D&D 5E Running a Maze: Is there a better way to do it?

[Staccat0]

I'm curious if there is a better way to run a maze. Are there any tips or tricks to make it more mechanically interesting?
Or does it really just boil down to slowly drawing a map as the players navigate, adding some traps.. maybe a teleporter?
There HAS to be a way to make it more interesting.

 

[Awesome Adam]

Don't let them draw a map.

If they insist on drawing a map, use gradual inclines and elevations so that the tunnels overlap, making any map they draw overly complicated, until they give up on drawing a map.

 

[abelmort]

Put them in a tesseract: http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?78915-Piratecat-s-dungeon-design-fun-with-tesseracts!

 

[RangerWickett]

I ran the finale of a campaign involving the Labyrinth of Baphomet, which had a ground of piled bones and walls of mortared elephant tusks, over which a sky of stormclouds red in the sunset drizzled blood. There was a time limit because the labyrinth was slowly flooding with blood.

In truth they weren't physically in the labyrinth, but had been caught in a psychic attack that trapped their minds in a projection of the labyrinth, and if they could not escape in time their minds would be destroyed, leaving them as feral beasts.

The actual map was fairly simple (I can't find exactly what I used, but it was something like this: http://www.astrolog.org/labyrnth/art/3start.gif), but it had lots of circles so mapping it would be an incredible challenge, and they didn't have time anyway. Also, the entire village they were protecting has its inhabitants scattered around the maze, so the party has to decide how long they can spare rescuing people and how fast they want to look for the exit.

Oh, and there are demonic minotaurs, and a few townsfolk who've gone mad.

And whenever the PCs kill anyone, the walls shift, eliminating some options for how to escape.

After a few minutes the blood is deep enough to slow them down. Eventually it's too deep and they have to use the corpse of a giant monster (one they'd killed earlier in the campaign) as a raft. So they're whiteredwater rafting through a labyrinth. And as they near the exit an aspect of Baphomet tries to bar their way, leaping between the walls, attacking them with his infernal spear. It only takes one PC getting out of the labyrinth in order to stop the Bad Thing that's driving everyone mad, but most PCs were blood-thirsty and tried to kill the boss, which nearly got them killed.

It was a cool scenario, where the labyrinth was backdrop, and precise navigation wasn't important.

 

[jbOKgamer]

I ran a maze with 36 different equal size room tiles. Some of the tiles had 1 exit, many with 2 exits, some with 3 exits, and just few with 4 exits. I think the tiles were 4x4 or 5x5 in size and I arranged all tiles in a 6x6 pattern. I mentioned has the players approached the maze they could hear clock like gears noises. After each person acted I would roll 2d6, this would tell me which tile to rotate clockwise 90 degrees. I would use first d6 as across and second d6 down. I think this made interesting maze experience since after each person some the walls shifted in random. The players had to be ready to adapt to changing landscape. I placed a Minotaur in the maze for little extra conflict. In future I might add another dice roll to determine between clockwise and counterclockwise for rotation.

 

[Staccat0]

Put them in a tesseract: http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?78915-Piratecat-s-dungeon-design-fun-with-tesseracts!

This is actually great advice thanks. Something like this will let me make a "maze" but still let the players feel like they have agency beyond wandering around and using chaulk.

EDIT: Ah! A few good ideas! Thanks!

 

[GX.Sigma]

I'm curious if there is a better way to run a maze. Are there any tips or tricks to make it more mechanically interesting?
Or does it really just boil down to slowly drawing a map as the players navigate, adding some traps.. maybe a teleporter?
There HAS to be a way to make it more interesting.

There isn't. Solving a maze is inherently boring, and not conducive to fun or social interaction. There's a reason I bought this book

and not this book.

A maze can be a cool element in an adventure, but solving the maze should not be the adventure. For the love of Vecna, don't just make the players sit there and solve a maze for 4 hours.

 

[Staccat0]

There isn't. Solving a maze is inherently boring, and not conducive to fun or social interaction. There's a reason I bought this book

and not this book.

A maze can be a cool element in an adventure, but solving the maze should not be the adventure. For the love of Vecna, don't just make the players sit there and solve a maze for 4 hours.

Haha, You're right of course. I just wondered if there were techniques to "game it up"

I suppose a modified version of a 4e Skill Challenge would kinda add some narrative sweep to it if done correctly? Kinda just covering the navigation aspect in a montage...

 

[strider13x]

Skill challenge. This allows you to describe the scene rather than focus on the tedium of map drawing. Failures lead to lost time or fights, requires 3 successes in a row to find the end. Time should be essential to make it important enough for the players to want to complete!

 

[GMMichael]

Two solutions to take some of the boring out of a maze:

1) Just give the players the map. If it's a respectable maze, they'll still have trouble getting through it.

2) Go abstract. Tell them they're in a maze, run the encounters normally, but use their navigator's (or party leader) contest results to determine how soon they escape. We all know what a natural 20 would achieve! EDIT: Or in other words, skill challenge. (Thanks [MENTION=6701931]strider13x[/MENTION]!)