Most famous for her work on the Dragonlance books, Margaret Weis actually has her first fiction contribution to the DnD world with this volume of the Endless Quest books. Unfortunately it wasn’t the most auspicious start to the work, fortunately her future contributions are generally much better.

Endless Catacombs starts out in a way that can only be described as “problematic”, we have to remember that this is 1984, and sensibilities were different, but it’s hard not to cringe at the premise of the book. You play as Gregor, a “gypsy” who is coming of age and therefore needs to start earning money with the traditional “gypsy” trade of being a thief. That’s bad to start with, but then you discover that Gregor has no appetite for stealing because in reality he is not a “gypsy” at all but a young man of noble blood who has been adopted by gypsies. Implied here is the idea that being a thief is in the genetic nature of “gypsies” and if Gregor were one he would be a good thief. Oof.

The story itself is not bad as it goes on, but the gaming element of the book is very lacklustre, with obvious choices and plenty of deadends, although some nice monster show up, like the Rust Monster and an Iron Golem, and you get to manage a party as you collect allies as the story goes on. Still, a minor effort by Weis that can be skipped without much being lost.