This is XS2: Thunderdelve Mountain (1985). There is no XS1, just XSOLO. TSR was dumb sometimes (lots of times). The cover painting is signed Jack Fred, which was the in-house equivalent of a director taking an Alan Smithee credit because they disavowed the end product. Inside it is credited to Larry Elmore. Which, I guess I can see why he signed it Jack Fred. Interiors are by Mario Macari, who I know nothing about. The work seems very in line with the sort of art you’d get in an illustrated young reader’s book of the period, to the point that I wonder if XS2 was initially conceived as a Super Endless Quest.
Anyway, this isn’t constructed anything like XSOLO. Rather, you have a series of quests that proceed in a linear fashion. There’s a lot of map-making. There’s a rune language to translate. Oh, you play a dwarf, that’s pretty novel. And there is a random treasure mechanic which is neat.
It’s perfectly fine. And sometimes that’s just what you need. At least I don’t need a magic marker or a sheet of red cellophane to play the damn thing.
