Let's Play: Lone Wolf 1 "Flight from the Dark"

ANIMAL KINSHIP.
Also, there's no way if I was playing this I wouldn't pick healing. Just because that's how I roll.

But mostly ANIMAL KINSHIP.

I'm not gonna lie, I didn't read most of that. Not because I couldn't. Not because I have Things To Do, which I do.

No, I stopped because I saw two words combined into one.

Mindblast.

And my mind was blown. I don't care if taking it has only negative repurcussions on your character. You can blow things up with your mind. More games should allow this. So if you don't take it, or don't take multiple ranks of it or whatever, I will be sorely disappointed.

Hey, I had some of these books when I was a kid! I recall having #7, which was something about a castle or a tower. I also had one in what I think was a spin-off series with a wizard. I think I liked the wizard one better, because I was more into magic than fighting.

Anyhow, I'll go with:
Healing
Sixth Sense
Mind Blast
Animal Kinship
Mind Over Matter

I figure that early on the Mind Blast will be useful against most things, whereas weapon training is only useful if you're lucky enough to pick a weapon you have/can get. Maybe if you do more of these you can pick up a weapon skill later.

The spin-off was called The World of Lone Wolf, and it starred Grey Star the Wizard.

The way I play games I always hate having finite resources. That's why I dislike mages: you're screwed if you don't have MP. So Hunting is a must. Don't want to get caught without any food, right? Camouflage seems like it'd be useful for making a quick getaway, and Sixth Sense makes you Spider-Man. I'd take the weaponskill trait and hope for something cool like a sword or spear or staff (axes are for losers). And Mindshield sounds useful since I can imagine it being useful against tough characters later on.

So, for the record:
Sixth Sense
Camouflage
Weaponskill
Mindshield
Hunting

...
...
...

On the one hand, I hate Loki for suddenly springing this out of nowhere. I LOVE THE LONE WOLF BOOKS. THIS SHOULD BE MINE. MIIIIIIIIIIIIINE!! Also you had to start it in the middle of a day when I was gone, and so missed out on two pages of discussion. Two pages!

On the other, I have no desire to do any of the work. And it seems odd choice for a Talking Time, and wouldn't have thought anyone would be interested.

So.. so I guess I'll let you live.

I still have my physical copies of 1-20 (sadly only US editions; fucking edits), Magnamund Companion, and a bunch of freehand copies of illustrations. Cover of Flight from the Dark is worn off. Have Grey Star books. Am still creeped out by giant-hands guy.

Et cetera. Et cetera.

Also: this may be of interest to homebrew-capable DS folk. (Though I'm pissed he hasn't open-sourced it so that I would have the opportunity to do all the grunt work ni a single weekend, so that I could carry the books around forever and ever in me pockets)

re: Disciplines: Mindshield is great, and will prove very useful in later battles, as will Mindblast. You either need to take Animal Kinship now, or in Book 2, because - I can't remember if the Project Aon guys fixed it - there's a point where you cannot proceed without Animal Kinship (which breaks the rules of "any combination of discplines can get you through"; the books otherwise adhere very solidly to this rule), but there isn't a super-lot of use for it in 1. I used to always take Hunting, but Meals become less and less of an issue. Weaponmastery is a crapshoot if you're doing it legit, otherwise get sword. (because of SPOILERS) Sixth Sense is good though.

I work evenings so most of my updates will be during the day. I don't think it will be too much of an incovenance.

What edits? Talk to me, Goose. I have to know!

Suggested skills:

1. Animal Kinship
2. Weaponskill: Sword Spoiler alert!
3. Mindblast
4. Hunting
5. Camouflage

I love the early books. After a certain point, it kinda turns into "If you possess the king-shit-monkeyswerd pass "GO" and collect $200. Otherwise, punch yourself and buy Book #2."

Re: edits: they cut out huge sections to slim down the volumes. 50-100 in some cases. This was done.. not elegantly, which lead to several "bugs" in these issues (15-20 have the most missing, but there's cuts from 13 and 14 also). ProjectAon probably has a full list.

At one point I tried to Interlibrary Loan the UK editions (because ProjectAon moves as slow as the damned grave) but the only library I could find with them was Oxford. Yeah, that one. They.. don't really lend stuff out in that manner. ;P

I haven't checked in awhile, because as you said..

Re: early books/powers: agree completely. 1-5 are AWESOME. 6-12 are very good but some are better than others (Castle Death was meh, and wins Most Generic CYOA Title of any of the Lone Wolf books; Jungle of Horrors had tonnes of genuinely creepy stuff). The Magnakai (that 6-12) is also fun because your powers start ramping up and you start taking on Deathlords without things being COMPLETELY retarded.

13+ is just silly. Your powers have progressed to the point where, logically, you shouldn't even be bothering to adventure anymore, just kinda carelessly take guys out with Yoda-level badassery. So anything that does come up in your face strikes you as "why bother?" (I wonder how much of this is due to edits/cuts and how much is just not-as-good)

BUT! We are not playing those later books. We are playing Flight from the Dark! So it's all good.

(unless you are talking about the recent Mongoose Publishing "special edition" which I consider to be a bastardisation and really ruins some of the charm, but I am hopelessly mired in nostalgia so am not an objective source. but I'm still right)

Oh holy crap. This is already the best thread ever. PLEASE keep going through the series!!!!!

A slight exaggeration...

name a better thread, dude.

I read about this book over on Project Aon, I wouldn't mind if you elaborated your feelings on the matter.

Sure.

Caveat: Joe Dever did do the writing for it, so at least there's that much.

Anyway..

Rather than coming back, having missed the action, LW takes part in the fighting, and so some of the beginning is re-written (by the end of the book all the Kai are still dead, but it's not immediate aftermath).

This just.. really really bugs me. Firstly, the idea is that the Darklords just came in and swamped with numbers. Lone Wolf survived basically on luck (and I think the backstory is he was out gathering wood as a kind of punishment, also). It changes the scope of things, especially with relation to later books: the Kai were doomed at that point, had been doomed for centuries, having lost the Magnakai teachings. Why bother showing them fight? Having them just flat-out destroyed is pretty brutal and shocking.

To be fair, it's also an easy way to start a book, but with age I really do like that reading/interpretation of the events.

There's also some other paths and sections added to the main book (I think it bumps it up to 400 sections? I forget; borrowed from a library, don't have a copy now) which are cool, but some of the original Gary Chalk art is changed and that is just too lodged in my brain to be okay with the replacements.

If you never played LW before, it might be interesting for you to run through the new Mongoose ones if you wanted a physical book to play, rather than using ProjectAon or LWDS. Mongoose is doing the whole run of the books, but each one has these new additions. I haven't tried the others yet. Some of the books really could use a refresher (for bad sections, or maybe just something was boring, or obtuse; I mentioned in the Gamebooks thread that Chasm of Doom, #4 is kinda iffy after the great end of Kalte, and the massive adventure that is Shadow on the Sand in #5), but I don't like some of the re-writing that was done in Flight from the Dark. Again, from my super-fanboy position, which I will totally cop to, and suggest people check it out.

But I also don't like what Mongoose did with Lone Wolf D20, so I kinda suspect them and their intentions.. I don't know how much of the new versions is pure Dever, and how much of it is "show notes" from the publisher.

Holy dogshit! That makes me a little glad I fell out of touch with the series before it hit the Magnakai arc.

We're of one mind on Jungle of Horrors. I loved the art and the twisted direction of the encounters (especially the sad fate of Troust the friendly knight. That dude deserved better than Demon Cancer/being burned horribly by your fireseeds.) Joe Dever really ramped up the gory details in JoH.

Sure but also the main character's village is destroyed while he's away is the RPG cliche. Back when RPGMaker for the PSX came out I used to read the GameFAQ boards for the idiotically cliche and stupid RPG plots people came up with, and let me tell you, about 75% of them started this way.

Sure. But Flight from the Dark was published 1984, so.. When I first read it, we didn't even have a NES yet. I don't consider the revised beginning to really be any better in that regard (have played/read enough things where it starts that way also). It's just a personal preference for me.

Upon waking from my branch induced coma I remember that I was trained in the ways of Camouflage, Healing, Animal Kinship, Blowing things up with my brain, and Spiderman.



Let's open up the old status menu and see where I'm at.







It was a lucky thing I took this map of the country with me on my wood gathering expedition. Let's take a look at it now.



They didn't teach us much about geography at the monastery but I think the capital of Sommerlund is Holmgard. According to this map it's less that 50 miles away! I'll be there within the hour! Hmmm... I would think Sommerlund would measure distance in kilometers not miles but then again I was learn-ed in brain explodey not math so what do I know.

And without further ado: OFF TO ADVENTURE.



The book makes it seem so dignified. ALSO I TRIPPED AND SKINNED MY KNEE. You'd cry too, jerks.

Since I spent so many credit hours on it I might as well make use of my psychic abilities. PAGE 141 HERE WE COME!

South is the direction I need to go, but Northeast has heavy foliage. I do so love foliage this time of year. I guess the king can wait a few more minutes for me to look at trees. NORTHEAST!

Orcs?! Goblins!?! Bug-a-bears?!?!?!

Oh.

Hmmm... Helgedad sounds awfully familiar. As long as I don't have to throw a ring into it I'll let it slide.

Grumble grumble. Why don't they put all the beginning passages at the beginning of the book rather than have me flip all around?

Wait. I've been tramping around in the bush for a half hour now I should be at least half way to Holmgard. I think this map is broken.



Hansom fellow.... Dear God what is wrong with his hand!?

Personally, I don't want to get involved in other people's drama, but then again I'm a follower not a leader. I just don't have the capacity for this type of decision making.

Be my moral compass, Talking Time. SHOULD I HELP A WIZARD?

TEMPLE MARBLE! TEMPLE MARBLE!

I am bold and brave in these books, so I would choose to attack The GIA...ahem, the Giak.

On another note, I would advise to use the handy polls, if you can make or change them at will...

I second the motion for marble to be thrown.
Seriously, why wouldnt you?

Where is the "sucker punch him with a mind explosion" option?

Because it looks heavy and also there could be bugs under it.

I dunno, that wizard kind of looks like a dick. I think you'd be better off without him in the end.

Honestly I don't think this whole temple nonsense has anything to do with you, and that wizard probably insulted the giaks' moms or something. It's getting late and you haven't had lunch yet, and in any case if you joined the fray you might break a nail or muss up your hair or something. To page 101 with you!

I'd be pissed too if I had to wear a dress.

The LttP thread? The thread on Stimulus checks? the X-com thread? All of those and this one are great threads I don't know if I could pick one as the best

it was tongue in cheek, relax

You DARE question the Hyperbolizer????

so jump in front of him when he leaps and attack, this way we avoid those bugs and the gender confused youth will owe us big time!

Yes? I don't know the right answer here... :P