A downloadable game

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You have been held in Hell for hundreds of years.  Now, finally, you have been given a chance to escape; by winning the golf tournament held every 666 years!  Which really is an awful choice, but it's the best you've got.  Can you defeat the other competitors to escape from Golf Hell, or will you be trapped here for all eternity?

Hell Holes is a competitive fantasy golf dice game for 1-6 players.  Each time it is your turn, you will select your club and roll dice to see how your shot went.  Hopefully, you stayed on the course and did not stray into any of the fantastic dangers of the Circle you are competing on at the time.  As you play your way through the nine Circles of Old Hell Downs, the demonic Caddy will interfere by offering special clubs to whoever is in last place at the end of a circle.  Only by playing better than your fellow golfers (or maybe being luckier than them) can you escape Golf Hell!

You will need a pair of ten-sided dice (or an electronic dice roller, or a numbered spinner, or some other way to generate random numbers between 1 and 10) to play Hell Holes.

Purchases at $6.00 or above add a community copy to the pool for other community members who may be interested in the game, but unable or unwilling to purchase it, to claim and enjoy Hell Holes themselves.

StatusReleased
CategoryPhysical game
Rating
Rated 4.6 out of 5 stars
(8 total ratings)
AuthorAryxymaraki
TagsFantasy, Folklore, Non violent, Turn-based
Average sessionAbout an hour
LanguagesEnglish

Purchase

Buy Now$4.00 USD or more

In order to download this game you must purchase it at or above the minimum price of $4 USD. You will get access to the following files:

Hell Holes.pdf 2.2 MB

Exclusive content

Support this game at or above a special price point to receive something exclusive.

Community Copy

If you can't afford the asking price for Hell Holes, or it would cause you undue hardship to rearrange finances to pay for it, or you're just getting into games and not sure if you'd like it, or you think it's dumb but your friends keep telling you to read it, or any other reason, you can claim a community copy that has been kindly donated by another community member.  All purchases at $6.00 or more add a copy to the pool. 

Comments

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(1 edit) (+1)

Played this with some friends. It was pretty fun, but we only played 4 holes of it.

There were a few things we were unsure about.

  • How often do the Control and Power abilities from the Progression Rules get to be used? We wound up landing on once per round for Power and as many times per round for Control as you have points.
  • Do effects count when you're teeing? We ruled that they didn't, but it's unclear if, for example, the pits on Circle 4 applied when you were just beginning the round or only if you landed on them.
  • Are scores just counted up from zero each hole? Or do you subtract the par from the number of strokes plus penalties? We ruled that it was just counted up from zero.
  • Do the special clubs get handed out to everyone with the highest score? Is it based on total score or just for that hole? We gave everyone with the highest total score the rewards, which resulted in two of us getting the Locked Iron and two of us getting the Ghost Wedge.
  • Do the points from the Progression Rules also get handed out to everyone with the highest score? And again, is it based on the total score or the score for that circle? We gave everyone tied for last in the total score a point.

It felt like some of the events were a bit too rare. None of us fell off on The Spire despite four of us playing. In fact, I don't think hooking or slicing came up at all until after one of us had the Locked Iron, which wound up negating it. It didn't happen again. Seems a bit too rare to be a real problem, especially once you factor in some of the Progression abilities. Maybe I'll try this again with one player and no Progression.

One of the people I played with mentioned it could be fun if there was more interaction between players somehow. I think I agree. It'd be cool to have more choice over what to do so it's not just picking a club and adding up your rolls every turn. Maybe if you could attack other players or interfere with their stroke.

Thanks for making this! I got it from the Supernatural TTRPGs bundle. This is a fun little concept for a game. Decent way to spend a few hours. I had a few memorable moments, like my ball stopping right on the edge of the sloped highway and barely avoiding landing in a pit. 

I do also really enjoy having the opportunity to actually do a lot of dice rolling since it doesn't always come up in more roleplay focused games. Keep up the good work! :)

(+1)

Thanks for the comment and I'm glad you enjoyed it overall!

To answer questions;

1) Power can be optionally used every time you roll dice, but you have to use it all or none.  Control can be used once per round per point (the way you did it).
2) Correct, effects don't count while you're teeing off.
3) Correct, scores are counted up from zero; par is only there as a suggestion and for your competition in solo play.
4) Only one person gets the special club each hole (I believe highest score overall was the intent), unless there's a tie for highest score, in which case everyone who tied gets it.
5) Progression is intended to be for the highest score on that particular hole, not highest score overall.  That said, for both clubs and progression, it's not a big deal if you do overall instead

Thanks for the clarification!

(+1)

Hell Holes is a competitive fantasy golf dice game for 1-6 players. As one of the damned souls, your only chance to escape Golf Hell is to win in the golf tournament! Each of the 9 circles of hell has unique features that change the game.

(+3)

golf balls i love balls and golf

(+2)

Funny and goofy way to pass some time. Recommend that every player use their own calculator.

Some minor notes: 

  • Circle 5 has no zone between 221-250. I considered this Obsidian Fairway.
  • There is no way to hit between 40-60 yards, so landing in the Molten Caldera in Circle 6 at 390 is doubly punishing. A 3 Iron that gives 30 or 40 yards would solves this and a few other situations where a mid-distance swing is wanted.
  • Putting theoretically requires hitting the precise number? We decided that putts went in as long as they rolled the minimum yardage.

The  punishment is part of the experience, of course.

(+1)

Actually it seems putting is nicer than that, because it says 1d10 feet,  and then on page 4 it says "If you’re putting, and your Distance is not a round number of yards, you can round it however you want. (You can round 140.1 up or 140.9 down if you want. It’s fine.)

Google tells me 1 yard = 3 feet, so that suggests that you have a zone of 2 feet to either side where you're allowed to "round into the hole". Still at best a 50/50 in that case though!

(+3)

Heya! Played this on a date, it was great fun. The only problem was I, a person who knows nothing about golf, did not know what the par number did. But we had much laughter and decided the caddy lost the score cards to sabotage one character bc it wanted to date them.

(+1)

Awesome!  Thanks for letting me know, I'm glad you had fun with it :)

Par as a golf concept doesn't really matter for gameplay, unless you're playing solo, so it's fine to ignore!  It just means that the course creator expected it to take about that many strokes to get in the hole.  For solo play, since there's no one else to try to get lower than, the goal is to get a total score lower than the sum of par on all 9 holes; but with more than one player, it's not really used.