YOU are Lone Wolf! (or some other character...)
Lone Wolf is a gamebook series by Joe Dever which was very, very influential to my RPG development. You play as Lone Wolf, the last of the Kai Lords (medieval Jedi Knights) who have just been exterminated by the forces of evil. You, being the most inept member of the order, were out cutting firewood as a punishment when the attack happened and accidentally knocked yourself out on a tree branch trying to get back to help. Unlike other series, Lone Wolf featured the same character across a continuing twenty-book epic. By the time the series is done, you'll be an epic hero storming the Plane of Darkness with your holy sword, fighting your way through demons and demigods. In a continuation of the series, you then take the role of the most promising member of the renewed order. The books were out of print for years, but have recently been rereleased, with the very final two-part installment due later this year. You can also read most of the series online for free here: Project Aon: Main / Home (browse)
This game is an expansion of the gamebook rules, and is set before the gamebooks. Characters have only three statistics - Combat Skill, Endurance and Willpower. In addition, you have a number of different special abilities which you can use, and you gain a new one with every adventure. It uses a 'random number table' like the books, where you close your eyes and jab your pencil at a chart with numbers 0-9 distributed across it, or you can use a d10. Combat involves cross-referencing the difference between your Combat Skill and your opponent's on a grid with a random number to find out how much damage you both take each round. This game was released ten years ago but is out of print and completely unavailable now. I'm sure a new edition will come out one day with similar rules.
Character Creation: The starter box set contains rules for Kai Lords. There are additional classes in supplements, but since Kai Lords are the most iconic class, that's what I'm going to make. One nice feature is that the game has simple and advanced modes. Green boxes on the character sheet are only used in the advanced game.
I decided to start by using the random name generator table to come up with a Kai name, and wound up with Dawn Oak. I imagine a solid, tough character, maybe with some wilderness or divine powers (the patron of the order, the god Kai, is the sun god.) I rolled my stats and was immediately disabused of this - I wound up with the best possible Combat Skill (19) and the worst possible Endurance (20). I also have an above-average Willpower, which can be used in the advanced rules to power different moves in combat.
There are ten Kai Disciplines, and a starting character gets to pick five of them. I went for ones that suited my name: Animal Kinship, Camoflage and Hunting for good 'outdoors' powers, and Healing and Mindshield for good 'hardy' powers with divine overtones. I picked my starting items from a list: a quarterstaff, a bow, a quiver with arrows, a lantern, a rope and some armour.
Finally, for the advanced rules I can pick some Traits (additional, more generic special abilities) and Skills. I picked Diehard and Hardy, both of which give me additional Endurance Points. For my skills, I went for Might and Survival. I recorded my Kai's Favour points, used for rerolls - everyone has one, and I gain an additional one for my sub-par Endurance. And that's Dawn Oak.
Final Thoughts: I really like Lone Wolf! I find it hard to be objective, because it's something I've enjoyed for so long. I haven't kept up with it as much as I'd like - buying the books to New Zealand is pretty expensive due to postage - but it's a cool and nostalgic story and I'm looking forward to the final volumes when they come out!
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