Quests From The Infinite Staircase Review

Summary

This anthology book updates classic D&D adventures for a modern audience with new content.
It’s the final D&D book before the 2024 reset; adventures can be played standalone or as a campaign.
Ultimately, it’s worth the price; it includes new magic items and devices, different from traditional retread.

The latest Dungeons & Dragons book is an anthology of six classic adventures, updated and revised for a more modern audience. Quests From The Infinite Staircase is more than just a retreading of content, however, as these changes are more than just 5e updates. With D&D celebrating its 50th anniversary, Quests From The Infinite Staircase feels like an ideal way for longtime players to revisit historical adventures – but it’s also an easily accessible way for newcomers to experience them.

The release of Quests From The Infinite Staircase marks the final D&D book before the reset begins with the 2024 Player’s Handbook in September, and it also follows the incredible adventure that was Vecna: Eve of Ruin. This puts the book in an odd place, but it also means Quests From The Infinite Staircase was written to match the current 5e content as well as the things to come in the latter part of 2024and early 2025. The flexibility doesn’t end there, either – these six adventures can be played as one shots or as a full campaign that will run parties from level 1 to 13.

D&D Monsters from Quests from the Infinite Staircase.

10 Coolest New D&D Monsters In Quests From The Infinite Staircase

The new D&D anthology Quests from the Infinite Staircase introduces some exciting monsters, which could well be worth including in any campaign.

What Six Adventures Are In Quests From The Infinite Staircase

Updated Adventures In D&D’s Multiverse

The genie Nafas entertaining listeners in art for D&D book Quests from the Infinite Staircase.

Because the narrative is framed around the Infinite Staircase, these adventures are meant to take place in whatever world a DM decides on, even though some of them may not always match. It’s a way to pull these six modules together, especially for those wanting to tackle them as a single campaign. The six adventures included in Quests From The Infinite Staircase are:

The Lost City
When A Star Falls
Beyond The Crystal Cave
Pharaoh
The Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth
Expedition To The Barrier Peaks

D&D‘s latest anthology is designed so that these adventures can be played together, which means each one gets slightly more difficult. This can be a detractor for those wanting to tackle each adventure with the same characters, but who may not want to begin with “The Lost City.” Like the Witchlight Carnival from The Wild Beyond The Witchlight, the Infinite Staircase can be used as a sort of hub in any world or setting, although given the bizarre nature of it, it’ll likely fit best in those weirder adventures.

Adventurers taking guards by surprise while another adventurer steals a gem in the background.

D&D: Keys From The Golden Vault Review – An Excellent Heist Anthology

Dungeons & Dragons’ latest book, Keys From The Golden Vault, is an excellent anthology of well-written heists full of variety and intrigue.

As standalone adventures, the content here works well. I’m less convinced they would work well as a campaign, much in the way stringing together everything in Keys From The Golden Vault didn’t always feel totally cohesive. DMs may want to add in some recurring characters or some solid rivals (something Golden Vault had going for it) to help maintain a more overarching narrative structure.

Is Quests From The Infinite Staircase Worth It?

The New D&D Book Is More Than Just Retreading Classic Content

For anyone worried Quests From The Infinite Staircase is rehashing old content, don’t be. These are definitely classic tales, but they’ve been changed in a variety of ways that go beyond simple rule updates. The updates here are mostly ones borne out of necessity – either because 5e rules conflict too much with the original modules or because of problematic content. While some adventures have simply had more lore added to them, or a few new monsters sprinkled throughout, a few of these quests – like “Pharoah” – have been overhauled in major ways, often to avoid the problematic content the originals had.

There are also some new magic items in Quests From The Infinite Staircase, as well as “technological devices” that add a futuristic tone to just about any adventure. There’s at least one new character I’ve noticed, and I’m sure there are even more changes that flew under my radar. All of this is to say that Quests From The Infinite Staircase is well worth the price of admission, assuming parties haven’t played some of these older adventures recently (which seems highly unlikely for anyone using 5e rules).

How Quests From The Infinite Staircase Compares To Other D&D Anthologies

Review Final Thoughts

DnD Quests from the Infinite Staircase cover image showing a cosmic being.

From what I’ve played so far, Quests From The Infinite Staircase is a fairly short but enjoyable set of adventures that feels perfect for the old-school crowd or anyone looking to experience more dungeon crawler-heavy sessions. It was interesting to get to play through modules I’d heard of before – like Gary Gygax’s “Expedition To The Barrier Peaks” – even if these adventures have changed enough that it’s not 100% the same as playing them in their original form (Gygax’s adventure, for instance, adds a brand-new character to motivate parties along).

Quest From The Infinite Staircase is well worth the price of admission.

Comparatively, Quests From The Infinite Staircase may not reach the heights of Keys From The Golden Vault, but it’s still a solid anthology and a cool new way to check out some recognizable adventures that have been updated for the current D&D ruleset. The new content that’s here is welcome, and the art inside the book may be some of the best to date. For those looking for a fun way to spend their time between now and the new Dungeons & Dragons 2024 changes occurring later this year, look no further than Quests From The Infinite Staircase.

A copy of
D&D: Quests From The Infinte Staircase
was sent to Screen Rant for the purpose of this review.