The ''Endless Quest'' books were three series of

gamebooks A gamebook is a work of printed fiction that allows the reader to participate in the story by making choices. The narrative branches along various paths, typically through the use of numbered paragraphs or pages. Each narrative typically does not ...

. The first one was released in the 1980s by TSR, while the following two were released by

Wizards of the Coast Wizards of the Coast LLC (often referred to as WotC or simply Wizards) is an American publisher of games, primarily based on fantasy and List of science fiction themes, science fiction themes, and formerly an operator of retail stores for ga ...

. Originally, these books were the result of an Educational department established by TSR with the intention of developing curriculum programs for subjects such as reading, math, history, and problem solving. The first series of 36 books was released from 1982 to 1987, the second series of 13 from 1994 to 1996. These were respectively the first and last gamebooks released by TSR. A short spin-off series of 4 ''Endless Quest: Crimson Crystal Adventures'' books were also released during 1985. There were also several series of similar books that did not bear the ''Endless Quest'' name. The mechanics of these books involved simple choices in the style of ''

Choose Your Own Adventure ''Choose Your Own Adventure'' is a series of children's gamebooks where each story is written from a second-person point of view, with the reader assuming the role of the protagonist and making choices that determine the main character's actio ...

'' books, rather than the game-like randomized elements of ''

Fighting Fantasy ''Fighting Fantasy'' is a series of single-player role-playing gamebooks created by Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone. The first volume in the series was published in paperback by Puffin in 1982. The series distinguished itself by mixing Choos ...

'' gamebooks. However, the stories and characters in an ''Endless Quest'' book, while not necessarily more complex than in a ''Choose Your Own Adventure'' book, are often more fully developed because the ''Endless Quest'' books are much longer. For example, the character referred to as "you" in the text almost always has a name, gender, and backstory. The result is that the books in the ''Endless Quest'' series resemble miniature novels with many different endings. The majority of the books in the series were based on ''

Dungeons & Dragons ''Dungeons & Dragons'' (commonly abbreviated as ''D&D'' or ''DnD'') is a fantasy tabletop role-playing game (RPG) originally designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. The game was first published in 1974 by TSR (company)#Tactical Studies Rules ...

'', but some were based on other TSR games (e.g. ''

Gamma World ''Gamma World'' is a science fantasy role-playing game, originally designed by James M. Ward and Gary Jaquet, and first published by TSR in 1978. It borrowed heavily from Ward's earlier game, ''Metamorphosis Alpha''. Setting ''Gamma World'' ...

'', ''

Top Secret Classified information is material that a government body deems to be sensitive information that must be protected. Access is restricted by law or regulation to particular groups of people with the necessary security clearance and need to know, ...

'') or even licensed properties (e.g. Conan,

Tarzan Tarzan (John Clayton II, Viscount Greystoke) is a fictional character, an archetypal feral child raised in the African jungle by the Mangani great apes; he later experiences civilization, only to reject it and return to the wild as a heroic adv ...

). Mirrorstone, a division of

that publishes fantasy fiction for children and teens, began republishing the Endless Quest series in January 2008. The first book in the series is a revision of ''Claw of the Dragon'' (#34 from Series One). They have updated the book, including making it gender neutral so it can be enjoyed by both boys and girls, and plan to update and publish more of the D&D books pending the success of this first title. __TOC__

Endless Quest: Series One

Collectors' sets

# contains Books 1–4, # contains Books 5–8, # contains Books 9–12, # contains Books 13–16,

Endless Quest: Crimson Crystal Adventures

TSR also released a spin-off series of four ''Endless Quest: Crimson Crystal Adventures'' books during 1985. These books add a small twist in the form of a clear sheet of red plastic that comes stapled to the inside. This plastic piece is removed and then overlaid on top of certain portions of the book to reveal hidden images (by acting as an

optical filter An optical filter is a device that selectively transmits light of different wavelengths, usually implemented as a glass plane or plastic device in the optical path, which are either dyed in the bulk or have interference coatings. The optical p ...

Endless Quest: Series Two

The second series differed from the first in several ways: they were printed in smaller type, the section numbers were independent of the page numbers, they were based on different original games, and they were not officially numbered (collectors and gamers use the numbering shown below, continuing from series one, for convenience). ''*'' These were never released. ''The Test'' was written, turned in, and ready to print, but dropped at the last minute. ''Sands of Deception'' was written, but dropped as well.

Endless Quest (2018-9)

These books were all written by

Matt Forbeck Matt Forbeck (born August 4, 1968) is an American author and game designer from Beloit, Wisconsin. Biography Forbeck first became interested in role-playing games at age 13 when he started playing ''Dungeons & Dragons''. He earned a degree in crea ...

. Each one is loosely based on a Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition campaign.

Related series

The related '' Super Endless Quest'' series changed its name to '' Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Adventure Gamebooks'' starting with the fourth book; these books added a more complex game system to stories that otherwise share the same style with the ''Endless Quest'' books. A bookmark-style insert was provided with simple ''Dungeons & Dragons'' statistics for the book's main character, and a dice-rolling mechanic was added for determining the character's fate within the story. The ''

Fantasy Forest Fantasy Forest is a series of ten gamebooks published by TSR, Inc. from 1983 to 1984. The books are works of children's literature; eight of them are set in the fantasy world of the ''Dungeons & Dragons'' role-playing game created by TSR, Inc., and ...

'' series of gamebooks (1982–1983) is quite similar to the ''Endless Quest'' books, but it is aimed at a somewhat younger audience. Other similar series from TSR included ''

HeartQuest ''HeartQuest'' was a series of six interactive novels published by TSR, Inc. for young teenagers during the 80s. The series was a spin-off from their main Endless Quest series set in the world of ''Dungeons & Dragons''. With each novel billed as a ...

'' (interactive romances, set in the world of Dungeons & Dragons), '' Catacombs Solo Quest'' (more complex again than Super Endless Quest), and '' 1 on 1 Adventure Gamebooks'' that were each a pair of books for two players/readers. TSR also used the '' Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Adventure Gamebooks'' format for books tied into their ''Marvel Super Heroes'' roleplaying game, published as single-character ''Adventure Gamebooks'', and later as ''1 on 1 Adventure Gamebooks'', and featuring licensed

Marvel Comics Marvel Comics is an American comic book publishing, publisher and the flagship property of Marvel Entertainment, a divsion of The Walt Disney Company since September 1, 2009. Evolving from Timely Comics in 1939, ''Magazine Management/Atlas Co ...

characters.

Reception

The first four ''Endless Quest'' books were reviewed by Marcus Rowland in ''

White Dwarf A white dwarf is a stellar core remnant composed mostly of electron-degenerate matter. A white dwarf is very dense: its mass is comparable to the Sun's, while its volume is comparable to the Earth's. A white dwarf's faint luminosity comes fro ...

'' #39 (March 1983). Rowland rated ''Pillars of Pentegarn'' as 5 out of 10, ''Mountain of Mirrors'' as 4 out of 10, ''Dungeon of Dread'' as 6 out of 10, and ''Return to Brookmere'' as 7 out of 10. Rowland also reviewed the next two books in the series, giving both ''Revolt of the Dwarves'' and ''Revenge of the Rainbow Dragons'' 5 out of 10.

References

External links

Official publishers site of the 2008 revisions of the series

Demian's Endless Quest page
* {{isfdb series, id=20745, title=Endless Quest Universe
Series 2
an
Crimson Crystal Adventures
at the

Internet Book List The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, pub ...

Fantasy books by series Fantasy gamebooks TSR, Inc. games fr:Livre-jeu de la série Donjons & Dragons#Les Quêtes sans fin de Donjons & Dragons