"Nigel gave me a drawing that said eighteen inches. Now, whether or not he knows the difference between feet and inches is not my problem. I do what I'm told."
"But you're not as confused as him, are you. I mean, it's not your job to be as confused as Nigel."
Actually it's really simple. The other crowdfunder was for a new series of gamebooks set in Magnamund but not starring Lone Wolf. This, on the other hand, is a boardgame and it does star Lone Wolf, along with other famous characters from the books such as Giak Kootak and Rotzon the Cener. (I think that's him below with the big old book and the curtain rod.)
Confused? Maybe you should read Richard S Hetley's guest post about the Lone Wolf Boardgame on Lloyd of Gamebooks. That will explain everything. Go ahead, I'll wait. What makes this special enough to be worth your hard-earned shards? Well, even if you're not a fan of the Lone Wolf gamebooks, any boardgame designed and illustrated by Gary Chalk is a must. Here's the guy who created the look and feel of Magnamund, who shaped the imagination of a generation of tabeletop gamers with his Games Workshop artwork & game design, and who has illustrated scores of beautiful books. On top of that he's a genuine gaming enthusiast himself with that rare combination: passion and talent, both turned up to 11.
For this Kickstarter campaign, Gary has teamed up with Megara Entertainment, who we might have mentioned before, and Greywood Publishing, the publishers of the very short-lived Fabled Lands RPG. The campaign has just one week left to run, and with your help it can still reach its target. Find out all the details here.
There was also a successfully funded Lone Wolf RPG Kickstarter a couple of months back by Cubicle 7: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/461807648/joe-devers-lone-wolf-the-lone-wolf-adventure-game ... Shaping up to be a great game.
ReplyDeleteAn RPG too? Wait, I think I knew about that. Did I even blog about it? Losing track of all these Kickstarter campaigns, lol.
DeleteAh ha! Spoken like a true fan of gaming, art, and fantasy versions thereof, but not so much one familiar with Lone Wolf. Giaks and Cener Druids are famous, but those two examples are not: we asked Joe Dever for some new characters and he expanded the world with Kootak and Rotzon (among others). The "witch" character you have as your art centerpiece is also a new one, named "Krasia." Say that name out loud and with a "z" sound.
ReplyDeleteFor more description of the world, and for why growing readers such as myself found the world so interesting when it was first being published, there's this other (more illustrated, slightly-more-entertaining) essay I posted:
http://www.erfworld.com/blog/view/45115/gamebooks-or-why-are-you-playing-that
Folks enjoy the worlds that Gary Chalk illustrated, it seems. Yet another group of young readers will be familiar with the Redwall series.
Yes, it's remarkable that so much new and interesting Lone Wolf content is coming out today. I really hope we'll get to add our project to the mix!
I get it. So really her name is Krazia, but whoever transliterates from the script used in Magnamund to a Roman alphabet has chosen to represent "z" sounds with an "s"...
DeleteOK, maybe I don't get it after all.
That's okay. It was a pretty weak joke to begin.
DeleteWhen it comes to language, apparently a certain amount of the fantasy verbiage (though not that name, surely) derives from Norse. Reminds me how The Way of the Tiger has Norse and Eastern European influences. It seems that if English-speaking authors want to put a taste of "the old" in fantasy for a Western audience, they rely on Europe. Fancy that.
I only just got it. I was saying "krah-zia" not "kray-zia". Duh.
DeleteIf a fantasy world actually uses the Roman alphabet, then it makes sense that there would be words with irregular pronunciations. I do wish more fantasy authors would follow Tolkien's lead, though. He knows he's transliterating, so he defines what each Roman letter or letter-pair stands for. That way, we know how to pronounce the "au" in Smaug and Sauron the same way - and not as in dinosaur.
I am a big LW fan and I looked at this. To be honest it didn't appeal, for three reasons:
ReplyDeleteFirstly, it's a skirmish wargame on squares. There are lots of skirmish wargames out there, and this one seemed to have fairly arcane and complex rules. Makes sense given it was designed in the 80's, but game design has moved on since then. It felt archaic.
Secondly, I was never that interested in the Magnamund world. As I've said before, the great thing about Lone Wolf was the mechanic, not the lore. The idea of carrying a character through 20 adventures, picking up friends and enemies, that as compelling. A skirmish wargame set in the same world isn't nearly as exciting.
Thirdly, the price point. $50 for cardboard standups.
I hope they succeed, looks like they'll make it. Just didn't feel that interesting to me.
Fair points. Michael, and if I had ever read the LW books I'd probably feel the same way. And the good news is that the project just hit its target with 45 hours to go. Partly I'm pleased for Gary and the guys at Greywood and Megara, but also because it augurs well for the FL book 7 Kickstarter next year.
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