Lone Wolf gamebooks to return after 18 years - New book (The Storms of Chai) released on April 11th.

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**scarletsquig**

I know there's a lot of interest in adventure gamebooks such as Lone Wolf/ Fighting Fantasy amongst wargames, for me and many others they were the entry point into the hobby, so I figured I'd share this exciting news here.

Lone Wolf 29 (The Storms of Chai) is being published on April 11th, signed and sealed hardback copies can be pre-ordered here:

http://www.mapmagnamund.com/id72.html

Some of you may remember the debacle with Mongoose publishing where the books were shipped with numerous errors at a very slow pace, and the people who made $600 preorders for the full set were left with incomplete sets and didn't get refunded properly.

Well, that's now being fixed. Joe Dever has set up his own publishing company to print the books himself. They'll match the Mongoose books in style so that people can complete their collections and avoid having to pay ebay prices.

Full press release and pre-order link:

Lone Wolf 29 (English edition) will be published on 11 April 2016!
I’m absolutely delighted to make this official announcement that Lone Wolf 29: The Storms of Chai will ship in less than two weeks’ time. I have decided to publish it under my own imprint – Holmgard Press – and I’m proud to say that the book is the very best it can be. I’m confident that you’ll be absolutely delighted with this first edition.
The size remains the same as all the previous titles in the Collectors’ Series to maintain continuity, yet I’ve made a few improvements to the format. LW29 will have a colour dust jacket that wraps around the book (similar to the Italian Collector editions by Vincent Books). This gives two significant advantages:
1. The colour map is printed on the reverse side of the jacket which enables easy reference to it during play, and
2. The map itself is bigger, brighter and much clearer than previous CE maps.
Because the size of the book is identical to the previous titles, and it has the same spine layout (the colour ‘NEW ORDER’ sub-series tab for instance), it will fit in perfectly with your existing collection.
Another significant advantage of publishing this milestone book under my own imprint is that I can offer signed first editions, with a personalized message to you and bearing my personal library seal, at no extra cost.
LW29 has a bonus adventure, entitled: ‘The Tides of Gorgoron’ by Vincent Lazzari and myself.
LW29 The Storms of Chai is now available to pre-order. Just click the link below for the order page and worldwide shipping details.
http://www.mapmagnamund.com/id72.html
All pre-orders received before the publication date (11/4/16) will ship between 11th – 15th April.
548 pages
Hardcover with dust jacket
GBP16.99 + shipping (at cost).
Secure packaging & shipping worldwide.
For Sommerlund and the Kai!

**NewTruthNeomaxim**

So for those of us unfamiliar... what are these? Something akin to "Choose your own Adventure" books?

**JohnnyHell**

AMAZING! Way better than Fighting Fantasy books.

The companion book had the grisliest illustrations!

**BobtheInquisitor**

Yay! Now someone needs to get on Way of the Tiger, stat.

**scarletsquig**

So for those of us unfamiliar... what are these? Something akin to "Choose your own Adventure" books?

That's exactly what they are, only with combat, and RPG-style systems such as levelling up stats, gaining new skills and equipment etc.

The most popular series is Fighting Fantasy, written by the foudners of Games Workshop (Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone).

The Lone Wolf series is a particular favorite of mine since you get to keep your character and equipment throughout all the books, every time you complete a book you gain a new skill.

The background and in-game world of the books is fantastic, it was originally developed over the course of 5-6 years as the author's own custom setting/ universe for D&D games before being used to create the books.

There's an app available for mobile/Steam/PS4/Xbox as well, which I highly recommend. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.bulkypix.lonewolf&hl=en_GB

The author has also made all of his books 100% free and available online to download in multiple formats (including interactive online versions), and fans have adapted them to every platform:

https://www.projectaon.org/en/Main/Home

It's a really great solo RPG game experience. There used to be a range of miniatures as well!

BobtheInquisitor wrote:
Yay! Now someone needs to get on Way of the Tiger, stat.

Already done. All 6 books (and a new 7th prequel book) have been republished and are in print: http://www.megara-entertainment.com

There's actually a huge market for gamebooks still, if only Mantic hadn't gotten cold feet and cancelled theirs!

**NewTruthNeomaxim**

Wow... how do they keep making choices, equipment, etc... relevant after this many outings? Video-games like Mass Effect couldn't sustain meaningful choice/rammifications for three games. :-p

Edit: Looking on Steam all I can find is one game, which apparently has little to do with the books? Is this what you meant, or is their a Steam version of the entire line?

**Tannhauser42**

The Project Aon website is great, but there's still something magical about having the real book and jabbing your finger at the random number table.

**scarletsquig**

NewTruthNeomaxim wrote:
Wow... how do they keep making choices, equipment, etc... relevant after this many outings? Video-games like Mass Effect couldn't sustain meaningful choice/rammifications for three games. :-p

The main series stopped at book 20, after that a new series (book 21+) began with a new character that the player creates and names themselves, rather than playing as "Lone Wolf".

A lot of the linear ramifications that carry through multiple books are attached to items, e.g. saving a wizard from death in book 1 gets you a Crystal Star Pendant, and later books ask if you have it or not when you meet other wizards of that order. Some items are useless in a practical sense, but act as "save data" for recording decisions you made in earlier books. Other decisions rely on your memory of important info you may/ may not have read in earlier books.

Edit: Looking on Steam all I can find is one game, which apparently has little to do with the books? Is this what you meant, or is their a Steam version of the entire line?

That's a spin-off of the books, also written by the same author and set between the 3rd and 4th book in the series. I've played through it and it's also brilliant, although it's more of a combination of gamebook + RPG such as Skyrim, it's an attempt to update the genre and bring it to new audiences, and it does it really well, but isn't the same experience as the books. The android version has the first 1/4 of it as free-to-play so you can get a feel for whether or not you like it.

The actual books have a 100% free android port too as well, called Lone Wolf Saga.

**Miguelsan**

Tannhauser42 wrote:
The Project Aon website is great, but there's still something magical about having the real book and jabbing your finger at the "random" number table.

There, fixed it for you because after a while my fingers ended up being really proficient at finding those 0s.

And this is great news!(tm)

M.

**BobtheInquisitor**

Thanks for that heads-up, Scarletsquig! Not sure how a prequel will work...How many ways can I die before I've even left the Island of Tranquil Dreams?

**Bioptic**

BobtheInquisitor wrote:
Thanks for that heads-up, Scarletsquig! Not sure how a prequel will work...How many ways can I die before I've even left the Island of Tranquil Dreams?

It's...actually 8 books now! There's a less essential Book 0 (NINJA), the prequel, but they also finally wrote an extra-long book 7 (REDEEMER) that follows on directly from book 6, to cap everything off. I believe Book 6 got re-written slightly to give it more hooks into 7. The quality of the books is fine (hardcover, full colour) but I think the new illustration style can lack a lot of charm, and look downright strange in some cases.

Megara, confusingly, are also releasing a new Lone Wolf gamebook that can be found on that page: Autumn Snow, with illustrations by Gary Chalk. Not sure if that's a pre-order or not though.

The price of this new Lone Wolf book therefore looks downright reasonable by comparison! Does anyone know if they're going to enter mainstream publishing, or will they remain a boutique thing only sold direct?

**scarletsquig**

After 1 day, Joe Dever has posted that he's made already made enough sales for Book 29 to be considered a commercial success, and he'll be using any further funds to make a print run of book 23 and establish Holmgard Press as a proper company. The first (signed) print run is likely to sell out fairly soon.

This is all the result of him self-publishing after three consecutive publishers just couldn't see the demand for it. Assuming a typical first print run of 1000 (there's only so many he can sign!), that's £20k raised, all without the need for Kickstarter, a publisher, or any advertising other than 2-3 posts on facebook with a basic webstore link.

Megara, confusingly, are also releasing a new Lone Wolf gamebook that can be found on that page: Autumn Snow, with illustrations by Gary Chalk. Not sure if that's a pre-order or not though.

Autumn Snow is a fan-written book that ended up being published (it's on its third printing currently), there are more books planned with a Kickstarter sometime this year. The Gary Chalk art is brilliant.

The way of the Tiger Kickstarter raised $45k and got them all back into print.

I agree with Bioptic about the illustration style of the new Way of the Tiger, taking a black and white piece and adding colour often looks like a poor attempt at a colouring-in book, and is especially painful if photoshop isn't used very effectively in the process.

The price of this new Lone Wolf book therefore looks downright reasonable by comparison! Does anyone know if they're going to enter mainstream publishing, or will they remain a boutique thing only sold direct?

Boutique signed collector's hardbacks for now, the past decade has been filled with all kinds of problems with publishers, so this is the best way to make sure that the books actually get released at all. Would be great if the success resulted in a paperback print run of the full 32 books going back into bookstores.