Seven Little Horror’s is a public domain German language role playing game. You control a party of three monsters, out of a group of 10, who roam the country-side visiting villages/dungeons trying to collect seven objects and one key. Obtaining these allows your party to begin the decisive battle of the game.
At the start of the game, each character in the party is chosen to be male or female, along with a race (Waxor, Gnome, Orge, Hunch, Megrim or Thauma) and a class which dictates magic preference. A number of statistics are then randomly assigned based on this information. Vitality relates to the base damage a character inflicts per round. Hit-points is the damage the character can take. There are also spell-points in six different types of magic: Psychic, Vampire, Magic, Devil, Voodoo and Banshee. Only magic is used in combat, and different opponents will be sensitive to different types of magic.
The party begins on an overworld map which shows 19 villages. Some of these allow your party members to heal, to level-up, to save the game or to exchange characters. There are also dungeons labeled “Level 1” to “Level 10” according to the dangerousness of their inhabitants. When these are entered, the perspective changes to a first person perspective in a 3D maze. These mazes may be navigated by clicking in the direction of movement. Clicking on some portraits on walls reveals secret passages, and landing on some squares will rotate the party. In the “Level” dungeons, an auto-map in the top left side of the screen updates as you move.
Combat can occur randomly on the overworld map, or at specific locations in the dungeons. A picture of your opponent is shown and only a single player character can engage in combat per round. There are three main options. To greet the monster, to run from it, or to attack with one of the six magic types. On attack, spell points are deducted and the damage inflicted is related to the spell points left, the character’s vitality, susceptibility of the monster to that magic type, and a race or class bonus.
After each battle, loot (gold-pieces) is collected. Experience points are also assigned to the combatants, with the character striking the killing blow receiving the bulk of the points. At regularly spaced intervals, the players can level up which increases vitality by one with more substantial increases to maximum hit-points.
