When I was at school in the '90s, there were two gamebook series that changed my life. These were the same basic format as the Choose Your Own Adventure and Fighting Fantasy series, where you played a character and were offered choices in the narrative. Depending on what choices you made, you were directed to different-numbered paragraphs which detailed different versions of events. It was the Mass Effect conversation model, only a few years earlier, in print, and paragraph 400 was usually the one where you died.
The first was a series called Falcon , which saw you play a member of a time-traveling police force (and which cheerfully riffed on John Carpenter's The Thing in one volume) and the second was Lone Wolf . Set in the fictional world of Magnamund, it cast you as Lone Wolf , the last of an order of Warrior Monks called Kai Lords. Magnamund was one of the most nuanced, interesting fantasy worlds I've ever encountered and, whilst the game world was relaunched by Mongoose a few years ago, it never quite took off again.
Now, though, that looks set to change as Cubicle 7, publisher of the official Primeval , Lord Of The Rings and Doctor Who RPGs, has acquired the license. The current plan is to develop a series of game books and maps based on Magnamund and author Joe Dever is clearly pleased with the last of the Kai's new home:
“I’m really very happy to be working with Cubicle 7, an excellent RPG company which I hold in the highest regard. I’m proud that Lone Wolf is now a part of their prestigious portfolio of games.”
I love this game world and I'll be fascinated to see what Cubicle 7 do with it. Now if someone could just reboot the old Falcon books that would be PERFECT. KickStarter, anyone? Anyone? Bueller?
Alasdair Stuart
