An invisible maze

[Mistah J]

Your party walks into a large open room - the goal they seek is in plain sight on the other side. As they start to walk towards it they are stopped by an invisible wall and very soon, they realize there is a whole maze that they cannot see between them and the end.

In your opinion, what parts of navigating a maze are going to be harder because the walls are invisible? What parts are going to be easier?

Without getting too game specific (an invisible maze could conceivably fit into any genre) what kind of challenges/solutions should a DM/GM prepare for?

All opinions welcome.

 

[Dausuul]

Your party walks into a large open room - the goal they seek is in plain sight on the other side. As they start to walk towards it they are stopped by an invisible wall and very soon, they realize there is a whole maze that they cannot see between them and the end.

In your opinion, what parts of navigating a maze are going to be harder because the walls are invisible? What parts are going to be easier?

Without getting too game specific (an invisible maze could conceivably fit into any genre) what kind of challenges/solutions should a DM/GM prepare for?

All opinions welcome.

Harder: You never know when you're about to hit a wall.
Easier: You can see any monsters and terrain hazards before you reach them.

What challenges do you plan to throw at the PCs as they negotiate the maze? Mazes on their own are phenomenally boring as a rule.

 

[Davachido]

Well it will be easier to know where the end point of the maze is, how they get to said endpoint will be difficult however as I'm sure the players will constantly get blindsighted and go directly for the goal if they are getting close enough. One thing that will be quite difficult for the players (unless they draw a map) is back tracking as obviously they can't see any landmarks along the walls and such.

Another complication is of course if there are any opponents in the maze with them, usually the players won't be able to notice them until they get close in a normal maze but since the walls are invisible the players can clearly see their opponents but how far/near are they? Do the opponents know how to navigate the maze and get to the players to cause them trouble? Are the blocking a vital path to get out? This can put some pressure on the players to solve the maze quickly.

As for what solutions you might expect ... I actually ran a small dungeon like this. This was in a D&D game (yes game specific I know but it gives you an idea of what the players were capable of doing), the players approached the situation with some funny solutions.

To set the scene, it was an invisible maze (the floors were invisible too, and the dungeon was in the sky), it had a couple of pit falls and standard pressure point traps such as moving walls.

The players first order of business was to find out where there were some pit falls were, they proceeded to unload a handy haversack worth of items onto the floor Indiana Jones style. They used sandwiches instead of rocks however.

The players then tried to find openings, which was done simply by placing their hands on the walls and moved along it until they fell through. They then got the ranger to shoot in different directions to see how far each of the tunnels were. Shortly after mapping out a general idea of how big the tunnels were they sent a bunch of summoned creatures to trigger any traps that might be there and cautiously continued onwards.

 

[frankthedm]

In the Walls of Eryx - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[gamerprinter]

I recently ran an 'invisible maze' on our party of Pathfinder low level group. But I had more than just invisible walls.

Some walls were walls of force, that prevented crossing but allowed you to see through them.

Some walls were walls of stone, that had illusions on them to make them seem like transparent walls, but monsters could actually be hiding behind them, as illusion showed an otherwise empty room.

Some 'walls' weren't solid, but had the illusion of no walls and clear passage through, when there was actually a pit filled with a black pudding on the other side of that wall.

At five places along the outer walls of the chamber, were illusion walls hiding culdesacs with monsters waiting to pounce on passersby.

The 'smart' ranger in the party began firing arrows at seemingly open areas to find where the walls were. In one case she found an outer edge alcove, wounded the monster hiding there, and saved someone from a surprise pounce.

On one of those hidden chambers an illusion of a passage continuing out the room was present, but a gelatinous cube was trapped on the other side of that illusion.

The same thief walked into both the Black Pudding pit, and the Gelatinous Cube - he ended up at 1 hp. Another character, was knocked to a single hp fighting a Dire Ape hiding in one of the alcoves.

Nobody killed but proved to be one of the toughest rooms for a low level party - it was a fun encounter chamber.

GP

 

[MarkB]

One major difference will be if the party have magical means of circumventing the maze. Being able to see their objective allows easy navigation via flight / teleport / passwall / burrowing / whatever else the party have at their disposal.

Also, can they paint or otherwise mark the wall? Not being able to see the maze is a major obstacle to navigating it, but if they come up with a way to mark out whatever passages they've travelled down, the drawback becomes an advantage, as they can see those paths from wherever they are in the maze.

 

[Ycore Rixle]

I ran an invisible maze way back when 2e was a rumor. Challenges to be ready for: if there are enemies the players can see shifting around in the maze, can they hear each other? Makes for some nice trash talk pre-encounter. Know what spells will take effect through an invisible wall. What are the floor and ceiling made out of? Can the party drill/passwall/teleport through, over, or under?

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Know ahead of time if you want things in contact with the wall to be invisible or not, and exactly what the limits of "in contact with the wall" means. The more "contagious" the walls' invisibility is, the more nasty tricks can be used by both sides.

The reason is that you'll need to know if the walls are markable- marking walls is a traditional way of dealing with navigating mazes- but this can't happen if the walls make things in contact with them invisible (its "contagious"). But you also need to know limits of this "contagious" invisibility, because you could have smart creatures touching the walls to sneak around...or even dumb ones, like gelatinous cubes.

If the invisibility ISN'T contagious, then the party can mark the walls as per normal...but so can others. Paint or dirt or even hung shields (or bodies) can be used to create concealment.

 

[Diamond Cross]

I was a player in one playing a Magic User in 1e. I created a spell called Flour Ball which caused a whole lot of flour to fill an area similar to a fireball because he had time to prepare. I warned the others to not be so close to the spell. They didn't listen and you never saw so many white.

Of course it came in handy with other situations as well.

 

[Evilhalfling]

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.