The Darke Crusade

Lone Wolf #15

by Joe Dever, Brian Williams (Illustrator)

You are the warrior Lone Wolf - Kai Grand Master of Sommerlund. In the distant realm of Nyras a bitter war is waging between the brave knights of Lencia and the evil Drakkarim. The Lencians have won many battles, but now the Drakkarim leader - Warlord Magnaarn - is near to finding the Doomstone of Darke. If he should succeed he will be capable of destroying the Lencians once and for all.

In The Darke Crusade, you must journey through the infernal Hellswamp, trek deep into the forests of northern Nyras and brave the heat of battle. Will you succeed and save your allies? Or will you fall victim to Warlord Magnaarn?

Genres: Fantasy, Gamebooks, Role Playing Games, Fiction, Choose Your Own Adventure, Gaming, Childrens

352 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1991

About the author

Joe Dever was an award-winning British fantasist and game designer. Originally a musician, Dever became the first British winner of the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Championship of America in 1982.

He created the fictional world of Magnamund as a setting for his Dungeons & Dragons campaigns. In 1984 he released the first book of the Lone Wolf series of young-adult gamebooks, and the series has since sold over 10.2 million copies worldwide. He experienced difficulty with his publishers as the game books market began to contract in 1995, until publication ceased in 1998 before the final four books (numbers 29-32) were released. Since 2003, however, the series has enjoyed a strong revival of interest in France, Italy, and Spain following the re-release of the gamebook series in these countries.

From 1996 onwards, Dever was involved in the production of several successful computer and console games. He also contributed to a Dungeons & Dragons-style role playing game for Lone Wolf published by Mongoose Publishing (UK) in 2004. Currently he is Lead Designer of a Lone Wolf computer game, and he is writing the final books in the Lone Wolf series. No official publication schedule exists for these works.

Reviews

[Mathew Walls · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is probably the worst book in the series. There are very few decisions and hardly any of them actually make any difference. Dever apparently forgot the "game" part of "gamebook". And the bad guy is just some random dude you've never heard of before and who gets basically no opportunity to make any kind of impact. It really feels like filler, or just finishing off the war plot so we can get to the next big story arc. Not even a cameo from our current recurring villain Cadak.

Oh, and it's got possibly the biggest dick move in the whole series as well in the unavoidable section where you lose all your potions.

[Etienne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Malgré une longueur et une charge de texte plus lourde qu'à l'habitude et qui pourrait devenir pénible pour de plus jeunes lecteurs, ce livre est sans doute un des meilleurs de la série jusqu'à maintenant. L'action y est présente, même si les combats sont parfois assez éloignés les uns des autres, mais la force de ce livre est vraiment l'histoire. De loin supérieur aux autres, plus riche, plus soutenu, on se croit presque dans un «vrai» (ouf je me déçois moi-même d'utiliser ce mot, j'espère que vous comprendrez) roman fantastique. Ce livre porte bien son nom, car effectivement, on s'embarque dans une croisade longue, difficile, qui testera les limites de notre personnage et nous mettera même au commande d'une pettie armée. Vraiment un scénario épique. Un incontournable pour les fans des livres dont vous êtes le héro!

[Ben · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very fun play through. This had a lot of classic elements from some of the older Lone Wolf books. Quite possible to move through with very little little combat at all, and a great combination of wilderness, dungeon and war zone action.

As with the other books in the Grand Master series, there is some confusion about how the various rules from the previous series interact with those from the this series. After completing this installment, it transpired that it seems that I had stacked some bonuses (from Weaponmastery) which I should have done and ended up with a higher CS than I should have done. On the other hand, I did not need to use Deliverance, so it all probably balanced out in the end.

[Roger]

this is interesting. a RPG style novella. part of the Lone Wolf series?

looks like Choose your Own Adventure combined with Dungeons and Dragons

checking Wikipedia, it looks like there's a whole series of gamebooks. cool.

[Batmanintraining · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love this series of choose your own adventure books.

Especially since you can now read all the books online for free.

http://www.projectaon.org/en/Main/Books

[John Somers]

Read most of this series years ago and want to get the set and re-read them to see if they're as good as I remember. (Childhood nostalgia).

[Rachel Redhead · Rating 5 out of 5]

A good strong storyline, very much a quest, as our protagonist seeks out an evil object to stop the new antagonist from becoming a powerful antagonist, that doesn't work, shock, and the second half of the book becomes a chase in which our hero runs into danger after danger before the final conflict. I really liked the construction of this story, though it starts in a previously visited location it goes off into new areas and it's not really about fighting, though there's huge wars going on all around, it's a small scale event but one which opens up to have some huge ramifications. Once again the Grand Master books are proving to be much more adult and complex in nature, they are just a quantum leap across the board from the Kai and Magnakai books.

[Dhana · Rating 5 out of 5]

Joe Dever's Lone Wolf gamebooks were a consistent presence during my formative years and have had a big influence on my reading and gaming interests. I first started reading them in 1989 and continued to do so until 1999. With the resurgence of new Lone Wolf material in recent years, I've decided to revisit these nostalgic gems of my youth.

Book 15: The Darke Crusade
(published 1991, first read 1991)

Story: 5/5
Game: 4/5
Replayability: 3/5

[Forgotmy Meds · Rating 1 out of 5]

The unavoidable 30% chance of dying roll ruined it for me. These have been present in previous books but usually only at 10%. The Grand master series upped the chances to die and increased the frequency of these. But this 30% roll was the worst. Kind of just lost interest in the series if this is the direction it ended up going.

[Justin · Rating 3 out of 5]

I suggest having Kai-Alchemy for this adventure.

[Cyril Corbaz · Rating 5 out of 5]

An odd book in the Lone Wolf series, which focuses a lot more on narration than the gaming aspect of a gamebook. Joe Dever's writing is brilliant here, transcending every earlier Lone Wolf book in that regard. His world truly comes to life. To me, this is pure gold, and as close to perfection as I want a gamebook to be, but readers who want to focus more on the gaming aspect may be disappointed.