Dungeons and Dragons: Endless Quest

[Gatehop-Quickfingers]

Hey, Heroscapers!

So tomorrow my dad is picking up eight books I bought on Kijiji - five dollars for the lot of 'em! The books are from the old D&D series, Endless Quest. They are written in a "Choose Your Own Adventure" style, and I was thinking of converting them into scenarios. Has anyone ever tried something like this? You could, ideally, get anywhere from ten to twenty scenarios out of a single book, due to the large amount of outcomes.

If it doesn't work out...well, it'll be a nice, light read!

-Gatehop

[Taeblewalker]

Mountain of Mirrors offers some possibilities. A frost Giant and Nilfheim, for one.

[Gatehop-Quickfingers]

Mountain of Mirrors offers some possibilities. A frost Giant and Nilfheim, for one.

Thanks, Taeblewalker! I'll be sure to post any scenarios I can come up with!

[Imaginos]

Nostalgia got me to pick up a bunch of those a couple of years ago. Love them!

[Tornado]

Hey there Gatehop. You stumbled upon some of my favorite books. Those are really cool because you have a simplified character sheet and actually roll dice for combat unlike normal choose your own adventure. I have to look at my collection but the series changed its title after like six books. I actually took the name of my all time favorite RPG character from a book character's first name and an author's last name. I have to say my favorite story was "The Soulforge?" A Dragonlance story where you are Raistlin and enter a tower to complete your magic-user training. This was the first and only time this event was detailed. I saw years ago though that a full length novel was written about the story.

Another series like this is Fighting Fantasy by Steve Jackson (Gurps) and Ian Livingstone. These are much the same but the books cover many genres, but are mostly fantasy. Their are one were you are a space assassin, a Road Warrior inspired tale, Pirates, Star Trek like adventure where you have a full away team. Awesome variety and great writing and illustrations.
I actually did make one of my favorite scenarios from some of these books by photo-copying the illustrations of the rooms and using them in my own dungeon. There were two books "Dungeons of ???" and its sequel "The Trial of Champions" that were a competition dungeon crawl full of traps and baddies.
My favorite book of the series is "The City of Thieves".
I have a couple other books/series like this. After finding this style the standard choose your adventure were too dull for me.
If you are interested I can check my collection and make more suggestions. Feel free to PM me . I always enjoy talking RPG. I take it this is for AD&D? Good Luck... peace

[Gatehop-Quickfingers]

Hey there Gatehop. You stumbled upon some of my favorite books. Those are really cool because you have a simplified character sheet and actually roll dice for combat unlike normal choose your own adventure. I have to look at my collection but the series changed its title after like six books. I actually took the name of my all time favorite RPG character from a book character's first name and an author's last name. I have to say my favorite story was "The Soulforge?" A Dragonlance story where you are Raistlin and enter a tower to complete your magic-user training. This was the first and only time this event was detailed. I saw years ago though that a full length novel was written about the story.

Another series like this is Fighting Fantasy by Steve Jackson (Gurps) and Ian Livingstone. These are much the same but the books cover many genres, but are mostly fantasy. Their are one were you are a space assassin, a Road Warrior inspired tale, Pirates, Star Trek like adventure where you have a full away team. Awesome variety and great writing and illustrations.
I actually did make one of my favorite scenarios from some of these books by photo-copying the illustrations of the rooms and using them in my own dungeon. There were two books "Dungeons of ???" and its sequel "The Trial of Champions" that were a competition dungeon crawl full of traps and baddies.
My favorite book of the series is "The City of Thieves".
I have a couple other books/series like this. After finding this style the standard choose your adventure were too dull for me.
If you are interested I can check my collection and make more suggestions. Feel free to PM me . I always enjoy talking RPG. I take it this is for AD&D? Good Luck... peace

Hey, Tornado!

I think the series you are talking about is Super Endless Quest, which, as you said, had it's name changed to something like Advanced Dungeons and Dragons Gamebooks later on in the series. The books I am picking up are in the series Endless Quest, and so they will be different from yours, and I do not believe you roll dice in these ones, which sounds like a VERY cool feature! I do, however, recall seeing Prisoners of Pax Tharkas and The Soulforge, two gamebooks in Super Endless Quest, at a local bookstore, and I might have to pick them up.

And regarding whether or not they are for AD&D, I have never actually played any roleplaying game like that, but have recently been rather intrigued by the thought of them. What I intended to do was actually make Heroscape dungeon crawls out of them, with one choice per room, with enemies and tasks similar to the book itself.

My books, I think will be a little more juvenile, with less challenging tasks and choices, but I think it could still work...I'm still disappointed about the dice feature, though!

[Grishnakh]

If you like that sort of stuff you guys should look into Dark City Games. The rules are simple, playable, and free. Each scenario is a programmed adventure that costs $12.95 each. If your interested I can tell you which ones are the best, I've played them all.

http://www.darkcitygames.com/

[Gatehop-Quickfingers]

If you like that sort of stuff you guys should look into Dark City Games. The rules are simple, playable, and free. Each scenario is a programmed adventure that costs $12.95 each. If your interested I can tell you which ones are the best, I've played them all.

http://www.darkcitygames.com/

Thanks Grishnakh!

I tried out the free sample just barely,Orcs of the High Mountains, but didn't have any dice on me and hadn't read the rules, so I didn't know some of the RPG terminology.

It was quite fun, but, currently, I can't be dropping thirteen dollars daily for a Role Playng Game, as fun as it is. I have to pay off my guitar right now; I'm lucky I was able to buy the books off Kijiji!

Thanks again, though...maybe once my guitar is paid, I can try it out!

[jschild]

This is sweet, I'll have to order some of those for my son! Thanks!

[Tornado]

Hey, Tornado!

I think the series you are talking about is Super Endless Quest, which, as you said, had it's name changed to something like Advanced Dungeons and Dragons Gamebooks later on in the series. The books I am picking up are in the series Endless Quest, and so they will be different from yours, and I do not believe you roll dice in these ones, which sounds like a VERY cool feature! I do, however, recall seeing Prisoners of Pax Tharkas and The Soulforge, two gamebooks in Super Endless Quest, at a local bookstore, and I might have to pick them up.

And regarding whether or not they are for AD&D, I have never actually played any roleplaying game like that, but have recently been rather intrigued by the thought of them. What I intended to do was actually make Heroscape dungeon crawls out of them, with one choice per room, with enemies and tasks similar to the book itself.

My books, I think will be a little more juvenile, with less challenging tasks and choices, but I think it could still work...I'm still disappointed about the dice feature, though!
Yep that is all correct. I also have the series you are referring to and they were pretty good, way better then the standard CYOA.
Pick up the Soulforge!! Make sure the character sheet is in it. It was right after the front cover and was bookmark size and attached with perforated card stock. If you are lucky it will be there unmarked. If it is completely missing, let me know and I will get the stats for you. I seem to remember not liking Prisoner's of Pax Tharkas as much but that was early in the series. I think you have to save your family from a prison. There is another one where you are a werewolf, classic.

I really like your idea and may pursue it myself. I have been wanting to run a HS dungeon crawl. Good Luck.

jschild if you have any questions or want suggestions, just let me know. I have additional series and some are geared towards younger readers and some were very mature. I have one based on Anne McCaffrey's Dragons of Perth and at that time is was over my head. I need to go back and read that one again.

Thanks for the link Grishnakh. Those adventures look pretty cool. :)

[jschild]

Hey, Tornado!

I think the series you are talking about is Super Endless Quest, which, as you said, had it's name changed to something like Advanced Dungeons and Dragons Gamebooks later on in the series. The books I am picking up are in the series Endless Quest, and so they will be different from yours, and I do not believe you roll dice in these ones, which sounds like a VERY cool feature! I do, however, recall seeing Prisoners of Pax Tharkas and The Soulforge, two gamebooks in Super Endless Quest, at a local bookstore, and I might have to pick them up.

And regarding whether or not they are for AD&D, I have never actually played any roleplaying game like that, but have recently been rather intrigued by the thought of them. What I intended to do was actually make Heroscape dungeon crawls out of them, with one choice per room, with enemies and tasks similar to the book itself.

My books, I think will be a little more juvenile, with less challenging tasks and choices, but I think it could still work...I'm still disappointed about the dice feature, though!
Yep that is all correct. I also have the series you are referring to and they were pretty good, way better then the standard CYOA.
Pick up the Soulforge!! Make sure the character sheet is in it. It was right after the front cover and was bookmark size and attached with perforated card stock. If you are lucky it will be there unmarked. If it is completely missing, let me know and I will get the stats for you. I seem to remember not liking Prisoner's of Pax Tharkas as much but that was early in the series. I think you have to save your family from a prison. There is another one where you are a werewolf, classic.

I really like your idea and may pursue it myself. I have been wanting to run a HS dungeon crawl. Good Luck.

jschild if you have any questions or want suggestions, just let me know. I have additional series and some are geared towards younger readers and some were very mature. I have one based on Anne McCaffrey's Dragons of Perth and at that time is was over my head. I need to go back and read that one again.

I'll gladly take you up on that. Anything CYOA style (whether you use dice or not) that can be handled by a kid whose read all the Rick Riordan books and is getting ready to start the 4th Harry Potter (the first big one). Largest book to date Josh has read is about 550 pages.

[Taeblewalker]

There are a couple of Marvel books, including one where you play The Thing. It's really cool! You can go bargain with Annihilus, go to an alternate world where Dr. Doom is good and The Thing is a King Kong style monster, and lots of other cool stuff.

[Tornado]

Do you know the names of those Marvel books Tablewalker? Or the publisher?
Found it. http://www.gamebooks.org/show_series.php?id=261

jschild I will look through my collection after work and throw out some suggestions.

Here is a link to a list of original CYOA series. I did not know they had a Star Wars series. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Choose_Your_Own_Adventure_books

Here is a crazy massive list of these sorts of books.
http://www.gamebooks.org/list_series.php

[Gatehop-Quickfingers]

Tornado, if you like the Soulforge, I recommend you pick up some Dragonlance books. I can suggest some of the best ones, if you're interested, just PM me or respond to my Dragonlance Anyone? thread!

I appreciate the list you made, can't wait to get started when my dad gets back from work!

Thanks again!

[Grishnakh]

If you like that sort of stuff you guys should look into Dark City Games. The rules are simple, playable, and free. Each scenario is a programmed adventure that costs $12.95 each. If your interested I can tell you which ones are the best, I've played them all.

http://www.darkcitygames.com/

Thanks Grishnakh!

I tried out the free sample just barely,Orcs of the High Mountains, but didn't have any dice on me and hadn't read the rules, so I didn't know some of the RPG terminology.

It was quite fun, but, currently, I can't be dropping thirteen dollars daily for a Role Playng Game, as fun as it is. I have to pay off my guitar right now; I'm lucky I was able to buy the books off Kijiji!

Thanks again, though...maybe once my guitar is paid, I can try it out!

I ran an expanded version of Orcs of the High Mountains complete with miniatures at a local convention. Had an absolute blast. It's great that the rules and this scenario are free on their website.

[Gatehop-Quickfingers]

Hey!

My dad just got back from work, and I started on one of the books. It's called Spell of the Winter Wizard and I won! Woohoo!

Not sure there was a scenario in the way I took, but apparently there's a frost giant if you take the right way. Definitely justifies a few re-reads! Not a bad book, but don't buy it if you're expecting a good, solid novel...it took me no more than ten minutes to read, because you skip many pages at once when making decisions!

[Tornado]

OK, I looked through my collection and have some suggestions jschild.
For younger readers the Endless Quest books Gatehop is reading are a nice start. After that I would try Wizards, Warriors, and You by R.L. Stine and published by Avon Books circa 1984. These are slightly more complex then standard CYOA because you choose a character (Wizard or Warrior) and then your Spells or Weapons. These are neat because you can go back and reread it with the other character or different spells/weapons.
Next would be Golden Dragon Fantasy Gamebooks a Berkley/Pacer book circa 85/86. These have a character sheet and you roll dice but are geared towards younger readers.
These next few are what I would consider normal level for these kind of books. All have character sheets.
Fighting Fantasy are the best, I mentioned them above.
Lone Wolf series will suck you in through two full series. These are great because it is the same character in a continuing story where he develops new abilities along the way.
Grail Quest was another one where you were the same character. I loved these books but I believe the last two were never released in the U.S. :( Long live PiP
Sorcery Series also by Steve Jackson. Four books plus the spell book. Very cool but be a wizard because I believe there are two points where only the wizard can win. This one was unique in the fact you had to memorize your spells and could not refer to the Spellbook during gameplay.
Another interesting series was called Combat Heroes, another B/P book '86. These required two books of opposing characters and were read at the same time, very cool format.
Lastly those advanced books were called A Crossroads Adventure by TOR '87. It looks like they had quite a few good authors involved. Anne McCaffrey, Piers Anthony, David Drake, and L. Sprauge de Camp to name a few.
If you decide to get into any particular series, let me know and I will let you know my favs. Good luck tracking these down and I hope your son and hopefully you enjoy them.

@Gatehop. I have always been a Dragonlance fan without ever reading the novels. I have listened to some on audio book though. If you are a fan then you must get Soulforge and The Prisoner's of Pax Tharkas (It was not the story I thought but is based on Dragonlance). There was an AD&D Dragonlance module series. One of them was actually a massive board game where you played out the War of the Lance. My all time favorite game from my youth. Also did you know there is a Dragonlance cartoon/anime? It is pretty decent and Keifer Sutherland is the voice of Raistlin.