Today, Rediscovered Realms is honored to be speaking with Rose Estes – the very creator of TSR’s Endless Quest books, which were so monumental in drawing kids into reading and fantasy back in the early 80s. They were a gateway for me, a driving force for lifelong reading as well as a major inspiration for starting this newsletter
I discovered this while going through your latest Oct 2024 post. What a great interview! Those books were fantastic, imaginative mental quests that help me build a better ability to visualize stories. They weren't necessary what directly led to to tabletop gaming, but they certainly were precursors to designing great scenarios if I was called-upon to be DM.
Love it, Hollywood! Rose is such a fascinating person - was really fun interviewing her and learning her story. Fair notice: I will probably steal your term someday, "imaginative mental quests". What a great phrase!
Great interview. First gamebook I ever read was Dungeons of Dread (translated to spanish as Las Cavernas del Terror) and it was a mind-boggling book for me. Reading it was like a epiphany: there were books about elfs and orcs, and swords and spells and magic! And I could be the hero in those books!
Later I read Lord of the Rings, and Dragonlance and years later bought my first roleplaying game. But I've always loved gamebooks and I still have my own copy of Dungeons of Dread, nearly 40 years later.
So thank you very much, Rose. You changed my life.
Oh wow, what a powerful testimony, Carlos, thank you so much for sharing! My earliest fantasy reading journey echoes yours through the Endless Quest, Dragonlance & LOTR books (with The Chronicles of Narnia thrown in!) I'll definitely pass along your comment to Rose as well. Thanks for reading, - J.Q.
Endless quests was for me, like many others, the gateway into roleplaying. It was really a stroke of genius to have the reader play a developed and named character (as opposed to the generic "you" in all other gamebook before them).
I had always wondered why she bowed out of the series at number 12 after getting the series running.
Thanks! Great point about developed characters. 100% free agency is what we all seem to think we want, but as in design, constraints can actually make the product/service/(book) non-generic & even better.
Fantastic interview! I’d never heard of Rose Estes before, but now I think she’s one of the most interesting people I’ve read about. So prolific and so confident. Very inspiring.
Interesting article. Great details that no one would ever know. A life well lived and explored.
Thank you Mike! Rose truly is an uncompromising Explorer who continues to live her life to the full.
I love this one...brings back so many memories!!! :)
I'm so glad you connect with this too, Christopher! Thanks for your comment.
I discovered this while going through your latest Oct 2024 post. What a great interview! Those books were fantastic, imaginative mental quests that help me build a better ability to visualize stories. They weren't necessary what directly led to to tabletop gaming, but they certainly were precursors to designing great scenarios if I was called-upon to be DM.
Love it, Hollywood! Rose is such a fascinating person - was really fun interviewing her and learning her story. Fair notice: I will probably steal your term someday, "imaginative mental quests". What a great phrase!
Great interview. First gamebook I ever read was Dungeons of Dread (translated to spanish as Las Cavernas del Terror) and it was a mind-boggling book for me. Reading it was like a epiphany: there were books about elfs and orcs, and swords and spells and magic! And I could be the hero in those books!
Later I read Lord of the Rings, and Dragonlance and years later bought my first roleplaying game. But I've always loved gamebooks and I still have my own copy of Dungeons of Dread, nearly 40 years later.
So thank you very much, Rose. You changed my life.
Oh wow, what a powerful testimony, Carlos, thank you so much for sharing! My earliest fantasy reading journey echoes yours through the Endless Quest, Dragonlance & LOTR books (with The Chronicles of Narnia thrown in!) I'll definitely pass along your comment to Rose as well. Thanks for reading, - J.Q.
Nice interview
Endless quests was for me, like many others, the gateway into roleplaying. It was really a stroke of genius to have the reader play a developed and named character (as opposed to the generic "you" in all other gamebook before them).
I had always wondered why she bowed out of the series at number 12 after getting the series running.
Thanks! Great point about developed characters. 100% free agency is what we all seem to think we want, but as in design, constraints can actually make the product/service/(book) non-generic & even better.
Fantastic interview! I’d never heard of Rose Estes before, but now I think she’s one of the most interesting people I’ve read about. So prolific and so confident. Very inspiring.
Thanks Jonah! I'll make sure to share your comment with her.