Gamebook Friday: ACE Gamebooks at Dragonmeet 2025

ACE Gamebooks will be attending Dragonmeet again this year, on Saturday 29th November 2025, at the event's new venue of London's Excel Centre. I will be in the gamebooks corner, along with Fighting Fantasy and Lone Wolf.

Click to enlarge.

I will have copies of Shakespeare Vs. Cthulhu: What Dreams May Come with me, as well as The Box of Delights RPG, and other ACE Gamebooks.

So, if you're coming along, why not stop by and say hello?

Click on the covers to find out more.

The UK Games Exp 2023

A week ago, I was in the thick of things at Day 2 of the UK Games Expo. It's an event that I look forward to all year and now that it's over for another year, I can't believe it's already been a week since I was at the NEC with my ACE Gamebooks.

ACE Gamebooks at the UK Games Expo.

Talking of which, the books were very well received. RONIN 47 proved popular, although some of my regular readers chose not to pick up a copy because it's science fiction rather than fantasy, and Alice's Nightmare in Wonderland did well, as it always does. On top of that, I sold out of NEVERLAND - Here Be Monsters!, Beowulf Beastslayer, and Dracula: Curse of the Vampire (again).

A shield-maiden showing off her 'Hwaet' tattoo.

One of the things I love about the UK Games Expo is the number of friends I catch up with from all over the country, and all areas of my life. A couple of my university friends still live nearby and stopped by my stand to say hello, as did Twitch streamers Ken Boyter and Julian Sparrow. 

Richard, one of my best friends from university and a huge fan of board games.

Ken Boyter (EdraTales) and Julian Sparrow (Babel_17).

And then there are the usual suspects, such as Rene Batsford, Ed Fortune, Kev Abbotts, PJ Montgomery, Neil Roberts, Jamie Fry, George Mann, James Wallis, Justin-Lee Morrison, Jonathan Hicks, and all the Kickstarter backers who stop by and say hello. I also talked business with Holmgard Press and Aconyte Books, which was nice.

Olly Mc, a.k.a. the Storymaster, of The Storymaster's Tales.

Hanging out with a Terminator Space Marine, as you do.

The Aconyte Books stand, promoting the Marvel Multiverse Missions gamebooks.

A very impressive piece of Necron cosplay.

PJ Montgomery with an original copy of Spellbreaker, my first book, published 30 years ago this month.

The Lone Wolf Miniatures Game at the Holmgard Press stand.

Dr Peter Wright and the gang from Edge Hill University, where my ACE Gamebooks are on the game design course reading list.

On the Saturday night I went to the live readthrough of Sir Ian Livingstone's City of Thieves, during which Olly Mc guided John Robertson through Port Blacksand until he met a grisly end at the hands of Zanbar Bone. Wearing bunny ears. Zanbar Bone, not John Robertson.

Olly Mc and John Roberson at the City of Thieves live readthrough.

The victorious Zanbar Bone, plus fluffy, rainbow bunny ears. 

Another highlight was the Heorot RPG photoshoot with the reenactors of The Vikings UK, as was the 'Write Like a Pro' workshop I did with Darren Pearce on the Sunday morning.

Vikings reading a Viking RPG. How very meta...

Darren Pearce and Jonathan Green, your hosts for the 'Write Like a Pro' workshop.

However, a huge thank you must go to Scott Lewis and Claire Byard, who helped out on my stand again this year and kept me entertained on Saturday night, drinking cocktails and playtesting card games.

Scott and Claire.

Playtesting a certain Christmas-themed card game at around midnight.

If you've never been, you should check out the UK Games Expo because there is something there for everyone, no matter their age. And I hope to be there again next year, but I'm going to need to pull my finger out if I want to have another ACE Gamebook for sale at the event.

ACE Gamebooks at the UK Games Expo 2023.

Joe Dever - For Sommerlund and the Kai

Today marks one year since Lone Wolf creator Joe Dever sadly passed away all too soon. Here is the blog entry I posted the day after, when I had heard the news that rocked the gamebook and RPG community myself...


Joe Dever - 1956-2016

I met Joe Dever, for the first time, at Dragonmeet three years ago.

Joe Dever at Dragonmeet 2013.

Today I discovered that he passed away yesterday morning, after battling with ill-health for a long time. He was 60 years old.

If you are reading this blog, then you probably already know that Joe was the creator and writer of the Lone Wolf series of adventure gamebooks, which were set in the incredibly well-developed world of Magnamund.

Although I only met Joe in 2013, I had been aware of his works since the 1980s. I owned a few Lone Wolf adventures, but I personally preferred the Fighting Fantasy range because they provided the reader with more choices. I felt that Lone Wolf books were more like solo RPGs that wanted to be novels. This is probably why I actually preferred reading the Legends of Lone Wolf (co-authored with John Grant).

However, as I grew older I began to appreciate all the more what an incredible, and richly detailed, creation of the world of Magnamund was. Where the Fighting Fantasy world of Titan was a fantasy realm created by a committee who never met, and who rarely seemed to even speak to one another, Magnamund and Lone Wolf were the vision of one man, developed over decades.

Joe Dever at the UK Games Expo 2016.

When I did finally meet Joe, I found him to be affable and encouraging, always willing to chat about all things gamebook-related and pose for a photograph.

Joe Dever at Dragonmeet 2015.

From then on I caught up with Joe once or twice a year - usually at Dragonmeet and the UK Games Expo - and he was always interested in what I was working on, and I'm pleased to say I was able to give him a copy of Alice's Nightmare in Wonderland on its launch day.

Dragonmeet will be a strange place without him this Saturday and he will be sadly missed by many, right around the world.

But although the man himself is lost to us - and there are still three uncompleted Lone Wolf adventures, which he was still working on up until Monday night - his work endures, and that is quite some legacy.

Or, to put it in the words of another much missed author: “No one is actually dead until the ripples they cause in the world die away...” ~ Terry Pratchett, Reaper Man

For Sommerlund and the Kai - RIP Joe Dever.

Joe Dever - 1956-2016

I met Joe Dever, for the first time, at Dragonmeet three years ago.

Joe Dever at Dragonmeet 2013.

Today I discovered that he passed away yesterday morning, after battling with ill-health for a long time. He was 60 years old.

If you are reading this blog, then you probably already know that Joe was the creator and writer of the Lone Wolf series of adventure gamebooks, which were set in the incredibly well-developed world of Magnamund.

Although I only met Joe in 2013, I had been aware of his works since the 1980s. I owned a few Lone Wolf adventures, but I personally preferred the Fighting Fantasy range because they provided the reader with more choices. I felt that Lone Wolf books were more like solo RPGs that wanted to be novels. This is probably why I actually preferred reading the Legends of Lone Wolf (co-authored with John Grant).

However, as I grew older I began to appreciate all the more what an incredible, and richly detailed, creation of the world of Magnamund was. Where the Fighting Fantasy world of Titan was a fantasy realm created by a committee who never met, and who rarely seemed to even speak to one another, Magnamund and Lone Wolf were the vision of one man, developed over decades.

Joe Dever at the UK Games Expo 2016.

When I did finally meet Joe, I found him to be affable and encouraging, always willing to chat about all things gamebook-related and pose for a photograph.

Joe Dever at Dragonmeet 2015.

From then on I caught up with Joe once or twice a year - usually at Dragonmeet and the UK Games Expo - and he was always interested in what I was working on, and I'm pleased to say I was able to give him a copy of Alice's Nightmare in Wonderland on its launch day.

Dragonmeet will be a strange place without him this Saturday and he will be sadly missed by many, right around the world.

But although the man himself is lost to us - and there are still three uncompleted Lone Wolf adventures, which he was still working on up until Monday night - his work endures, and that is quite some legacy.

Or, to put it in the words of another much missed author: “No one is actually dead until the ripples they cause in the world die away...” ~ Terry Pratchett, Reaper Man

For Sommerlund and the Kai - RIP Joe Dever.

Gamebook Friday: Joe Dever's Lone Wolf

Coming soon from Forge Reply...