Being Chased in a Maze

[Grogg of the North]

In the near future the PCs in my game are going to be chased. In a maze! Amazing, huh?

I'd rather not draw out the maze on paper as they are pursued through it. I'm trying to go for the feel that "You don't have time to make a map! Run!" and I want to discourage the meta-game thinking of "Well, we haven't checked out over there yet."

I had a couple of thoughts on how I'd handle this, and I was hoping for your input.

1) Get a bunch of cheap ceramic tiles. Arrange them on the table to show the PC's what they see. I'm afraid that this is one of those things that sounds neat in my head but would take up a lot of time as I constantly have to shuffle the tiles based on what the PCs see.

2) Just have the map in front of me and keep track of it myself. This is probably the easiest one to do. I'd only have to draw if it became necessary. While there may be some confusion among the PCs of what passage goes where since they can't see the map, I could try and explain that as "you're in a hurry, the maze is very twisty, and you haven't been making maps".

3) Get one of those fancy computer programs and have it track it all for me?

4) Something else entirely?

Thanks for the thoughts!

 

[Ed_Laprade]

I don't have any advice, just a point of possible interest. If you take all turns in one direction, you'll end up in the center of most mazes. If your players know this, it probably won't matter whether they can see the map or not. Also, they might well decide to stop someplace where they think they can set up a good ambush. Be prepared for players who do the unexpected!

 

[Hypersmurf]

I don't have any advice, just a point of possible interest. If you take all turns in one direction, you'll end up in the center of most mazes.

Not much help while you're being chased, since this strategy tends to result in entering a lot of dead ends and retracing steps. First or second time you do that, there'll be a monster between you and getting back on the path...

Grogg, what system are you using? This sounds like the sort of thing you could abstract with a Skill Challenge type of mechanic - you don't care whether they turn left or right at this intersection, you care whether they're geting closer or further from their destination, and whether their pursuer is closing or falling behind, and whether they've retained their sense of direction or gotten hopelessly turned around.

Depending on how you set up the required skill checks, they might reach their destination ahead of the pursuer, but have no idea how to get out again; or they might be caught before they reach their goal, but know eactly where they are; or some other combination of results.

-Hyp.

 

[Grogg of the North]

We're using D&D 3.5. I'm not too worried about crunchy mechanics for finding their way as I'm curious how other members here would present this to their groups.

 

[SnowleopardVK]

To emphasize a chase mechanic, and that they don't really have the time to map, and that stopping to make an ambush would be a bad idea, try going for the idea of the implacable enemy. Outright impossible to kill at this stage of the game, and easily able to take down the party. Their one advantage is speed. They're faster, if they keep moving they can keep ahead of it, but they can't risk stopping. Stopping for too long means death, because it's coming. It's always coming. It can't be bargained with. It can't be reasoned with. It doesn't feel pity, or remorse, or fear. And it absolutely will not stop, ever, until the PCs are dead.

(Not all players will be cool with the idea of an enemy they can't kill. Use your own judgement based on your knowledge of your group.)

 

[ComradeGnull]

Is this a stone-'n'-brick maze- that is a real, physical, immutable maze- or a quasi-magical maze that can rearrange itself in response to what the PC's do or don't do? In the latter case you can reduce the amount of actual drawing and mapping that you have to do by having things like pathways that circle back on themselves- unless you take a certain sequence of turns or find and throw a switch, you always end up back in the same room. In this way, PCs with an attacker unaware of the nature of the maze could end up chasing eachother in circles for a while.

You could also close off untaken paths to prevent players from backtracking- in essence, the maze becomes a 'one way' path where it doesn't matter what parts of the maze they have already seen- they can really only move ahead, in which case you can use random generation to create new sections as they appear and throw away the old ones. This makes a certain amount of sense anyway if the players are being chased- if you need to run away from something, running towards it is not a great tactic.

If you want an implacable enemy like [MENTION=6677945]SnowleopardVK[/MENTION] mentioned, you could use something like the Cleaners from Jim Henson's Labyrinth- essentially a big siege engine with drills and blades mounted on the front being driven by a couple of peddling goblins. You're going to end up as a finely ground paste if you try to turn around and engage it in a section of tunnel that is only as wide and tall as the face of the machine.

Or the ultimate threat: David Bowie musical number.

(Did I mention I watched Labyrinth with the assistance of some, uh, mood enhancers last month? Thus the origin of all these suggestions. )

 

[Hand of Evil]

Flow chart and / or random table.

right - left - right - right - PIT - right - right - room 3 doors - right - dead end - left - SPIKES - right - EXIT

The problem, your players have to feel like they are being chased, you need a mechanic for that. This is fear, flight over fight, some of this can be done with descriptive adjectives but a little trick I use, egg timer on the table and zero means DEATH...or something else.

 

[Philotomy Jurament]

I don't get all this talk of special mechanics for a maze chase. I don't think you need anything special. You need something to fear that prompts flight. You need the maze. And you need movement rates.

Something to Fear -- I imagine the OP already has this one covered. But my suggestion is tough, level-draining undead. Nothing puts fear into *players* like level-draining undead.

A Maze -- Two observations: first, when you're *in* a maze, rather than seeing it "from above," even a simple one can be very tough; second, if you want a maze that facilitates a chase there need to be few, if any, truly dead ends.

Movement Rates -- This shouldn't be a problem.

As for managing it, I would *NOT* use tiles or a map the players can see. I think if they have a birds-eye view it takes away from the sense of urgency/immersion. I'd just track their place on a DM map. I'd keep the action moving. Rapid fire questions about "what do you do" and "which way do you go." Rapid fire descriptions. Mysterious dice rolling, especially if they pause at all.

Chases in dungeons of any sort can also benefit from things like opportunities to distract or delay the pursuer. Classic examples are dropping food, dropping treasure, dropping other stuff the chaser may want, flaming oil, hold portal, et cetera.

 

[Flatus Maximus]

Do NOT do any mapping for the PCs. Any time the PCs move within the maze, you simply say, "You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike." If you wanna be old school: Every once in a while, have a thief wander by, but make it clear that if they attack the thief, they'll probably die.

 

[Grogg of the North]

Do NOT do any mapping for the PCs. Any time the PCs move within the maze, you simply say, "You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike." If you wanna be old school: Every once in a while, have a thief wander by, but make it clear that if they attack the thief, they'll probably die.

"It is very dark here, you are likely to be eaten by a grue."

I tried using the zork 1 maze once years ago. My players did not appreciate it.