere, would be a nice way to spend my gaming/reading budget!
Lone Wolf books might have been written by a boomer, but by the time they were written, boomers were already adults, and Lone Wolf books were aimed at a child and teen audience, so it was for Generation X and later generations.
The first time I heard about this franchise was from the IOS game. After seeing the cover of the older books, I really love the modern interpretation design from the IOS game.
Thanks for uploading this, I just ordered the first two books for my son and I to try out. We both love books and Dnd so this looks like a great combination!
I never heard of these kinds of books. I ordered all 5 of the definitive editions. Was like $40 in shipping from the UK to the US, but it's going to be worth it.
I can't believe you have The Cave of Time! That was my favorite Choose Your Own Adventure book. I still have them, somewhere. Now I'm going to have to find them and read them again.
As a TTRPG player of going on 10 years who got into the hobby in my 20's, a Tabletop game designer, and a writer. I think this is incredibly rad and wish I discovered these when I was young!
I've been a fan of Live Action Role-play for about 30 years. I found Online Role-play around 15-20 years ago. I also did some custom Paper and Pencil systems where I was the Gamemaster, Story Writer and creator of the statistical system. Never played Dungeons and Dragons or any pre-made systems before. I tried to get into it but soon discovered the online websites are online free for PC and require the payed service for Android. So, I never joined any of those websites. Online Role-play is still somewhat popular. The community has become overly greedy with their expectations of Gamemasters. The videos on how to be a better Gamemaster have become a list of reasons for them to flame you if you do not follow those rules.
It's interesting to see you cover this. I'm a massive fan of Dever's work. The game books are just so fun to play. Discovering all the paths and dead ends and red herrings was always my favorite part.
You have solved a 20 year mystery for me! I read one of these books back in my late teens and after moving several times misplaced it and I could never remember the title of it and my google-fu failed me. Finally, I've found which series it's from
This seems really cool, thank you for bringing this to my attention! Looking online, it seems like the books themselves are pretty pricey, but they do seem to have a new game out with a similar system. I’ll have to check these out!
I discovered them when I was around 12 at my school library (I am now 45). I had previously read the Grail Quest series by J.H. Brennan (that series is really hard to find now) which is in the same format, so it appealed to me immediately. I do own the original 20 books that were published in the US and always wanted to get the Magnamund Companion book and the New Order books, but they were not available. I'm looking forward to being able to get new and complete editions of these, especially since it always seemed to me that some books were missing parts (even back then). This was an excellent video. Thank you.
Austin is truly one of my cult followings, always coming up with these obscure and interesting video ideas that are well-paced and polished, while not just rushing to gush out the next content to stay relevant and mainstream. Props to those that manage to chase and surf the tides, and I like quite a few of them, but it truly goes underappreciated the effort content creators like Austin puts out for something you can just sit back and drink a cup of tea to. Hell, this wouldn't be out of place on TV. Also I'm 22 and man, I sound old as hell lmao.
My school had these book magazines we'd get once a month and my first Lone Wolf book cost me $1.99 I bought most of the following ones from Waldenbooks, which of course no longer exists. And yes, they absolutely did smell of nostalgia! Castle Death was ROUGH! Very interested in the reprints! Thanks so much!
I'm working on a game I want to have basically infinite possibility, but very similar concept, randomly drawn events that you either work through, around, or end up impaired by, this video was a big step in what I needed to narrow down how to do events and branching paths and leveling up
Am I the only one who wants Austin to do a play through of the books?
No you are not.
I kinda want to demand a Let's Play series on this. Yes, demand. Because Austin has too many cool ideas and he might move on to a new cool idea next video. My wishlist now includes:
- The off brand superhero cinematic universe
- A Let's Play series of these books.
LoadingReadyRun do a series of Fighting Fantasy playthroughs. You can find them in their channel.
Do it!
Yes I want that. Friday nights just watch Austin play the books
I had every book and read them several times over. One of my greatest regrets was throwing away my much loved series because I thought I was too old to hold on to this beloved nostalgia.
I'm just playing through them for the first time. They have this aura around them, since my dad used to play them when he was slightly older than me.
Unfortunately, we only have the first five, the rest is unavailable and my dad is hesitant on buying the rest in English, since he doesn't speak it as well as me or my sister.
But damn, am I stoked for what's to come.
It took me a few tries to finish the first book, but I managed to do it on my sixth attempt.
(I have the Czech translation, so forgive me if I say something wrong)
The guy I pulled through with for the first time has 19 Battle mastery but only 20 Endurance points.
The d10 was my friend that day and I love this guy to the death.
I like to roleplay as him, his fighting style and so on. I know how to handle a sword in real life and for the weapon he trained with, the d10 picked the Shortsword.
I have a home rule, where I set each ending of a book as a checkpoint. If I die in the book following it, I restart from the beginning of this one. I keep track of things I had back then to not cheat.
I'm currently at the start of book 5, just past game rules. And my Lone Wolf has a new problem from the looks of it. ... Loneliness ... Just the emptiness of the Kai monastery, only the Sommerschwerd to keep him company, Wich makes for good roleplay potential.
Unfortunately, the Sommerschwerd proved to be too powerful in the last two books. Leading me to Insta-kill Vonotar's weird monster and the guy who tried to revive Vashna.
(I rolled an 8 and a 0 for these while I had a shield and a magic helmet from Ikya)
I try to use the Sommerschwerd as little as possible, Lone Wolf thinks it's power is holy and should be used only when necessary. Because over-relying on it would make him weak.
Don't get me wrong, it saved his a** more than he can count, but I was forced to use it a few times, because I had no other weapon or my enemy was immune to my regular Shortsword.
I'd like to ask, is it possible to lose it? If there is any scenario, where you lose all your stuff including the Sommerschwerd.
I don't know the ruling on this. Since it counts as a weapon *and* a special object, *can* it even be lost? Since, it's like ... The most holy object in all of Magnamund.
Or is Lone Wolf smart enough to hold on to it like his life depends on it? (Because it does)
@@OrangeDragon04 I think the sword is just a tool. It doesn’t equal the worth of the man that wields it; though, it certainly makes the job of vanquishing evil much easier. Endeavor to persevere.
@@evilstratton So it's like a gun? ;)
Me too I read through them all as a child and have them all to charity as an adult. Recently bought a few of them for my children but they didn't take too them as fully as I did.
I remember getting massively OP by the last few books, because I guess the author still wanted anyone to be able to pick them up anywhere in the series, whereas I had levelled up throughout. Good Times 😊
I still have the first 20 or so books in a box, somewhere. I never would have guessed they would become collectibles. I guess I should pull them out so my kid can check them out. She's getting into d&d.
👍
Sounds like the perfect thing to get a kid more into that tabletop side of rpg
@@lilheinz9496 I say 'kid', but she's 19. She has had the books for about a week (it took me a few days to find them). She has asked if I could dm for her and a friend yesterday. I am going to run Phandelver for them next weekend. I'm going to run 2 sidekicks along with them to balance their party. The hardest thing for me will be keeping 'Dad' out of the game. Except for the jokes. Can't be a dad without the dad jokes.
@@coolintruddle have fun
@@spritemon98 It was a blast. The first time I asked "What do you do?", they were at a bit of loss but that passed quickly when they realized they could attempt to do anything they wanted. The initial orc fight at the dead horse (...oh my god. First orc fight over a beaten dead horse...I just got that now...) was a lot of fun.
The Lone Wolf RPG was my first experience with the books. Lone Wolf, Fighting Fantasy, and Tunnels and Trolls make up a sort of missing link to today's tabletop roleplaying game scene.
I was about to ask if this was the same thing as Fighting Fantasy (and hence troika)
@@DarkadeTV Lone Wolf has for sure had an inspirational factor in the Old School Renaissance genre.
Troika is probably one of the best inheritors of those solo play books.
@@jonsadler3013 I see. I'm pretty excited for Down in Yongardy, a new solo Troika book, maybe something for Austin to check!
I dont u win
I'm not sure what you mean by missing link? DnD came out in 1974. The Tunnels and Trolls tabletop RPG came out in 1975. The first T&T solo adventure came out in 1976. And Warlock of Firetop Mountain came out in 1982.
Tabletop RPGs predate and inspired gamebooks.
My sister adores this series. We've played the tabletop adaptation as a family. Joe Dever is her favorite author and a big inspiration for her. So lucky we got to meet him at Gen Con before he passed. He was very down to earth and I'm sure got a kick out of my sister introducing all of her family members to him. 😅
„For Summerlund and Kai!“
Austin you can't just make a twelve minute video that convinces me to buy like 30 fucking books I don't have that much money god dammit.
Don't worry. Most of the books are available online for free.
Hahah, I'm glad I'm not the only one who felt the urge to buy them 😂
There is a free app you can download.
@@horrorsage1346 bUT WHERE?
@@horrorsage1346 TELL US THE NAME
I've been craving something like this for a while. My D&D group is kinda shutting down, at least right now. I just bought the first book of the definitive set. Thank you for the recommendation!
e: arrived today. here we go!
Out of curiosity why is your group shutting down?
Discord, fruitsnack nation, has connections to dnd groups-
A fighting fantasy boxset isn't a bad idea either. Or any of the countless Tunnels and Trolls boxsets.
I really want a dnd group but I don't really know anyone interested
Try looking at Choice of Games too. They do a bunch of those types of books online. I use them when my players cancel last minute
Yeah, Lone Wolf actually made me a worse student. I was so obsessed that I secretly started playing right during class in the 80's. I regret my lack of self control, but I'll never regret my journeys in that game world. I thought I was the only one who remembered these books.
Thanks for this video, Austin. This hit me in a really emotional way. Nostalgia is one heck of a drug.
Proving the stuffier of Victorians right: novels will melt your brain!
spent most my high school in the back row playing rpgs with a friend. in middle school we had notebooks hopping from player to player occasionally intercepted by teachers who were often horrified by the content. can always learn the class at home when else are you going to be trapped in a room together with friends
Show me an avid fiction reader, and I'll show you someone who's spent time immersed in a story when they were supposed to be doing something else. It comes with the territory. If you don't end up having to learn self-control in regards to a passion, is it really a passion?
@@jameswoodard4304 lol supposed to be doing something else. Not everyone's so enthusiastic about being a cog in the machine nor they owe it to anyone else
D&D did the same thing to me. I completely stopped reading text books in class and read and reread the Players Handbook.
The real story here is about a son and a father. The son says his father wasn't there, yet his working partner says it was unbelievable how available and caring he was. Sad, really.
Some people can be the best people you will ever meet, but can never quite get the knack of parenting.
Nah the books are waaaaaaaay more interesting than standard family drama
Yeah, those kinds of people made me kind of surprised and gives me a lesser great impression of them if I find out they were/are not great parents. But I get that parenting is really hard tho and that being with family can be complicated.
@@saturdaymorninggaming5628 I have one word for you:
*bruh*
Moral of the story: life is nothing more than a... drop of the pencil?
This is like a core memory unlocked… I used to look for these books online like 10 or so years ago and found most of them on one website in pdf format and it was the most fun I’ve had in a while. Very reminiscent of solo D&D
Project Aon is your friend
Hey man,
Your videos remind me of the phrase "beauty in the small things". I must've read so many books as a kid growing up but never bothered with them as an adult. You find beauty in small things you did as a child and with your amazing story telling skills, make great content.
Hope it goes well for you in the future too.
I remember having choose your own adventure books in school library, such good memories
And i thought ive been waiting a long time for a song of ice and fire to finish
We're getting close. It's been more than twenty-five years since *A Game of Thrones* was published and there's (at least) two volumes to go until it's done.
Considering *A Dance of Dragons* came out the same year as the first season of the HBO show, only forty years for *A Song of Ice and Fire* to finish seems a little hopeful at this point.
Lol
The Lone Wolf saga actually has at least two arcs. Lone Wolf himself establishes a new Kai Order and in one of the book you switch character from Lone Wolf to one of his student (you get to pick your own Kai name!). There's also a point in the story where Lone Wolf levels up from Kai Lord to Magnakai Lord.
Well damn, that took a turn I didn't expect. This story in and of itself is an epic adventure.
I remember coming across a DS rom someone made that transferred the first two books into a digital thing.
Probably not the best way to experience them, but if you like novelties, then it's a cool thing.
There was also the 3rd book port later down the line.
They were quite good, and the DS was a great fit. You have your media on one screen (Character sheet, Illustrations, etc.), while having the text on another, with hyperlinks to make choices.
I loved playing them, those ROMs were my introduction to the whole CYOA genre.
My dad owned a couple of those books. I have to say watching this video was a lot more of an emotional roller coaster than I was expecting it was going to be.
I have many fond memories of Lone Wolf, up late with a flashlight till wee hours of the morning.
There was another one in this series that I remember playing through back in the day called Grey Star the Wizard. I think there were only 4 books in that one at least at the time but I enjoyed it.
That's right, that was a four-book series, co-written by Ian Page. I liked that series better than the Lone Wolf series, personally, because...wizards.
I hear they might be getting the DE treatment also 😎🤟
Is Grey Star based off of that Cartoon with the space traveling sword wielding heros?
@@lanceknightmare No relation. Grey Star is an independent property except from Lone Wolf, being set in the same world of Magnamund.
Lone Wolf was wonderful, but Grey Star was even BETTER. :) So sad that those 4 books have never gotten fancy new editions like LW has.
"Yeah, I think my 27 part saga is pretty ambitious."
*sees this.
...
"I am but a man among gods."
You are writing a book saga? I would love to know more about your work
@@BaronessAnicca Something I've been working on since 2014. It's gonna be 10 years soon. Went through a few re-writes, but been solid since 2019.
@@Foreign0817 Woah, is there anything published yet? High key would be awesome to buy one of them
@@BaronessAnicca Not yet. I'm hoping to start getting things out before 2030.
@@Foreign0817 Best of lucks with that!! Im rooting for you ^^
Lone Wolf is SORELY underrated in the modern world of D&D. As a player just now getting his feet wet of TTRPGs of 5 years of the same setting of 5e, a lover of all kinds of video games & not finding any suitable games to play for my particular time schedule, Lone Wolf is THE gamebook series that I found out through the Video game (set in between books 3 & 4) that I had to check out the rest of the series as a whole through Project Aon. Now to see a video making me realize the books are coming out in a modern re-print? My wallet can’t get anymore empty, but the video has been amazing as well as many others. This channel deserves your sub, along with Lone Wolf as well. ❤️💙
What is the name of the video game and what system is it for?
@@undrhilThe name of the game is “Joe Dever’s Lone Wolf” & I played it on my PS4/5. It’s on basically all major platforms, so PS4/5, Xbox, Switch, PC & iOS.
@@Nobanion Is it the same as the app on mobile phones?
@@undrhil It’s the same game on mobile & console, aside from the graphical settings lower for mobile.
@@Nobanion Interesting! I will check that out!
So glad this got recommend to me. Had no idea about this series but now that I am, will certainly keep an eye out for the definitive editions.
I started enjoying the Lone Wolf books in elementary school in 2013 when i was 12, i wanna thank you for bringing me back to those times.
I recently found seven Lone Wolf books in an old box, all in near mint unused condition. I put them on Ebay, figuring someone might want them. They sold for $100. Guess someone wanted them. Glad I passed them on to a collector instead of a used book store.
I did not expect the diverse emotions that this video would have. Somehow Austin always makes these complex videos and somehow I always get surprised every time
I have never heard of this. And now that makes me sad, because this sounds awesome for someone who's been wanting to get into roleplaying but is terrified of people.
Palpatine: DO IT! :p it's a rally fun experience.
There are D&D or other RPG modules that are solo (run _and_ played by one person) you might wanna check some of those out too.
this is technically a 13 minute advertisement for these books, but i'm not complaining lmaoo
Don't forget about Grey Star, the companion series. Taking place in the same world but in a far off land (or in a different era), Grey Star needs to defeat the Wytch-King to free the people of Magnamund using magical powers learned from the Shianti. While much more linear in the storytelling, the world and creatures are incredible and fun to play with. Some of the same problems still existed, but because of the smaller number of books, you didn't notice as much.
wtf
when you started this video, I was like, huh that sounds interesting. Then I realized some of the art you were showing off looked sorta familiar, and then when you started explaining the plot I finally realized that I had actually played some of these, a long long time ago. Mind is sorta blown. Wow. What a callback.
it happens sometimes, I've had callbacks, I remember watching the redwall series and wanting to find it again but didn't remember what it was called, I don't recall how I found that series again.
Since Solo-TTRPG playing is making a resurgence, this is sure to be a hit! I'm definitely going to pre-order!
What books or system would you say are leading this resurgence?
@@zetametroid It's not one system but rather a cool confluence of tools that make things easier to solo than ever before. Mythic GME, Ironsworn/Starsworn, and awesome actual plays like Me, Myself, and Die here on YT show that this area of the TTRPG scene is only just getting started.
@@zetametroid I've been diving into solo TTRPG lately, I'd heartily suggest things that run on the Carta engine (Borealis, Cryptkeeper, Punchcard Memories), things that run on the Lost and Found engine (Artefact, Archived, Novel Story), or maybe some Wretched and Alones (Go Alone, The Sealed Library, The Wretched), though there's a whole huge world of them out there, even within those engines I mentioned, the example games are just scratching the surface, there's such great stuff around.
@@Glacier_Nester I just found something interesting thanks to this. Thanks for the reply, Kenneth See also.
"I really like this book, how did your dad die?"
Truely the grace of a legless cow.
Joe Dever's Lone Wolf was a huge inspiration behind my Castles of Imagination series (5/6th available now). My interactive fictions are also linked like Lone Wolf. Plus dice help make some decisions. I have the first 5 books out in 5 years and only one book in the series left to write. I recommend tracking them down and starting on Goblin's Gift. I have a few other series started too but they are different than Lone Wolf.
Arw you currently selling them? And if so where csn they be found?
this series has android app version too!
it's called "Lone Wolf Saga"
My school library had several of the Lone Wolf books back in the day and I was never able to read them because the first book was always checked out, I was super jealous of anyone who was ever able to snag it for a week or two. Thanks for shedding some light back on this cool piece of interactive fiction history!
The books were designed so that you could start a new character just for each book, without having gone through the other ones. It was helped by having skill resets; once the books reached the point that a long-time character could have learned all the skills, new characters just got them all and there was a new set of higher level skills available.
This video is definitely gonna help with the resurgence of the franchise
I've played through the first three of them when I was about twelve and in a fit of nostalgia I've played until the sixth one on a website I can't remember the name of roughly ten years ago. The ink illustrations are still so striking and the series will always have a place in my heart. Thank you for making this video. I had no idea Joe Dever died, but I'm grateful his son is finishing his father's work.
To me the illustrations are reminiscent of manga panels like in Berserk, which is my favorite story of all time however it's incredibly graphic at times so fair warning if you decide to read it. The character development and journey is so incredible, and the artwork legitimately becomes museum worthy it's amazing
I didn't grow up with Lone Wolf, so I just assumed it was a knock-off of Fighting Fantasy. But the idea of a gamebook *series* just fires up my imagination. I can't wait for these to come out!
Fighting Fantasy also had a series, Sorcery!, which is imo among the best books FF ever put out. There were a few other series as well, but none really did as well as either of those. The most inpressive otherwise is probably Fabled Lands, which was a open-world/free-roaming gamebook series. And not just open-world within each book; each book represented a country and you could walk back and forth between them as you wished if you had the coresponding book.
@@Painocus cool only knew about choose your own adventures. Didn't know about the rpg books until this vid but now I know there's one with an open world 🌎 which is blowing up my already blown mind.
Hmm.. Fighting Fantasy but no dice 🤪
I completely forgot about the Boxcar Children! It was my favorite book series! I definitely need to read them again
This as a blast from the past, as soon as you showed "Lone Wolf" I was instantly transported back to my youth. I knew exactly what you were talking about. I could never buy the books, but I was at the library all the time getting these books.
I actually remember reading a bunch of these back in 5th grade which would have been around 2005-06 and always remembered it but never the name. I love that Austin is bringing light to this amazing series
I encountered Lone Wolf as a single random copy of one of the Magnakai series in my Highschool library. I was hooked, but frustrated as I couldn't get my hands on any other copy. Over the years I would come across random copies at book sales and yard sales. I found many other choose-your-own-adventure books but none were as appealing as Lone Wolf. Too many years later I stumbled across a website and eventually an app in the playstore, and was finally able to complete my journey. I really loved that series. Thanks for making this video and letting us know of the upcoming releases.
Oh my.
I'm French. And I had a lot of "Loup Solitaire" novels as a kid.
Joe Dever's book were translated in French and I still have the first 6.
Classics.
Still huge in Italy I understand as Lupo Solitario.
Einsamer Wolf in germany
@@somone124 and Ensamma Vargen in Sweden. Askfageln do excellent work, and so especially does Lukas Theljn the artist they use
That's how I knew the series too!
0:18 omg I’ve been reading hatchet at school and love it but realize not that many people talk about it I literally got sooooo happy when I saw my favourite RUclipsr even show it on screen
I too had this obsession. I am now ploughing my way through the titles that weren't released when I was a kid. Those are all the books after 12. PLUS I just bought the EXTENDED book 1 with a huge amount of new content that had been added recently including fighting your way out of the attack on the Kai Monastery. These books are still great!
What an honour to get to talk to your favourite authors son, and he talked to you, it seems, so generously. Wonderful warm video, and very special to you, thank you both for sharing 🙂👍🕊.
Never heard of these but definitely want to check them out once they're available. Thanks for covering them!
this video has awakened a new interest in books i did not know i had
I loved these so much. Have most of it still in my bookcase... I once even "mapped out" the entire first book on a single sheet of paper, with numbered bubbles connecting to each other! There's a great computer program that downloads and displays pdfs of the books, as well as has an integrated gui game system tracker so you can seriously play along. But these new editions sound really interesting, I never had any idea about the content that was left out.
I've never seen on of these books irl, but someone turned like 6 of the books into a fully playable digital gamebooks on Nintendo DS homebrew.
I met Joe a couple of times... he was a lovely person, a passionate author and gamer. And a gentleman too. He loved to chat with his fans, and would always had time for a greeting, an autograph, and a smile.
My love was Fighting fantasy, but now have some lone wolf books and my personal favourite forbidden lands which is a more open world system! So cool to see you talking about these.
No joke, my collection of Lone Wolf books still has a prominent place on my bookshelf in my home! Love that series!
I played through like the first...10? 12? books when I was younger. The first several I played through repeatedly. As he was showing things the whole time it was like, 'Yep, remember that. I know what that is. Know that too.'
What an amazing story! It's a pity Joe passed away before you could interview him but it's wonderful to see his legacy being carried onward. The fact that Joe was able to plot multiple ways the narrative could wind through so many books boggles my mind. I would have loved to know what kind of system he used to keep track of everything.
I jumped on the Lone Wolf books back when they first came out. I'd already had my time with Choose your own Adventure and Fighting Fantasy, but in each of those, you played "you", an anonymous, generic protagonist and, for the most part, there wasn't much connection between adventures (this would change later for Fighting Fantasy).
Lone Wolf not only had an ongoing protagonist but a richly-realized world and a compelling story which you were the hero of.
Later on, I'd discover 'Grail Quest' by JH Brennan, a more comedy-tinged series where you play an apprentice adventurer named Pip being sent on adventures in Arthurian Britain by Merlin, as well as 'Way of the Tiger' (where you play a ninja) and 'Falcon' (where you play a time traveller) by Mark Smith and Jamie Thompson, and 'Freeway Warrior', a post-apocalyptic series also by Joe Dever.
But Lone Wolf was the big one. I even played 'The World of Lone Wolf', a series also set in Magnamund where you play a Wizard called Grey Star.
I've not heard of this series. Wow, what a cool idea to get kids into reading and developing their imaginations! I think that's fantastic and so needed these days, with everyone glued to a screen 24/7. I hope this revival/reissue gains a whole new generation of fans!
It lays in the future, and it will be so. [I hope]
@@lanceknightmare I understand where you're coming from with children being deprived of education, but codifying 'breeding laws' is a pretty horrendous thought, no?
never heard of this but loved the Choose Your Own Adventure books as a kid
Never heard of these but would’ve been right up my alley as a kid. Looking forward to the re-releases.
Back in 2010, when Mongoose Publishing had the rights to the Lone Wolf Multiplayer Game, I was featured in Mongoose's Signs&Portents e-magazine (issue 83) for my work introducing children to tabletop roleplaying when I worked at a Boys and Girls club. Matthew Sprange wrote the article, but I don't know if Joe Dever ever saw it. My students were so excited that they said "Can we make a video to help other kids learn about the game?" and I said "yea, lets do it". Its super cheesy and simple but the kids enjoyed the process and I still have it up on my channel here. During the lockdown, I replayed through the books. It really is pure nostalgia. You will always be transported back to the first time you played the game/read the books and enjoy every second of it!
I was blah at the beginning of this video. At the end, I understood and became excited about the series!
This is right up my alley and I've already ordered the 1st 2 books. I am a dm in dnd who never gets to play, so this should definitely be a fun experience
That takes me back...
The silly and humorous GrailQuest series got me into this kind of book. I liked the Bloodsword series for the gaming aspect, being able to choose your character class was huge for me. I was super into the Sagas of the Demonspawn series since it was aimed at older readers (it's a Sword and Sorcery type of thing), and I found the Défis et Sortilèges series amazing for having four books per one story so that one story can be explored from each character's point of view. I was never that much into the Lone Wolf series even though it was one of the biggest ones, but I did play a few of them (those that were available to me, anyway) and liked them well enough. I certainly had no idea all of this had gone on behind the scenes!
Loved GrailQuest! have the whole collection, trying to get my kids interested
@@CaliPSSF It's a great series for kids to start with IMO. It's pretty basic fantasy, the system isn't too complicated, and it's generally funny, the humor being on a level a child can understand.
I discovered this series when book 3 was the latest book - they had it at my local elementary school "book fair" (but NOT books 1 and 2) and it looked interesting, so I got it. I was in 4rd or 5th grade at the time. I devoured it, and hunted down books 1 & 2. (The book mentioned the Sommerswerd, and I replayed over and over trying to find this item - only to discover it wasn't attainable in this book. That is what hooked me to find the previous books. "A game book where you carry items over?!?") I then bought each new book when it came out up through the end of the Magnakai series. By then, I had started playing Dungeons & Dragons. My local bookstore seemed to stop ordering the new ones with the Grand Master - it was multiple years later that I even discovered there were books after the Magnakai. I bought a couple of the Grand Master, not even sure I went all the way through the books I had.
Then re-discovered them after college in a box waiting at my parents house. Got the rest of the US-released books and played them again for nostalgia; then later when Project Aon made the original books free online.
I still have all my original copies. My original book 3 is so worn out, it's ridiculous. Back in the day, my mom photocopied the Action Charts for me at her work so I would stop wearing through the pages (book 3's is worn clean through, as is the random number table; when I started playing D&D, I realized a d10 works fine as a replacement.) Book 3's spine was taped together multiple times. All the books through 12 are so broke-back that you can't even read most of their spines. I have in recent years started to hunt down good-quality copies; but some of them are ridiculously expensive. I haven't yet even thought about tracking down the post-US-discontinued books, settling for playing via Project Aon for the New Order series.
Your story reminds me a lot of when I found some old Fighting Fantasy books in my school's library ages ago. Might end up looking into give the Lone Wolf books a try.
So glad someone else is talking about these! Been a fan of them since high school
NO WAY I went through a phase where I was freaking obsessed with these! Crazy to see people actually talking about these!
Saw your video and was amazed by the concept, and your obvious nostalgia for the project, so I dropped $170 for the first 5 books - so far those are the only ones of the old books that have been converted to the 'Definitive Edition', with books 23 to 27, 30, and 31, also available. While I could pull money out of savings and get the other 7, I think I'll wait and buy them in order, just so that Holmgard Press have an incentive to continue the project.
I've always loved these books and I have been waiting for this video to finally appear!
In recent years I've actually been playing them with my son. We do a call once a day where I read the book and he makes the choices, and we talk about them together and laugh about the conventions of the game ("Always search the room!"). Thank you Project Aon for making them so easily available.
I played the Lone Wolf videogame on switch. Pretty cool game. Joe worked with the Devs so they could transition the books into a videogame.
Definitely getting the definitive edition for my nephews and myself! Christmas gifts ✅
Those kind of old-school fantasy black-and-white ink drawings just hit differently...
Oh wow, Lone Wolf. I played most of those, I think. Haven't thought of them in 30+ years.
I 'played' a lot of the original format books in the 80's, but these take it to a whole new level. Brilliant.
You just activated happy memories I forgot I had! This made my day significantly better. Not just because I loved these books but because I really enjoy seeing someone who enjoyed them.
I hope the definitive edition has a digital or ebook version. I'd love to have a sprawling adventure on my phone for long bus rides
It is confirmed that they will be released as e-books as well.
Damnit. Now I have to build a really nice bookshelf to show these off when they come out.
A Dev adapted the 2 unofficial Lone Wolf games Austin showed, story/art on one screen and the pencil based gaming on the other (if anyone here has a Nintendo DS & either DS or GBA homebrew cart. It's in .NDS format.)
The homebrew adaptation game got me into knowing the official game here in Australia, where gaming books like that were only really seen in CYOA books, Worlds Of Power (Nintendo's attempt at CYOA - Castlevania is fun!) books and the 2 Asterix comics/game books!
Apparently the first 5 books eventually got homebrew DS ports (complete with character progression carrying over between games), so that's cool.
As far as I'm aware, the first 5 books (or the original Kai Saga) are available as DS homebrew. Also long ago, there was a site that had all of the original books as PDFs too, I still have those PDFs, I know they're around some other places too. But apart of the hype for the Definitive Editions is that the stories are actually expanded compared to the originals, and that's apart of why I want to try to find the definitive editions. There are some actual bookstores near me that I'm gonna poke my head in next time I have money. Also because I'm absolutely in favor of supporting a project with as much passion behind it as this.
@@placeholderplaceholder3448 Oh of course. I was mentioning the adaptation in case people want to try it, see if they like Lone Wolf! If so, grab the new, bigger versions! ☺
(DS is nice for on the go though!)
Just bought the first book on the back of this video. I can’t believe I grew up in the UK as an RPG 80s kid but totally missed these books. I’m definitely going to make up for lost time.
this is why I love your content so much Austin - never know what you're going to get - always enjoyable, entertaining and often enlightening, so *thank you* Austin.never heard of the Lone Wolf series, sounds intriguing (a friend of mine was into 'chose your own adventure' books, I cheated and wanted to know ALL the endings LOL - so that's how I read them, lol) - I think if I had been able to be more interactive with them, like these books, I might have felt differently (plus the plots were not very interesting...). like you, I wanted to reach out to one of the people who meant a lot to me growing up. my first introduction to fantasy was Anne McCaffery and the dragonriders of Pern (plus other series - ) - I always meant to write and thank her for all the joy & pleasure she bought me over the years, esp my formative years - however, sadly, like you Austin, I was just years too late (she passed in 2011)
Joe dever rocked my world starting in like 1990 or so. I kept trying to special order his books and stuff. Even when they were new they smelled like nostalgia! I realized later that they had MORE in Canada than I seemed to be able to find in the US, including novelizations (which again rocked my world, but I couldn’t find the other volumes). I’m happy someone else in the world shared my experience.
I am surprised that this book series exist, I did not know a single thing about it until now. I usually read a lot of fantasy/sci-fi/adventure books in my childhood days but what an incredible video, Thank you so much, Gregory!
Lone Wolf was MY introduction to Fantasy Roleplaying. I even still use "Lonewolf" as part of all my sign names.
These preorders look INCREDIBLY tempting, both as someone who's been playing a ton of solo ttrpg lately, and someone who absolutely adores choose your own adventure novels. I'll have to toss this onto a wishlist somewhere, would be a nice way to spend my gaming/reading budget!
Lowkey thinking of buying all of these when they come out for my little cousin
Lone Wolf books might have been written by a boomer, but by the time they were written, boomers were already adults, and Lone Wolf books were aimed at a child and teen audience, so it was for Generation X and later generations.
This is awesome. I have signed up and I intend to jump into this series! Thanks Austin!
The first time I heard about this franchise was from the IOS game. After seeing the cover of the older books, I really love the modern interpretation design from the IOS game.
ios game?
Thanks for uploading this, I just ordered the first two books for my son and I to try out. We both love books and Dnd so this looks like a great combination!
I never heard of these kinds of books. I ordered all 5 of the definitive editions. Was like $40 in shipping from the UK to the US, but it's going to be worth it.
I can't believe you have The Cave of Time! That was my favorite Choose Your Own Adventure book. I still have them, somewhere. Now I'm going to have to find them and read them again.
As a TTRPG player of going on 10 years who got into the hobby in my 20's, a Tabletop game designer, and a writer. I think this is incredibly rad and wish I discovered these when I was young!
I've been a fan of Live Action Role-play for about 30 years. I found Online Role-play around 15-20 years ago. I also did some custom Paper and Pencil systems where I was the Gamemaster, Story Writer and creator of the statistical system. Never played Dungeons and Dragons or any pre-made systems before. I tried to get into it but soon discovered the online websites are online free for PC and require the payed service for Android. So, I never joined any of those websites. Online Role-play is still somewhat popular. The community has become overly greedy with their expectations of Gamemasters. The videos on how to be a better Gamemaster have become a list of reasons for them to flame you if you do not follow those rules.
Iam sorry to here.
Now Iam so sorry,can't stop crying.
He was my stan lee.
He will be miss.R.I.P
My family used to own one of these kinds of game books, although I think it was another D&D-Styled series. Thanks for the nostalgia!
Oh god I wish I had these growing up, these sound freaking awesome!
It's interesting to see you cover this. I'm a massive fan of Dever's work. The game books are just so fun to play. Discovering all the paths and dead ends and red herrings was always my favorite part.
You have solved a 20 year mystery for me! I read one of these books back in my late teens and after moving several times misplaced it and I could never remember the title of it and my google-fu failed me. Finally, I've found which series it's from
This seems really cool, thank you for bringing this to my attention!
Looking online, it seems like the books themselves are pretty pricey, but they do seem to have a new game out with a similar system. I’ll have to check these out!
I discovered them when I was around 12 at my school library (I am now 45). I had previously read the Grail Quest series by J.H. Brennan (that series is really hard to find now) which is in the same format, so it appealed to me immediately. I do own the original 20 books that were published in the US and always wanted to get the Magnamund Companion book and the New Order books, but they were not available. I'm looking forward to being able to get new and complete editions of these, especially since it always seemed to me that some books were missing parts (even back then).
This was an excellent video. Thank you.
Austin is truly one of my cult followings, always coming up with these obscure and interesting video ideas that are well-paced and polished, while not just rushing to gush out the next content to stay relevant and mainstream. Props to those that manage to chase and surf the tides, and I like quite a few of them, but it truly goes underappreciated the effort content creators like Austin puts out for something you can just sit back and drink a cup of tea to.
Hell, this wouldn't be out of place on TV.
Also I'm 22 and man, I sound old as hell lmao.
My school had these book magazines we'd get once a month and my first Lone Wolf book cost me $1.99
I bought most of the following ones from Waldenbooks, which of course no longer exists. And yes, they absolutely did smell of nostalgia!
Castle Death was ROUGH!
Very interested in the reprints! Thanks so much!
I'm working on a game I want to have basically infinite possibility, but very similar concept, randomly drawn events that you either work through, around, or end up impaired by, this video was a big step in what I needed to narrow down how to do events and branching paths and leveling up