2008 – Seventh Sense (Lone Wolf Adventure Books)

In July of 1984 the first installment of the Lone Wolf gamebook series, Flight from the Dark, was published, spawning a franchise that would sell over ten millions copies to date.

The set up is classic: you are Lone Wolf, the only surviving Kai Lord – an order of holy warriors blessed with psychic and physical powers that opposes the Darklords. It’s a simple tale of good guys versus bad guys, but the implementation is masterful.

Created by young musician Joe Dever together with his artist friend Gary Chalk, the series would stamp upon young minds a narrative, a look and an identity that would shape their idea of fantasy for years to come. Sadly, by the late ‘90s the game book market withered, prematurely ending the series.

In recent years however there has been renewed interest in the series thanks to Project Aon, a fan-created site that re-released the books in HTML, with permission of Joe Dever, who approved the free dissemination of his work online as a gift to the fans.

Seventh Sense is a free, fan-made playing aid for the Project Aon versions of the Lone Wolf gamebooks. It automates and aids the playthrough, tracking all stats, rolls, skills, items and page-jumping, while also allowing players to greatly customize the book’s rules, art style and even seek special challenges.

The books are intended to be played in order, as one huge adventure. In the first one you create your character, rolling stats, choosing skills (Camouflage, Hunting, Weaponskill, Healing, Mind Blast, etc) and your initial equipment. These choices will all greatly impact the options available during your quest.

Each subsequent book allows you to keep your current equipment and choose one extra skill, taking Lone Wolf all the way from an apprentice to a Grand Master with mythical weapons and powerful spells.

The series spawns 29 books, and as of this writing Seventh Sense supports up to book 17, The Deathlords of Ixia, and it’s regularly updated with more content.

To return to Lone Wolf after a few decades away is a pleasurable experience. The adventures of the last of the Kai Lords are short, sharp shocks: full of daring escapes, sudden deaths, exotic locales, crazy plots and fantastical elements that enchant young minds and cloud old ones with a perfect miasma of nostalgia. Neanderthal