Enter the Wastelands

After some discussions with two of my professors, I think I'm on the path to my dissertation finally.  There may actually be a Ph.D eventually for me, which will make the past two years' effort (four years if you count the Masters work as well) more satisfying.  As it is, I'm not gaming much due to my academics.

However, after meeting with my adviser today, I had some time to kill and started jotting down some notes for a Gamma World campaign.

My first introduction to GW was through the Endless Quest book Light on Quest's Mountain.  I was aware of Mad Max and some other post-apoc stuff, but Thundarr the Barbarian was the show that really made me want to run a game.  When I picked up the '91 Fourth Edition of GW, I was sort of surprised that the assumed culture of the PCs was a Renaissance tech level in those rules.  Of course, flintlock and matchlock weapons are fun, as are random mutations, so I just went with it.  But the semi-Stone Age village in Light on Quest's Mountain, and the "barbarian" aspects of Thundarr have always left me wanting something a bit more savage from Gamma World.

Anyway, the setting notes I jotted down would be more LoQM/Thundarr.  It would be a sandbox game.  The map would draw inspiration from LoQM.  There would be a variety of terrain types, with some "clean", some "dirty", and some "wastelands."  The starting village would be in the center, in a "dirty" area to encourage adventure.  Sprinkled around the wilderness would be other settlements, ruins, and strongholds of Sorcerers (a la Thundarr).  In a way, it sounds like bog standard D&D sandbox, just with mutants and leftover tech instead of magic items.  Well, so be it.

I may have to use some of these ideas, too...

If I ever get to run this, I'll work in lots of rumors.  Some of the ruins will be known (as will some lairs of creatures or robots), some will be rumored.  Others will be unknown at first, but clues to their existence will be scattered around the lands.  Or if the PCs just manage to wander in the right direction, they may find them by chance.

I'm enamored of the idea of the PCs starting out at a semi-Stone Age tech level and working their way up to the high tech stuff while their home base is still neolithic.

Maybe in a year or two, after the dissertation...

Mentzer Basic Cover to Cover: Solo Adventure Part 2: Battles

I've been busy, but don't despair, I'm still continuing with this series.  Who knows, eventually it may even get me to finally read the Immortals Set (which I only have on .pdf, so I haven't given it a full reading before).

Our next section, before the CYOA style solo adventure itself, is a one page section detailing battles.  It's still not the full D&D combat system, but it's getting closer.  The tutorial already showed how to make attack rolls and saving throws.  In this section, we're introduced to the idea of rolling for damage, and how both your own attacks and the monster attacks are now more deadly.

One interesting note is that for the CYOA solo adventure, all weapons do 1d6 damage.  I'll find out later if variable weapon damage is listed as optional or not (yeah, I could just flip ahead...).  When we were kids, we latched onto that chart showing what dice to roll for what weapons, and stuck with it, if it was presented as optional.  In our most recent Vaults of Ur games, we were experimenting with an all weapons do d6 rule, but I think we'll go back to regular variable damage by weapon from the next session.  As a DM, though, I often default to any weapon-using enemy only using a d6 for damage for simplicity, rather than figure out how many orcs are packing swords, how many have hand axes, and how many have daggers.  I tend to discourage the low level "salvage all the weapons and armor from the goblins" style play, so it's usually not a big deal exactly what weapons they are carrying, at least for melee purposes.

Because this is a training module, it tells us that if we die, just start over again.  Having played enough Atari (the Nintendo hadn't made it out yet) and arcade games, that wasn't weird for me.  This was a game, after all.  And I do remember that it took me multiple tries before I'd explored all of the areas, as I did die fairly often.  I think this is a good thing.  In the initial tutorial, you almost can't fail (only against Bargle's goblin do you have a chance to drop to 0 hp).  Here, you can and likely WILL die often.  It's a good lesson to be learned by new folks.  It's also something video game designers might want to think about, as most in-game tutorials I've played through have had the kid gloves on.  And they feel like a waste of time to me.  I'd rather just jump in and learn while playing.  But maybe that's just me.

One issue I have with the style of these introductory adventures is the lack of RP or options to outwit the enemies.  This page gives you fairly standard advice about how D&D combat works mechanically, but it limits the perspective to the "roll to hit, roll damage, rinse and repeat" mindset that we often fall into.  In this respect, some of the Endless Quest books, like Dungeon of Dread and Light on Quest's Mountain did a better job of preparing me for D&D play, as they included talking/negotiating with monsters, tricking them, or coming up with clever plans to tip the combat odds in my favor. 

The page ends with the advice to keep notes of combat details, treasure earned, and monsters defeated on scrap paper, so there is a record after the adventure.  For a while as a kid, I did try keeping it all in my head, and sometimes it worked, other times we just gave out treasure and XP after each encounter.  These days, I do as advised and keep a page of scrap paper nearby when I play or DM.  The page also gives us some advice about mapping the dungeon, both to avoid getting lost, and to note where dangerous creatures are so you can return to them later when you feel confident about facing them - subtle advice on old school play that gets lost on many, I think.  Not only mapping, but the idea that you would scout out where monsters are, and only battle them when you're ready for them, rather than kicking in all the doors and rolling initiative regardless of what's there.

Endless Quest #13: Dragon of Doom

"The evil magic-user Zed has used a powerful, forbidden spell to summon forth the mighty Shen, the dreaded black Dragon of Doom!  Unless you can do something to stop him, Zed will turn Shen loose on the world to spread death and destruction wherever he goes."  --from the back cover

In yet another EQ book by Rose Estes, we get a mixed experience.  The story told in the book is fairly interesting, and has a few novel differences from other EQ books, but the 'game play' of the choices is limited.

In the book, you play Morgan, a young Magic-User sent to bring your imprisoned uncle home to the Council of Nine, but quickly learn, as the blurb above says, that he went mad in his Astral prison, and summoned the Dragon of Doom, who's more of an apocalyptic force of nature than a standard D&D dragon.  So of course, you've gotta stop him.  Your only help are your pseudo-dragon friend Hinoki* and your uncle's Ring of Wishes.

The book is novel in that at three or four places, you're taken out of second person narrative, to get a look at what Shen is up to as he answers the summons of Zed.  He's none to happy about it.  And the story over all is interesting.  You have some interesting encounters along the way to the confrontation with Zed and Shen, and while young, your character doesn't do too much whining and is relatively competent.

The big downside of the book for me was that the first choice pretty much divides the book into two paths, one of which is extremely linear (and I had the bad fortune to read that one first), and the other, while slightly less linear, isn't exactly full of interesting branches until you get toward the end.

On one branch, you just head off on your own through the wilderness, get some help, and track down Zed at the end of the world.  This one has lots of choices that don't really matter.  Either way, you end up at the same place.  Or there's a 3- or 4-way choice, where one leads to a bad ending, two lead to the continuing adventure, and the fourth, if there is one, leads back to choose again.  There's some really cool imagery along this story branch, though, especially at the end of the world.

The other branch involves Hinoki leading you to the secret Valley of Dragons, where you can get killed in a few interesting ways, or end up meeting the Great Dragon in one of two good endings just before Zed and Shen show up.  There are a couple of ways to get to one of these good endings, so it's not completely linear.

The cover is by Clyde Caldwell, and the interiors are by Harry Quinn.  Caldwell's Shen is way too small, from the way the book describes him (like 747 size!), but otherwise is a good evocative piece.  Quinn's interiors are good, but not quite as immersive as the ones he did for Pillars of Pentagarn.

Overall, this is not a bad EQ book, but I wouldn't rate it up at the top, either.  Worth a read, though, for some interesting ideas and imagery.

Protagonist: a young hot-shot M-U
Sidekick(s): a not-too annoying pseudo-dragon, possibly also a girl Saffron, and her cat Grundoon
Adventure: evocative if less than stellar in its choices
Artwork: Good, gets the job done
Endings: 3 good, 10 bad--somehow, Dungeon of Dread does a lot more with 3 fewer endings
Overall: a decent read



*Hinoki is the Japanese name for the Japanese Cypress tree.  Not sure if the pseudo-dragon's supposed to be an Oriental dragon, though.  We use a cream made of hinoki extract for our son's skin.

Endless Quest #6: Revenge of the Rainbow Dragons

"Forced into a duel of wizards at the mysterious Rainbow Castle, you are magically separated from your teacher and grandfather, Pentegarn, who battles for his life against three evil wizards.  You must get back to him!"  --from the back cover

Revenge of the Rainbow Dragons, by Rose Estes, is unique in that it's the only non-licensed Endless Quest book that is a sequel to an earlier book (to my knowledge, anyway--I never read most of the later 'first series' nor any of the 'second series' EQ books).  The characters of Jamie, Fox, Owl, and Pentegarn return from Pillars of Pentegarn in this book.  Baltek the Fighter and Lydia the Thief do not return (maybe the official ending was one in which they died?  It doesn't say...)

Jamie, the protagonist, is now a teenager, and an apprentice wizard.  You've got only a few spells, but Pentegarn's blood gives you an innate ability with magic, so you've got a lot of potential (in other words, don't expect Ms. Estes to stick to the Vancian rules of D&D...although there was at least one place where she mentioned having to 'refresh' spells).  However, before your training is complete, word that Pentegarn is back in the Pillars reaches three evil wizards, Malus, Pothos and (I keep wanting to say Aramis) Rubus.  These three have claimed magical rulership over the district, and challenge Pentegarn to come to Rainbow Castle and duel with them.

The book starts out in a way that made me leery, despite remembering that as a kid I enjoyed this book.  The first choice is a non-choice.  Pick the wrong one and it sends you to the other choice anyway.  The second choice is the same.  Again, I get the feeling they were thrown in as a way to break up the overlong introduction.  But the third choice is where the real adventure begins, and it gives you three options that lead to three different adventure locations.

Basically, the three wizards want you out of the way while they duel so you don't cheat for Pentegarn (and they can cheat against him, of course).  So they offer to send you to Limbo, the Game Room, or the Tower.  The Tower course is the most limited, as it has a few options that send you to Limbo or the Game Room, but can lead to its own good ending.  The Game Room option again has a way to lead to Limbo, and has two good endings that you can find.  The Limbo option also has two good endings.  Bad endings in this book pretty much mean death (or permanent magical transformation).  There's only one neutral ending I remember where you escape with Owl, leaving Pentegarn and Fox to their fates.

There are some fairly interesting things to encounter in the book, and some nice, unusual locations.  It doesn't read like a typical D&D adventure, but it doesn't feel 'wrong' either.  One oddity is that there is a place where you can meet a guardian who has some magical colored stones that you need to arrange to escape.  The book actually has a half page illustration, and suggests cutting them out or tracing them to actually do the puzzle yourself.  The opposite page is an illustration, so you wouldn't lose any text if you did cut them out, but I wouldn't want to.  When I was a kid, I'd checked this book out from the library so of course I couldn't (I remember I did trace them, though, and did the puzzle).

The rainbow dragons are a bit weak, actually.  There aren't that many ways you can encounter them, and they breathe rainbows as a breath weapon.  That may be the reason the three bumbling evil wizards were able to oust the dragons from Rainbow Castle.  But despite that, the book is entertaining.  It's not quite as good as Pillars of Pentegarn, but then I think that's one of the top books in the series.

The art is pretty good in this book.  The cover is a rare Easley painting rather than an Elmore.  The interiors are by Harry J. Quinn, who did Pillars of Pentegarn, so there's a feeling of continuity with the art. 

Overall, I enjoyed this book.  It has a few flaws, but it's got a lot of good ideas, and some non-standard situations that break some D&D tropes in a good way.  It has a variety of paths that lead to good endings despite the linear beginning. 

Protagonist:  Apprentice Wizard, much improved over his first appearance
Sidekicks:  The bickering Fox and Owl return for more of the same
Adventure:  Interesting.  Not quite D&D, but varied and strange.
Endings:  Quite a few good endings, mostly deadly bad endings.
Art:  Nice cover (Easley), cool interiors (Quinn)
Overall:  Good

Endless Quest #5: Revolt of the Dwarves

"You are Galen, whose family is captured by dwarven warriors revolting against human rule.  Can you put a stop to the Revolt of the Dwarves?"  --from the back cover

Revolt of the Dwarves is by Rose Estes, and is a fairly creative story.  First of all, it takes one of the main player races of D&D and turns them into the bad guys.  It gives them a serious grievance, and reasons for their revolt (although you may never learn them, depending on which paths you take).  There are quite a few other encounters that don't play out the way you'd think they should just by looking at the listed alignments of the creatures in the rulebooks.  For these reasons, I like the book.

It does have some serious flaws, though.  First of all, your protagonist Galen is an 8-year old kid with a puppy (thankfully, Woofy never talks to you, only to pixies and his voice his never heard).  There are a lot of places where you're given the sorts of choices an 8-year old might actually choose (like giving up, or attacking recklessly against overwhelming odds), and these invariably lead to a bad ending.  The writing at times also reads a bit like it is begin written for an 8-year old reader, but not consistently.  I'm not sure what the target age for the EQ series was, but I was reading them when I was 10 to 15 or so.  I never read this one as a kid, but I think those places would have bothered me as being 'too kiddie' than I was used to from the series.

Next, and the biggest flaw, is the linearity of the story.  Revolt of the Dwarves has three main branches you can take, which is a good thing.  The problem is that once you start down one, you don't have much real choice. 

The first place you can make a choice comes 3 pages in to the story.  I thought that was a good sign, until I found out that the choices were an easily telegraphed bad ending, a choice that does nothing and sends you back to make another choice, and the correct choice that leads to another 6 pages (1 illustration) of text before you get to choose one of the three branches.

Those three branches are going to the dwarves' caves, going down the river, or going to the pixie forest.  While each of these branches has some interesting stuff, it's pretty clear that the dwarf cave branch is supposed to be the correct one.  On both the river and pixie branches, the first choice or two gives you the option to give up and go to the caves.

And an awful lot of choices aren't really choices at all.  Lots of them involve choosing A or B, reading a page, and then both A and B lead to the same page to continue the story.  Sometimes that gets changed into an A, B, or C choice, where A and B both work and take you to the same continuation, and C leads to an ending.  Or as the very first choice in the book, A works, B tells you to choose again, C is an ending.  Other choices tend to be simple A works, B is a quick ending types.

When you finally get to the 'good' endings, there can be a bit of variation.  But for the main part, this book doesn't offer a lot of meaningful choice.  Despite the flaws, though, it's got some interesting encounters, and despite the 8-year old protagonist, it still feels very "D&D" to me.  You can enlist some interesting allies along the way--an old blind deposed dwarf king, a 'Huck Finn' type kid only not as cool as Huck), or a vain prankster pixie chick.  And as I mentioned, quite a few monster encounters don't play out as expected.

The art is good.  It's got the required Elmore cover--although the raiders look a bit more like humans than dwarves in their proportions--and Holloway interiors.  I like Holloway.  I've said it before.  But I think he's great at getting lots of expression into his characters and details into his pictures without overloading them.  And he does another good job here.

Overall, I find the book a bit disappointing.  There's some good stuff in it that can make for some interesting situations in your home game.  But as a game book itself, it's limited choices make it not so fun to read.

Protagonist: another helpless child
Sidekick: a puppy (with old dwarf, another kid, and pixie as possible help)
Adventure:  lots of good ideas
Endings: quite a few where you lose but don't die and 'live the rest of your life regretting not making another choice.'
Art: Good.  Decent Elmore cover, nice Holloway interiors.
Overall: Average (good ideas, poor execution)

Pork Chop Sandwiches!

I'm only a short way into "Revolt of the Dwarves" the next Endless Quest book.  Haven't read this one before, so I can't skim if I want to do a good review.  And don't have much time.  May have even less time next week. 

Work sucks, but what can you do?

Sorry for the non-post here.  Have some funny video (warning, harsh language!):

Endless Quest #4: Return to Brookmere

"You are Brion, an elven fighter on a scouting mission for your father, the king.  Can you destroy the monsters that invaded Brookmere, your family castle?" --from the back cover

Return to Brookmere is by Rose Estes, like all the earliest EQ books.  It's quite a good one, not just in my opinion, but among many who read the EQ series as kids.  It's not a perfect book, but it is an entertaining read.

As the back cover blurb says, you've got to enter your family's castle, destroyed by monsters when you were an infant, and try to learn the strength of the monsters, and whether any of the treasures still exist.  You're sent along with some other elf warriors, who quickly die, leaving you alone with only your talking amulet Mimulus (or Mim) to aid you.

Brookmere has been overrun by a mixed horde of humanoid monsters: kobolds, goblins, orcs, hobgoblins, gnolls, and a few bugbears and hill giants.  Their leader is a wererat named Frang.  All is not well for the monsters, though, as something has been attacking them from inside the ruins.

The story is an excellent setup for the adventure, and the book is well designed as a game book.  You start out quickly (the first choice, with three options, is on page 8, including page 1 as standard intro, 1 full page illustration, and three half-pages of text to get to it, and page 8 is only those choices).  You've got several paths to take at the beginning, although most paths where you survive you end up going to the same two or three 'story' sections--the gnoll meeting, the wererat meeting, and the encounter with the mysterious 'attacker within.'  Early on, if you take the right path, there's also an interesting encounter with a rather bizarre invisible stalker (who isn't invisible at the moment) and the illusionist who held off the invasion long enough for the elves to escape.

There are also a lot of fun little encounters with monsters, such as a gnoll who just wants to collect pretty things instead of ripping elves limb from limb, a kobold with a cold, some bowling hill giants, and an under appreciated orc guard.  Throw in a gelatinous cube, some green slime, and a few traps, and you've got a pretty decent little dungeon crawl book.

The only big fault I find with the book now is the lack of a clear 'best' ending.  Granted, your mission is not to destroy the monsters of Brookmere, merely to scout them out, but the best endings you can get are 'escape and bring the information home so dad can send in the army.'  A smaller fault is that it's rather inconsistent on what you can and can't do.  There are times when one kobold makes you pause to wonder if you can take it on in combat, another section where you dispatch six kobolds without even much description of how you do it.  And that's not even necessarily looking at the story from a D&D perspective.  A final small fault is that because most of the early branches converge on the exposition scenes if you don't die or run away, you sometimes miss out on some important details.  Case in point, Mim can cast sleep, but this is only revealed in one branch, but there are several ways to get to the encounter where he can use it.  These faults don't detract from the fun of the story, though.

The cover of Return to Brookmere is of course by Elmore, and it's decent.  The interior illustrations by Timothy Truman, however, are really good.  Although a few times it looks like the art director got his/her monsters mixed up (the effeminate gnoll I mentioned above gets a pic, but looks more like an orc, for example), Brion looks like a real badass, and the monsters are well depicted. 

Overall, this is an entertaining book, with lots of good game play.  There are also plenty of interesting ideas you could snag for your RPGs, and quite a few areas where monsters are defeated by cunning rather than just by the sword.

Finally, I'd like to thank Jaquelyn Michelle Gatt, whose imprint is on the first page.  She kept this book in much better condition than any of my old EQ books that were worth reading (the sucky ones are in really good condition).

Protagonist: an elven fighter who can usually handle himself well in a fight
Sidekick: a talking amulet, who annoys the protagonist more than it annoyed me
Adventure: well done, with lots of interesting encounters and paths
Endings: a fair variety, but a little disappointing in not having a clear 'win' ending
Art: Nice Elmore cover, excellent interiors by Truman
Overall: Excellent

Presidents of the Apocalypse and other fun stuff

I've been piecing together some ideas I've had for the silly Presidents of the Apocalypse RPG Paul and I put together back when I was still in Japan.

I sent him the first bit of it, and he sent me some major revisions he'd done last year but never sent me.  I think it'll be a lot of work to fit them together, but we'll see.  Mine's a bit more 'loose' than Paul's version.

Got lots of great ideas for the video game bad guy book.  Some suggestions were things I was thinking of anyway, but some others were games I've never played, or had forgotten about.  This will definitely be worth doing.

That means Flying Swordsmen RPG will get pushed off the back-burner even.  Oh well.

I've started re-reading "Return to Brookmere" but I'm not sure if I'll get a review of it up tomorrow morning.  Might have to wait until Saturday, as I'll be playing board games tomorrow night.

Endless Quest #2: Mountain of Mirrors

"You are Landon, a brave elf on your first mission into the land of frost giants and ogres.  Will you be able to stop the evil that controls the Mountain of Mirrors?"  --from the back cover.

As the cover blurb says, you're a young Elf named Landon in the second Endless Quest book.  Written by Rose Estes, as were the other original batch of EQ books, this one starts out with a decent premise, but there's very flawed execution.

Basically, your village has been cut off, as anyone traveling the mountain pass is now being captured by the monsters in the Mountain of Mirrors.  You've been sent out on a mission to see if you can get through, and armed with a magical blade, the Sword of the Magus (unknown plusses, enemy detection, light on command).  Sounds good, right?

Unfortunately, the major flaw of this book is that it reads like it was written as a novella first, with some choices here and there thrown in after the fact.  Maybe that was the case.  This is just hearsay, but I think I remember reading from Frank Mentzer in his mammoth Q&A thread on Dragonsfoot that Ms. Estes had approached TSR with an idea to write some fantasy books for young adults, and they became the EQ series.  This story might have been written before hand, and adapted.  I'm speculating wildly here, but compared to most EQ books, this one is LINEAR!!!

First off, you don't get any choices at all for the first 22 pages (including standard intro page and 3 full page illustrations), and then that choice is one of those lame "Do you want to give up and go home, or adventure?" choices with obvious results.  Dungeon of Dread and Pillars of Pentagarn both take their time getting started, but this is a bit much.  Then you've got another 10 pages (1 illustration) before the first real interesting choice, and it's a "Try a (which will fail and send you to b), try b (which will work), or try c (which is again giving up)" kind of choice. 

That choice is related to a fairly interesting encounter, though, with a smart-ass talking door made of ice.  Once you're past that, you've given three choices: fight some monsters, run away down some steps, or run down a side corridor.  If you don't go down the steps, you get into a big run-around sort of section where you can get into an endless loop of the same rooms if you just happen to make the same choices over and over again.  There are also about ten or so ways to get to the same 'escape and vow to return with reinforcements' ending (I kept referring to it in my mind as the 'dreaded 75' because of the page it's on). 

In other words, you just run around, facing some monsters (usually ending up dead/captured or at 75 if you face them), seeing a few oddities, and eventually go down those stairs to the second part of the book.  It's reminiscent of the Water Weird room in Dungeon of Dread, in that the one encounter really separates the book into two sections.

In that second section, you manage to meet the natives of the mountain (some sort of earth elemental beings called Guardians) who tell you how to beat the monsters and give you the McGuffin, then rescue some recent captured prisoners (human, elf and halfling), meet a 'blink linx' who comes along but doesn't really do much to help, and then have some choices about what to do next (yeah, it's another long section with no choice...not gonna count the pages this time).  A couple of choices later, and you're fulfilling the mission.  There are a couple good choices at the end finally, which can determine if you get a good ending or just an okay one.

But really, this book, aside from keeping sending you in circles in the first section, doesn't really have that many choices.  Very disappointing.

Now, some of the encounters and monsters in the book are interesting.  There's definitely some good bits of inspiration that could be used in a game.  It's just a rather tedious read.

The cover is a nice Elmore (again with Frost Giant and White Dragon, but this time they're integral to the plot).  The interiors are Jim Holloway.  I like Holloway's style--nicely detailed and expressive.  But something about these pictures sometimes bugs me.  Mainly, the depiction of Landon, who's according to the text a 'teen' elf (120 years) and 5'5", looks like a stubby little Halfling in most of the pictures.  There is a nice cameo by Laurus of Dungeon of Dread among the rescuees, though, in a picture on page 61). 

Overall, this is a fairly forgettable book.  I definitely don't remember reading it when I was young.  So either I didn't read it (doubtful, as my local library had all the early EQ books) or I really did completely forget it. 

Protagonist: Elf with magic sword on first adventure.
Sidekick: a vain talking blink-linx, who doesn't show up until halfway through.
Endings: a decent mix, but too few overall (75 is overused).
Adventure: some decent ideas, but not enough real choice.
Art: Nice cover (Elmore), decent interiors (Holloway).
Overall: Mediocre to poor.

Endless Quest Crimson Crystal Adventure #4: Stop That Witch!

"Your training as a ranger hasn't quite prepared you for the day you return to your village and find all the inhabitants turned into lizards by a mysterious red dragon."  --from the back cover.

Stop That Witch!, by Mary Clark, is book 4 of the EQ spin-off series of 'Crimson Crystal' books.  Basically it's a gimmick where they include a little rectangular clear red plastic film with the book, and certain pages contain pictures in mostly red ink, but if you hold the film up to them you can see the gray lines showing the 'hidden' picture (although it's really not hard to see the gray lines without the 'crystal' actually).

I'll state up front that I wasn't a big fan of this book when I was a kid.  I got it because of the gimmick, and was rather unimpressed by it.  So I never got any more in the Crimson Crystal series.  Re-reading the book now, I realized that the story in it isn't as bad as I remember.  It's no where near as bad as Spell of the Winter Wizard.

In the book, you're Hedge, an apprentice ranger from a small village of rangers.  You and your hawk Springer are out on a training exercise when a red dragon (the evil witch Carlynn polymorphed into a dragon, actually) flies into the village and then flies away.  When you get there, everyone's been turned into a lizard.  A young, timid cleric arrives, and despite the fact that he seems hopeless, you team up with him to rescue both your master Pebo (now a chameleon), but the cleric's master who's stuck in a mirror of life trapping in Carlynn's castle.  Due to his first spell he tries to cast on you backfiring, you give the cleric the nickname Sparks.

The book starts out with a fairly linear narrative, but after a while it begins branching, and has some good options and interesting encounters.  It does have an unfortunate tendency to offer you a choice, and then if you pick the 'wrong' choice, it then gives you another choice to pick the option you didn't or continue with your original choice.  Every single time, this is telegraphing a bad ending if you continue.  These sorts of 'training wheels' are just a waste of space, in my opinion.  If I'm gonna get a bad ending, I can go back and pick the other one myself.  I don't think anyone needs the author guiding them to the right path (likely this is one of the reasons I didn't like this one as a kid--it felt too 'kidified' for my tastes).

Another minus is the fact that your character, Hedge, is a bit of a douche.  He's a braggart who then gets surprised that his master actually thinks he can do more than wipe his own nose.  He bullies and berates Sparks, whines and complains about his hawk's advice (which unlike many sidekick animals, tends to be a bit sensible and not overly moralizing), and his speech is full of phrases like 'criminey!' and 'yoiks!'  I don't remember  'Zounds!' in there, but it's kind of annoying.

On the plus side, one cool thing about this book is that there's a fairly coherent narrative.  No matter what path you take, there are certain particulars that don't change.  For example, Carlynn is not the real Carlynn, it's her apprentice Jenna who usurped the real Carlynn's power.  The Mirror of Life Trapping is always in the same place.  The down side of this is that many of the endings then end up being very similar.  There are actually quite a few good endings, but most are rather low key.  "OK, the witch is defeated.  Say, could anyone change my master back into a person?"  I think the fact that there are so many good endings, and not one of them really stands out as a 'best' ending, is another reason I didn't like this book as a kid.  It's too easy to get a victory.

Finally, the art in the book is fairly uninspiring.  The cover by Keith Parkinson is serviceable, but the interior art by Mario D. Macari seems rather lackluster to me.  The fact that it's pixelated like in an old Sunday newspaper cartoon doesn't help.  I like clean ink line drawings much better.  And the gimmick 'crimson crystal' pages are generally not so interesting.  One interesting side note is that the 'crimson crystal' pages are still very white, while the normal pages have tanned considerably. 

Overall, this is not a great Endless Quest book, but it's not completely worthless.  There are some interesting events and encounters, at least, so there may be some ideas worth mining for your home games.  It's also maybe a good book to start younger kids reading.  The English level didn't seem much lower than normal EQ books, but it's much more forgiving of poor choices (the telegraphing of bad endings by giving you a second chance to choose the correct option, paired with numerous good endings).

Protagonist: A conceited Ranger's apprentice on his first real mission.
Sidekicks: A hawk who isn't too preachy, a Cleric lacking self confidence, and depending on your path, your Ranger master polymorphed into a chameleon or an Elf named Wynn.
Adventure: Linear at the beginning, but with some good branches and interesting choices later.
Endings:  Too many good ones, and most of them are rather low key for a victory ending.  Only one neutral ending that I remember reading (you don't die, but don't make it to the castle either).
Art: So so cover (Parkinson), unappealing interiors (Macari).
Overall: Poor, but not worthless.

Endless Quest #16: The Dragon's Ransom

"You have been honored by being chosen treasure seeker to raise the ransom that must be paid to the Golden Dragon who stands guard over the Land of Oon.  But first you must face danger from fierce orcs, trolls, hobgoblins, and...what else?"  --from the back cover

The Dragon's Ransom, by Laura French, is not one of the best Endless Quest books, but it's close to the top.  Something about it really appeals to me, so much so that I've used the basic premise of the book in my own Silverwood Campaign.  A dragon guards the land, and while it protects the people, it demands tribute every month.  So the local authorities sanction adventuring parties to bring back loot to give to the dragon.

In this book, your character is a 13 year old Cleric named Leondal.  You're on your first adventure.  You can cast Detect Evil, Command, Remove Fear, and Cure Light Wounds.  Of course, as a kid, reading this before I'd seen the AD&D rules where Clerics get spells at first level and bonus spells for high wisdom, I thought young Leondal must have been at least 4th level--but how could this be his first adventure?  Anyway, don't worry too much about translating the game mechanics to the story.  They don't really follow so well.  Both spellcasters can pretty much use any spells at will in the book, but it doesn't hurt the narrative at all.

As Leondal, the very first choice you're given is to set out on your own, or to take along three companions who equal you in age: Drawg the Fighter, Pantel the Thief, and Kyrel the Magic-User.  Drawg is big and strong, but dumb.  Kyrel is small and weak, but can use Burning Hands and Comprehend Languages at will.  Pantel is a skilled Thief, but is reckless and thrill-seeking.  The first test of your wisdom--do you need an adventuring party or not?

Well, let's just say that if you don't, you get a surprise from a nasty beastie, or else you go back and take them along after all.  The big down-side to the book, might as well get it out of the way now, is that there are lots of choices that are non-choices in this book.  You make a choice, and it sends you back to make the other one, or both paths then end with a choice that is identical.  This happens quite a lot in this book.  Where some EQ books manage to make the adventure feel sandboxy by allowing you to explore and go back, The Dragon's Ransom feels much more railroady, at least for the first half.

On the plus side, though, this is one of the few EQ books I've encountered where you have a proper adventuring party, with all four of the iconic character classes.  And while you're just a 13 year old kid and so are your sidekicks, all of you are also competent adventurers.  Another plus is that while the first half of the book is quite linear, there are a lot of interesting encounters, including a side-trek to an orc lair where you can either complete your mission, die trying, or decide to give up and continue on to the hobgoblin lair that is your goal.

And the hobgoblin lair (the second half of the book) is pretty interesting.  They're busy mining the hillside with their carnivorous ape pets, and the Pech slaves they captured when they took over the mine.  This means they've got a lot of treasure, and there are quite a few interesting ways to get that treasure once you're in the lair.  There are also some times you bug out with little to no treasure, and a few where you meet your end. 

All in all, I really like this book because of the fact that you've got a full adventuring party, your goal is treasure hunting (rather than taking down some BBEG or acquiring some macguffin item), and there are a lot of various D&D monsters to encounter.  All in all, it's a very D&D kind of book, even if the spellcasters don't follow the Vancian memorize and forget system of the game.

The art work is good.  You've got a decent cover by Clyde Caldwell (although it depicts a scene that isn't in the book).  The interior art, by Doug Chaffee, is nicely done.  It's detailed, evocative, and really shows the personalities of the four adventurers and their opponents.

Overall, this isn't one of the 'rock stars' of the EQ series, but it's a good solid entry and I really enjoyed it as a kid, and still found it interesting re-reading it as an adult.

Protagonist:  A competent but untested young Cleric on his first mission.
Sidekicks:  A dumb but strong Fighter, timid but powerful Magic-User, and a reckless but skilled Thief
Endings: A mixed bag.  Lots of good endings with little fanfare, quite a few neutral endings, and in the first half especially plenty of bad endings.
Art: Good.  Decent, if not quite relevant Caldwell cover, nice interiors by Chaffee.
Overall: Very Good

Halloween Party!

The kindergarten where I work is having its Halloween Party today. 

Taking my son there.  Should be fun!

But your regularly scheduled Endless Quest review will have to wait until this evening when I get home.

Endless Quest #8: Villains of Volturnus

"With only your electronic Compu-Pal, Ting, you must face the deadly dangers of the mysterious planet Volturnus."  --from the back cover

Villains of Volturnus, by Jean Blashfield, is one of only three, I believe, EQ books using the Star Frontiers game for its setting.  It's the only one of the Star Frontiers books in the series I've read, though I played a heck of a lot of Star Frontiers back in the day.

In this book, you're Kyiki, the son of a mining company president.  Dad's company is setting up mineral extraction sites on the world (so it obviously takes place sometime well after the module series), and you're hopping down to the planet with your Vrusk tutor Jak to check out the 'strange new world' that's got the Frontier buzzing.  Of course, before you get there there's some sort of problem and you need to abandon ship.  Your first choice puts you either all by yourself, or with Jak.

The book is somewhat similar to Pillars of Pentegarn, in that it allows you, in some cases, to double back to earlier points and make new choices.  That gives your exploration of Volturnus a bit of a sandboxy feel.  Aiding this is that there's not one overriding plot, either.  There are three main sets of villains: Sathar agents, space pirates, and traitorous mining employees who are going over to the Sathar side.  But you can have quite a few adventures on Volturnus without even running into any of these groups of baddies.

The book does a fair job of showing off the Volturnus flora, fauna, and sentients.  The Mechanon don't appear, and the Eorna only through their ruins and abandoned tech here and there, but the Ul-Mor, Edestakai, and Kurabanda are all there.  The fact that it does this, however, can kind of ruin the modules if you've never played them.  Ms. Blashfield also took a lot of liberty adding in plants and animals that don't appear in the modules because they're not in need of combat stats, which is fine.  That adds a new layer to Volturnus that a Ref could use if they wanted.

It falls fairly short of feeling like a Star Frontiers adventure, though.  Mostly because you're a kid again.  Luckily, your computer sidekick gets lost, taken away from you, or is just switched off a lot.  If you end up with Jak, he's a fairly interesting companion--he's sort of an absent minded professor, way to curious for his own, or your, good! 

Anyway, your mission in the book is basically just to find a radio so you can call Dad and have him rescue you.  There are a few places where you can get into fights (you've got a stun stick, and can find a cache of doze grenades in one path too), but mostly you're running, hiding, or exploring.  Nothing wrong with that, but my old group and I played SF heavy on the combat, so maybe that's colored my views.

The artwork of the book is okay.  The Elmore cover is not so exciting, but it is somewhat mysterious (showing off a bit of Eorna tech in one of the main branches).  The interior art is by Roslof.  While he stays fairly true to the way the races and tech are portrayed by Elmore in the Star Frontiers rule books, his pictures here are somewhat hit or miss.  Some are nicely done, detailed and evocative.  Others seem rushed and kind of bland.

Finally, quite a few endings are truly anti-climactic.  There's one where you're climbing a mountain through smoke and fog, think you should turn back, and the next step before you turn around you plunge into the crater of an active volcano...  And several are just, "you radio dad, and a few hours later his ship picks you up."  In some of the 'good' endings, though, you can save the day by defeating some of Volturnus's villains (or at least calling Dad, telling him where they are, and letting his corporate hired guns--likely your PCs--clean up the mess).

All in all, not the best book in the series, but not the worst, either.

Protagonist:  a kid (again) who is at least willing to adventure
Sidekicks:  your Compu-Pal Ting who doesn't do much, Jak your tutor, and or an Ul-Mor girl who may befriend you.
Endings:  Some interesting, some lackluster (both good and bad).
Art:  OK cover (Elmore), hit or miss interiors (Roslof)
Overall:  Decent

Endless Quest #11: Spell of the Winter Wizard

 Update: Nov. 3 2020 (yeah, election day!)

Thanks to a comment from Maaz received today, I re-read this review. And I realized that this book may have a big impact on LGBTQ+ youth, who are possibly its intended audience. The coding of the protagonist as androgynous but sorta female, the definitely gay coded elf, many transformed characters who are physically one thing but mentally another... I just want to post this to say that compared to 10 years ago when I wrote this review, I have a better understanding of LGBTQ+ issues, and I'm trying to be a better ally. I'm not going to edit what I wrote 10 years ago, but if I seemed dismissive of that community, and of a book that I can now see is obviously intended to give them some subtle representation, I apologize.

 

"Warzen, the evil Wizard of Winter, has cast a spell of ice and snow over the Land of Eternal Spring.  You must rescue the captive Wizard Alcazar and stop Warzen...if you can!  His army of orcs and boars is mighty and his magic is powerful!"  --from the back cover

Book 11 in the Endless Quest series looks pretty good.  The Elmore cover is cool, and the back cover text sounds like your standard EQ adventure hook.  Unfortunately, this one is a real let-down once you crack it open.

In this book, you are Omina, a child (yeah, strike one) and niece [it's never explicitly stated you're a girl, but the artwork and characterizations are definitely feminine] of the once great, now sick Alcazar, Wizard of Spring.  His enemy Warzen, the Wizard of Winter, who is a big burly guy with a crazy hillbilly beard and an army of boar-riding orcs, comes and captures the sick Alcazar and you're left to rescue him.

You get two basic options at the start--go after Warzen to rescue Alcazar, or try to find some help.  Armed with a poker from the fireplace (lame!) and a magic whistle that you can use once as a 'get out of jail free' card, you set out.

Now, the second major failing of the EQ series, the annoying sidekick, takes an interesting turn, and it's one of the few good things about this book.  If you set off after Warzen, your cat--now polymorphed by Warzen's spell into a reindeer--may accompany you if you choose.  If you go for help, you get a talking moth for a companion.  Neither companion is overly moralistic, and you can choose not to take them with you if you like.  The moth, however, is suffering at the hands of an abusive relationship with the lepidopterist (see below), and you need to show her what a beautiful snowflake she really is.

The book is populated by a bizarre list of NPC 'helpers' you meet along the way.  There's a fussy and obsessive lepidopterist, a snake-oil alchemist, a very gay elf named Fluffergrund, a sailor polymorphed into a clam with big gold teeth...  And aside from Warzen's orcs on boars, monsters in the book include flesh-eating flowers, bleeding trees, an orc ghost, a witch, 'quagbeasts' whatever the heck they are, and the ghost of an orc Warzen tortured to death.  There's potential for some cool encounters here, but since you fight things off with a poker if you fight at all, and mostly just run and hide, it's kind of uncool.

One of the most annoying things about the book is how often it funnels you into the 'Etaknon' section of the book.  Usually, if you blow your magic whistle you end up there.  Some other paths also lead to Etaknon.  Etaknon is an island populated by hippy halflings who want to keep you doped up with funky fruits so you never leave, but if you insist they'll take you to the beer-belly sporting 'hero' ThorTak, who will take out Warzen and rescue Alcazar for you--but at the cost of forcing you to learn a heavy handed moralizing lesson.  ThorTak's more than willing to blast Warzen to smithereens with a meteor swarm spell if you just ask, but then keeps you prisoner until you've learned to be peaceful.  Of course, if you ask him to take out Warzen peacefully, you get what I assume is supposed to be the best ending, where he polymorphs Warzen into a daffodil then sends his hippy halflings to rescue Alcazar.

The other 'best' ending involves getting the aid of the poncy elf (and he seriously is poncy), and the frost giant riding a white dragon seen on the cover (who are actually another wizard and his pegasus, again polymorphed by Warzen) to help you.

The final strike against this book is the artwork.  The Elmore cover is cool, but the interior art, by Jeffrey R. Busch, is simplistic and not very inspiring, especially compared to the artwork in Dungeon of Dread or Light on Quests Mountain.

Overall, this is a very weak entry in the Endless Quest series.  There's very little action, mostly just oddball situations that don't feel very D&D to me at all.  It's more like it's trying to be a mix of "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" and "Alice in Wonderland" only lamer.  It's one that I read a few times as a kid, hoping to find some cool stuff, then never read again (unlike some of the others, which I would reread from time to time even after I'd found all the endings).  The kid I was tutoring and having read the EQ books also didn't like this one, and after one reading (he got sent to Etaknon early, thankfully), he didn't want to try other paths.  There's not much to pull out of it for your games.  Unless you're a completionist and want a collection of all EQ books, don't bother with this one.

Protagonist: A young girl who runs away from everything, and dies if she ever tries to fight.
Sidekicks: A talking bashful moth, or a cat polymorphed into a reindeer, both optional.
Adventure:  Bizarre and not so interesting.  Some paths lead you to a quick ending, others are long and circuitous, leading to the same ending you could have gotten to early.
Endings:  Moralizing in the extreme for the good endings, and somewhat counter-intuitive for some of the bad endings.  Trying to be a hero can get you killed or captured.
Art:  Nice Elmore cover, uninspiring interiors (Busch).
Overall:  Poor

Packages!

It's always nice to get packages in the mail. This morning, before I left for work, two boxes of books arrived. One small one had Lankhmar Book 7, The Knight and Knave of Swords. The larger one had a bunch of kids' books for my son.

Then when I got home, the package from my mom had arrived. In it were some presents for my wife and son, and the Endless Quest books I'd ordered. They're in nice condition--better than some of the ones I've had for years. So all in all, I'm happy about that. Makes up for some of the crap I had to deal with over the weekend.

Endless Quest #12: Light on Quests Mountain

"On an earth made hostile by nuclear war, you and your tribe live a primitive, danger-filled existence.  Now you must prove your readiness for adulthood by undertaking a perilous quest."  --from the back cover.

Light on Quests Mountain, by Mary L. Kirchoff and James M. Ward, is another solid entry in the Endless Quest series.  It's one of two (to my knowledge) books set in the Gamma World game setting.  In it, you are Ren, a young pure strain human, and you have two companions, the lizard boy Sars and the monkey boy Chark.  The three of you graduate school, are given metal spears (a real treasure to your barely above the Stone Age tribe), and sent on a journey to Quests Mountain to prove you are ready to be considered adults.

In addition, there have been mysterious lights seen on the mountain top lately.  The village elders want you to investigate them if you can.  And personally, you're wondering what happened to your older brother who went on his quest a few years ago and never came back.  For your sidekicks, scholarly Sars wears glasses because he's nearsighted, and he's afraid of the dark.  Reckless Chark is afraid of nothing--except water.  He can't swim, and hates to get wet.

The book is divided into three main sections.  When you set off on the quest, you can go through the Green Lands or the Sand Lands.  If you survive your path, you'll make it to Quests Mountain and have a chance to succeed on your quest to learn the source of the lights.  This allows for a lot of Gamma World craziness to be thrown into the book, but for the most part it doesn't get silly.

There are of course some endings where you and your companions meet your doom, some where you return semi-successful, some where you return in shame, and a couple of good (or good enough) endings. 

Having Jim Ward as a co-author was a good idea on this book.  The book really captures the feel of Gamma World.  In fact, when I finally bought a copy myself, the 4th edition book from the early 90's, I was surprised that the default starting tech level was Renaissance firearms, tricorn hats, and the like.  I like the default of the book, and earlier editions of Gamma World, that your society is still primitive, and you need to really fight to survive.

Now, as to the major failings of the EQ series, this one skirts them nicely.  Your character and companions are young and untested, but competent explorers, good in battle, and know enough about the world you live in.  Sars and Chark bicker similar to that of Fox and Owl in Pillars of Pentagarn, but because they actually contribute to the adventure, it's not so annoying. 

Finally, the artwork of the book is great.  The cover is by Keith Parkinson, and the interior art is by Steve McAfee.  It think McAfee does a great job of conveying the claustrophobic feeling of caves, the wildness of the Green Lands, the stark emptiness of the Sand Lands, and the general oddball and mysterious feel of the post-holocaust earth.

Overall, you've got a good book which showcases the game it comes from well, provides an exciting adventure into the unknown, and avoids the flaws that many of these books fall into.  It has good, meaningful decisions, doesn't have moralizing and annoying sidekicks, and presents a competent if unseasoned team of adventurers. 

Protagonist:  Young, inexperienced, but with great potential.
Sidekicks:  A pair of mutant animals who are also competent adventurers rather than just annoying burdens on your adventure.
Adventure:  A trip into the unknown, with lots of variety and interesting situations.
Artwork:  Excellent, really brings the setting and the characters to life.  Cover by Parkinson, interiors by McAfee.
Endings:  One best ending, several good endings, and a variety of bad endings.
Overall: Excellent

Endless Quest #3: Pillars of Pentegarn

"You are Jaimie, a young villager with a love for the enchanted forest that everyone else fears.  Will you find the secret power that now rules Castle Pentegarn?"  --from the back cover.

Endless Quest Book 3 is another Rose Estes authored tale, and it is a good, solid installment of the series, despite having both major flaws of the EQ series.  The 'you' in the book is an unseasoned kid, and you have not one but TWO talking animal sidekicks (and a treant, but it doesn't get to go on the adventure).

You, as Jaimie, are hanging out in the woods with the cleverly named Fox, Owl and Tree when some goblins happen to come along.  You hide from them, they throw a few spears into Tree and Owl, then go along their merry way chasing a group of adventurers you saw headed for the ruins of Castle Pentegarn.

Problem #1 with the book is that the first choice is not really a choice at all.  Do you wish to warn the adventurers or just go home?  I hate choices like this, as it's obvious that going home will lead to a quick ending.  It's a wasted page and a wasted choice.  I get the feeling Ms. Estes threw it in there just because there are so many pages of introduction before you get to the first real choice of the book.

Anyway, assuming you don't wuss out and run home like a baby, you go to the ruins and meet with kindly but weakling wizard and former king Pentegarn, his burly Fighter Baltek, and sexy Elven Thief Lydia.  You've got to get to the evil Master who rules the ruins (I don't think there's any relation to the Master of the Desert Nomads).  You're given your first real choice--follow Pentegarn's idea to get some powerful magic items, follow Baltek's idea to assault the keep, follow Lydia's idea to sneak up to the tower, or come up with your own idea.

One cool thing about the book is that several times you're given choices to fall back and pick another path if you think it's too dangerous to press on.  This gives the book a bit more of a 'sandbox' feel to it.

Also cool is that you have an actual adventuring party.  And there are several of different 'good' endings which allow for some of the companions to bite the dust along the way.  This contributes to the sandbox feel, and is just cool in general for a kids' book.  And it's very D&D.

The Master has a limited set of monsters at his disposal.  Goblins, Skeletons, Wolves and Bats.  It's on the cover so it's no surprise that there's also an animated dragon skeleton in the ruins as well.  With a limited palette of monsters, they can be a bit repetitive.  Especially as certain paths from different ways will converge, meaning you might end up reading the same encounter multiple times on what started as separate ways through.

Overall, despite its flaws, Pillars of Pentegarn is a good book, and a solid part of the series.  It's not quite as good as Dungeon of Dread, but it has an evocative and interesting setting, a good cast of mixed characters, a somewhat more free-form exploration feel, and some cool situations and ideas to plunder.  On the down side, you've got a child protagonist, two annoying talking animals (who thankfully seem to disappear in certain paths, at least until the ending), and a limited number of monster types to go up against.  I think the best way to use this book as a teaching tool for kids learning to play RPGs is in its value as a mini-sandbox, showing that it's okay to double back, retreat, and try other options.  It also shows some good strategies for tackling dungeons (attack, sneak, magic, or using wits).

Protagonist: A child who can talk to animals, develops some capability as the story progresses.
Sidekicks: A pair of bickering talking animals, one reckless the other dull.
Adventure: Moody and tense in many areas, but somewhat repetitive.
Artwork: Very good.  Elmore cover, and Harry J. Quinn interiors.
Endings: Varied, with multiple good endings.  Some are a little too easy to get to if you make the right choices, however.
Overall: Very Good

Endless Quest #1: Dungeon of Dread

"You are Caric!  A brave knight in a world where dragons roam!"  So says the back cover of what would become Endless Quest book #1.

Interestingly, before I get to the review, I've got a 1982 2nd printing, and the ad in the back for the EQ series lists this one third.  Pillars of Pentagarn is first, then Mountain of Mirrors, DoD, and finally Return to Brookmere.

As the "first" book in the series, I have to say that this book gets the series off to a good start.  Written by Rose Estes, one of the more prolific EQ authors, our hero Caric is a seasoned adventurer and a fairly clever one too.  He is of course joined by the cowardly Halfling Laurus, who serves as the annoying sidekick there to teach kids a lesson about bravery (maybe that guy in the X-Files read this book?).

The annoying sidekick does get better in some paths within the book, though, as Caric teaches Laurus how to be an adventurer.  Laurus stops whining and starts kicking some ass later in the book.  So all in all, that's not a huge hindrance in the story.  There are worse offenders in later books.

I think that DoD shines as an example of clever ways to outwit opponents without having to go toe to toe.  Our hero Caric enters the dungeon armed only with a sword, dagger (which he gives to Laurus), and a shield.  No armor, no equipment.  Well, he was just passing through and wasn't planning on raiding a dungeon.  So, as a seasoned D&D player might expect, quite often if you choose to go into battle in this book, you die.  Most of the time if you defeat a monster, it's done by wits. 

Of course, part of this is because these are a series of books for children.  They don't get too graphic in any of the violence they do show.  But it IS based on D&D, so of course fighting monsters is a big part of the book.

Another plus to DoD is that it showcases a LOT of monsters.  Gargoyle, a bugbear, lots of giant insects, a dragon, a minotaur, a basilisk, and of course the water weird.  There are also lots of encounters showing what a bastard Kalman the evil wizard is. 

Of course, the dungeon itself is fairly unmappable.  I tried it once as a kid, and there were so many crisscrossing lines the map was hard to read.  Part of this is because the book is really divided into two parts (simulating two dungeon levels, but as a kid I tried mapping it as one).  In the first section, all roads lead to death or the water weird room (with maybe one or two exits from the mountain).  In the second part, you get death, an early exit, or else make it to the big showdown with Kalman, which is fairly well written and exciting.

The final thing I really like about DoD is that, as I just mentioned above, there are some endings that aren't victories but mere survivals.  Caric and Laurus exit the mountain, often with some small bit of treasure, and a desire to use that wealth to fund a real expedition to clean out the mountain.

Overall, while the writing is for kids, and Laurus can be annoying as a sidekick (plus Ms. Estes seemed to be unsure whether he was a Classic D&D Halfling class, or an AD&D Halfling Thief but that's beside the point), the encounters are varied and the solutions to them are clever more often than violent.  As an intro to the series, and as a tool for teaching kids about clever dungeoneering, this book succeeds. 

Protagonist: Cool, competent adult
Sidekick: Mildly annoying
Adventure: Evocative
Artwork: Excellent (Elmore cover, Holloway interiors)
Endings: Varied
Overall: Excellent

Endless Quest books

I've got a small collection of TSR's old Endless Quest books. I'm thinking I'll do a little review series of them, both as books for kids and as fodder for RPG games.

Anyway, two things to note--first off, I was not too surprised to see on Amazon.com that WotC tried to bring them back a couple years ago. Also not surprised that despite hanging out in gaming circles, and having an elementary school librarian for a mother, I heard NOTHING of this until today. Good old WotC (It's a sport for your brain/Zee game eez steel zee same) marketing.

Secondly, I just ordered Dragon of Doom, Return to Brookmere, Revolt of the Dwarves, Raid on Nightmare Castle, The Endless Catacombs, Mountain of Mirrors, and Revenge of the Rainbow Dragons from a used vendor. $4 a pop, not too bad. That'll double my collection. (Thanks to libraries and borrowing from friends, I have read some of these before, but don't remember much.)

Endless Quest books, like the Choose Your Own Adventure books that inspired them, have some failings. Not that they're written for kids.
#1 was that the protagonists are almost always children. When I was a kid, I really loved the books, but I always liked the ones where "you" were a competent adult rather than some meddling kid.
#2 were all the moralizing Jimminy Cricket talking animal/worthless halfling/whatever sidekicks. Sure, these are for kids, but do we really need heavy handed morality plays? I think not. Again, when we were kids a common review of one of these books was "it was cool, except for the talking muskrat."

On the good side, usually threats are dealt with creatively, rather than through brute force. Sometimes the brute force carries the day, but other times it leads to one of those bad endings.