New Lone Wolf!

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beowuuf
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Re: New Lone Wolf!

Post by beowuuf »

Oh, I thought the Magnamund Companion was being revised for the french version. And as far as I knew, they had gotten Gary Chalk to do some illustrations. OR am I thinking of the LWRPG french translation?

And yeah, I've playtested a tiny amoutn the new rules - it's like playing the gamebooks but with friends - very rules light and keepign the action chart the same as the single player books so it's much more about roleplaying and storytelling than mechanics.
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Re: New Lone Wolf!

Post by Gambit37 »

linflas wrote:I had a look at it when i met Joe Dever, it's an extension of the role playing game, not a rewrite of game books.
Ah, I didn't know what "grimoire" meant, I thought this was a new French version of the Magnamund Companion.
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Re: New Lone Wolf!

Post by beowuuf »

They did reprint the MC though!
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Re: New Lone Wolf!

Post by Gambit37 »

Mongoose did? Really? It's not on their site?
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Re: New Lone Wolf!

Post by beowuuf »

No, loup solaire I meant.

But yeah, it was the RPG that got the big reprint with Gary Chalk new pictures. Man I wish I spoke french :(
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Re: New Lone Wolf!

Post by beowuuf »

Oh, I forgot to pimp a forum where some LW fams will probably be playing the new game come March:
http://www.lwrpgol.proboards.com/


And here's the book explained in much more depth:
http://blog.mongoosepublishing.co.uk/in ... &tb=1&pb=1
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Re: New Lone Wolf!

Post by beowuuf »

GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!

I went and bid on the item, then with all the crap at work and sudden white out and more importantly the fact that I still have my old e-mail contact for ebay, I forgot I bid and missed the fact I won it!

I only got the grimoire this morning due to missing the post before christmas (it got here 23rd, but no one was here at the time) and the stupid opening times of the mail office.

GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!

Just paid now, but feel a complete and utter idiot :(

GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!
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Re: New Lone Wolf!

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Re: New Lone Wolf!

Post by Jan »

On a slightly related note, we have a new (2nd I guess) edition of LW in Czech currently being printed, first two books are now out. They look better, are printed on a much better paper (with a coloured map in the Book 1 for the first time - finally, the black and white copies in the 1st edition were just awful), are written in a better language, and - more importantly - are somehow different. The Book 1 has 550 sections and the Book 2 has 70 more sections of a (well, rather pointless) side-quest. I hope the publisher won't bankrupt or something and prints the whole series so that I don't end up with a few orphan books. :wink:
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Re: New Lone Wolf!

Post by Gambit37 »

I received this today, a little bit of nostalgic indulgence: http://www.mapmagnamund.com/id31.html

It's glorious, I wish I'd had a map this large when I'd been a kid playing the books :-)

Interesting to see the scale: Holmgard to Hammerdal is about 660 miles as the crow flies. I never got the sense it was that far!
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Re: New Lone Wolf!

Post by beowuuf »

Yeah, the map's really cool, got one myself a few month's back :D
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Re: New Lone Wolf!

Post by Gambit37 »

Blimey, I've just been chatting with Gary Chalk on Twitter! I had a fanboi twitch!
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Re: New Lone Wolf!

Post by Jan »

For your own sake I hope that during those five minutes of your fame you also didn't forget to mention us (like Beowuuf but especially and most importantly me) and our imperishable credits and everything. :)
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Re: New Lone Wolf!

Post by Gambit37 »

He was cited in this article on the BBC website the other day:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-17274186

And I followed up his tweet with a short conversation, which you can see here:
http://twitter.theinfo.org/179866377379786753 (I'm @matthillco)

He's clearly got a sense of humour, look at that last reply! ;-)

Beo, do you think there's a market for Gary's early Lone Wolf artwork to be made into prints?
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Re: New Lone Wolf!

Post by beowuuf »

That's cool!

There probbaly is, niche as it is. Especially since the new Mongoose version have new artwork.


I hate to say it, but France is probably the better market though (and Le Grimoire), sicne they have a dedicated LW community all this time, including all new LW artwork for their d20 gamebook, etc.


And yeah, I don't do a good job of reporting any LW news here, do I. Gary's been doing arts for the boardgame that is in the works. cehck the Mongoose forum for a post from one of the developers about it!
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Re: New Lone Wolf!

Post by linflas »

woho ! better market ! beo's angry ! wooot!!! ;)
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Re: New Lone Wolf!

Post by Gambit37 »

Darn, this is a shame. Mongoose are stopping the hard-back Collectors Editions to make way for paperbacks:
http://forum.mongoosepublishing.com/vie ... 14&t=51636

I only have 3 of the CEs but fully intended to get the rest when funds allowed. They do still have a Mega-Deal available and so I'm confused if that means I could still get the hardbacks by buying a mega-deal?

That said, I've read of many problems with errors in the books, that I'm not sure I'd want so many books with all those mistakes in them. Master of Darkness even has the name on the spine as "Maters of Darkness". Doesn't say much about their quality control!

Do you know what's going on Beo?
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Re: New Lone Wolf!

Post by beowuuf »

"Just to let everyone know what we are planning here...

Unless something truly tragic happens (like the cost of paper shoots up tenfold), there are _no_ price rises planned on the Lone Wolf books. Even when we reprint, we keep the original price (which is fairly terrifying on the biggest book of them all, Flight, but we will stick with it).

We are firmly committed to Lone Wolf, have put plans in place to continue and accelerate the solo line in 2013, and have been talking to Mr Dever about Magnamund-related projects in other areas. There is _so_ much potential in this setting, and we will be pulling out all the stops to not only carry on with what we started but also to bring Lone Wolf coolness to other arenas too. more on that later, when we have another couple of books out.

To go into a bit more detail than the State did (and I think you chaps certainly deserve to know), the margins _are_ thin on the Lone Wolf hardbacks, but they always were. We accepted this as we regard resources put into these books as an investment, be it as a wider marketed softback line, or other Magnamund/Lone Wolf games. And, of course, there is a great deal of personal investment in these books, as they were the very first brush I had with fantasy gaming!

Now, the current situation is not down to Lone Wolf books or their margins - as I said, we had always planned for those. The problem comes from other markets, most noticeably RPGs (to an extent miniatures as well, as we did not get everything out in 2012 that we needed to). As the RPG market declines, this puts pressure on other aspects of the company to cover not only themselves but also fixed costs. Now, if you have something to replace a declining market (see miniatures), there is no problem. If not, then all aspects of the company have to work to support themselves _and_ the rest of the company - and that is something that, with the best will in the world, the Lone Wolf line is not currently set up to do.

The upshot of all this is that once the rest of the company starts flowing smoothly again, Lone Wolf books will automatically fall back into step. We are putting things into operation that mean it won't be very long into 2013 when you start seeing this happen.

For now, I can only apologise profusely - we know there are issues, and we know they are not acceptable. We are making sure that this is reversed and does not happen again."

That's basically the comments on the issues, which have been the very initial printing errors - which were caught, but would only be removed in reprints - and the speed. They're also been a delay as the old artist has moved on and so they have a new artist for book 18 onwards.

I think the megadeals still let you get all the hardbacks, but they are also slowly phasing out the hardbacks aswell. So I have mixed feelinga about urging you to get the hardbacks. The old issues should be dealt with, but you will be committing money which you might not see a return on for a while yet.

Depends why you wanted the hardbacks. Obviously, the nostalgia is more for the older books, so you might want to not invest money for a fresh set of hardbacks just for the sake of it when they have different art, and the other selling points are bonus adventures by other authors and the expanded Flight from the Dark.

Certainly investigate if you want, and don't be afraid to shoot matthew sprange directly regarding the megadeals and the availablility, but I think you are more likely to regret committing the money in a few months than not committing it.
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Re: New Lone Wolf!

Post by Gambit37 »

OK, I get it. Still seems weird though that they've already pulled a bunch of the hardbacks...?

Anyway, overall I think you're right -- I think I would regret putting my money into these hardbacks as although they are very nice, I wouldn't really get that value out of them, they are just something "nice to have" for nostalgia's sake. I've instead put some of the money into Kickstarting Godus :-)

I only ever got to book 12 when I played them in my youth. I'm still interested to play out the entire adventure when it's finally completed, but to be honest I think I'd rather play it all on my tablet these days. So much less fuss, and easier to get into. Do you know if there are any plans to put the entire 32 book quest onto Android/iOS as an official series?
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Re: New Lone Wolf!

Post by beowuuf »

The hardbacks haemorrhage money because of the small margins on them, so they aren't doing print runs to keep stock going. Individually they are selling off the stock they have and not renewing, but if you are committing to the whole run through the magnamund megadeal they seem to be able to justify giving out the whole set.

Note the Kai and Magnakai dealsthat let you get 1-5 or 6-12 on their own has already gone, only the grandmaster deal for 13 - 20 stands.


Project Aon has up to book 24 available. So that's the complete Lone Wolf saga up to book 20, and the first few 'New Order character' books.

Not sure what the releases will be on phone devices. There is nothing official for the old books, but the website should display well enough on a phone. And the new books are not likely to hit any electronic format for a while yet, since that would undercut any paperback market - and I think the paperbacks are still an ultimate goal to get the furthest reach for the series. Still, I wouldn't say no - Loe Dever is already looking to making three phone games soon, apparfently the first to take part between book 3 and 4!
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Re: New Lone Wolf!

Post by Gambit37 »

I decided not to bother with the hardbacks after all. Instead, for my Lone Wolf fix, I bought these lovely map cards. Free shipping during January:
http://mapmagnamund.com/id25.html
http://mapmagnamund.com/id47.html

Arrived today and they are absolutely gorgeous. :D I'll post up some photos later.

Of course, now I have to buy the remaining 32 as and when they are published: eventually it'll make the most comprehensive map of Magnamund ever produced!
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Re: New Lone Wolf!

Post by Gambit37 »

Lone Wolf now has a new publisher, Mantikore Verlag. I took a look at their Facebook page (German)

In the banner image at the top of the page, I'm rather confused to see loads of German paperback versions of the new editions....!? I thought none were printed by Mongoose? Did Mantikore print these paperbacks themselves? Didn't Mongoose make any English paperbacks? What's going on? I'm so confused!!!

https://www.facebook.com/pages/MANTIKOR ... 3550222439
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Re: New Lone Wolf!

Post by beowuuf »

Mongoose only had the english licence, though also did the bulk of the transition of the PA amended textx and also taking JD's amended books to print. Manticore have done the German translations for a few years now, just as the french translations have always been going (as Linflas can attest, I would guess!)

Mongoose never undertook the english paperbacks, it always seemed to be their intention to have the paperbacks released on a mass scale, which I think required confidence in being able to run them and sell thm through amazon and other distributors world-wide.

Note you'll soon be able to pre-order the hardback book 18 (english) from them, and so the rest of the books moving forwards.
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Re: New Lone Wolf!

Post by Gambit37 »

Ah, right, I stand un-confused. Thanks :-)

I won't buy any more LW books unless I can be assured of getting a complete series. I reckon I'm better off just playing the Aon versions (I only got to book 12 the first time around). Doubtful I'll ever get around to it now though...
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Re: New Lone Wolf!

Post by Gambit37 »

Someone should take a stab at updating the LW Wikipedia page which is now quite out of date!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lone_Wolf_(gamebooks)
I'd do it, but I fear I don't have enough in-depth knowledge to do so.
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Re: New Lone Wolf!

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Re: New Lone Wolf!

Post by Gambit37 »

Nice new site for the forthcoming Lone Wolf game/book:
http://lonewolfthegame.com/
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Re: New Lone Wolf!

Post by linflas »

Looks way more impressive than FF tablet games !
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Re: New Lone Wolf!

Post by Gambit37 »

Yes, absolutely! TinManGames seem to be doing a roaring trade by flogging the old FF books in a new format on Android an iOS, but they aren't really bringing anything new to the experience.

At least these Lone Wolf game/books are trying to do something different and push the boundaries. I'm very keen to try it out.

Hey Beowuuf: Do you know if Mantikore Verlag have any plans to re-release the Mongoose CEs in hardback? (#1 - 17) ?????
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Re: New Lone Wolf!

Post by beowuuf »

So far it hasn't been mentioned to my recollection, but neither has books 29-32. I think they are only announcing things set in stone.

Edit: Actually, they might not. The guy from manticore did say thye had stocks of the old books, but wasn't sure if they could get more.

http://projectaon.proboards.com/index.c ... hread=2333
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