''House of Hell'' (''House of Hades'' in the United States) is a single-player

adventure gamebook A gamebook is a work of printed fiction that allows the reader to participate in the story by making choices. The narrative branches along various paths, typically through the use of numbered paragraphs or pages. Each narrative typically does not ...

written by Steve Jackson, illustrated by Tim Sell and originally published in 1984 by

Puffin Books Puffin Books is a longstanding children's imprint of the British publishers Penguin Books. Since the 1960s, it has been among the largest publishers of children's books in the UK and much of the English-speaking world. The imprint now belongs t ...

. It was later republished by Wizard Books in 2002. It forms part of Steve Jackson and

Ian Livingstone Sir Ian Livingstone (born 29 December 1949) is an English fantasy author and entrepreneur. Along with Steve Jackson, he is the co-founder of a series of role-playing gamebooks, ''Fighting Fantasy'', and the author of many books within that s ...

's ''

Fighting Fantasy ''Fighting Fantasy'' is a series of single-player role-playing gamebooks created by Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone. The first volume in the series was published in paperback by Puffin in 1982. The series distinguished itself by mixing Choos ...

'' series. It is the 10th in the series in the original Puffin series () and 7th in the modern Wizard series (). A digital version was developed by Tin Man Games for Microsoft Windows, Mac,

Linux Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, w ...

, Android and

iOS iOS (formerly iPhone OS) is a mobile operating system created and developed by Apple Inc. exclusively for its hardware. It is the operating system that powers many of the company's mobile devices, including the iPhone; the term also include ...

Creation

A short version of the adventure was first published in '' Warlock: The Fighting Fantasy Magazine''. Originally 185 references, the adventure was modified and expanded to 400 references for the final title. The American edition of the book, published by Dell Laurel-Leaf, was re-titled ''House of Hades'' as the word 'Hell' can be considered a profanity in the United States.

Rules

As with titles such as '' Appointment with F.E.A.R.'' and '' Sword of the Samurai'', ''House of Hell'' utilizes an additional game mechanic; in this instance, "Fear Points", which the player will occasionally accrue. If too many Fear Points are accumulated the story ends, as the character is literally scared to death.

Story

''House of Hell'' is a horror story in which the protagonist must escape a haunted house, and survive against monsters such as skeletons, zombies, ghosts, and vampires. At first a guest, the player discovers the house is home to Satan-worshippers and various monsters. Gameplay is initially devoted to finding a means of escape, although after finding a series of clues, the player must first defeat the evil presiding over the house.

In other media

* A digital version developed by Tin Man Games is available for Android and

. * In 2010, Super Team Film Prods secured the rights to ''House of Hell'', with the intention to make a motion picture based on the title.

Reception

In the June 1985 edition of ''

White Dwarf A white dwarf is a stellar core remnant composed mostly of electron-degenerate matter. A white dwarf is very dense: its mass is comparable to the Sun's, while its volume is comparable to the Earth's. A white dwarf's faint luminosity comes ...

'' (Issue #66), Chris Mitchell thought the artwork was "of very good quality", the price was reasonable, and the book was a worthy addition to the ''Fighting Fantasy'' collection.

References

External links

* *
House of Hell
on the official Fighting Fantasy website
House of Hell
on the Wizard Books website {{DEFAULTSORT:House of Hell 1984 fiction books Books by Steve Jackson (British game designer) Fighting Fantasy gamebooks Android (operating system) games IOS games