Introduction

As part of our celebration of 10 years of the page, I wrote an article about the tabletop games of present. In that article, I mentioned that I don’t play as much Dungeons and Dragons as I used to when I was younger or even a year or two ago when Quinn and I played a few times as a duo. As a result, I wanted to talk about two sourcebooks I recently picked up. One of them is Quests from the Infinite Staircase.

Before I get into the artille, I want to talk some about the possibility that things might be looking up in the D&D department. While I read the two books to prepare for the article, Quinn and Christine worked on a puzzle while we listened to records. Yes, we are that kind of hipster family. Anyway, he casually said, “We should play D&D again.” I agreed because, honestly, I’ve been thinking about it more and more. So, look forward to articles and videos hopefully!

The Infinite Staircase

While I used and played adventures in the other realms when I was younger, they never emphasized the “multiverse” as they are now. So, like the city of Sigil, I never knew about the Infinite Staircase. As a result, I loved reading about the lore behind it. I think if we start a new adventure at some point, I might use this as my starting point.

It gives a good overview of the things that make Dungeons and Dragons interesting. It also opens the possibility of the multiverse right away. That way, if they want to travel to a different realm, this makes it easily accessible to do so. Also, the other book I ordered deals with multiple worlds, so maybe we can play that one after we finish these adventures.

Nafas

My favorite, and I imagine for others too, part of the book was the introduction (to me, at least) of Nafas. The genie on the cover of the book, Nafas acts as a steward of the staircase. Moreover, he also tells great tales of heroism and might even grant a wish if you’re lucky. As a dungeon master who enjoys storytelling, he makes for a fun addition to the campaign.

He just opens up so many cool role playing possibilities. If you remember from the sessions that Quinn and I played, I used part of that to write another adventure that we haven’t yet played. However, I also filed away ideas for other possibilities later when we sit down to play. Nafas opens up almost literally infinite story possibilities for me and whatever group I end up playing with.

The Adventures

The book comes with 6 ready made adventures to get your party started. They range in level from 1 up to 11. While many of them take place in dungeons (makes sense, right?) very few, if any, contain dragons from what I discovered so far. I intend to read through the adventures closer at a later time. But, I read through the excerpts at the beginning of the book and also the “about the original” blurbs that they include for each adventure for those of us who missed them.

Additionally, the adventures scale for dungeon masters as well. The first adventure works for beginning DMs, allowing them some creativity in how they implement the dungeon. Another offers a fun and interesting hook to start the adventure. Yet another requires less hack and slash and more cerebral solutions to problems and one even introduces characters to science fiction elements like robots and futuristic weapons and gadgetry.

The Verdict

Quests from the Infinite Staircase accomplished its goal of making me want to play the game again. Some of the other books I bought, including some surprises (like the Dragonlance update) never moved me to pick them up and play. This one, however, and the other book I plan to discuss on Friday, both have. I can’t wait to get started.

Images courtesy of Dungeons and Dragons and Wizards of the Coast.