[Let's Play] Lone Wolf: the Gamebook!

[Capfalcon]

Now, what's Lone Wolf?
What's a gamebook?
What's a "Let's Play?"

Well, in reverse order...

A "Let's Play" is a playthrough of a game of some kind where the player makes snarky comments and polls the audience for opinions. (You all are the Audience.)

A gamebook is similar to a "Choose your own adventure" book, only with much less randomly meeting flying saucers and Bigfoot, and more actually sticking to the main plot.
In addition, they tend to have a story that spans multiple books.
Finally, they have a basic RPG framework strapped on to the story.

Lone Wolf. Ah, Lone Wolf.
Since I'm lazy, Wikipedia puts it pretty well.

Lone Wolf is a collection of 28 gamebooks, created by Joe Dever and initially illustrated (books 1- by Gary Chalk. The series began publishing in July 1984 and became one of the most popular game books ever published, selling more than 9 million copies worldwide.

The story focuses on the fictional world of Magnamund, where the forces of good and evil fight for control of this planet in a final showdown. The protagonist is Lone Wolf, last of his caste of warrior monks known as Kai lords. The book series is written in the second person and recounts Lone Wolf's adventures as if the reader is the main character. As Lone Wolf, you make choices at regular intervals throughout the story which then change the course, and the final outcome, of the book.

Now, we have two main stats.

Endurance - HP, plain and simple.
Combat Skill - How awesome we are at hitting things.

Now that we got all that out of the way...
Let's Play!

THE STORY SO FAR

In the northern land of Sommerlund, it has been the custom for many centuries to send the children of the Warrior Lords to the monastery of Kai. There they are taught the skills and disciplines of their noble fathers.

The Kai monks are masters of their art, and the children in their charge love and respect them in spite of the hardships of their training. For one day when they have finally learnt the secret skills of the Kai, they will return to their homes equipped in mind and body to defend themselves against the constant threat of war from the Darklords of the west.

So, taken from a young age, taught secret skills, and they fight evil. Right. Fantasy Jedi. Got it.

In olden times, during the Age of the Black Moon, the Darklords waged war on Sommerlund. The conflict was a long and bitter trial of strength that ended in victory for the Sommlending at the great battle of Maakengorge. King Ulnar and the allies of Durenor broke the Darklord armies at the pass of Moytura and forced them back into the bottomless abyss of Maakengorge. Vashna, mightiest of the Darklords, was slain upon the sword of King Ulnar, called 'Sommerswerd', the sword of the sun. Since that age, the Darklords have vowed vengeance upon Sommerlund and the House of Ulnar.

But, this doesn't really matter to the plot. Everyone knows that when the villains vow vengeance against the heroes, nothing bad ever happens to the heroes.
Would I lie to you?

Now it is in the morning of the feast of Fehmarn, when all of the Kai Lords are present at the monastery for the celebrations. Suddenly a great black cloud comes from out of the western skies. So many are the numbers of the black-winged beasts that fill the sky, that the sun is completely hidden. The Darklords, ancient enemy of the Sommlending are attacking. War has begun.

Yes. Yes, I would.

On this fateful morning, you, Silent Wolf (the name given to you by the Kai) have been sent to collect firewood in the forest as a punishment for your inattention in class. As you are preparing to return, you see to your horror a vast cloud of black leathery creatures swoop down and engulf the monastery.

Remember, kids. Not paying attention in school might result in punishment, but at least the monsters won’t eat you.

Dropping the wood, you race to the battle that has already begun. But in the unnatural dark, you stumble and strike your head on a low tree branch. As you lose consciousness, the last thing that you see in the poor light are the walls of the monastery crashing to the ground.

...Not a very heroic start, but we can work with this.

"Oh, I fought and slew hundreds of monsters, but there were just too many. The 439th got in a lucky shot and knocked me out."

Many hours pass before you awake. With tears in your eyes you now survey the scene of destruction. Raising your face to the clear sky, you swear vengeance on the Darklords for the massacre of the Kai warriors, and with a sudden flash of realization you know what you must do. You must set off on a perilous journey to the capital city to warn the King of the terrible threat that now faces his people. For you are now the last of the Kai--you are now the Lone Wolf.

Ah, with that name, things are already looking up for our hero! Everyone knows that the more ninjas there are, the less powerful each ninja is. Now that you are the last of the Kai, you are now infused with pure win.

Ok. I'm going to roll our stats.

For CS
a D10+10
And we get an 8, which gives us an 18.
All right, we're off to a good start.

For END
a D10+20
And we get a... 3.
Hm. 23 END. Not bad, but not comfortable.

Now we get to pick our Force Powe... er... Kai Disciplines.

We get five choices, with picking a new one at the start of each book.

Camouflage: Hiding and sneaking about.

Hunting: Allows us to ignore directions to eat a Meal except in wastelands; also some general agility.

Sixth Sense: Spider-Sense.

Tracking: Helps us find our way in the wild and... well, track stuff.

Healing: Mutant healing factor. Lets us regain 1 Endurance every single section that we're not in combat.

Weaponskill: +2 Combat Skill bonus with one weapon. The rules say to use a die roll to randomly pick, but it's a common house rule to just pick.
Pick one of the following: Dagger, Spear, Mace, Short Sword, Warhammer, Sword, Axe, Quarterstaff, or Broadsword.
By the way, if we pick this, we are picking swords. No, I'm not telling you why. Yes, there is a good reason for this.

Mindshield: Psychic defenses. Stops us from the damaging effects of psychic attacks such as -

Mindblast: Psychic attack giving us +2 Combat Skill, unless the enemy is immune.

Animal Kinship: Lets us communicate with animals.

Mind Over Matter: Limited telekinesis.

All right, this is either going to bomb, or it's going to be loads of fun. The main ingredient to this is participation. So, I can do snarky comments by myself, but I need someone(s) to pick a path for me to be snarky about.

So, let's see those votes for the Disciplines!
Please pick five. Five shall be the number of the picking. Thou shall not...
I think you get the idea.

And here is Lone Wolf so far

CS: 18
END: 23
Kai Disciplines
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

The List of Lists.
None... Yet.

Oh, and just in case anyone is worried about reproducing a book on here, the books are hosted online. It is on a website called Project Aon. They simply request that, once we get to the book itself, I just link to the current page as opposed to reproduce it.

Now, I'm going to request that people don't read ahead, because its going to be more fun if you don't, but... I can't make you. All I ask is that, if you do read ahead, don't vote or make suggestions on the best course to take. Feel free to comment, but try and avoid spoilers.

So, here we go!

[Bird of Hermes]

So, are we picking the course of action (based on questions posed by the text of Lone Wolf) and you are providing the commentary? Did I get that right?

[Capfalcon]

Yes. Lone Wolf is a pretty good hero, but sometimes insists upon doing things the noble foolish way. And snark makes everything better!

But, you, the audience, would choose what deadly (...or not so deadly, depending upon how good your choices are) path Lone Wolf undertakes at each fork in the story.

[Loki]

I vote for camouflage! A ninja that can't hide is really just a pirate that missed his ship.

[Bird of Hermes]

I pick "Animal Kinship: Lets us communicate with animals."

[MoiraofWords]

Sixth sense! Why do you think spidey ain't dead yet?

[Capfalcon]

Just to keep this moving so we can get to the meat and taters of the game, if you have already cast a vote, you can vote again.

[Bird of Hermes]

I pick "Healing: Mutant healing factor. Lets us regain 1 Endurance every single section that we're not in combat."

[Loki]

Weapon Skill, since we had a relatively low roll for it.

[Capfalcon]

You are dressed in the green tunic and cloak of a Kai initiate. You have little with you to arm yourself for survival.

All you possess is an Axe (note under Weapons on your Action Chart) and a Backpack containing 1 Meal (note under Meals on your Action Chart). Hanging from your waist is a leather pouch containing Gold Crowns. To find out how many, pick a number from the Random Number Table. This number equals the number of Gold Crowns you possess at the start of the adventure. (Note the number in the Belt Pouch section of the Action Chart.)

You discover amongst the smoking ruins of the monastery, a Map of Sommerlund (note under Special Items on the Action Chart) showing the capital city of Holmgard and the land of Durenor, far to the east. You place the Map inside your tunic for safety.

We roll for the number of Gold Crowns we find, and... get a 1. Someone must not have learned thrift from living with the fantasy forest ninja Jedi.

Fortunately, we roll a two on our "loot the ruins and corpses of your closest friends and teachers" roll, and we find a helmet. It gives us +2 endurance, which brings our measly 23 to a more respectable 25.
Not too stylish, but pretty good at keeping our yummy brain meats insider our noggin. Nice!

Now, for the much beloved encumbrance system:

Weapons
The maximum number of weapons that you may carry is two.

Backpack Items
These must be stored in your Backpack. Because space is limited, you may only keep a maximum of eight articles, including Meals, in your Backpack at any one time.

Special Items
Special Items are not carried in the Backpack. When you discover a Special Item, you will be told how to carry it.
(It doesn't say where to put the helmet, but I'm going to take a wild guess and put it on our head.)

Gold Crowns
These are always carried in the Belt Pouch. It will hold a maximum of fifty crowns.

Food
Food is carried in your Backpack. Each Meal counts as one item.

CS: 18
END: 25 (base 23)
Kai Disciplines
1. Animal Kinship
2. Sixth Sense
3. Camouflage
4. Healing
5. Weapon Skill (Swords)

Weapons
1. Axe
2.

Backpack
1. Meal
2
3
4
5
6
7

Gold Crowns:
1

Special Items:
Map of Sommerlund
Stylin' Helmet (+2 END)

The List of Lists.
None... Yet.

[Capfalcon]

Let's get started!

Man, we're the last of a lost order and swear vengance. I'm pretty sure we're now contractually obligated to turn into a badass at an exponential rate.

So, do we wish to use the Spidey Sense, go left, or go right?

[Bird of Hermes]

We choose to flip our one Gold Crown to decide which way to go for everyone knows that is the best way to go about choosing a direction. Screw sixth sense!

The coin says to go to the woods. One would think the darkness and general creepiness would be a bad sign... but what's a hero without unneeded acts of stupidity heroism.

[Capfalcon]

Well... both paths go into the forest. So,I filped a coin and decided to go left.

Monster Infested Forest!

We rolled a 7!

Well, are we going to bravely run away, or go and avenge our fallen brethren against the completely generic evil monsters?

Oh, I should probably tell all of you how exactly we fight.

Behold! The Combat System of Lone Wolf!

1. We subtract the enemies CS from our CS.
2. We compare our results to thisCombat Chart.
3. We roll a d10 to the death! (Sometimes we can run, but only when the book tells us.)

Impressive, I know.

[Loki]

A fine mess you have gotten us into, Hermes.

Running into a forest full of unknown baddies seems riskier than fighting the foes directly ahead of us. I say we fight!

[Capfalcon]

Fight!

Giak 1: COMBAT SKILL 13 ENDURANCE 10

Giak 2: COMBAT SKILL 12 ENDURANCE 10

So, we have a CS of 18, for a modifier of 5 and 6, respectively.

Dice Rolls

1! Giak 1 takes 6, we take 4 (21).
2! Giak 1 takes 7 and loses his head. We take 3 (18).
Ouch, that was some pretty bad rolling...

6! Giak 2 takes 11 and gives his farewell to arms. We take 1 (17).
That's more like it.
Loot! The best part of self defense! And +1 hp from healing (18).

We pick up the gold (putting us a 7 Crowns) and give a shout out if anyone wants to trade weapons.

We are Ninja, not Ranger. No tracking for us. +1 hp from healing (19).

Another Spear! And someone looted the room before us! Those bastards! Oh... uh, and they killed the guy too. +1 hp from healing (20).

It's a bird! It's a plane! (No, it's a bird.) It's Superman! (Dude! It's just a bird, calm down.) +1 hp from healing (21).

So, do we talk with the bird, or do we keep on truckin'?

[Bird of Hermes]

Are you kidding?! We're using that worthless useful skill choice of ours and talking to the bird.

[Capfalcon]

Evil Bird! Oh noes! And +1 hp from healing (22).

So, do we want to keep going in the same direction or go through the forest?

[MoiraofWords]

Same direction. Why change a good thing?

[Capfalcon]

Completely legit guy with an evil bird. I'm sure its all just a misunderstanding. And +1 Hp from healing (23).

So, yell out to him, sneak up to him, or just gank him?

[Ethereal]

He may be legit but his bird is evil. Gank him!

[Capfalcon]

Wow, and we thought we were pretty badass...

Vordak: COMBAT SKILL 17 ENDURANCE 25

So, the short version is that he can't poke our brain for the first round, and he's suprised, so we have a CS ratio of 3.

We roll a 6. He takes 10 (15), we take 2 (21).

Second round, though, he gets his act together and decides that our brain looks delicious, so our CS ratio from now on is -1. He's actually better than us! The bastard!

We roll a 9. He takes 11 (4), we take 0 (21).
We roll a 8. He takes 9 (4), we take 1 (20).

That... was suprisingly painless. We took more damage from the horde of mooks than from the elite mook.

Ah, shinies. Should we take the Gem or not? Also, +1 END (21).

[Loki]

Gah! We may be pressing our luck, but I cannot simply pass up shinies.

Grab the gem!

[Capfalcon]

OW! Bad shiny! No treat! (But that doesn't count as combat, so we still get +1 END (22).

And we lose 2 END (20) from the gem burning us. If we still want to take it, we can pick it up with our cloak and slip it into our backpack.

... For a lone fantasy Ninja Jedi, we have a habit of tripping and bashing our head against the cold, unforgiving ground. We get a seven, by the way. And the healing cancels out with the clumsy. (20) (For those who are wondering, the other path leads us to losing 2 END points! Horror of horrors!

Paranoid Lone Wolf is Paranoid. I'm sure they shrugged their shoulders and went back home. Also, yay for filler sections to give us health! +1 Healing gives us 21!

Wait, a choice? Really? After that nice long spree of no player input, I just thought I was reading a normal book. +1 Healing (22)

So, under the hill or through the briar, to the king's castle shall we go?

And here's our Character Sheet.

CS: 18
END: 22 (23 + 2 from helmet = 25 Max)
Kai Disciplines
1. Animal Kinship
2. Sixth Sense
3. Camouflage
4. Healing
5. Weapon Skill (Swords)

Weapons
1. Axe
2.

Backpack
1. Meal
2. Vordak Gem
3
4
5
6
7

Gold Crowns:
1

Special Items:
Map of Sommerlund
Stylin’ Helmet (+2 END)

The List of Lists.
None... Yet.

[Ethereal]

Darkness holds many secrets. Let us find ourselves one of them. Under the hill we go!

[Capfalcon]

It's a cave squid! Duel to the death!

Ok, he's a CS of 17, but it's dark and we have to watch our back for Grue. That's a -3 to our CS, so we have a CS ratio of -2.

Lucky for us, he's also as hard as a squid, having a measly 7 END to our 22 END.

Round 1!

0! (Which is good, because it actually means 10!) We take 0 END, and evil cave squid takes 11.

Well, that was underwhelming.

This isn't, though. and +1 healing! (23) Score!

We're going to take the loot, barring any (crazy) objections from the audience.

Hey, we're out of the forest! Yay! +1 healing! (24)

So, go see what's up with the people who have been chased away from their homes and livelihood, or just keep doing our Forrest Ninja thing?

[Loki]

I'd rather not be that obnoxious guy who reminds the people what they are running from and otherwise just getting in their way. To the forest!

[Capfalcon]

He's probably not dead yet!

So, Spidey Sense?

Or would we just like to investigate the interesting thing?

Or say that the Good Samaritan was a chump?

[Loki]

Might as well use it if we got it. Go go spidey sense!

[Capfalcon]

That's... oddly specific for a sixth sense. (25 END as of last section, by the way.)

Would we like to help the servant of the person we are trying to get to, or leave him to his ACME related fate?

[Bird of Hermes]

Let's aid him! We are the goody-two-shoes type, aren't we?

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