Joe Dever, creator of the Lone Wolf series of gamebooks, just passed away at the young age of 60. :(
The LoneWolf books were a huge part of my childhood, and to this day were very defining of my concepts of "modern" fantasy gaming.
Edit: god-dammnit. Can a mod alter the typo on the thread title?
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Quote from: TristramEvans;933222Edit: god-ammnit. Can a mod alter the typo on the thread title?
Fixed that for you.
Rest in piece, Joe. I spent many an hour playing those books.
Yeah, RIP indeed.
Damn. Seems like everyone I know or have met have passed away or equivalent thereof.
What a shame. He was a gentleman with a wicked wit and a very Biblical sense of justice. I appreciate the handful of times I was able to chat with him. RIP Mr Dever.
I'm not familiar with Lone Wolf or any other works by Dever, but I offer my condolences to his family, loved ones, and fans.
Damn, Requiesce in pace. I'll miss him, I owned every single book, and got the multiplayer RPGs of late.
I had the joy of communicating with him briefly on a couple of occasions; I loved the Lone Wolf books and they have not only been a big influence on me, but were also very popular with other kids when I was at school. RIP.
Doesn't ring any bells. Must have been a British thing.
Unfamiliar, but that artwork is quite evocative. I will keep an eye out for his works if it ever reaches my bookstore market shelves.
RIP, Joe Dever. Your gamebooks weren't my favourites, I'm not even sure whether I read past the first one, but I did spend some hours with that first one. May that warm your soul on the way!
Quote from: Shawn Driscoll;933314Doesn't ring any bells. Must have been a British thing.
You've missed a treat. His stuff was more successful in the UK and Europe than the US, but still fairly well known on that side of the pond. I absolutely loved the series of books. They were (I'm pretty sure) the first series of solo game books where you had a continuing narrative and character over multiple books. Lone Wolf's personal quest plays out over 20 books, plus there are another dozen or more books set in the same world. And that world was very detailed, with a Norse or at least Northern European flavour rather than the more common faux-England feel of many game books.
Quote from: Opaopajr;933336Unfamiliar, but that artwork is quite evocative. I will keep an eye out for his works if it ever reaches my bookstore market shelves.
Better than that, one of the great things Joe did was to allow his books to be immortalised and hosted by Project Aon. You can play any of them online here (https://www.projectaon.org/en/Main/Books).
Quote from: dbm;933365Better than that, one of the great things Joe did was to allow his books to be immortalised and hosted by Project Aon. You can play any of them online here (https://www.projectaon.org/en/Main/Books).
Huh, didn't know that! I sense a new time-waster at lunchtime...
Lone Wolf was my gateway into roleplaying*. Terrible news.
*Well, Grey Star actually
Didnt know that Magnamund was originally a D&D campaign from 77.
Freeway Warrior was another nice series from him and I have the Greystar mini series and two of those Combat Heroes books.
It does suck, especially as he was only 60, but I guess he was ill for quite a while.
Quote from: One Horse Town;933370Huh, didn't know that! I sense a new time-waster at lunchtime...
Fuck me, this is awesome. The problem I always had with those books was, I read too fast, just glancing at the pages with all the other mixed in options gave too much stuff away. Set me up where every choice is isolated...THIS is why Al Gore created Teh Intarwebz!
Man, having an App framework for this would be killer. Until then...
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Quote from: One Horse Town;933370Huh, didn't know that! I sense a new time-waster at lunchtime...
Yes.
It has been a long time coming, but I will now finally be able to play all the way through this series. I will do so in his honor.
OK, that was definitely a nice gesture by the late Mr. Dever!
Joe Dever is a very big part of my childhood.
A friend of mine (Christian) introduced me to the books when I was at the age of tender age of eight or nine and I immediately got hooked. He was able to create such a immersive world with such a little amount of text. "Fire on the water water" will remain as my favorite "choose your own adventure" book. Always.
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