Sep 20, 2024
Grey Star the Wizard, Richard Corben cover art for the US edition of the first game book of The World of Lone Wolf series by Ian Page and Joe Dever, 1987
seen from Germany
seen from Vietnam
seen from Türkiye
seen from China
seen from United States
seen from Germany
seen from United States
seen from Lithuania
seen from Malaysia
seen from United States
seen from Bulgaria
seen from Netherlands
seen from Australia
seen from Germany
seen from France
seen from Australia
seen from United Kingdom
seen from United States
seen from Switzerland
seen from United States
Grey Star the Wizard, Richard Corben cover art for the US edition of the first game book of The World of Lone Wolf series by Ian Page and Joe Dever, 1987
Cover illustration by Brian Salmon
Info from ISFDB
me not beating the hermit allegations
THE CHASM OF DOOM
by Jean-Baptiste “Djib” Reynaud
Just reminding myself how much I fucking love the the Lone Wolf Gamebooks. Yes I spent all week blazing through the lot. Yes I still definitely ship Lone Wolf/Banedon. If this is an adventure and I'm the hero, and I'm gay, then Lone Wolf gets to be gay too. QED.
There was a little trend in the 80s to produce companion books to long-running fantasy and science fiction series. Roger Zelazny’s Amber books got a companion and a sourcebook, Xanth got one, I feel like there were a million for Dragonriders of Pern. Books about books, filled with art and lore, a little extra for the fans. I love this sort of thing in theory, but I’m usually disappointed in the execution. Summaries, stale facts, recycled art, low page counts are the norm. Not so for The Magnamund Companion (1988), friends. This isn’t just the best companion book I’ve ever encountered, it is right up there as one of the best things to come out of the entire Lone Wolf franchise.
It is just absolutely full of awesomeness. Country by country info on the world, history, character profiles, maps, weird monsters, piles of info on the darklords. There is a bar brawl game, schematics for crafting buildings and ships for miniature play. And so much art! Lots of it in garish colors and cartoonish lines from Gary Chalk, giving everything an extremely appealing Warhammer feel. If you’re a Lone Wolf fan and don’t have this on your shelf, I highly recommend you correct that mistake!