Playing through every book with my wife
Apr 27, 2020 16:33:59 GMT
rhygar, aggsol, and 1 more like this
Post by Zipp on Apr 27, 2020 16:33:59 GMT
After YEARS of talking about Lone Wolf and doing various projects on it, I was shocked when yesterday (while I was reading Dead in the Deep) my wife asked me "hey, so are those like Choose Your Own Adventures or something?" I couldn't grasp how in four years of marriage I had somehow missed explaining what these precious books are! And believe me: I talk about them all the time. She already knows that they are going to be required for us to read to our child (planning for one this year!) But somehow, I had never actually explained what they were.
Once I did explain, I noticed a gleam and excitement in her eyes. "That sounds super cool," she said, almost wistfully. I paused, then (almost sheepishly) asked, "Would you like to play them?"
And thus has begun a full playthrough of the series, with me reading the books out loud to her and managing her character sheet while she makes the rolls and all the decisions. The only big thing we've changed is she wanted to come up with her own name, so these are not the adventures of Lone Wolf but the adventures of Little Cat, Kai Lady! I've changed the name in the books and also the gender, when occasionally it comes up, to a "she."
We play in bed, or on the couch, her nestled up against my chest with my laptop open on my lap (one day, if the collection is ever rereleased, I'll use those to read to my child, but right now aside from anything published by Holmgard press I only have access to the old American books, and those are imperfect, so I'm using Project Aon). I use D&D sounds and music on youtube to create ambiance like the soft rustling of forest leaves, or the slap of water against the hull of a ship, or the sound of creaking wheels on a carriage bound to Port Bax but destined to never reach it.
I thought it might be fun to post a little review of each book and highlight some of the things my wife found enjoyable about each book. This is her first time playing, and I'll say she is already a fan. She says they hold up, they make her feel like she's a character in Lord of the Rings, and it's quickly become our favorite nightly activity.
For Sommerlund, and the Kai!
Brief Review of the Books
Book One: Flight from the Dark
Little Cat has a CS of 19 and END of 20 (both extremes on the rolls!) It was a fairly standard route to Holmgard, encountering Banedon, Burrowcrawler, and the Gourgaz and avoiding most fights. Probably the most intense moment was the Gourgaz fight, which she ended with 2 END left! We are using specialized healing rules for the Healing Discipline, where it offers 20 points of healing to be used throughout the adventure, whenever there isn't combat. But when they are used up, there are no more left. This is to make a little less bookkeeping for us and a little more strategy for my wife.
She chose to take the highway route, because she wanted to use the horse's speed. I always though that route kinda tricks the player, because you lose the horse instantly, without even a random number check!
Book one is so interesting for all the different paths you can take, and it is noticeably shorter than most of the other books, I think. My wife says the Gourgaz fight was the most exciting part of the adventure and she didn't think she was going to survive that fight. She used tracking and sixth sense a lot to plot a safe course to the capital, otherwise.
Wife's favorite description: The description of Fogwood
Wife's favorite fight: The Gourgaz
Biggest "oh crap" moment: The Gourgaz, the doomwolves tracking her, or being shot at by a crossbow on the highway (she had REALLY low health at that point)
Wife's favorite moment: Rushing into battle to save the Prince, or the Burrowcrawler. She found both to be evocative.
Wife's favorite thing she got: The Prince's horse, and the Prince's Sword
Something I was glad she saw: Banedon! And she came across the border ranger being tortured by the giaks, which is rare for me to find.
Something I was sad she missed: because she took the highway route and collapsed, she missed exploring the city of Holmgard!
Book Two: Fire on the Water
Little Cat was robbed but got her stuff back and barely managed to make enough money in the gambling halls to get a ticket out of port bax. She didn't figure out who the assassin was and debated between targeting Halvork (because of his ugly face) or Viveka because "I don't trust mercenaries." She ended up attacking and nearly dying to Viveka but killed her with one hit point remaining. Escaping out into the wildnerness, she was bummed that she didn't have enough health to try and help whomever was calling for aid...
Later, she made it through Tarnalin thanks to Project Aon's rewriting of that section and her use of Animal Kinship. The battle against the Death Hulks was shockingly easy and she said the most epic moment was killing Zagarna at the end (which we did accompanied by some truly epic choir music). We are playing the Sommerswerd as a +2CS weapon, though I may change that to my old +4 END damage in battle system I came up with years ago (thanks to Denis Vald on the Lone Wolf facebook group for reminding me of that!)
My wife had something really spot on to say about the series while we played this book: "It really feels like a movie, or that it just flows really well. The beats are really nicely laid out and there's always something exciting happening with you and the adventure just pulls you along. The writing is really fantastic, I feel like I'm there, on the boat, or in the carriage, and you never have a chance to get bored. Every choice you make feels like an important one."
Wife's favorite description: The description of the sea battle against the Death Hulks
Wife's favorite fight: Viveka
Wife's biggest "oh crap" moment: Ragadorn in general and losing all her stuff
Wife's favorite moment: Blowing up Zagarna, or the Noodniks. She LOVED the Noodniks and asked if she could keep one as a familiar.
Wife's favorite thing she got: The Sommerswerd (of course), or maybe the Port Bax ticket (because she almost didn't get it)
Something I was glad she saw: The Noodniks because I knew she'd love them
Something I was sad she missed: Playing chess with Captain Kolman
Book Three: The Caverns of Kalte
Little Cat breezed through this one! She took the longer but safer route to Ikaya, which led to an encounter with the Ice Barbarians (she was really put off by the art of the old-man looking child on the back of the Ice Barbarian). Once in Ikaya, she avoided the encounter with the Helghast by being observant of the pentagram, rescued Loi Kymar, and really didn't have trouble with the Akra-Neooner, defeating it in three rounds with the Sommerswerd.
My wife really liked the setting (she was a little confused by the transition from the caves to Ikaya and had some trouble differentiating the two). She really liked having companions, too, even though she KNEW the guides would die. She liked that Loi-Kymar did NOT die. She really liked him! She also really got into the monsters in the caves, and was fascinated the Crystal Frostwyrm, from a zoological standpoint, but her favorite was what she called "the cute little lion" (AKA the deadly Kalkoth). She was very impressed by throwing Vonotar in the Daziarn.
Cool fact: she has yet to die! Not even once, in the whole series so far! And as she found the silver helm and took a shield for the next book, she may be able to keep that up for a while.
Wife's favorite description: The description of the caverns of Kalte
Wife's favorite fight: the Kalkoth
Wife's biggest "oh crap" moment: Exploring the area with the Ice Demon (which she activated the statue, but ran away)
Wife's favorite moment: The ending, throwing Vonotar into the Daziarn
Wife's favorite thing she got: The Silver Helm and the Blue Stone Triangle
Something I was glad she saw: the secret potion chamber! She almost didn't open the bag, because she was afraid it was a mimic. Also she rescued Loi Kymar from above with a rope, which I've never done!
Something I was sad she missed: I seem to recall there being some horrible laboratory Vonotar has that's pretty gross, I would have liked to have had her reach that. I also wish she had found the firesphere, such a classic item. Gonna be kinda fun in the future, though, that she'll have to have torches and stuff to light her way. I don't know that I've ever NOT had the Firesphere.
Book Four: Chasm of Doom
Was book four always this easy? Little Cat DESTROYED this one... well, at least as far as combat went. Basically took no damage, but also didn't really get in a lot of fights. She did, despite all of that, actually get her first death. It was a cheap one and one I'd forgotten how much I dislike: it's at the end, where you either enter a room or go along a balcony. Entering the room gets you captured and killed, but there's pretty much NO clue to why this is a bad choice. The description of the area is a little unclear too, so it really is just a lucky choice. Weirdly out of character for Lone Wolf writing. But aside from that, she crushed it.
Wife's favorite description: She like the descriptions of the siege. She felt that was really well done and she was getting pissed about the peasants being used as bait.
Wife's favorite fight: She liked the fight against the mounted soldier where you get a single chance to unhorse him or be struck down yourself. She felt that was a cool twist to normal combat. We also secretly took a look at the "what happens if you eat mushrooms in the mine" page, because she was like "who would ever do this? And do you trip?" And she loved that you would end up fighting fake demons and just bash yourself to bits on rocks and walls and whatnot.
Biggest "oh crap" moment: The dogs chasing her. That actually freaked her out.
Wife's favorite moment: She liked meeting the Herbalists. She almost killed them, but restrained herself at the last moment...
Wife's favorite thing she got: ... and thus got the Holy Water. Which sadly she didn't use! She just leapt at Baraka and cut his dang head off with the Sommerswerd instead.
Something I was glad she saw: She actually took a path through the mines I never have, by sneaking inside the wheelbarrow and then jumping out with the help of a slave. That was totally new for me so that was cool.
Something I was sad she missed: I think once in my life, I didn't go to Eshnar to hunt down that clue about D'Val. I think if you keep going south, towards Ruanon, you end up in a much deeper part of the mines, where there is this octopus thing in a water passage... I think there are Elix down there too? I was sad she didn't go this way, because I think she would have liked the Elix and I always like the illustration for that squid creature. Not sure I've ever actually found it though. Just seen it flipping through the book.
Once I did explain, I noticed a gleam and excitement in her eyes. "That sounds super cool," she said, almost wistfully. I paused, then (almost sheepishly) asked, "Would you like to play them?"
And thus has begun a full playthrough of the series, with me reading the books out loud to her and managing her character sheet while she makes the rolls and all the decisions. The only big thing we've changed is she wanted to come up with her own name, so these are not the adventures of Lone Wolf but the adventures of Little Cat, Kai Lady! I've changed the name in the books and also the gender, when occasionally it comes up, to a "she."
We play in bed, or on the couch, her nestled up against my chest with my laptop open on my lap (one day, if the collection is ever rereleased, I'll use those to read to my child, but right now aside from anything published by Holmgard press I only have access to the old American books, and those are imperfect, so I'm using Project Aon). I use D&D sounds and music on youtube to create ambiance like the soft rustling of forest leaves, or the slap of water against the hull of a ship, or the sound of creaking wheels on a carriage bound to Port Bax but destined to never reach it.
I thought it might be fun to post a little review of each book and highlight some of the things my wife found enjoyable about each book. This is her first time playing, and I'll say she is already a fan. She says they hold up, they make her feel like she's a character in Lord of the Rings, and it's quickly become our favorite nightly activity.
For Sommerlund, and the Kai!
Brief Review of the Books
Book One: Flight from the Dark
Little Cat has a CS of 19 and END of 20 (both extremes on the rolls!) It was a fairly standard route to Holmgard, encountering Banedon, Burrowcrawler, and the Gourgaz and avoiding most fights. Probably the most intense moment was the Gourgaz fight, which she ended with 2 END left! We are using specialized healing rules for the Healing Discipline, where it offers 20 points of healing to be used throughout the adventure, whenever there isn't combat. But when they are used up, there are no more left. This is to make a little less bookkeeping for us and a little more strategy for my wife.
She chose to take the highway route, because she wanted to use the horse's speed. I always though that route kinda tricks the player, because you lose the horse instantly, without even a random number check!
Book one is so interesting for all the different paths you can take, and it is noticeably shorter than most of the other books, I think. My wife says the Gourgaz fight was the most exciting part of the adventure and she didn't think she was going to survive that fight. She used tracking and sixth sense a lot to plot a safe course to the capital, otherwise.
Wife's favorite description: The description of Fogwood
Wife's favorite fight: The Gourgaz
Biggest "oh crap" moment: The Gourgaz, the doomwolves tracking her, or being shot at by a crossbow on the highway (she had REALLY low health at that point)
Wife's favorite moment: Rushing into battle to save the Prince, or the Burrowcrawler. She found both to be evocative.
Wife's favorite thing she got: The Prince's horse, and the Prince's Sword
Something I was glad she saw: Banedon! And she came across the border ranger being tortured by the giaks, which is rare for me to find.
Something I was sad she missed: because she took the highway route and collapsed, she missed exploring the city of Holmgard!
Book Two: Fire on the Water
Little Cat was robbed but got her stuff back and barely managed to make enough money in the gambling halls to get a ticket out of port bax. She didn't figure out who the assassin was and debated between targeting Halvork (because of his ugly face) or Viveka because "I don't trust mercenaries." She ended up attacking and nearly dying to Viveka but killed her with one hit point remaining. Escaping out into the wildnerness, she was bummed that she didn't have enough health to try and help whomever was calling for aid...
Later, she made it through Tarnalin thanks to Project Aon's rewriting of that section and her use of Animal Kinship. The battle against the Death Hulks was shockingly easy and she said the most epic moment was killing Zagarna at the end (which we did accompanied by some truly epic choir music). We are playing the Sommerswerd as a +2CS weapon, though I may change that to my old +4 END damage in battle system I came up with years ago (thanks to Denis Vald on the Lone Wolf facebook group for reminding me of that!)
My wife had something really spot on to say about the series while we played this book: "It really feels like a movie, or that it just flows really well. The beats are really nicely laid out and there's always something exciting happening with you and the adventure just pulls you along. The writing is really fantastic, I feel like I'm there, on the boat, or in the carriage, and you never have a chance to get bored. Every choice you make feels like an important one."
Wife's favorite description: The description of the sea battle against the Death Hulks
Wife's favorite fight: Viveka
Wife's biggest "oh crap" moment: Ragadorn in general and losing all her stuff
Wife's favorite moment: Blowing up Zagarna, or the Noodniks. She LOVED the Noodniks and asked if she could keep one as a familiar.
Wife's favorite thing she got: The Sommerswerd (of course), or maybe the Port Bax ticket (because she almost didn't get it)
Something I was glad she saw: The Noodniks because I knew she'd love them
Something I was sad she missed: Playing chess with Captain Kolman
Book Three: The Caverns of Kalte
Little Cat breezed through this one! She took the longer but safer route to Ikaya, which led to an encounter with the Ice Barbarians (she was really put off by the art of the old-man looking child on the back of the Ice Barbarian). Once in Ikaya, she avoided the encounter with the Helghast by being observant of the pentagram, rescued Loi Kymar, and really didn't have trouble with the Akra-Neooner, defeating it in three rounds with the Sommerswerd.
My wife really liked the setting (she was a little confused by the transition from the caves to Ikaya and had some trouble differentiating the two). She really liked having companions, too, even though she KNEW the guides would die. She liked that Loi-Kymar did NOT die. She really liked him! She also really got into the monsters in the caves, and was fascinated the Crystal Frostwyrm, from a zoological standpoint, but her favorite was what she called "the cute little lion" (AKA the deadly Kalkoth). She was very impressed by throwing Vonotar in the Daziarn.
Cool fact: she has yet to die! Not even once, in the whole series so far! And as she found the silver helm and took a shield for the next book, she may be able to keep that up for a while.
Wife's favorite description: The description of the caverns of Kalte
Wife's favorite fight: the Kalkoth
Wife's biggest "oh crap" moment: Exploring the area with the Ice Demon (which she activated the statue, but ran away)
Wife's favorite moment: The ending, throwing Vonotar into the Daziarn
Wife's favorite thing she got: The Silver Helm and the Blue Stone Triangle
Something I was glad she saw: the secret potion chamber! She almost didn't open the bag, because she was afraid it was a mimic. Also she rescued Loi Kymar from above with a rope, which I've never done!
Something I was sad she missed: I seem to recall there being some horrible laboratory Vonotar has that's pretty gross, I would have liked to have had her reach that. I also wish she had found the firesphere, such a classic item. Gonna be kinda fun in the future, though, that she'll have to have torches and stuff to light her way. I don't know that I've ever NOT had the Firesphere.
Book Four: Chasm of Doom
Was book four always this easy? Little Cat DESTROYED this one... well, at least as far as combat went. Basically took no damage, but also didn't really get in a lot of fights. She did, despite all of that, actually get her first death. It was a cheap one and one I'd forgotten how much I dislike: it's at the end, where you either enter a room or go along a balcony. Entering the room gets you captured and killed, but there's pretty much NO clue to why this is a bad choice. The description of the area is a little unclear too, so it really is just a lucky choice. Weirdly out of character for Lone Wolf writing. But aside from that, she crushed it.
Wife's favorite description: She like the descriptions of the siege. She felt that was really well done and she was getting pissed about the peasants being used as bait.
Wife's favorite fight: She liked the fight against the mounted soldier where you get a single chance to unhorse him or be struck down yourself. She felt that was a cool twist to normal combat. We also secretly took a look at the "what happens if you eat mushrooms in the mine" page, because she was like "who would ever do this? And do you trip?" And she loved that you would end up fighting fake demons and just bash yourself to bits on rocks and walls and whatnot.
Biggest "oh crap" moment: The dogs chasing her. That actually freaked her out.
Wife's favorite moment: She liked meeting the Herbalists. She almost killed them, but restrained herself at the last moment...
Wife's favorite thing she got: ... and thus got the Holy Water. Which sadly she didn't use! She just leapt at Baraka and cut his dang head off with the Sommerswerd instead.
Something I was glad she saw: She actually took a path through the mines I never have, by sneaking inside the wheelbarrow and then jumping out with the help of a slave. That was totally new for me so that was cool.
Something I was sad she missed: I think once in my life, I didn't go to Eshnar to hunt down that clue about D'Val. I think if you keep going south, towards Ruanon, you end up in a much deeper part of the mines, where there is this octopus thing in a water passage... I think there are Elix down there too? I was sad she didn't go this way, because I think she would have liked the Elix and I always like the illustration for that squid creature. Not sure I've ever actually found it though. Just seen it flipping through the book.