Weekend in Hell

Weekend in Hell is a gamer slang term originating amongst the fandom of the Dungeons & Dragons setting of Ravenloft. It refers to a Ravenloft game - be it a single adventure, a "mini-campaign", or a full-fledged campaign - in which the party takes up the role of Outlanders (adventurers hailing from worlds outside of the Demiplane of Dread) who have been stranded in Ravenloft, usually with the implicit or explicit goal of finding a way to leave Ravenloft behind.

As Ravenloft is a notoriously harsh setting, and the idea was that your visit would be intentionally brief, hence "Weekend in Hell".

The term grew out of the fact that this basic campaign style was the assumed default in Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, a natural extension of the special modular nature of the original I6: Ravenloft and I10: Ravenloft II: House on Gryphon Hill adventures.

In 3rd edition, this style of Ravenloft game fell out of favor, with the D20 update to the Ravenloft campaign setting focusing on trying to play native Ravenloft PCs as opposed to Outlanders.