Following the
Fighting Fantasy folks somewhat late in to the "
interactive gamebook" market the
Choose Your Own Adventure machine had inadvertently created,
TSR published this series of rule-less
interactive fiction in two runs, the first from 1982-'87 and series 2 from '94 to '96. Its biggest draw?
Only this series could give you solo adventure in the genuine worlds of TSR-owned franchises - most notably the various and sundry flavours of
Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, but also including
Star Frontiers,
Gamma World and
Top Secret on top of franchise-rights-temporarily-bought-for-adventure-gamebook-purposes like
Conan and
Tarzan.
Though a handful of later gamebooks were penned by TSR "name"s such as Roger E. Moore and Margaret Weis, the bulk of the foundational groundwork (the few first flagship books) was writ by Rose Estes, the remainder being cranked out by no-names. Similarly, though the books occasionally featured incidental illustrations from Jeff Easley and Larry Elmore (especially the covers!) the majority of the drawing work was done by less-known (and fairly, less-apt) hands.
Were they any good? Playing an age-peer protagonist in a fantastic realm (frequently with class-associated Powers - in training - to match) was definitely a nice escapist change-of-pace from the median unskilled, uninteresting Everytown juvenile hero from the Choose Your Own Adventures. But the writing? Honestly a mixed bag - perhaps good enough to satisfy, or at least intrigue, a prepubescent fantasist interested in gaming but not yet brave enough to situate themselves in a basement with real, live, antisocial and odious gamers in the flesh. I'll be polite and say that I think I outgrew them at an appropriate age 8)
Beyond the two initial series and the Super Endless Quests (which I'll also list below) spin-offs included the Fantasy Forest gamebooks for a younger audience, Endless Quest Crimson Crystal Adventures and the repugnant HeartQuest books, a belly-flopping attempt to draw in female readers with interactive tales of romance... in TSR gameworlds. Those Thri-Kreen are just dreamy...
Endless Quest Series 1:
Endless Quest Series 2:
Super Endless Quests (aka Advanced Dungeons and Dragons Super Endless Quests aka Advanced Dungeons and Dragons Adventure Gamebooks):