GAME SETUP + RULES

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GAME SETUP (~5-10 minutes)

  • Place the Prison Calendar + Trial Jury in the centre of the table, within view of all Players. Keep the Parole Day toilet marker nearby.

  • Separate each deck of cards, shuffle them individually and place them face-down in stacks within easy reach of all Players.

  • Place the blank Non-Player Inmate Records to one side, for later use.

  • Every Player takes 1 blank Player Inmate Record, 1 dry-erase marker and 1 set of coloured Pimp Stamps. Each Player should use a different Pimp Stamp colour.

  • Place 1 die within easy reach of everyone. Alternatively, Players may use their own dice.

WHAT EACH PLAYER NEEDS

At the start of a game, each player takes a reusable Player Inmate Record, a dry-erase marker pen and a set of Pimp Stamps in their chosen colour.

ENTER YOUR PERSONAL DETAILS

Enter your personal details (name, age, sex, and ‘race’) into the relevant fields on your Player Inmate Record, and draw a quick self-portrait Mugshot.

Note: The terms ‘Race’ and ‘Sex’ are used throughout the game to reflect current real-world US detention and inmate categorisation practices.

First Offence Edition: The First Offence Edition of Hell in the Cell uses a limited set of demographic categories: White, Black, Asian and Hispanic for Race, and Male or Female for Sex. When creating your Inmate Record, use these available categories as best you can. If none accurately describe you, however, write in what you actually are instead. Don’t let The System’s shitty paperwork stop you from being yourself. Future editions of Hell in the Cell are intended to include a broader range of demographic and identity options.

SEE WHAT YOU’VE BEEN CHARGED WITH

Each player then rolls 1 die and consults the charge table on their Player Inmate Record to determine the crime they’ve been accused of and imprisoned for. These supposed crimes determine their starting Prison Skill point(s) and any starting Contraband. Update your Player Inmate Record accordingly.

Your Inmate Record represents the System’s official version of who you are. Throughout the game, its contents – including your personal characteristics and Mugshot – may be altered whether you like it or not.

PAROLE DAY

Place the Parole Day Toilet Marker on the Calendar day on which you want the game to end, determining the duration of your game session.

  • 21 days is recommended for 2–3 players.

  • 14 days is recommended for 4–5 players.

  • 7 days is recommended for 6+ players.

CALENDAR EVENTS

Three types of Calendar Event can occur:

  • New Inmate Intake: A new Non-Player Inmate enters the cell.

  • Dominance Check: Non-Player Inmates compare their Prison Skills against the Player Inmates and use them against anyone they outrank.

  • Pressure Cooker: All Inmates gain +1 in every Prison Skill type.

Before the game begins, follow the steps below to populate the Prison Calendar with Events:

  1. Roll 1 die. Starting from Day One, move forward that many days along the Prison Calendar and circle New Inmate Intake on the day you land on.

  2. Roll again. From the New Inmate Intake, move forward that many days along the Prison Calendar and circle Domination Check.

  3. Roll again. From the Domination Check, move forward that many days along the Prison Calendar and circle Pressure Cooker.

  4. Roll again. From the Pressure Cooker, move forward that many days along the Prison Calendar and circle New Inmate Intake.

  5. Continue rolling and moving forward through the Prison Calendar in this way, circling Domination Check → Pressure Cooker → New Inmate Intake in order.

  6. Stop once the next Event would fall on or after Parole Day.

Example: Your first roll is 3, so circle New Inmate Intake on Day 3. Roll 2 next, move forward 2 days and circle Domination Check on Day 5. Roll 4, move forward 4 days and circle Pressure Cooker on Day 9. Roll 1, move forward 1 day and circle New Inmate Intake on Day 10.

GENERAL GAMEPLAY

Every Prison Calendar day follows the same basic sequence:

1. RESOLVE PRISON CALENDAR EVENTS FIRST

First, Players must resolve any Events scheduled for the current day.

2. PLAYERS TAKE THEIR TURNS

Starting with the first Player and continuing clockwise, a player’s turn consists of resolving all five steps outlined on their Inmate Record in order:

  1. Prison Life

  2. Pimping + Collecting Earnings

  3. Contraband

  4. Drug Addictions

  5. Prison Skills + Meltdowns

Player must always resolve these steps in order – even if something happens during one step that affects a later step. For example, if a Prison Life card grants all Players new Contraband, everyone but the player whose turn it currently is must still wait until their turn to use the newly gained Contraband. And if a Player gains a new Drug Addiction as a result of another Player’s use of Prison Skills during their turn, the Player who just gained the new Drug Addiction still has to wait until it is their turn again to resolve any Drug Addiction outcomes.

3. END THE PRISON CALENDAR DAY AND MOVE ONTO THE NEXT

Once every Player Inmate has completed their turn, cross off the current day on the Prison Calendar and progress onto the next calendar day.

Continue this process until you reach Parole Day.

At the beginning of your turn, draw and play 1 Prison Life card.

Prison Life cards represent the routine, often absurd and frequently dehumanising realities of incarceration. Prison Life cards sometimes also present System-imposed prejudiced judgements upon Inmates. When a card instructs any changes to an applicable Inmate’s age, sex, race, appearance or other characteristics, update their Inmate Record accordingly.

Playing your Prison Life card is mandatory. Read the card aloud and immediately resolve its instructions.

PIMPING

Pimping is an excellent way to earn bonus Contraband. Players can pimp out other Inmates via certain Pimping Prison Skills and Drug Addiction outcomes.

Only Inmates that currently own Contraband can be pimped out. To pimp out another Inmate, place a Pimp Stamp in your colour on one of their owned Contraband cards. A single Contraband item can carry Pimp Stamps from multiple Players.

When Contraband items with any Pimp Stamps applied to them are used, discarded, destroyed, or transferred to another Inmate, the applied Pimp Stamps are lost and must be removed.

And yes… you can pimp yourself out if you like.

COLLECTING EARNINGS

During Step 2 of their turn, Players collect 1 Contraband from the stack for every Contraband card in play currently bearing a Pimp Stamp in their colour.

Collecting Pimping earnings is mandatory.

OVERVIEW

Whilst navigating the hellish pressure-cooker environment, Inmates can collect and manage personal stashes of illicit items, dodgy favours and highly questionable resources. Contraband provides strategic options beyond unlocked Prison Skills – whether helping you manipulate your own Inmate Record, survive prison life, or simply find new ways to fuck with your cellmates.

CONTRABAND VISIBILITY

Newly acquired Contraband owned by a Player Inmate is kept face-down by default. Players can inspect their owned Contraband at any time.

Contraband owned by a Non-Player Inmate is always kept face-up and visible to everyone.

USING CONTRABAND

During Step 3 of their turn, a Player may use 1 owned item of Contraband. Resolve the card’s effect, then place it in the Contraband discard pile.

If a card offers multiple effects, choose one when it is used.

SHELVING CONTRABAND

Each Inmate keeps their owned Contraband together as their Contraband collection.

1 Contraband from your collection may be Shelved by tucking it beneath your Inmate Record. Shelved Contraband remains part of your collection, but is protected from effects that would steal, discard, transfer or otherwise remove it – unless a gameplay effect specifically instructs Players to Extract Shelved Contraband. When Extracted, simply return it to its owner’s normal Contraband collection.

You may Shelve or swap your Shelved Contraband during your Contraband step. Shelved Contraband retains any applied Pimp Stamps.

Shelved Contraband can still be used normally and still contributes its displayed value to your Final Score on Parole Day.

RISK VS REWARD

Owning Contraband can be useful, but is also risky, as Contraband owned by an Inmate counts as incriminating evidence on Parole Day. All Contraband in a Player’s possession on Parole Day contributes its displayed value to their Final Score:

Every Contraband card displays its Parole Day scoring value:

  • Red values increase an Inmate’s Final Score (bad).

  • Green values reduce an Inmate’s Final Score (good).

This means Players must constantly weigh the immediate value of keeping and using their stash against the risk of eventually being caught with it. If another player keeps a hold of a Contraband item despite repeatedly being pimped out for it, consider what that might tell you about its Parole Day value…

OVERVIEW

Despite the undeniable successes of the US healthcare system and the War on Drugs, it can be hard to avoid either willingly or forcibly taking up new addictions whilst in prison.

Each type of Drug Addiction has its own unique gameplay implications, ranging from blissful self-reflective highs that enable the considered changing of a Player’s traits, to tweaking out and losing everything – or, with the much harder stuff, running the risk of a psychotic Meltdown or fatal Overdose.

DRUG ADDICTION MINIGAMES

During Step 4 of their turn, Players must roll 1 die for every active Drug Addiction on their Inmate Record.

Drug Addictions are always resolved from top to bottom, in the order they appear on the Record. Roll once for the first active Drug Addiction and immediately resolve its outcome before moving down to the next.

Drug Addiction rolls are mandatory. If an outcome causes an Addiction to be gained or lost, or otherwise changes an Inmate Record, update it immediately.

PRISON SKILLS

All Inmates share five core Prison Skill types:

  • Violence

  • Dealing

  • Stealing

  • Hustling

  • Pimping

Each provides a thematic arsenal of actions that Players can attempt once they have accumulated the appropriate number of Skill points – from low-level abilities like sucker punches, spying and stealing each other’s Contraband, to more powerful abilities such as orchestrating another Inmate’s spiral into hardcore Drug Addiction, corrupting and manipulating the legal system itself, or outright murder.

Prison Skill points scale up and down as they are gained and lost throughout the game. Whenever a Player reaches a new Skill level, the corresponding Prison Skill becomes available to them.

USING PRISON SKILLS

During Step 5 of their turn, a Player may use 1 unlocked Prison Skill in total.

Using a Prison Skill is optional.

Players can use any Prison Skill action they have currently unlocked, following the instructions printed alongside it on their Player Inmate Record.

ATTEMPTING MURDER

When a Player uses the most powerful Violence Prison Skill, Murder, they must roll 1 die to determine whether the attempt succeeds:

  • Odds = FAIL

  • Evens = SUCCESS

If successful, the targeted Inmate is killed and immediately eliminated from the game.

If unsuccessful, the target survives and the Player’s Prison Skill action for that turn is still considered used.

MELTDOWNS

If a Player reaches 6 points in any Prison Skill type, they enter a Meltdown for that Skill type. Meltdowns can also be triggered by Drug Addictions and other gameplay effects.

A Meltdown is a highly volatile state of mind that takes control of the Prison Skills step away from the Player. Whilst a Player has any active Meltdowns, they cannot use any Prison Skills during Step 5.

When a Meltdown is entered, scribble across the corresponding Prison Skill row on the Player Inmate Record to show that it is active.

During Step 5, the affected Player must instead draw and resolve 1 Meltdown card for every active Meltdown, working through their Prison Skill types from top to bottom.

Meltdowns are not optional.

CLEARING MELTDOWNS

If a Meltdown is cleared, wipe the affected Prison Skill row clean and reset that Prison Skill type to 0 points.

Once a Player has cleared all of their active Meltdowns, they regain control of Step 5 and can once again choose to use an unlocked Prison Skill on future turns.

ELIMINATED INMATES

If an Inmate dies, they are eliminated from the game.

Discard all Contraband they owned, along with any Pimp Stamps applied to it. The dead Inmate no longer participates in normal gameplay and is excluded from Parole Day scoring.

HAUNTING THE TRIAL JURY

For dead Players, however, death doesn’t necessarily mean the end of the game.

Dead Players can continue participating as the haunted consciousness of the Trial Jury, manipulating the prejudices that will eventually decide the fate of their surviving former cellmates.

Once per Calendar day, each dead Player can activate or deactivate 1 Trial Jury member.

This gives eliminated Players the opportunity to construct either a wildly unpredictable or highly targeted Trial Jury for the people who were inconsiderate enough to survive them.

If a day on the Prison Calendar contains a Pressure Cooker Event, it must be resolved before Players take their turns.

During a Pressure Cooker Event, all Inmates gain +1 in every Prison Skill type, including Non-Player Inmates. Prison has a habit of making people considerably better at the exact things society supposedly wanted them to stop doing…

Immediately resolve any resulting Death Row executions for Non-Player Inmates, if applicable. If a Pressure Cooker event pushes any Players into a Meltdown, do not resolve those Meltdowns immediately – resolve them during Step 5 of the applicable Players’ turns as normal.

NON-PLAYER INMATES

As the game progresses, Non-Player Inmates will also be thrown into your increasingly overcrowded cell.

These blindly drawn and system-generated new cellmates arrive with their own unique characteristics and Prison Skills and can dramatically disrupt the existing prison hierarchy.

The characteristics and starting Prison Skills of each Non-Player Inmate are generated using the selected Inmate Record Data Source, meaning Players won’t know whether their newest cellmate will be a teenager flagged for minor possession or a high-profile multiple-felony offender loaded with dangerous charges.

Unlike Player Inmates, Non-Player Inmates do not take regular turns. Instead, they sit within the cell, accumulate Prison Skills and Contraband, and periodically assert themselves against Players via Dominance Checks.

And because the Players have already claimed the bunks for themselves, Non-Player Inmates have nowhere to hide their possessions; Contraband owned by Non-Player Inmates is always kept face-up and visible to everyone.

If a day on the Prison Calendar contains a New Inmate Event, it must be resolved before Players take their turns.

To add a new Non-Player Inmate to the cell:

  1. Take a blank Non-Player Inmate Record.

  2. Enter their arrival number in the box provided, beginning with #1 and numbering subsequent Non-Player Inmates in the order they arrive.

  3. Scan the QR code on the Record to access the online New Inmate Database.

  4. Generate a new Inmate using your chosen Inmate Record Data Source.

  5. Transfer their provided personal details and starting Prison Skill points onto their Inmate Record.

Non-Player Inmates possess their own unique, more standardised set of Prison Skills.

Unlike Player Inmates, they do not choose which Prison Skills to use. Their Skills are automatically triggered against applicable Players during Dominance Checks.

Skill levels 1–5 for each Prison Skill type have predetermined effects, shown on the Non-Player Inmate Record.

If a day on the Prison Calendar contains a Dominance Check Event, it must be resolved before Players take their turns.

As Non-Player Inmates are crammed into the cell, the prison hierarchy will inevitably be tested. A Dominance Check allows Non-Player Inmates to weigh their current Prison Skill points against all Players. If a Non-Player Inmate has more Skill points than a Player for any Prison Skill type, they use the corresponding Prison Skill against that Player.

If the Non-Player Inmate and Player have the same number of points, nothing happens between them for that Prison Skill type. They’re at the same level and neither outranks the other.

Go through each Non-Player Inmate in order of arrival, starting with Non-Player Inmate #1. For each one, complete their checks for every Prison Skill type from top to bottom before moving onto the next Non-Player Inmate.

Refer to the Prison Skills section of the Non-Player Inmate Record for the Prison Skill effects that must be applied.

If a Non-Player Inmate reaches 6 points in any Prison Skill type, they are immediately sent to Death Row, executed and eliminated from the game.

Discard any Contraband they owned and remove them from active play.

PAROLE DAY + HOW TO WIN

Throughout the course of a game, Trial Jury membership is populated at random through Prison Life cards, but can also be influenced through the strategic use of certain Contraband, Hustling Prison Skills and other gameplay effects.

Each Trial Jury member brings their own uniquely hateful prejudice, bias or vested interest to the eventual Parole Day hearing.

When a Trial Jury member is activated, mark them as active on the Trial Jury and sketch a quick portrait of them.

Their effect remains active unless they are removed or deactivated.

When the Prison Calendar reaches the Parole Day Toilet Marker, normal Calendar progression ends.

Players do not take normal turns, and no Prison Calendar events are played.

Instead, calculate the Final Score of every surviving Inmate, including both Player and Non-Player Inmates.

An Inmate’s Final Score is determined by the criminal factors and evidence accumulated on their Record and around them throughout the game, including:

  • Prison Skill points (+1 point per Prison Skill)

  • Applied Pimp Stamps (+2 points per applied Pimp Stamp)

  • Active Drug Addictions (+3 points per active Drug Addiction)

  • Active Meltdowns (+5 per active Meltdown)

  • Owned Contraband (+/- any points as described on owned Contraband)

  • Any applicable Trial Jury modifiers

The scoring value of each factor is shown wherever it appears in the game:

  • Red values increase an Inmate’s Final Score (bad).

  • Green values reduce an Inmate’s Final Score (good).

Any Contraband still in an Inmate’s possession on Parole Day counts towards their Final Score. This applies to Player and Non-Player Inmates.

Once all relevant values and Trial Jury effects have been applied, calculate the Final Score of every surviving Inmate – including Non-Player Inmates – and write it on their Inmate Record beside their Mugshot.

HOW TO WIN

The Inmate with the lowest Final Score wins the game, having successfully presented themselves to the Trial Jury as the least threat to society – regardless of how they may have actually conducted themselves throughout their incarceration.

Every other surviving Inmate is deemed a continuing threat to society and sent to Death Row.

As Parole Day approaches, Players can weaponise everything they’ve learned in prison to try to make good in the eyes of the law, strategically clearing their Records of damning criminal factors and incriminating evidence that would otherwise increase their Final Score.

Alternatively, they can game the legal system by framing, antagonising and stitching up their cellmates to sabotage their chances of Parole instead.

It’s entirely possible to win by simply being the best of a bad bunch.

LAST INMATE STANDING

And if every other Inmate is dead, congratulations, that also counts as ‘winning’.

SOLIDARITY VICTORY

If all surviving Player Inmates achieve exactly the same Final Score on Parole Day, regardless of any Non-Player Inmate scores, they earn Parole together and share the victory.

Players may therefore choose to turn everything they’ve learned against The System itself – manipulating their Records, Contraband and circumstances to bring their Final Scores into alignment rather than tearing each other apart.

Sometimes the only way to beat The System is to stop beating each other. But it won’t be easy.

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