Dungeons & Dragons' Key Updates to Classic Adventures for Quests from the Infinite Staircase

Quests from the Infinite Staircase introduces a number of updates to six classic Dungeons & Dragons adventures that bring them into the modern era in more ways than one.

By Hannah Adkins - July 2, 2024 08:06 pm EDT

Dungeons & Dragons: Quests from the Infinite Staircase is approaching release, with early access to digital content through D&D Beyond beginning July 9th and the full release following exactly one week later, July 16th. As part of the 50th anniversary releases for Dungeons & Dragons, Quests from the Infinite Staircase provides players with updated versions of six classic adventures – The Lost City, When a Star Falls, Beyond the Crystal Cave, Pharaoh, The Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth, and Expeditions to the Barrier Peaks – and for the Wizards of the Coast teams re-crafting this adventure this means looking at what exists and how it can be updated for modern rules, play styles, and audiences.

While these updates equate to changing certain aspects of the adventures it also means some features, restrictions, and characters have been updated to change with the times, including more culturally accurate and sensitive representations of characters such as leprechauns, faction gender restrictions being removed, and more. During a briefing in which senior game designer Justice Ramin Arman provided a preview of Quests from the Infinite Staircase, he outlined the updates made to the 3-4 session adventures and which of these updates are consistent across all six adventures. Overall, the adventures provide additional guidance for encounters, a lot of the encounters have been rebalanced to match with current edition of the game, and they've taken a look at the treasure rewards and made alterations where appropriate.

Additional key updates and changes to the adventures include:

The Lost City

Factions were originally divided by gender which is no longer the case – for example, players don't have to be a man to join the Guardians of Ghorm
Overall, the factions (the warriors of motarua, the guardians of ghorm, mages of Usamigarasare easier to join with better rules, with specific rewards for joining one of the three factions including tattoos, magic items, fancy masks, etc.

When a Star Falls

Derro colored as a bit more sinister in the updated version.
In the original adventure there were two dragons, in the updated version of the adventure there's one big dragon

Beyond the Crystal Cave

Played up the no combat aspects of the adventure
Set in the Feywild which did not exist at the time the original adventure was made
Leprechauns are "industrious, productive little pranksters" with updates to reflect true leprechaun folklore – most wear red clothing
Unicorns that love philosophy
Archfey is the "guardian of nature" type after the updates with an aesthetic that draws inspiration from gardeners

Pharaoh

Dungeons is more deadly with new and improved diagrams to help interpret the pyramid
Full-color maps
Removed culturally insensitive elements

The Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth

Placed more emphasis on the Witch Queen Iggwilv and what her presence indicates for the caverns
Can still find Drelzna, Iggwilv's daughter, during the adventure with an updated look

Expeditions to the Barrier Peaks

Original robots were called police robots or worker robots, with the updates there are still "worker" robots but "police" has changed to "combat"
All manner of futuristic technology, including charge-based technological devices using energy cells
Maps are a little smaller than the original
Some encounters have moved to place more memorable encounters in locations players are likely to explore, plus adding some new encounters
More of a loose narrative structure

A notable feature that sets Quests from the Infinite Staircase apart is that players can interchange compatible adventures if there's one from the list above they don't want to play, with the example of this provided being players could opt to have the noble genie and watcher of the staircase Nafas send players to do one of the entries to Keys from the Golden Vault instead – after all, it's all just through a door in the Infinite Staircase!