Lone Wolf: The Roleplaying Game may not bring new converts to the ranks of the Kai, but it will definitely satisfy existing fans. For gamers who made the transition from Lone Wolf gamebooks to Dungeons and Dragons, you can now easily cross that bridge in the other direction and return to Magnamund.
Post originally by SJE at 2004-06-14 16:02:02
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Good review- clear concise.
I've been looking forward to this book, but like many people stung by the Conan fiasco, I was waiting a bit.
You mention that the Editing is good, with no P. XX's, but I was wondering if anyone else had noticed erratta or layout problems similar to those in Conan? Or is this book 'clean' of such errors?
I'm also guessing they are saving the Darklord stats for a supplement. Oh well, a sample DL would habe been useful. At least with Mongoose, you never have to wait long for a suplement to come along!
Post originally by Matt at 2004-06-14 17:03:56
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On their boards Mongoose has made it clear that descriptions and stats for all the Darklords will appear in the Darklands sourcebook out this month.Apparently the weakest one is at least CR25!
Post originally by DummyPlug at 2004-06-14 19:28:59
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...why not become one?
If you never had the chance to read the original Lone Wolf adventure books, Joe Dever (the original creator) is behind a volunteer effort to republish them on the Internet in HTML format, free of charge.
Fifteen of the 20 original Lone Wolf serie (and a couple of extra books in the same universe) can be found at Project Aon's website:
http://www.projectaon.org/
Post originally by Chris at 2004-06-15 05:00:00
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How does this game handle combat and hit points. I noticed you refrenced that it calls hit points endurance which is all fine and good.
But is this standard D20 style combat with your AC as your target number and everyone getting their hit dice in hit points ever level?
Or did they do it right and give it the combat engine from conan where you have a more fixed hit point scale. Armour absorbs damage and you have a parry/dodge value that you are trying to beat on your to-hit roll?
Post originally by Tenken at 2004-06-15 10:22:28
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The game uses the standard d20 combat system with two notable exceptions: magical combat and psychic combat. I felt the book did a fine job explaining the differences between magical combat in Lone Wolf and in standard D&D 3.5. I agree with the reviewer that the psychic combat section, while simple, could be slightly expanded by using examples.
As to Endurance vs. Hit Points, they are the same thing. Only the name has changed. The Conan system probably wouldn't work as well here because almost every special ability every character has drains Endurance or Willpower. Only two classes have Willpower, and it is much harder to recover than Endurance, so that balances.
Overall, the Endurance game (balancing use of powers vs. survivability) works for me.
Post originally by Tenken at 2004-06-15 10:28:15
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I have found occasional errors, but they occur with an exponentially less rate of frequency than the Conan book. From my understanding, Mongoose has totally restructured their editorial process since that fiasco.
All games require a bit of errata and rules clarifications. My only gripe is that Psychic Combat needs some concrete examples. For instance, what does a Psychic Shield do? Perhaps I missed it, but at the moment, I have no idea what it does. Does it add to Psychic AC? Does it act as DR? Also, when do psychic characters gain access to psychic attacks? Must they have access to telepathy first or is it an innate power for everyone who has a Willpower score?
Post originally by Chris at 2004-06-15 11:51:25
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Though I like the fact that powers draw on endurance/hit points. I still would have prefered the attack vs defense skill that conan or the grim and gritty rules use. You could still have used the normal hit point schema with that style to power the abilities.
I'll check it out and if the rest of the material is well done it may warrant some house rules.
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