Endless Quest

The torch gutters. Two passages fork ahead of you: one breathes cold air, the other carries the dry scrape of something waking. Turn to page 41 to draw your sword. Turn to page 88 to run. In Endless Quest there is no dungeon master across the table and no dice to blame — the hero is you, the reader, and every branching page hands you both the choice and its consequences. These are the gamebooks TSR built from its tabletop worlds: pick a path, follow a numbered fork, and live or die by where your nerve takes you. The shelf is broad and cheerfully uneven. Series One (1982-1987), opened by Rose Estes with Dungeon of Dread, runs like a rack of pocket novels with many endings, ranging past Dungeons & Dragons into Star Frontiers, Gamma World, Top Secret, even licensed Conan and Tarzan. Series Two (1994-1996) tightens the format for a new decade, and the Crimson Crystal Adventures hide images under a red plastic filter you hold to the page. Estes, Roger E. Moore, Jean Rabe, Morris Simon, and other TSR hands each take the wheel. What lingers is the second person — the dwarf, the thief, the frontier scout is not a character you watch but the skin you wear, and a wrong turn ends you in a paragraph. Newcomers should begin at the beginning: Dungeon of Dread, book one, where the whole conceit was first lit. Each volume stands alone, so wander the numbered spines freely after that.