(There is no preface for this book, unlike the other books that I have covered so far.)
How to Survive the House of Hell
For the purpose of this thread, the Adventure Sheet will be hand-made and will be periodically displayed.The House of Hell is a little different from previous Fighting Fantasy adventures. You start your adventure unarmed, with no provision or potions; and you have to avoid being frightened to death!
Before embarking on your adventure, you must first determine your own strengths and weaknesses. To see how brave, lucky and resourceful you are, you must use the dice to determine your initial SKILL, STAMINA and LUCK scores. On pages 18-19 there is an Adventure Sheet which you may use to record the details of an adventure. On it you will find boxes for recording your SKILL, STAMINA, and LUCK scores.
You are advised to either record your scores on the Adventure Sheet in pencil, or, make photocopies of the page to use in future adventures.
Skill, Stamina and Luck
Making the appropriate rolls and modifications yielded the following initial scores:Roll one die. Add 6 to this number and enter this total in the SKILL box on the Adventure Sheet. This is your Initial SKILL. In this adventure, your Starting SKILL is less, because you are unarmed, but you will have the opportunity to arm yourself (see Weapons, p. 13).
Roll both dice. Add 12 to the number rolled and enter this total in the STAMINA box.
There is also a LUCK box. Roll one die, add 6 to this number, and enter this total in the LUCK box.
For reasons that will be explained below, SKILL, STAMINA and LUCK scores change constantly during an adventure. You must keep an accurate record of these scores and for this reason you are advised either to write small in the boxes or to keep an eraser handy. But never rub out your Initial scores. Although you may be awarded additional SKILL, STAMINA and LUCK points, these totals may never exceed your Initial scores, except on very rare occasions, when you will be instructed on a particular page.
Your SKILL score reflects your general fighting expertise; the higher the better. Your STAMINA score reflects your general constitution, your will to survive, your determination and courage; the higher your STAMINA score, the longer you will be able to survive. Your LUCK score indicates how naturally lucky a person you are. Luck – and evil – are facts of life in the devilish domain you are about to explore.
SKILL: 12
STAMINA: 15
LUCK: 8
So we luckily got another character with maximum skill, which certainly makes up for the lack of a starting weapon.
Battles
FearYou will often come across pages in the book which instruct you to fight ghosts, ghouls, men and beasts. An option to flee may be given, but if not – or if you choose to attack the creature anyway – you must resolve the battle as described below.
First record the creature’s SKILL and STAMINA scores in the first vacant Evil Encounter Box on your Adventure Sheet. The scores for each creature are given in the book each time you have an encounter.
The sequence of combat is then:
1. Roll both dice once for the creature. Add its SKILL score. This total is the creature’s Attack Strength.
2. Roll both dice once for yourself. Add the number rolled to your current SKILL score. This total is your Attack Strength.
3. If your Attack Strength is higher than that of the creature, you have wounded it. Proceed to step 4. If the creature’s Attack Strength is higher than yours, it has wounded you. Proceed to step 5. If both Attack Strength totals are the same, you have avoided each other’s blows – start the next Attack Round from step 1 above.
4. You have wounded the creature, so subtract 2 points from its STAMINA score. You may use your LUCK here to do additional damage (see below).
5. The creature has wounded you, so subtract 2 points from your own STAMINA score. Again you may use LUCK at this stage (see below).
6. Make the appropriate adjustments to either the creature’s or your own STAMINA scores (and your LUCK score if you used LUCK – see below).
7. Begin the next Attack Round by returning to your current SKILL score and repeating steps 1-6. This sequence continues until the STAMINA score of either you or the creature you are fighting has been reduced to zero (death).
Making the appropriate roll and modification yielded a maximum FEAR score of 10.As well as surviving your adventure by ensuring that your STAMINA never drops to zero, in The House of Hell you must also avoid being frightened to death. Before you begin your adventure, roll one die and add 6 to the result. This total will give you the maximum FEAR score you can bear. Your FEAR score is the number of points you can take before being frightened to death. During your adventure, you will come across situations where you must, for example, ‘Add one (or two, etc.) FEAR points.’ Your FEAR score starts at zero and you must add FEAR points as instructed in the text. If your FEAR score reaches the maximum (as rolled initially – see above), then you are frightened to death and must end your adventure. Note that FEAR works in the opposite way to normal SKILL, STAMINA and LUCK scores; you start with zero and increase your FEAR score towards your maximum, rather than subtracting, as you do with the other scores.
Escaping
Fighting More Than One CreatureOn some pages you may be given the option of running away from a battle should things be going badly for you. However, if you do run away, the creature automatically gets in one wound on you (subtract 2 STAMINA points) as you flee. Such is the price of cowardice. Note that you may use LUCK on this wound in the normal way (see below). You may only Escape if that option is specifically given to you on the page.
WeaponsIf you come across more than one creature in a particular encounter, the instructions on that page will tell you how to handle the battle. Sometimes you will treat them as a single monster; sometimes you will fight each one in turn.
LuckYou begin The House of Hell adventure with no weapon. As with other Fighting Fantasy adventures, your SKILL score reflects your combat ability with a weapon. So, before you start off on your adventure, deduct 3 points from your SKILL score and note this ‘Starting SKILL’. Do not, however, change your Initial SKILL, as this is still used to determine that maximum SKILL you have, and is also used if you must make rolls against your SKILL. If you find a WEAPON (which will be identified with capital letters) during the adventure, the text will tell you how many SKILL points the WEAPON allows you to add. These points are added to your ‘Starting SKILL’, not your Initial SKILL.
For the purposes of this Let’s Play, all of the attack rounds will be resolved at once. I will generally only consider using Luck in battles if the character has less than 7 STAMINA points. For such battles, I will ask whether Luck should be used to improve the odds of winning the fight. In battles where escape is an option and the character has less than 7 STAMINA points, I will also ask whether the character should escape from the battle, and if so, under which conditions to do so.At various times during your adventure, either in battles or when you come across situations in which you could either be lucky or unlucky (details of these are given on the pages themselves), you may call on your LUCK to make the outcome more favourable. But beware! Using LUCK is a risky business and if you are unlucky, the results could be disastrous.
The procedure for using your LUCK is as follows: roll two dice. If the number rolled is equal to or less than your current LUCK score, you have been lucky and the result will go in your favour. If the number rolled is higher than your current LUCK score, you have been unlucky and you will be penalized.
This procedure is known as Testing your Luck. Each time you Test your Luck, you must subtract one point from your current LUCK score. Thus you will soon realize that the more you rely on your LUCK, the more risky this will become.
Using Luck in Battles
On certain pages of the book you will be told to Test your Luck and will be told the consequences of your being lucky or unlucky. However, in battles, you always have the option of using your LUCK either to inflict a more serious wound on a creature you have just wounded, or to minimize the effects of a wound the creature has just inflicted on you.
If you have just wounded the creature, you may Test your Luck as described above. If you are lucky, you have inflicted a severe wound and may subtract an extra 2 points from the creature’s STAMINA score. However, if you are unlucky, the wound was a mere graze and you must restore 1 point to the creature’s STAMINA (i.e. instead of scoring the normal 2 points of damage, you have now scored only 1).
If the creature has just wounded you, you may Test your Luck to try to minimize the wound. If you are lucky, you have managed to avoid the full damage of the blow. Restore 1 point of STAMINA (i.e. instead of doing 2 points of damage it has done only 1). If you are unlucky, you have taken a more serious blow. Subtract 1 extra STAMINA point.
Remember that you must subtract 1 point from your own LUCK score each time you Test your Luck.
Restoring Skill, Stamina, Luck and Fear
Hints on PlayYour SKILL, STAMINA and LUCK scores may change during your adventure. Your SKILL will increase (from ‘Starting SKILL’) if you find a WEAPON. Your STAMINA will drain as you fight creatures, and may be restored by eating or resting as instructed by the text. Your LUCK will run out as you must deduct one LUCK point each time you Test your Luck. Occasionally a particularly lucky find or encounter may restore some of your LUCK. Your FEAR score is built up as you go through the adventure; each time you get frightened, you will add to your FEAR score. Occasionally, when you get the opportunity to relax, the text may instruct you to deduct points from your FEAR score.
Note that any bonuses you are awarded can never be used to exceed your Initial SKILL, STAMINA and LUCK scores, nor make your FEAR score a minus number.
Please keep all spoilers covered out of respect to those of us who want to have a blind experience. Any ties will be broken by me based on my personal instincts.There is one true way through the House of Hell and it will take you several attempts to find it. Make notes and draw a map as you explore – this map will be invaluable in future adventures and enable you to progress rapidly through to unexplored sections.
Remember to make a note of any advice you receive; and write down any messages or special reference numbers you are given. Some rooms are death traps and others are chambers of horror – be warned!
It will be realized that entries make no sense if read in numerical order. It is essential that you read only the entries you are instructed to read.
The one true way involves a minimum of risk and any player, no matter how weak on initial dice rolls, should be able to get through fairly easily.
May the power of good go with you!
As in the last two Let’s Plays that I ran, if we die, that is it. We are not coming back. Since our character once again has high SKILL, I feel obligated to bar any resurrections in this book to make things fair and make us take this Let’s Play seriously. After all, real life does not allow you to rewind and give you another chance. However, I will make any reasonable adjustments to any writing mistakes that I believe the authors made.
Background
NOW TURN OVERThe rain spatters the windscreen relentlessly. You can see no more than a watery gloom as you strain forwards over the steering-wheel to see the road ahead. Although the wipers flap valiantly, they are fighting a losing battle, as the rain drives harder and harder. Your foot eases off the accelerator; the head-lights struggle to light up the road.
Damn! You curse the white-haired old man who sent you off along this bumpy track. Probably he meant the second turning on the left – or even a right turning. The old fool. Perhaps this is his idea of a joke. After all, didn’t you notice a mischievous glint in his eye? Something vaguely sinister?
But what sort of nonsense is this? So you’ve taken a wrong turn and got caught in a downpour in the night. The rain will ease off soon – it can’t possibly keep up this deluge for long – and then you'll be able to ... WATCH OUT!
You spin the wheel frantically to the left to avoid the figure who, from nowhere, shows up in the head-lights. The car bumps and jolts as it bounces over the rocky roadside and thumps into a ditch.
You collect your thoughts. You are unhurt, but shaken. Then you remember what has happened. The body! You must have hit the figure which appeared; there was no way you could have avoided him. You spring out of the car, praying that he is still alive.
Your clothes soak up the rain as you hobble back to the road. In the darkness it is difficult to see anything. But there is no sign of a body!
You consider the situation. Are you certain that it was someone and not a trick of the light? Yes. You can remember the arms held up in fright as the car collided, and the look of anguish on his face. His face! There was something familiar about that face. A man you recognized. An old man; with white hair ...
Your heart leaps: no, impossible! With a shiver of fear you race back to the car, jump inside, force the key into the ignition and twist it violently! The starter coughs, splutters and dies.
You hit the key again but this time a single shudder is all the engine can manage. You grasp the wheel with your hands and shake it desperately as if to force some life into the car. But the battery is dead. Your car is certainly not budging from the ditch tonight.
Your situation is hopeless. But now the plight of your car is paramount. Where can you get help? You passed a garage at Mingleford, but that was some twenty miles away.
As if in answer, a light appears in the distance. Someone has switched on a bedroom light. What a stroke of luck! It was at least fifteen miles back that you passed the last house and you happen to have broken down just a short distance from someone’s home.
You button up your coat and open the door. From outside the car, you can see the building more clearly. Just ahead, on the left, a drive winds up to a large house. It is a good five minutes’ walk away. And by the time you reach it, you will be drenched. But how else can you call the garage? You can’t afford to miss tomorrow’s appointment. No, go you must. Anyway, you’ll probably be able to dry off inside after phoning the garage.
You slam the door, turn up your collar and set off for the house. A flash of lightning lights it up clearly for you but, in your preoccupation with the rain, the warning from above is wasted on you. The house is old – very old – and in a shocking state of repair. The light in the window is flickering. Most likely an oil lamp – certainly not electric. And you don’t notice a fact that might have turned you back anyway: there is no telephone line going to the house.
As you climb the steps to the front door, little do you realize what fate has in store for you.
Tonight is going to be a night to remember ...
1
The rain is still pelting down, but an eerie silence hangs in the air. No lights are on downstairs. You step back off the porch to check the upstairs window which attracted your attention earlier. Nothing. No lights. The whole place seems to be deserted. But then you remember the time – five minutes to midnight. Everyone in the house has probably gone to bed. An owl hoots in the distance and a shiver runs down your spine. The situation is a little scary. Here you are, in the middle of nowhere, at some strange, run-down old house about to wake up whoever lives inside, at midnight. They certainly won’t be too pleased. But you have no choice if you are going to make your appointment tomorrow – you must reach a telephone to call for help. You step up to the front door.
From the left-hand side of the house, a dull glow catches your attention. A light has been turned on! You breathe a sigh of relief; at least someone is awake. You consider your options: there is an elaborate knocker in the middle of the door and a bell-pull hanging down to the right. Will you rap the door with the knocker (turn to 357), pull the cord (turn to 275), or creep round the house to investigate the light (turn to 289)?
In addition to the above choice, what name do you want to give this character? Please make your decisions before 2:00 PM PST to guarantee that your votes will be counted.
