DMs Guild Review: Happy Jack’s Funhouse

“Happy Jack loves you!”

Happy Jack’s Funhouse is a short horror adventure by Jeff C. Stevens and Remley Farr.

Part of the Freak Show Collection alongside The Madhouse of Tasha’s Kiss and Annalyse’s Revenge, it’s an adamantine best seller also available for the Roll20 and Fantasy Grounds VTT, as well as in a physical, softcover book. The adventure is for a party of around 6th or 7th level, but there are scaling options for 3rd all the way up to 10th if need be.

Disclaimer: We were provided with a free digital copy of this product.

The Story & Setting

Happy Jack is a very, very happy clown who brings lots of happiness to people everywhere. You might think I’m being sarcastic, but that’s an accurate assessment of Jack… Well, it was, up until now. You see, when Jack arrived at his latest destination, everything started out fine – he set up his Funhouse, his little attractions and treats, he entertained everyone with his group – and then he kidnapped a bunch of children.

The players will have to enter the Funhouse, an extradimensional space of fun and wonders, and bring back the children – all the while facing various threats, including the Funhouse workers, all kinds of traps and tricks, and, of course, Jack himself at the end. There’s a hallway full of funhouse mirrors and distorting reflections (and more), carnival games that make you bleed from your eyes, and laughing demons, just to name a few.

I don’t want to get into spoilers, but I will say that Jack can be reasoned with – to an extent. He is a victim himself, manipulated by dark magic, and he can be persuaded to let the children go – as long as the players have done their due diligence and some proper investigation, of course, in order to discover his past.

There are a lot of interesting and unique characters along the adventure that the players can interact with. Besides Jack himself, there are several other Funhouse workers that they can interact with, as well as the kidnapped children – Jack has a unique ability to create an “adult aspect” of a child, creating a personality out of their imagined adulthoods. These aspects roam the Funhouse and are mostly hostile towards the players, but they can give insight towards both the children and Jack himself.

As for the setting, the Funhouse is quite worthy of its name – twisting corridors, mirror mazes, roller coasters, animatronic vendors and more. Though personally, some anachronistic stuff felt a bit out of place. I understand that it’s supposed to remind me of old slasher movies, but chainsaws that run on gasoline and halogen lights don’t really fit in with my concept of Faerun – though that’s a personal gripe, and you can easily change the wording around. I know there’s some high-tech stuff going around in the Forgotten Realms, but we don’t have the time for that rant right now.

Layout & Art

At the beginning of the supplement, there is a chapter with some general explanations and information, as well as guidelines on how to scale most encounters up or down. There’s also an adventure primer, with the background as well as plot hooks and introductions. After that, there’s a section for each “room” of the Funhouse, with its description, encounters, NPCs, loot, et cetera. Since the area is somewhat heavily interconnected, some rooms might be out of order from how your group will encounter them, but it doesn’t get confusing.

Information is neatly separated, with different colored boxes for when you need to read a description verbatim or when a character is talking. There are also hyperlinks included whenever a table or chart is mentioned, same with the creatures, so you can quickly find the information without scrolling up and down – a very welcome feature, considering the PDF is over 60 pages long.

At the end of the supplement, there are some additional roll tables, charts, and the statblocks for the new creatures, including more specific guidelines for scaling, as well as the full maps (which you also get as separate high quality files of course, as well as blank versions for your players).

There’s plenty of art scattered throughout, especially for the more unique encounters. Each piece is exceptional, including of course, the front cover – Jack is indeed very, very happy with his big smile.

Extras

Besides the new creatures and items, there are 2 additional subclasses included if you get the PDF version: Jester for the Rogue and the College of the Clown for the Bard – also available on their own as a separate supplement, Happy Jack’s Rare Subclasses (also available as a Roll20 addon).

Final Thoughts

Happy Jack’s Funhouse is one of those adventures that’s hard to miss – especially considering it’s still one of the most successful ones in the DM’s Guild. It’s a great pick for a horror one-shot (especially for Halloween), and if you haven’t already, consider checking out our review of The Madhouse of Tasha’s Kiss – which has a loose connection with this one – and the Freak Show Collection for a nice horror bundle.

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