Rating the Bonus Adventures

[andyc]

I wonder what people thought of the Collectors edition bonus adventures, now they have been out in the wild for a while. Having missed out on the hardback release I have only been able to read three, but here is my opinion for what it's worth:

LW6 - The Key to the Future
The best of the three as it was a reasonably lengthy and detailed adventure following a couple of Lone Wolf's allies in the quest to help Lone Wolf before he meets them in the original book. The villain was rather obvious but the rising tension of wondering when they would strike was the better for it. Quite difficult to complete despite the small number of battles but I enjoyed most how it subtly expanded the LW world but felt true to it at the same time. 4/5

LW7 - The All Seeing One
Set in Castle Death before Lone Wolf arrives, again this fits nicely with the main book as the author clearly knows the source material. I really enjoyed revisting the Castle and seeing new parts of it. Unfortunately the second half seems rushed as it is extremely linear and has not been play tested properly as the chances of winning are extremely low, even with highest stats. 3/5

LW12 - Aboard the Intrepid
The worst adventure by a county mile. Other than you playing as the Captain you meet in the main book, the adventure has no relation to the Lone Wolf world. Many of the entries are almost identical making for an extremely short story and the whole thing feels pointless and a wasted opportunity. I get the impression that the author has never read a Lone Wolf book. 1/5

[Oiseau]

LW2 - The Crown of King Alin
Rhygar goes to investigate the theft of the titular crown. Lors of running in a small village, followed by a final battle. Very short, I don't think you can lose, and nothing to write home about. 2/5

LW3 - Vonotar's Web
Vonotar threatens Loi-Kymar's family to get the old sage to reveal the secret of the teleportation staff. You play the old man with a pouch full of herbs and not much else. Actually kind of neat, especially for fans of Vonotar, as he does things in this adventure. ^_^ Has a predetermined outcome (since you have to get yourself captured in the end). 3.5/5

LW4 - The Battle of Ruanon
You play D'Val in the lead-up to the actual LW4, investigating the disappearance of the gold shipments. We all know you're in for more trouble than you thought. One of the best mini-adventures. 4.5/5

LW5 - The Tomb of the Majhan
Now THIS guy has never read a Lone Wolf book. You play Tipasa, you enter the Tomb, and it turns into a weaksauce Deathtrap Dungeon from Fighting Fantasy fame. Bonus points (in negative) for the talking frog and his broken riddle. 1/5

LW6 - The Key to the Future
Agreed. Another good one, although much too linear overall.

LW7 - The All Seeing One
Yeah, that final boss with CS 28 is nigh-unbeatable (your max starting CS is 19). Apart from that, a rather good dungeon-crawl if I do say so.

LW8 - Masquerade in Hikas
A strange one here. You play Paido investigating shenanigans in Hikas. You encounter a Kai girl who shouldn't exist, a bunch of Darkspawn, and one wily Helghast. A good adventure but not well balanced. Also, wayyyy too many rules, like someone thought they were writing a D&D expansion rather than a mini-gamebook. 3/5

LW9 - The Guildmaster's Hammer
Unusual one. You play that Sogh guy. You don't have a CS score as you are a thief and a coward. You instead have a Luck score, and the adventure is basically a series of burglaries in which you have to Test Your Luck very often (I mean, there isn't much else you can do). ^_^ 1.5/5

LW10 - Echoes of the Lost Light
This one is a mushroom trip. You play Lone Wolf himself. When he touches the Lorestone just before he falls into the Daziarn plane, he gets sucked inside and gets cast back to Luomi, the city the Drakkarim originally destroyed to get their hands on it. You have to fight your way through and "save" the stone from Gnaag's corruption. The whole thing happens in a dream, yet is a fun adventure. 4/5

LW11 - Lord of Meledor
You play Lorkon. There's a new evil in town, and human bandits have allied with the Agtah. You lead your army to investigate. You'll end up in Haagadar to fight the bad guy responsible. Very good one overall. 4/5

LW12 - Aboard the Intrepid
Not the best, a kind of mix between some Sindbad and some Indiana Jones. The adventure forks out into multiple paths which do not converge again, so multiple endings are possible, but all paths are very short. Doesn't fully make sense in LW canon. That sword tho. 2/5

LW13 - Plague Agent
You play a Herbalish. You see a suspicious dude. You follow him across the whole map of Sommerlund. You end up dismantling a Cener plot in Ragadorn. It's a very calm and relaxing pursuit. ^_^ 2.5/5

LW14 - Darkness Most Dire
Good one here. You play — no, not Banedon — that zombie you meet in Book 14. No, really. Touched by Kai (well, Lone Wolf, but close enough), he regains a spark of humanity and seeks to escape. This is actually Part 1 in a series, and I would say its only flaw is that it is very difficult to win fairly. 4.5/5

LW15 - Castle Akital
Prarg this time, and you're up against the sinister doings of a couple strange entities. I would say this is another of the good ones. 3.5/5

LW16 - A Long and Dire Road
Part 2 of the zombie's adventures. You have escaped Kaag but must now face the outside world, and you're still undead. Only played once, didn't finish it.

LW17 - Forgot the Title
You play a Helghast in Ixia on a mysterious mission. Haven't played this one yet.

There are more, but I do not possess the Sommerswerd Collector's Editions Books 18-20. Guess I should have bought them during the narrow window of time where they were available. ^_^

[wisestrider]

It's a while since I played any of these but some bits I remember:

Didn't much care for the adventure in Book 3 - playing as Loy-Kymar getting kidnapped by Vanotar and being taken to Kalte. Too short and basically played out like an elongated boss fight you have to loose but in a specific way. On your scale a 1/5.

Book 2 (playing as Rhygar years before he met Lone Wolf investigating a plot to steal the crown I think?) was better but I felt it repeated some important beats of the main adventure in that book so wasn't distinct enough to be really enjoyable. 2/5.

Book 5 was solid - you play as Tipasa exploring the Mahjans Tomb years before meeting Lone Wolf - basically evading all the traps that have been set off by Giaks in the main adventure - a nice little dungeon to run through. 3/5.

Book 4 you play as D'Val - basically setting up the mystery that Lone Wolf investigates in the main story - easily my favourite of the mini adventures but I think that's largely due to how much I enjoy that particular books main story. 5/5 because it added a new perspective to the events in one of my favourite books.

I don't remember much about the Magnakai mini adventures other than:

I remember quite enjoying what I assume was in Book 8 - playing as Paido - similar to D'Val in Book 4 I think I liked it more because I always liked my adventure with that character. 4/5.

Book 10 is a mini adventure but ties into the main story - you play as Skarn (Lone Wolf's soul?) on a spirit quest as you fall through the Shadow Gate between books 10 & 11 - your damage in the adventure replaces the random EP loss at the start of Book 11. 4/5 - mainly for the innovative approach to expanding Lone Wolfs story.

In Book 9 I think you play as the thief that you sometimes meet in the main adventure - don't remember enough about this to score it.

Don't really remember the other Magnakai mini adventures - nothing very memorable.

In the Grand Master series I really liked the Dire series (4 in total I think?) by August Hahn but not sure of the Book numbers they appear in and don't have the Books to hand to check.

Rest of the later adventures I don't really remember - although I think one of the New Order Books might have had a mini adventure where you play as Lone Wolf - which I enjoyed at least enough for it to stick in my mind.

To be honest I don't think I've even played some of the Grand Master / New Order mini adventures - the Book releases started slowing down by this point so I went more into collecting mode and just read the mini adventures that seemed like interesting ideas.

Then I started getting new actual Lone Wolf adventures (well it's just the one adventure so far) and the mini adventures lost some of their appeal.

I'll run through them eventually - probably next time I read through the whole series.

Would be interested in seeing others opinions on these.

[wisestrider]

Second post was made while I was typing mine so that clarifies a few points.

One quick extra point I'd like to make - the artist for the mini adventures has changed a few times and was different to the artist for the main adventures.

I'm a big fan of the "heavy shading" style used by one of the artists (I need to look up the name and add in here if someone else doesn't get there first).

Would love to see more of their illustrations of this world.

[andyc]

May 21, 2019 23:49:54 GMT wisestrider said:

Second post was made while I was typing mine so that clarifies a few points.

One quick extra point I'd like to make - the artist for the mini adventures has changed a few times and was different to the artist for the main adventures.

I'm a big fan of the "heavy shading" style used by one of the artists (I need to look up the name and add in here if someone else doesn't get there first).

Would love to see more of their illustrations of this world.

Yeah, I thought the illustrations in the mini adventures were good in the three books I read. The replacement illustrations of the Collector's editions have their own charm, but I prefer the originals.

Cheers to you both for sharing your thoughts on the bonus adventures; anyone else is welcome too.

[Black Cat]

Artists who made the illustrations for the bonus adventures: Nathan Furman (books 2 to 11 and 17), Richard Longmore (books 12 to 16), Stephanie Böhm (book 18, 20 and 21), Aljosa Mujabasic (book 20), Hauke Kock (book 19 and 22) and Adélaïde Euriat (book 29).

As for the authors of these bonus adventures:

-2: "The Crown of King Alin IV" -> Vincent N. Darlage
-3: "Vonotar's Web" -> Laszlo Cook
-4: "Ruanon" -> James M. Stuart
-5: "The Tomb of the Majhan" -> Richard Ford
-6: "The Key to the Future" -> Joseph C. Williams
-7: "The All Seeing One" -> Nick Robinson
-8: "Masquerade in Hikas" -> Darren Pearce
-9: "The Guildmaster's Hammer" -> Richard Ford
-10: "Echoes of Lost Light" -> August Hahn
-11: "Lord of Meledor" -> James M. Stuart
-12: "Aboard the Intrepid" -> Vincent N. Darlage
-13: "Plague Agent" -> James M. Stuart
-14: "Darkness Most Dire" -> August Hahn
-15: "Castle Akital" -> Nic Bonczyk & Joe Dever
-16: "A Long and Dire Road" -> August Hahn
-17: "Labyrinth of Sorrow" -> Darren Pearce & Charlotte Law
-18: "The Dead of Chrude" -> Nic Bonczyk & Joe Dever
-19: "Dire Straights" -> August Hahn
-20: "The Purifiers of Kazan-Oud" -> Vincent Lazzari, Eric Dubourg & Reinaldo Gomez-Larenas
-21: "Echoes of the Moonstone" -> Eberhard Eschwe and Swen Harder
-22: "A Wytch's Nightmare" -> Vincent Lazzari & Alexander Kühnert
-29: "The Tides of Gorgoron" -> Vincent Lazzari & Joe Dever
-TBA: "Dire in the Dark" -> August Hahn

Some names are well-known in the world of Lone Wolf: August Hahn, Darren Pearce, Richard Ford and Vincent Lazzari all have contributed to the lore of Magnamund in various ways before and after the publication of these adventures.

[wisestrider]

It was Nathan Furman I was thinking of. I think he did art for some of the main adventures too.
Did August Hahn ever say how long his Dire series was planned to last?
Is the forth story the last (if/when it eventually gets printed)?

[GhostofLandar]

I liked the adventure from Storms of Chai, it's the only one I've read. I get the feeling, though, from seeing the menagerie supplement, etc. that some of the ideas from these bonus adventures (like flying bear agarashi and 'dragon-kin' and mutated humans) are non-canonical or at least should never have been included as they don't quite fit with the universe (or at least on Magnamund) that Joe created.

[andyc]

Ok, I can now add my mini-review for:

LW23 - Lost in the Kelderwastes
This one was fantastic. Well written, paced and balanced. I completed it first time but only by the skin of my teeth (down to 1 Endurance and no healing items at one point).
I won't spoil the story but it adds some nice lore that fits with the established history. The baddies are great, the ally was superb, the climax was perfect. My final rating 5/5. Fecking awesome.

[wisestrider]

Adding to my previous comments I think the bonus adventures in Books 29 & 30 are both excellent.

Not necessarily in terms of gameplay or options - in those terms they aren't anything special (a still as good as can be expected with the shorter length of all the bonus adventures - there's only so much you can do in 150 sections).

But what works so well is the way they are used to further the main storyline linking those 2 books by giving you insight into how widespread the rise of evil is by showing you some of the adventures of other Grand Masters.

In Book 29 you play a character who works with one of the Grand Masters to help save Dessi and in Book 30 you actually play as one of the other Grand Masters as he tries to succeed where another Grand Master already failed.

Getting that insight into the other Grand Masters really makes you feel like part of the New Order - shame this didn't start earlier in the New Order series, would have been a good way to contrast the adventures of the Grand Master to the adventures of Lone Wolf.

In these 2 Books it really starts to make it feel like there simply aren't enough Grand Masters left to stand against the darkness - like pebbles trying to stop an avalanche.

And having the option in Book 30's main adventure to swap weapons for the special item reward earned by the other Grand Master in the Book 29 Bonus Adventure was a really nice touch and deserves a special mention.

Hope we get something similar showing us more of the New Order Grand Masters in Book 31.

[andyc]

LW29 - The Tides of Gorgoron

A great bonus adventure, especially as it gives an opportunity to see more of the desperate fight against the coordinated Magnamund-wide rise of evil. Also it shows that Sesketera hasn't been completely forgotten about.
Anyway, a lot is packed into its 150 sections, so much so that it feels like a full Lone Wolf adventure. Epic stuff goes down and we get to see some more of a city not really properly explored in the main books. Perhaps my only complaint is the rather excessively elaborate skills to choose from at the start, making it less easy to just pick up and run with it. This is only a minor nitpick though, so I award it a 4.5/5

[Wild Horse]

After reading, I think the Bonus Adventure in LW30 depicts Blazer's quest that was assigned to him at the beginning of LW29: to stop the Agarashi invasion at the Kraknalorg Chasm. Basically Blazer's quest is parallel to the main adventure of LW29, and a "prequel" to his later mission at Cragmantle (parallel to LW 30)

Jul 22, 2019 0:22:53 GMT wisestrider said:

Adding to my previous comments I think the bonus adventures in Books 29 & 30 are both excellent.

Not necessarily in terms of gameplay or options - in those terms they aren't anything special (a still as good as can be expected with the shorter length of all the bonus adventures - there's only so much you can do in 150 sections).

But what works so well is the way they are used to further the main storyline linking those 2 books by giving you insight into how widespread the rise of evil is by showing you some of the adventures of other Grand Masters.

In Book 29 you play a character who works with one of the Grand Masters to help save Dessi and in Book 30 you actually play as one of the other Grand Masters as he tries to succeed where another Grand Master already failed.

Getting that insight into the other Grand Masters really makes you feel like part of the New Order - shame this didn't start earlier in the New Order series, would have been a good way to contrast the adventures of the Grand Master to the adventures of Lone Wolf.

In these 2 Books it really starts to make it feel like there simply aren't enough Grand Masters left to stand against the darkness - like pebbles trying to stop an avalanche.

And having the option in Book 30's main adventure to swap weapons for the special item reward earned by the other Grand Master in the Book 29 Bonus Adventure was a really nice touch and deserves a special mention.

Hope we get something similar showing us more of the New Order Grand Masters in Book 31.

[Black Cat]

Jul 6, 2019 20:30:18 GMT andyc said:

Ok, I can now add my mini-review for:

LW23 - Lost in the Kelderwastes
This one was fantastic. Well written, paced and balanced. I completed it first time but only by the skin of my teeth (down to 1 Endurance and no healing items at one point).
I won't spoil the story but it adds some nice lore that fits with the established history. The baddies are great, the ally was superb, the climax was perfect. My final rating 5/5. Fecking awesome.

I agree. I've just finished playing it and I agree it is a good one, although I've found 2 little mistakes (in the SsF, "the three of you" when there is no mention of Zinair but a mention of Melchar... who wasn't even there and a section where I leave Sz'annhiz to sleep on the shores of a lake after tending her wounds and the next section, she comes in as if she had drifted in the river and is still wounded!). Still, it's a good story and it indeed adds to the lore of Magnamund.

[Black Cat]

Well, the bonus adventure in book 30 is very good, that's for sure. It brings a different insight on the other events occuring in Magnamund. However, the very long epilogue could had been better if it had been broken down into numbered sections IMO. Would it have made a difference if the adventure had 125 or 130 sections instead of 120? Also, you play as a Kai Lord, which is not very different from the main adventure. I would had prefered to play a different class of character, like a Telchos. But still, it's an interesting adventure.

But the main problem with this adventure are the typos. OMG! They are so many! Things dropped to my "feat" (instead of feet), I managed to block "would could" easily been a killing strike (instead of "what could") and I was "asskign" things to my mount!

And I'm still laughing at section 52: "Stepping away from the anvil, Aldgor steps away from his anvil..."

[nathant]

I just started my first bonus adventure for LW #20 and I must say I absolutely love it!  I love the setting, the non-linearity of it, and the time tracker is a cool idea.  I am a sucker for a good murder mystery.

I am curious to try the others but it sounds like they are of varying quality judging from the comments here.

Was curious though, do people here generally play the bonus adventure first or after completing the main book?