House of Hell
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Fighting Fantasy Gamebooks | |
|---|---|
 The original cover of House of Hell illustrated by Ian Miller |
|
 The Wizard cover of House of Hell illustrated by Nicholas Halliday |
|
| Outline | |
| Location: | Earth |
| References: | 400 |
| Publication details | |
| Author(s): | Steve Jackson |
| Illustrator: | Tim Sell |
| Puffin | |
| Cover illustrator: | Ian Miller |
| First published: | 1984 |
| Number | 10 |
| ISBN: | ISBN 0-14-031831-3 |
| Wizard | |
| Cover illustrator: | Nicholas Halliday |
| First published: | 2002 |
| Number | 7 |
| ISBN: | ISBN 1-84046-417-8 |
| List of Fighting Fantasy Gamebooks | |
House of Hell is a single-player roleplaying gamebook written by Steve Jackson, illustrated by Tim Sell and originally published in 1984 by Puffin Books. It was later republished by Wizard Books in 2002. It forms part of Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone's Fighting Fantasy series. It is the 10th in the series in the original Puffin series (ISBN 0-14-031831-3) and 7th in the modern Wizard series (ISBN 1-84046-417-8).
The US version of the book, published by Dell Laurel-Leaf, was titled House of Hades as the word 'Hell' can be considered a profanity there.
Contents |
[edit] Creation
A short version of the adventure was first published in Warlock: The Fighting Fantasy Magazine. It was made up of 185 references. The adventure was expanded for the final book but a few of the original references were removed.
[edit] Story
Stranded miles from anywhere on a dark and stormy night, your only hope of refuge is the strange, ramshackle mansion you can see in the distance...
But entering the House of Hell hurls you into an adventure of spine-chilling and blood-curdling terror. The dangers of the torrential storm outside are nothing compared to the nightmarish creatures that await you within its gruesome walls.
Be warned! You must try to keep your fear under control - collect too many FEAR points and you will die of fright. Can you make it through the night without being scared - to death?
House of Hell is a horror themed book, and the only Fighting Fantasy book set on modern day Earth. The player's car breaks down during a rain storm, forcing the player to seek shelter in a nearby mansion. Though this is the only Fighting Fantasy book to employ this type of setting, books such as Beneath Nightmare Castle use the horror theme in the more common fantasy setting of Titan.
The player's quest to escape the mansion is hampered by the presence of Satan-worshippers and various demons, though not all are entirely hostile. Much of the gameplay involves searching a series of rooms, most of which bears an obscure religious or satanic titles, including the Shaitan Room and the Mammon room. If the reader is to be successful, he must recover a hellfire-forged kris dagger and survive an encounter with the house's Master.
[edit] Rules
House of Hell uses a Fear score in addition to the usual scores. Every time the player encounters some particularly disturbing event, he must add between 1 and 3 Fear points to his total Fear score. Once the character reaches their maximum score, determined at the beginning of the game, he will quite literally die of fright.
As the book is set on modern day Earth, the reader is unarmed at the start of the book and suffers a Skill penalty until they find a weapon.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- Fighting Fantasy Gamebooks on gamebooks.org.
- House of Hell on gamebooks.org.
- House of Hell on the Internet Archive record of the old fightingfantasy.com site.
Official sites:
Magazines:
- "Open Box" (June 1985). White Dwarf (66): 6–7.
