One Page Dungeon Review #2 - The Haunting of Hainsley Hall

A great, spooky fun-house dungeon (er, mansion)

It’s already been a month (a long one, for me at least) and I’m back with another one-page dungeon review! My goal is to sift through the vast world of these compact adventures to find the real gems and hopefully save you some time.

Today we're looking at "The Haunting of Hainsley Hall," a simple haunted house (written by a legend, and illustrated by another legend) that promises mystery and some spooky shenanigans.

Michael Prescott (of Trilemma Adventures Fame) and Skerples (of the best Monster Book out there, among many other gems) came together to make this adventure.

B.L.U.F. (Bottom Line Up Front)

This one is cool. It is a fantastic choice for a low-level party (or any level party, really), especially if you want to inject a bit of mystery and non-combat problem-solving into your game. It's almost zero-prep, easily dropped into any setting, and can suit just about any level of party.

• Recommended if:

  • Your party wants a break from mortal danger

  • You want a fun, spooky session

  • Your party has fun with role-play

  • You can handle a good bit of improv

• Not recommended if:

  • Your players are hack-n-slash types who get bored with no fighting

  • Your players get bored with role-play

  • You dislike the idea of playing many different characters in one session.

Prep Needed (higher is better): 10/10

• You can slot this anywhere outside a town, city, or village. In less than 10 minutes of reading you’ll be ready to go.

Formatting: 9/10

• Easy to read, the structure of the house is very simple but in an intentional way. Each room could contain a secret passage to another random room. This would be annoying in a serious adventure, but I find it somewhat charming in a fun-house adventure like this one.

Setting neutral: 8/10

• Well, ghosts tend to exist in fantasy. In this particular adventure, you need to either be a medium, a cat, a wizard, drunk, terrified, or insane if you want to see the ghosts. This may go against the general rules for ghosts in some home settings, but I think it would be easy enough to wave it away as some local curse/enchantment.

Interesting: 9/10

• The premise is fantastically unique and engaging. It brilliantly flips the traditional "haunted house" trope on its head by having the ghosts hire the party to deal with a living person. This immediately sets it apart and promises a memorable session. The diverse cast of ghosts and the eccentric hermit add layers of potential interaction and role-playing opportunities.

The Mansion Itself

Premise

"The Haunting of Hainsley Hall" begins with a compelling hook: the locals know the mansion is haunted, and they're right. However, the twist is that the thirteen ghosts who haunt the place are the one’s compaining. They have a drug-addicted, romance novel-writing squatter in their home and they want her to leave, as she is "unfashionable".

The ghosts have contacted Madame Anna, a medium, who hires the adventurers to get rid of the hermit. This setup is clever and provides immediate, unusual motivation.

Encounters

The random encounters are the beating heart of this adventure, as the rooms only have dressing. Instead of focusing on combat, players will encounter a delightful and varied cast of thirteen ghosts, each with a brief, evocative description that sparks the imagination. To name a few:

• Baron Fisbick, who was murdered by his wife.

• The Twins, who died from a tragic bubblebath accident.

• Rex, a spaniel who looks more "like a dachshund now" after being run over.

• Lady Martha, flirtatious, was strangled by her jealous husband.

• Mister Gristam, the poet who secretly loves the Hermit.

Beyond these named spectral residents, there are also general atmospheric events like "Ominous Groan", "Eerie laughter", and "Crash of thunder", as well as a couple chances at some treasure.

The random appearance of "The Hermit. Flitting about on drugs" adds to the unpredictability and provides spontaneous opportunities for interaction.

Lots of fun. But, if you’re not down for some role-play, this will be a rough one. This sort of adventure will come with lots of winging-it.

Rooms

The dungeon (or rather, haunted mansion) is presented with a simple, intuitive layout thanks to the exceptional isometric illustration. Each of the twelve numbered locations, plus the High Gable, is concisely described. But, all you get is set dressing, as the random encounters are really the bread and butter of this adventure. The set dressing, while simple, provides enough to give some flavor and ambiance without have read-aloud descriptions.

Many of the rooms have opportunity for loot, from treasure to potentially useful items such as spyglasses and candles.

There isn’t much to dig into with the rooms, because this really is different from a typical dungeon. It simply isn’t meant to have the same structure.

The inclusion of the secret passages, with a 50% chance per room leading to a random other room introduces a dynamic element, that will likely confuse your players. I think that shit’s hilarious, because this is meant to be a strange and confusing adventure.

Conclusion

"The Haunting of Hainsley Hall" is an exceptional one-page adventure that fully demonstrates the creative potential of the format. It confidently steps away from typical combat encounters to deliver a social, investigative, and atmospheric experience. The core premise is brilliant, the randomized ghost encounters are full of unique character, and the detailed isometric map is very fun to look at.

The only exception is that this isn’t always the perfect one-shot dungeon for any random session. It provides a certain atmosphere, and that is very deliberate.

This adventure is truly zero-prep, easy to read, and provides abundant, unique role-playing opportunities. It's a fantastic choice for GMs looking to offer their players something memorable and distinctly different.

Final Judgement: 9/10. An awesome spooky, hip-pocket, halloween, pallate-cleanser, whatever other thing type of adventure. You should absolutely keep this on standby, especially if you want to give your players players a (most likely) fighting-free session.