Rating the Bonus Adventures

[andyc]

#18 - The Dead of Chrude
This adventure is a good sized one at 250 sections. You are a villager on a mission to retrieve a cure for your wife after she had become ill eating infected meat.
The first half I found a little dull, as it was mostly by the numbers travel adventure. The second half is much better once you return to find a localised zombie apocalypse.
It was a little on the easy side, even when I used Magnakai/Kai Level stats rather than the (incorrectly) suggested GM stats. The final baddie for example was a mere CS11 End16, though I did avoid a few nasty series of battles earlier due to a bit of luck.
I give it a 3.5/5

[andyc]

#26 Destiny most Dire
The climax of the August Hahn's Dire series and I enjoyed it. The odd typo as usual doesn't detract from Hahn's excellent descriptive passages. I still find the Anathema sword both overpowered and needlessly complicated, but this one seemed less about combat than the last. I would have preferred a more complex load of sections for the final confrontation instead of the unloseable one we had. Perhaps Hahn was trying to adhere to 125 sections, but I would have gone for another 10-15 all involving a series of both the right and wrong choices one could make in the final moments. Never mind, I still had a lot of fun, so it gets 4/5.

[andyc]

Jul 24, 2020 4:31:12 GMT Black Cat said:

It took a decade (first part was published in 2010 by Mongoose!) but I've finally read the last part of the Dire series, 'Destiny Most Dire'. As a whole, it was an interesting series and I still hold on my previous comment that it deserves to be republished in a single volume.

However, like the previous adventure, I felt that this one ended in an anti-climatic fashion. I don't know what Azavath was trying to do (does it say it somewhere else?) and which region of Magnamund I was and I didn't have to fight him (of course, it would had been the second fight to death with him). And I don't know what to make of the actual ending: will it be linked to the upcoming books 31 and 32? Will Dire and the 13 Warriors of Light© () be featured in another media (novel, movie, game, comic)?

As to where it is set, my guess would be in one of the ruins of Telchos. I haven't read it, but wasn't the trilogy of novels that Hahn was writing (of which only Glory and Greed has been published) involving this region. Something about the capital being the greatest city that Magnamund had seen once upon a time? My memory is foggy on this, so I may be wrong, but I do suspect that Hahn had chosen this part of lesser trodden Magnamund as his playground for ideas.

[Black Cat]

Aug 16, 2020 18:45:25 GMT andyc said:

As to where it is set, my guess would be in one of the ruins of Telchos. I haven't read it, but wasn't the trilogy of novels that Hahn was writing (of which only Glory and Greed has been published) involving this region. Something about the capital being the greatest city that Magnamund had seen once upon a time? My memory is foggy on this, so I may be wrong, but I do suspect that Hahn had chosen this part of lesser trodden Magnamund as his playground for ideas.

It could be a possibility, since the first part of the Dire series was published around the same time than 'Glory & Greed'. Connecting both the Dire series to the novels would had been a good thing. I hope that one day August Hahn finds a way to publish the remaining books of the trilogy. Maybe on Project Aon?

[andyc]

#21 Echoes of the Moonstone
This is a damn good bonus adventure. Probably the best I have read so far of the original Collector's Edition run (1-22). You are once again Lone Wolf as he takes a fake Moonstone aboard the Sky Dancer to distract attention away from the New Order GM. You spend the majority of the adventure aboard the airship along with quite a few travelling companions. There is a traitor of course and it was fun getting to the bottom of the mystery along with surviving the attacks that come your way. I found it very well balanced and I survived the adventure with 2 Endurance left. Lone Wolf has a rough time of it thanks to the forces against him, yet his difficulties are believable and understandable. There is enough variation in your choices to make a second playthrough very different, and the Magnamund lore and history is well known by the writers.
There are only a couple of negatives, the first being quite a few typos, including the word 'loose' being confused with 'lose' multiple times. The other is that it sets up a sequel adventure the hasn't materialised as of yet, and may never appear now. To be fair, it seems to be Lone Wolf heading back into the Danaarg, so I can live without it, but it is a mild shame that one thread was left hanging, despite the majority of it being well resolved. 4.5/5 (and it is almost a 5/5)

[andyc]

LW22 - A Wytch's Nightmare

Finally got hold of this book which (but for the yet to be released books #27,#28 &32) fills the annoying gap I had in the New Order hardbacks.
Correct me if I am wrong, but this might be Vincent Lassari's first adventure. As expected it is great, and he is clearly the most versed in Lone Wolf lore of any of the bonus adventure writers (almost a little excessively so). You play one of the new protégé Wytches trained by Wytch-Queen Tanith and undertake a number of escalating missions against the Kitaezi Shamans in your quest to find the lost Grey Star. His eventual location and the identity of the 'Shadow' behind the enemy is sadly not revealed, so I would say this story is not completely essential. Despite that it is well written (bar Vincent's group discussion scene which in both this and #30 reads a bit clunkily), nicely paced and packs an impressive amount into its 150 sections. Final score 4/5


Later Edit: More relevant to the main plot than I had realised at the time. Deserves an extra half point in retrospect giving it a new final score of 4.5/5

[Black Cat]

Dec 8, 2020 14:49:26 GMT andyc said:

Correct me if I am wrong, but this might be Vincent Lassari's first adventure.

"The Purifiers of Kazan-Oud" (book 20) was his first, although it was co-written with two other authors (and from what I see, all his work is credited with someone else).

[andyc]

Dec 9, 2020 15:32:59 GMT Black Cat said:

Dec 8, 2020 14:49:26 GMT andyc said:

Correct me if I am wrong, but this might be Vincent Lassari's first adventure.

"The Purifiers of Kazan-Oud" (book 20) was his first, although it was co-written with two other authors (and from what I see, all his work is credited with someone else).

Yes, you are absolutely right. In fact it had been stated earlier in this very thread.

With Buccaneers now bought I probably won't be getting any more of the Mongoose or Manticore Verlaag Collector's editions because of their high price. Buccaneers set me back far to much but I was keen to have all the New Order books as a complete hardback set and be content with Red Fox paperbacks for books 1-20, I prefer the original illustrations in those anyway. On the other hand I'll happily buy Bonus Adventures if they release them in mini-collections.

[firestone]

There's a link here to Wikipedia which lists the bonus adventures and gives a blurb about them:
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Lone_Wolf_media#The_World_of_Lone_Wolf

[andyc]

So, although I haven't read a all of the BAs, I thought I would notify people who were not so familiar with all the works, which were relevant to the main lore and storyline of the books and which are more stand alone adventures (out of the ones I have read). This might change with future releases mind, and I may have missed some links:

BA(1) Dawn of the Darklords - Medium, involves a significant character and how he potentially meets LW. Also it shows more of the damage and infiltration of Sommerlund by Zagarna's legions

BA3 Vonotar's Web - Medium. Involves two characters from book 3, and more of Vonotar is a good thing. Although fun, it is short and doesn't reveal much of significance

BA6 Key to the Future - Quite High. Sets the scene for book 6, involves a fairly relevant character and gives a great feel of a malignant shadowy society behind the scenes (surely the Naarvakim at work here?)

BA7 The All-seeing One - Low. The most remarkable thing in the one is how poor Tavig survived this near impossible adventure. Sadly he is doomed anyway and the despite it being great seeing more of Castle Death, I didn't spot any significant lore.

BA12 Aboard the Intrepid - Zero. Don't get me started on this one again!

BA18 The Dead of Chrude - Low (unless I missed something significant) Not necessarily a bad adventure, but if you have missed it, I don't think you are missing out on any lore of significant other than another example of the Cenars up to more nefarious deeds.

BA 21 Echoes of the Moonstone - Quite High. Mainly because it is Lone Wolf (and a damn good adventure to boot). Nothing utterly essential to the main books I guess and the storyline is left slightly incomplete.

BA 22 A Wytch's Nightmare - High. This one, is directly referenced by book #31 and I now regard it as near-essential to gain the full picture. Difficult to find now unfortunately.

BA 23 Lost in the Kelderwastes - High. Again, directly referenced by book #31, in multiple ways no less. Great adventure too.

BA 24 A Traitor's Reward - Quite High. A lot of it is not essential, although still nice to see the more of Vandyan's invasion. It does however get more significant in the climatic location, so worth a read through to the end certainly.

BA 25 and 26 Dire in the Dark/Destiny Most Dire - Quite High or High. I couldn't quite decide on these yet. Certainly the power of The Nadziran Sorcerers and the extend of their world beneath the Darklands is very relevant to the main plot. Whether Dire and the Well become relevant to the main books or not remains to be seen...

BA 29 The Tides of Gorgoron - Very High. Pretty much part of the epic conclusive events so I would say essential.

BA 30 Kaum Before the Storm - Very High. As above, forms an essential part of the last 4 books.

[andyc]

Well after discovering the German version of the Collector’s Editions are on Kindle, with a lot of faffing I have been able to make a start on some more bonus adventures. To be fair, these are read via the kindle translate function, so some nuance may be missed in translation for me.

BA5 The Tomb of the Majhan
Short dungeon crawl in the style of Indiana Jones. It was decent enough (and I tend to enjoy a dungeon adventure) and doesn't outstay its welcome as any further traps and falling boulders would have got tedious. There was not much in the way of lore other than little snippets of Vassagonnian history and it felt ultimately a little cheesey and pointless. 2.5/5

BA2 The Crown of King Alin IV
Ah! Mr Darlage, we meet again! To be fair, this one was not as bad as his other BA in book 12, but it is nothing special. The scene setting was nicely descriptive at the start and the chase was okay, although it seemed to confuse who I was chasing after. The climax remembered to include a single fight, but then resorts back to the describing of combat taking place with no choice on the outcome. It does gain points for including a villain from the Graphic Novel and having some semblance of linking with the main story, but it is still one of the weakest BAs. I'm starting to think Mongoose got the wrong Vincent when they were recruiting writers for the Collector’s Editions. 2/5

[andyc]

BA4 Ruanon
As others have said, this is a pretty decent one, definitely the best BA of the Kai series of books anyway. The initial battle and choices in making your way to Ruanon was were very well designed, I was rather pleased how realistically the tactical choices made would be rewarded or punished appropriately.
Things perhaps lose their way a little once you arrive at the eponymous city, mainly due to a couple of minor things. First (and least), it would have made sense that you borrow a sword, having lost one earlier, but you are not given the chance. Second, you are there several weeks , yet you don't need to use rations, despite the text clearly indicating you are running out of food. Third, and crucially, the final battle is mostly skimmed over. Yes, you read about it in the main story, but you at least could go up against some big bandit captain or similar, so as to bring your view on those events to a suitable climax. Indeed, there could have been less sections one after another earlier in the city and instead have more choice of actions at the end; but maybe the author was running out of time. Anyway, despite my gripes, the majority was pretty good so it gets a 3.5/5 from me.

[andyc]

BA8 Masquerade in Hikas
I wasn't the biggest fan of this one. Oiseau wasn't kidding about the excess of rules. I tried to read them all, I really did, but eventually threw my hands up in the air, thought 'sod it' and decided to use a random number to determine if I had a skill requested in the text or not (50:50). That seemed to work quite well, and despite not having any of the myriad single use attacks, I still won through with Endurance to spare. Next problem was the linear nature of it. Yes there was a couple of branching sections, but each route it took seemed to be mostly just one section after another. Most of those blooming skills at the start seemed pointless but for a couple of scenarios.
Problem three was the whole ridiculousness of the situation: an extensive mutant lab in the sewers (what was all that about anyway?) and a whole Drakkar-run slave mine complex just under the feet of a major city of Dessi?! What the blazes were all the Elder Magi doing with all that under their noses? It all seemed very improbable and that, together with the way the sections were ordered (gradually working up through the numbers) suggested a rather inexperienced gamebook author. Oh yes, the Kai-lady would be a nice addition if this had all occurred AFTER the fall of the Darklords, but, again as Oiseau said, she shouldn't exist at that point in the history.
On the plus side, I liked the first bit in the city, and I guess it wasn't a dull adventure all in all.
Final score 2.5/5

[andyc]

BA9 The Guildmaster's Hammer
This BA didn't feel like a Lone Wolf style adventure at all. I suppose variation is good, but this adventure you are simply tasked with stealing the Hammer and getting back in one piece. Nothing unexpected happens throughout, there is no last minute twist or sting in the tail and it is over before you know it. Not sure what else to say about it I'm afraid. Definitely one of the weaker BAs.
2/5

[andyc]

I note that the Swedish Editions have replaced my last two reviewed BAs with new adventures, namely The Slavers of Xanar and The Lost and the Damned. I've only read the basic synopsis of them, but replacing those two original BAs was the right choice in my opinion.
Masquerade breaks the lore, despite being an okay adventure, whereas Hammer was just such a non-adventure that its absence means nothing is really lost in the grand scheme of things. Here's hoping that the two Swedish adventures remain near the front of the queue for translation and inclusion in an eventual BA compilation release.