Quests From The Infinite Staircase D&D Review - Perfect For More Than A One-Shot, But Not A Campaign

For Dungeons & Dragons, there's a lot of published content that can be completed in one or two sessions, while the rest will take you over a year of continuous play to complete. Their latest book, Quests From The Infinite Staircase, is an anthology book of remastered adventures that instead fills the space of "What if I only had a summer to run an adventure?"

Information Hands To Players Or Potential Infinite Staircase DMs

Some top-level information about this book for potential players before getting too into the weeds for DMs is that Quests From The Infinite Staircase features six adventures, there adventures range from level 1 up to level 13.

The adventures are all pulled from earlier versions of Dungeons & Dragons, each published between the years of 1980-1984. The adventures included consist of The Lost City, When a Star Falls, Beyond the Crystal Cave, Pharaoh, The Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth, and Expeditions to the Barrier Peaks.

Each adventure has been remade not only for Dungeons & Dragons 5e but also with an eye on balancing encounters better, adding more tools for the DM to guide the narrative, and a sensitivity pass (at least for Pharaoh)

Unlike previous anthologies where a book might come with 10 adventures, most only covering a single level of play each of the adventures found within Quests From The Infinite Staircase spans at least three levels of play. 

This seems like the right amount of time for any new DM who is interested in running something with a bit more depth than a one-shot, but isn't ready to commit the time to a full campaign (or for a group of friends whose schedules only allow for two or three sessions before things fall apart).

Nafas and the Infinite Staircase

Much like Candlekeep Mysteries had the idea of books as a running theme through adventures, or Van Richten's Guide To Ravenloft was centered on Domains of Dread this book has the Infinite Staircase and the Noble Genie, Nafas, as its central theme.

Introducing the Infinite Staircase the book describes it as "an impossible staircase [that] winds in a surreal demiplane, ascending to every world, every plane of existence, and the adventure found among them."

The book does a good job of introducing who Nafas is and how he can be used to create a narrative tie between each of these adventures. His inclusion is wholly optional to a DM who can just as easily drop any of these adventures into their world, or start with a plot hook that puts the party right at the start of the action.

While Nafas is an optional tool for this book one thing I did enjoy seeing was the way that the book prompted Nafas' use in any other scenario. Being a Genie who hears the wishes of others through the many doors of the Infinite Staircase the book prompts that you might want to use Nafas if your party is looking to learn the true name of a powerful enemy, need to destroy a magic item, or to restore life to a creature.

Adventures Across Realms And Playstyles

The adventures that can be found in this book are predominantly dungeon crawls, which makes sense when you remember each adventure is from the 80s. The Lost City has you moving through floors of a Ziggaurat, Expedition To The Barrier Peaks consists of exploring a buried spaceship, and The Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth is self-explanatory.

While players will be moving from room to room hearing descriptions of caves, pieces of furniture, and getting ambushed by various creatures there is also plenty of story to uncover. Hosting each of these adventures within a contained space helps for a beginner DM to let the party lead the adventure following up to provide them with information where necessary.

From the books first adventure, The Lost City, I enjoyed that while it was a contained Level 1-4 Adventure with a narrative start, middle, and end that there were elements left hanging. 

The party is able to work with (or against) the different factions and escape the ziggurat, the book then provides two further options for players. Another, far deadlier, floor of the ziggaurat that might have the party return at level 10+, or an Underground City setting that can be used as a launching-off point for further adventures.

The most impressive adventure in terms of sheer scale is that of Expedition To The Barrier Peaks. This four-level spaceship launches level 11 players into the middle of a science fiction adventure. Adding to the regular roster of Magic Weapons there are Technology Weapons and Items including but not limited to the Antigravity Belt, Needler Pistol, Paralysis Pistol and Powered Armor.

Across the 60+ rooms found in this mega-dungeon players will be collaborating with the onboard AI, meeting different factions that reside among the ship, dealing with renegade androids, and trying to minimize threats onboard. There has been upgrading done to this adventure in the form of making less empty rooms, as well as reordering some of the more interesting encounters to be more directly in the player's paths.

Some other key features of the other adventures include the more narrative-heavy When A Star Falls, and Beyond The Crystal Cave, the latter of which can be completed without needing to resort to combat at all.

Quests From The Infinite Staircase Review | Final Thoughts

Quests From The Infinite Staircase is a fun collection of 'best of' hits from the early age of Dungeons & Dragons. As always it's good to see these kinds of adventures get the reverence they're owed while also being updated to better fit the game in it's current state.

Overall the most exciting aspect of this book for me is that it fills that space for short and medium adventures that aren't a 'one and done' situation. This is a good gateway for new DMs and new Players to get a taste of what it's like coming back to the table a few times over with the same party configuration.

While the Infinite Staircase and Nafas are only briefly delved into what info is provided does a better job of setting up Nafas as a force to use in a larger game than as the throwaway quest giver within the pages of this book.

If you're interested in playing Dungeons & Dragons and find 4-6 session adventures are up your alley then this book is a must have.

The copy of Quests From The Infinite Staircase used in the creation of this review was provided by the publisher.