Good day to you all,
I joined the forum four days ago and spent this time almost exculsively reading the whole of it. Yes, straight from
adgramaine’s first post (I do not intend to look for Lone Wolf-related topics on other forums). That explains why you already got some reply by myself.
I decided to sum up some of the useful information I found on these discussions. There are some very interesting tidbits that just get lost deep under the layer of discussion; that is a pity and I hope my archeology work will be of use.
More often than not, I put a link to the initial discussion (pity this forum doesn’t allow individual links). For the few other, Google is your friend (with something like “site:mongoosepublishing.com "exact text in straight quotes"”)
Send me a private message if you consider a thread to be worth adding.
Kai- Kai and family. “Nothing [states] that the Kai cannot have families and children […]. The only such restrictions on lifestyle seem to be regarding the accumulation of wealth, and any form of excess when it comes to indulgences. What this means, I take it, is that a Kai is nor permitted to go out and get roaring drunk or have casual sex. Granted, undercover missions can often require behaviour contrary to this, and that’s fine, as long as it doesn’t become a habit. But I imagine that Kai can fall in love and freely do all the things that go along with that.
- The New Order monastery may be able to house all of the Kai, albeit in an uncomfortable way (like a siege or for annual festivities. So should have had the First Order (maybe with extra tents and such); “if it didn’t the first order would have been so decimated.” But the First Order monastery should not have any secret tunnel leading out, otherwise other Kai would probably have escaped the first massacre. This tunnel “reflected Lone Wolf’s enhancements based on the bitter lessons of the First Order.”
Sommlending military(
source)
- Charge (commanded by a Knights of the Realm): 200 Soldiers
- Cassel (commanded by a Baron): several charges
- Army: Three to five cassels
Kai lords (prior to their destruction) were considered to form a cassel, so several times 200. In
Rune War, there are 500 Kai Lords, 5 Grand Masters, and one Supreme Master. If we consider this had been modeled after the old order (which may be wrong, since two wars (book 1-2 and 8-12) took their tolls of young men and even by temporarily lowering the standard, getting enough promising recruits is hard within only some years - later, someone go the same way by guesstimating up to double that size during the heyday, with ”about 800-1000”), we may consider the Kai cassel is composed of two charges and a half or, better, two active charges and one reserve charge, half the size of a normal one.
Some argue that charges may not be a reflection of raw number but of effective firepower; in the case, kai would certainly be worth much more charges, maybe even more than an army. I personally do not consider it that way, seeing how it works in modern-day military (a regiment of French Légionnaires is certainly more apt than a regiment of regular army men; still they are considered as regiment).
So, by MS 5075, the Field Marshal of Sommerlund commands a
small cassel of Kai (and I guess the Kai were a full cassel by MS 5000). Small by size, but definitely not by power!
Fighting- How to stand a chance against Kimah: “book 9 became a lot easier when you actually can lose the Sommerswerd and then get it back in section 350, all according to Projet Aon and the Lone Wolf Club newsletters.” Don’t try it against the Chaosmaster (book 11), as you’d need to be without Sommerswerd for at least two books (10 and 11) and maybe three (do you get your stuff back at the beginning of 12?). If you decide to go without Sommerswerd, you can still take the Dagger of Vashna; having it seized by the Darklords is way less dangerous.
- Going berserk makes you immune to Mindblast (but not Psi-Surge). This works for regular rage as well as Telchos amazons’ rage.
Monsters & OpponentsFlavour & Scenarios - Abominable snowman. Idea for flavour and maybe even a scenario:
“You could even have Baknar or Kalkoth crossing the ice bridge and possibly remaining a menace for years after, treat as a mythical beast that no body quite believes in haunting the northern Durncrag, but descending in the most terrible winters to wreak havoc on the most isolated communities.” Yeti inspired, plus good story to make children afraid (eat your soup of the Baknar will come!). - Scenario idea for post-gamebooks: [url]Darklords could come back[/url]. Naar can resurrect Darklords “not directly slain by divinities or agents of divinities other than himself”. Those killed by an envoy of Kai (like a Kai lord) are definitely dead (except Vashna, strong enough to try to come back by itself). But the ones killed by the destruction of the Transfuser (book 12) have not been killed by a agent of another divinity… So 14 darklords could maybe come back (15 if counting Vashna)
- Some adventuring ideas, several well-developped
- Suggested order for scenarios:
- Trouble in Tanoren
- Dawn of Destruction
- Blood Moon Rising
CharactersEquipmentBackground- Drodarin != Old Races. Drodarins are a gathering of Old Races, among them Dwarfs and Giants. This means that some Old Races might not have been part of the gathering (should the natives of Xaagons be non-human, they might qualify as a non-Drodarin Old Race). Those with a little background in Scottish, British or French history may remind of the Auld Alliance (the archaism would fit the concept). See the “Ghurka” parallel (just below) for a close idea.
- Vakeros as both a class and an ethnic group: “It makes sense that way. Ghurka is the name of the native people as a whole, but when you talk about them what comes to mind is the guerilla fighters/scouts who fought for the British.”
- Jala is coffee
- Real name of the last lorestones: Gamir (Darke) and Vinaldo (Sphydar)
- List of Gamebook NPC who could be already influent by MS 5000
- The allegiance of the grandmaster Death Knight could go to the current ruler instead of a particular Darklord
- Parts of Lone Wolf atmosphere:
- riddles
- no elves
- also:
- Psychics
- Ranger-types adventure
- Bizarre & original monsters
- Technology as a product of Evil (out of the Bor Gun and Boraneses are Dwarves). This latter point may be considered as a by-product of war (which is common in real life) although Joe Dever stated it did not want Magnamund to have a technological future
- Vassagonians Zakhans (extrapolation)
- Black Zakhan
- …
- Abdallah
- Moudalla
- Kimah
ReviewsMiscellaneous- A nice sentence by [url=august@rookhaven.com]August Hahn[/url]: “that’s why I monitor these lists. I want to make sure Lone Wolf is the game we all want- not just me.”
- Proselytism, a newcomer — no, not all Lone Wolf fans are in their thirties!
- Why Joe Dever is barely cited in the Core book
Voilà! Three years of forum in a page. I hope this will be of help. I will personally use it as a clarification page. Have fun and long live the Kai!
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