Post originally by Manga Boogie Man at 2004-10-05 21:52:44
Converted from Phorums BB System

That sounds familiar on this side of the pond. It took me three years to get the first 12 Lone Wolf books, and I got a third of them used. The Grand Master series books (13-19) took even longer due to publication lag. I still don't have all of the World of Lone Wolf books (Grey Star's adventures), and none of the Legend of Lone Wolf books (not sure what these are). Good luck finding these, but Project Aon's website may be just the ticket.

By the way, Tim, the artist for the first five Lone Wolf books was Gary Chalk, and his style was quite distinctive, with great attention to detail. His people had slightly odd proportions, hinting at a look similar to comics rather than realism. He went on to illustrate Lone Wolf 6-8 (the first of the Magnakai adventures) before leaving the project. Another artist replaced him, but his style was more of a generic fantasy than Chalk's. Still, it was fairly evocative and very cleanly rendered. Don't remember who the artist was for Grey Star, but it wasn't the same guy who illustrated Lone Wolf 9-12.

The Magnakai books were where the world of Magnamund really began to come alive for me. It seemed like Joe Dever had found his style and was running with the wind. These may be the best of the series. It is also where nations other than Vassagonia, Durenor, and Sommerlund began to be seen in detail. The Grand Master books (13-19) were almost like Lone Wolf at an epic level (an even better analogy when you consider than the rank of Kai Grand Master, mastery of the Magnakai path, comes at level 20), but it seemed like a little of the heart had gone out of the series by then.

One note that might help in future adventures. Unless zombies are found in a cave or tomb, they usually have to be summoned by a necromancer or evil druid. There is only one instance of the dead rising from a graveyard (in Lone Wolf book 6), and it happened when a petty noble named Roark decided to take revenge on Lone Wolf for insulting him the night before (the guy was a worshipper of a demon called Tagazin, whom he summoned to summon the undead). The dead start rising, and it's fight time. If you win the fight, you discover that your traveling companion, a magician named Cyrilus, was killed by the zombies. Roark's summonation went horribly out of control, and his crew of thugs were killed by the waking dead, which serves as evidence of how easily such a summonation can go out of control (which can be an adventure side plot all by itself. What if there's a town near or around this graveyard?). Finding the sorcerer responsible could also be fun.

Good luck with this game. It's been a long time coming, and it seems to have been worth the wait.