An invisible maze

[Ed_Laprade]

Chalk is your friend. (Well, if you're a PC.) Be sure to determine how high the maze is before they enter. (99 times out of 100 they'll never even think to check!) Do they have any digging equipment/spells? Most mazes can be negotiated simply by taking all right hand turns. If the players know this it should be a lot easier for them than you might think.

 

[Orius]

A real RBDM would make sure any enemies in that maze were also invisible, and preferably silenced as well.

 

[Mistah J]

A real RBDM would make sure any enemies in that maze were also invisible, and preferably silenced as well.

No no... incorporeal...

 

[MarkB]

No no... incorporeal...

Invisible, silenced, incorporeal, and with Gaze attacks.

 

[gamerprinter]

this thread makes me want to run an invisable maze.

But game / edtiton is important.
In 4e a single monster or trap rarely a threat or challange. So that exploring the maze slowly would mean that the tradtional challanges, like a pit trap or single monster are ineffective. (One of my players will always take a short rest. ALWAYS.)

If I want to use a maze like this in 4e it really needs to have heavy time pressure, and multiple enemies that can use the maze to thier advantage.
It also might help to design the maze to match mosnster tactics, long halways for archers/ lots of turns and moveable walls for hit and run types.

BTW Maze in sky? made of win.

Time is always an issue in my games, every session. There are plots being run around the PCs always and sometimes they're a part, sometimes it runs parallel, sometimes they are left behind. Adventures, dungeons and invisible mazes aren't places PCs can just 'rest'. If the inhabitants of the maze, whom are aware of the PCs presence, don't get them, the item lost in this maze that needs recovered - the antidote for the arcane fiendish poison flowing through the princess's veins is hidden here and must be recovered before its too late... or some such plotline.

Dungeons are not static places for PCs to visit kill things, steal stuff and gain XP, there's always much more going on and deadlines to meet. And rest's mean loss of time, others are 'winning the game' not the PCs because they can't keep up.

Of course I don't play 4e, nor played 3x like that either, never understood the mentality of 'I've got to rest' unless the entire party is spent for some huge battle. My player's aren't so spoiled as to get such a convenience.

GP

 

[Dog Moon]

Invisible, silenced, incorporeal, and with Gaze attacks.

If you cannot see the invisible medusa, can you still be petrified?

 

[Saeviomagy]

I think the major problems are going to be that it's a rare maze that makes for a fun or interesting game of D&D. I doubt that making things harder to map is going to improve that.

To those who've said they've run fun mazes: how? What did you do?

 

[Jhaelen]

I think the major problems are going to be that it's a rare maze that makes for a fun or interesting game of D&D. I doubt that making things harder to map is going to improve that.

This.

I remember in one game we cut a circular hole into a piece of paper and used it to hide the majority of the maze, moving the visible area around while navigating it.

I still wouldn't exactly call it being fun, but at least that way it didn't take much time

P.S.:
Didn't the AD&D adventure module "Needle" include an invisible maze?

 

[Evilhalfling]

Time is always an issue in my games, every session.
*snip*
Of course I don't play 4e, nor played 3x like that either, ...
GP

4e has 'daily' rests which are 8 hrs down time. These are easy enough to discourage/plan for. My players are usually reasonable about when or if they are taken. There are also 5 min breaks which restore HP and some powers (including healing spells) These are harder to discourage, and they are the bane of small traps, and single wandering monsters.

My problem player has come up with some fairly ingenous ways to ensure that the party gets these breaks, including carrying nails of sealing, fixing a mine-shaft elevator so that it was stuck in the shaft, vigerously running away or using enough diplomacy (a crit, for 42 total@ level 5) to get the guards to make them sandwitches, once even blowing a time pressure mission.

Although we still laugh about the sandwitches, it was thrown on top of a more reasonable argument once he saw the roll/total.

 

[MarkB]

If you cannot see the invisible medusa, can you still be petrified?

If it's being played by a RBDM, yes.

Otherwise, probably not. But a medusa with at-will invisibility and high Stealth would be a scary opponent.