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Mini Fighting Fantasy Adventures
Outline
Location:	Earth
References:	185
Publication details
Author(s):	Steve Jackson
Illustrator(s):	Tim Sell

First published:	December 1984
Publication:	Warlock (Issue 3)
Previous Mini-FF:	Caverns of the Snow Witch
Next Mini-FF:	The Dark Usurper
Reprint

Published:	N/A
Publication:	N/A

For other uses of House of Hell, see House of Hell

The House of Hell is a single-player role-playing mini adventure written by Steve Jackson, and illustrated by Tim Sell. It was published in 1984 in Issue 3 of Warlock by Puffin Books. The adventure was a truncated and altered version of the full gamebook: "The rooms have been jumbled, there are some cunning secret passages to find and the important clues are in totally different places."^[1] It also lost the definite article from the title and became House of Hell for its publication that same year (although the title picture for the short version is also without the definite article).^[2]

CreationEdit

The game ends with the defeat of the Earl of Drumer rather than the extended ending of the full gamebook.

BackgroundEdit

The player's car breaks down and they venture to the nearest house in search of a phone.

How to Survive the House of HellEdit

The mini adventure in general follows the original rules set down in The Warlock of Firetop Mountain (see Game System).

Unique RulesEdit

The House of Hell uses a fear score in addition to the usual scores. Every time the player encounters some particularly disturbing event, they must add between 1 and 3 fear points to the total fear score. Once the character reaches the maximum score, determined at the beginning of the game, they 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 of 3 points until they find a weapon.

Equipment ListEdit

The player begins with no equipment or Provisions.

IllustrationsEdit

The illustrations were by Tim Sell. There were 19 full page (or equivalent) illustrations and 6 minor repeated illustrations (with all the minor illustrations in the full gamebook) scattered throughout the text. The paragraphs with a full page illustration were (* indicates an illustration not in the full gamebook): Title card*, 1, 11, 23, 32, 44, 56, 64, 76, 87*, 99*, 110, 122, 132, 142, 155*, 165, 176 and 185.

Intertextual ReferencesEdit

YOU: Hero of House of Hell

Franklins - Butler
Kelnor - Black Priest of the Night/The Earl of Drumer
Shekou - Hunchback

LocationsEdit

EncountersEdit

Great Danes
Humans - Devil-Worshipper/Man in White/Men/The Master's Servant
Hunchback
Invisible Enemy
The Earl of Drummer
Zombies

Further NotesEdit

7 instant failures, 1 victory, plus death by stamina loss, bad luck or lacking the correct weapon.
"Drumer" is an anagram of "murder".

ErrorsEdit

The adventure was printed with the "Adventure Sheet" from The Citadel of Chaos which lists magic and "Magic Spells "instead of "Items".
(12) has the references for Lucky and Unlucky swapped. Lucky should turn to (95) and Unlucky to (127).
If the player goes from (131) to (123) they end up getting a fear point twice for the same discovery.